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“Consider this. All humanity will stand before the only God there is, the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. That means that they stand in the presence of God’s mercy and can ask for God’s mercy. The issue is not whether all will stand there (of course they will), or whether God is love (of course he is), or whether they can ask for mercy (why not?). The question is whether sinners would respond to God on that occasion any differently than they have already responded in life on earth” (Pinnock 170).

"There are also two kinds of life: There is resuscitated life and there is resurrected life. Resuscitated life is when one is restored to one’s former life and health, as is ithe case with someone who has been clinically dead and is brought back to life. Resurrected life is not this. It is not a restoration of one’s old life but the reception of a radically new life. We see this difference in scripture by comparing the resurrection of Jesus and the so-called resurrection (which is really a resuscitation) of Lazarus. Lazarus got his old life back, a life from which he ahd to die again. Jesus did not get his old life back. He received a new life – a richer life and one within which he would not have to die again” (Rolheiser 146).

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"They well up from the realization that Christ identity is not meant for himself alone, but for the whole human race. He is “the first born from the dead,” sings an early Christian him, signaling that his final destiny also awaits all who go down into the grave, pending judgment." (Johnson 208)

"Biologically, speaking, organic life’s long struggle is always on the way to life forms that are more complex and beautiful." (Johnson 210)

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“The risen Lord, although beyond time, enters our experience at this specific moment, and brings the Easter mystery to life for us, and in us, in the Eucharist. Thus too, in imaginative prayer, the Lord can make the mysteries of his life, death and resurrection present to us in their significance now.” Imagination and Prayer, Sheldrake.

““Resurrection power is at work, already, in the believers in Jesus because they have the Spirit. The threat of daily external decay and death is met by daily inner renewal through the Spirit. Herein lies the power of the resurrection at work in the ecclesial community of faith.”

A Community Called Atonement, McKnight.

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For modern day Christians, the resurrection occurred over 2,000 years ago and while we can read about the events in the Bible, it is difficult to imagine Jesus physically ascending into heaven. I think a typical view is that the event of Jesus’s ascension is comfortable/safe. I think believe have no problem believing it occurred, but I don’t think we are in awe about his ascension like we probably should be. We have started to view this mind-blowing event as normal. It’s kind of like how some people talk about Covid after 6 years. Covid was a major global event, but some people have just accepted it as something that happened in the past that doesn’t really affect us now. That’s why I chose a calendar/daily to do list for my image because it seems like the monumental moment of Jesus’s resurrection has lost its impact-fulness. It’s just another thing that happened on our to-do list that we accept and believe but don’t sit in awe over.

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"There is, to repeat, no logical basis for hope.  The human story- the same facts, the same dramatis personae, the same sequence of events - can be told many ways." -Rabbi Jonathan Sack

"That is, the events, parables, or miracles recorded are, even if factual, more than mere facts. There is an open-ended, quality to the gospels which points beyond the level of event to universal signficance." -Philip Sheldrake (99)

"When we talk about Christ's resurrection from the dead we are not talking about a fact. We are talking about a process." Moltmann (Loc83)

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I have been a part of many Easter sermons where this was the topic - proving that the resurrection really happened. I am not saying this is all wrong, but it is certainly incomplete, and in my mind, misses the heart and purpose of the resurrection. This addresses the what, not the why. This image strikes me too, because of the gavel - like after this sermon we are going to be able to prove in a court of law, without any doubt, that the resurrection happened. Therefore, we should believe. This image also really fits into the penal substitution theory of atonement.

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"We have to confront the niggardly traditions of certain varieties of conservative theology that present God as miserly, and that exclude large numbers of people without a second thought. This dark pessimism is contrary to Scripture and right reason" (Pinnock, 154).

"Resurrection happens every day. In love we experience many deaths and many resurrections. We experience resurrection through the rebirth to living hope" (Moltmann, 81).

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"Understood as a confronting event which discloses the future and opens up history, Christ's resurrection is the foundation and promise of eternal life in the midst of this history of death." Moltmann, p. 80

"Resurrection is not a consoling opium, soothing us with the promise of a better world in the hereafter. It is the energy for a rebirth in this life." Moltmann, p. 81

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The idea that Christ resurrected to prove who he was (i.e. the messiah, the Son of God, God in the flesh, etc.) can sometimes be problematic. It's not necessarily incorrect as a matter of logic. The fact that he rose from the dead is fairly convincing proof that we should listen to everything that he said, including claims to divinity and messiahship. But the idea isn't terribly biblical. (I couldn't think of a New Testament text to directly support it and neither could ChatGPT). And if we only focus on the ressurection as confirmation, we're missing a whole world of theological meaning.

