Notes for 3.27.08

Practicing Resurrection

Again, 2 distinct and separate strands to this chapter –

one is concerned with what the Bible says and means about Jesus Christ

one is concerned with how Resurrection affects the living of life today: i.e.

            “practicing resurrection” Tonight, we are going to deal with what the Bible says and means about Christ

 Background:

Ways to date the books of the Bible:

            Gospels: one way = what can you tell about how – or if –

each one relates to a fact you can verify historically:

the fall of the temple in 70 CE (Josephus: Book VI)

 Based on this:

            Matthew – final form written: 80-90

            Mark – around 70 (great agitation and apocalyptic tone)

Luke – 85-90

            John – 90 -110 (no reference at all to temple)

 1 Corinthians (16:8): written during Paul's stay in Ephesus around 55.

 So – in terms of how close these accounts were – in time – to the resurrection:

            1 Corinthians

            Mark

            Matthew

            Luke

 1 Corinthians 15:35-8, 42 -55

But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.

As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

I declare to you, sisters and brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." Where, O death, is your sting?"

Earliest narrative: Mark 16: 1-8:

 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.

As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."

So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

            The earliest manuscripts end here.

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DVD Selections

1. Tex Sample – short intro

 2. John Dominic Crossan

            Emmaus story (Luke 13: 1-35) – a parable “about” Jesus

                        “never happened and always happens”

                        key verse (29) they invite him in

                                    to find Jesus - invite the stranger and share “God’s stuff”

 3. Hans Kung

            He who was crucified is alive – not a cosmic Christ, but Jesus

 4.         John Shelby Spong

                        Resuscitation a very late development

                        A powerful “Easter experience” transformed the apostles

                                    so they could never thing of God except as being like Jesus

                                    or Jesus except as being like God

5. John Dominic Crossan

            An “open minded pagan would say “so what?”

                        anything is possible – what does it mean

            Paul would say “come and see” how we live

 Paul would also answer that Jesus’ death changed reality because

he became the first to rise (15:20 “But in fact Christ has been

                        raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.”)

 6. Matthew Fox

            “democratization of immortality”

 7. John Dominic Crossan

            The day we call Easter, probably compresses a series of visions

            It resulted in an act of faith that

                        the kingdom of God has begun as Jesus said

                        we are called to participate in its ongoing creation