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I'm forgiven and good to go.-Jenny Lyu Post 1

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I'm forgiven and good to go.-Jenny Lyu Post 1

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At times, some Christians don't realize that living the life of a Christian is a process and not a one-time-fix-all kind of deal. Some mistakenly think that if one asks for forgiveness of all my past sins and believes that Jesus died for my sins, I bought myself a ticket to heaven "once I die" and am called "righteous." The core belief is correct in a way, but there is more to the resurrection story.

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"We are therefore living in a moment of crisis, a particular moment or kairos in which Christ and chaos meet, and we must confront the threat to nature with a 'christology of nature', in which the power of redemption does not stop short at the hearts of men and women and their morals, but gathers in nature as a whole. Nature is the scene of grace and the sphere of redemption just as much as history. A christology which is expanded to it's cosmic dimensions will kindle a passion for the threatened earth" (Moltmann, 90).

"We come to prayer as whole persons, with body, mind and feelings. To exclude, arbitrarily, one or the other part is to risk the danger of an incomplete response" (Sheldrake, 98).

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"With Jesus' resurrection, we get to live in paradise with Him with streets of gold. We're going to have our own mansions. I wonder what my mansion is going to look like. We will also have crowns with jewels on them for each follower we bring to Jesus."

In the Philippines, I heard this all the time in terms of what the after life will look like. We just have to get past this world and get to Heaven. That's our hope. The focus on material things but in the spiritual realm has never sat well with me. What does it matter that the streets are gold? Also, what am I supposed to do in the meantime here on Earth?

Since starting seminary classes, I've been unsure of all my beliefs. I hope to gain clarity as well as a more wholistic view on Jesus' resurrection.

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The Easter story does not involve “optimism” (the opinion that everything will somehow turn out all right), but hope:--the ability to reinterpret even things that “don’t turn out all right” (after all, life as a whole can be regarded as “an incurable disease necessarily ending in death”) so that we may accept reality and its burdens, persist in this situation, and stand the test—and where possible be useful to others also.

The mystery of the resurrection is not a feel-good happy ending, canceling and annulling the mystery of the cross. One of the great theologians of the twentieth century, J. B. Metz, emphasized that when we proclaim the message of resurrection “we must not silence the cry of the Crucified;” otherwise instead of a Christian theology of resurrection we offer a shallow “myth of victory.”

Tomas Halik

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"In the middle of torture they asked me if I still believed in God. When, by God’s help, I said, 'I do,' they asked me why God did not save me. By the help of his Holy Spirit I said, 'God does save me. He does not save me by freeing me from pain or punishment, but he saves me by giving me the Spirit to bear it'; and when they asked me why I did not curse them, I told them that it was because I was a follower of Jesus Christ, who taught us that we were all brethren."

This quote from the Leonard Bishop reading was so powerful to me. An interview with a former prisioner from a Japanese Interment camp, does not mention that he still believes in God because of his resurrection and the "proof" or "truth" that provided for his religion- but rather he believes because of the Holy Spirit that sustained him and his beliefs allowed a gentle spirit towards his aggressors, which is absolutely remarkable and beautiful.

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While I agree with scripture all of the time- I was a little shocked to be reminded of Paul's bold statement here taken from 1 Corinthians 15:14. Like much of scripture- taken out of context can be a harmful application that is not always used for good and often self-serving. This scripture standing alone states that without the resurrection, there is no faith or reason to relay the gospel or any part of Jesus' teachings. That, I am not sure I agree with.

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I find that for many, the resurrection is about victory. Victory over death. Death is death, and has no hold on me.

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"This deep incarnation of God within the biotic community of life forges a new kind of union, one with different emphasis from the empowering communion created by the indwelling Creator Spirit. This is a union in the flesh" (Johnson 198-199).

There are also two kinds of life: There is resuscitated life and there is resurrected life. Resuscitated life is when one is restored to one's former life and health, as is the case with someone who has been clinically dead and is brought back to life. Resurrected life is not this. It is not a restoration of one's old life but the reception of a radically new life" (Rolheiser 146).

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Resurrection then Rapture – Matt Zolla Post #1

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Resurrection then Rapture – Matt Zolla Post #1

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In the Christian church, I find that the resurrection of Jesus is tied heavily to the rapture of the saints. When we think of our own resurrection in light of Jesus', we are prone to imagine an end times sort of resurrection of the dead, 1 Thessalonians 4 meeting in the clouds scene. The Bible certainly talks about a time when the dead will rise and Jesus will return to usher in is Kingdom once and for all, but the resurrection of Jesus has present implications, not solely future ones. The resurrection of Jesus means that I live in freedom from sin, in restoration with the Father, and with the power of the Holy Spirit today. Resurrection means walking with the risen Jesus today, turning my eyes to Him in the light of His glory and grace. I looked through the images, and the one posted by Mike Packer a year ago is what I wish we preached more. Jesus welcomes me out of my grave each and every morning, to live with Him, walk with Him, and talk with Him.

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"When Christian theology engages this subject, it draws on a peculiar source of insight all its own, namely, the story of Jesus Christ. The experience of a tortured, unjust, tormented death of the worst sort dragged Jesus of Nazareth through godforsakenness into the silence of the tomb. There he was met not by annihilation but by the creative power of the Spirit who transformed his defeat into unimaginable new life in the glory of God. This event, remembered at the heart of every eucharist...." (Johnson 192)

"Teilhard de Chardin praised Christ for 'the simple concrete act of your redemptive immersion in matter.'" (Johnson 198)

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Jesus did conquer sin and death. Victory! Jesus won. Indeed this is true but only part of the story. This picture alone does not tell the whole story for what a life of discipleship with the resurrected Jesus looks like. You will have many toubles in this world. He did overcome. The hope is real but hard fought, at great cost.

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A Personal Resurrection - Annalee McIntosh, 1st Post

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A Personal Resurrection - Annalee McIntosh, 1st Post

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Many Christians, especially in the US, emphasize the personal relationship with Christ given to us through the resurrection, but downplay the radical community we are gifted through the resurrection. This leads to a lone ranger theology that is rather self focused, and misses the cosmic and unifying dimensions of the resurrection.

It is important for churches to teach that personal relationship with Jesus is only one aspect of the beautiful and complex story of resurrection. The resurrection changes and transforms the whole world, and brings us into radical community with one another. If we see the resurrection as transformative of not just our personal lives, but of the whole world, then it becomes easier to love and live out the message of Jesus.

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From Moltmann: Christian faith in God is faith in the resurrection.”  Moltmann goes on to outline the three structural dimensions of the Easter visions.  1. They were ‘prospective’ visions of hope. 2. They were ‘retrospective’ visions of remembrance. 3. They were ‘personal calls’ to those men and women to see their own call to apostleship. Hope doesn’t focus on another world, but offers redemption of this one.  The process of resurrection has its foundation in Christ, its dynamic in the Spirit, and its future in the true new creation of all things.

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From Elizabeth Johnson:

“Christ is the firstborn of all the dead of Darwin's tree of life.”

“‘Deep incarnation’ understands John 1.14 to be saying that the sarx which the Word of God became not only weds Jesus to other human beings in the species; it also reaches beyond us to join him to the whole biological world of living creatures and the cosmic dust of which they are composed. The incarnation is a cosmic event.”

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From Clark Pinnock:

" . . . heaven is not an extrinsic reward, nor is it a bribe. It is everlasting life in the presence of absolute goodness, and in the presence of loving community . . . No one who had not begun to love such things on earth would choose them for eternity. There is no danger that Hitler will change his mind. God may want him to, Christians may even want him to, but a man like Hitler is not going to want to. Heaven would be the worst place he could imagine being."

“Luther captured something very important when he said that wrath is the experience of God's love in the state of disobedience. When we are running from God, his presence creates fear in us. Wrath is the frustrated anger of a disappointed lover, not of an unappeased deity or angry judge . . . This is the wrath of the Lamb . . . God's wrath is the wrath of love. Although God may sentence a sinner to condemnation, it is the sinner who freely chooses hell. Hell is not the prison from which people are longing to be freed, but a sit-in where sinners have barricaded themselves in to keep God out.”

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From Ronald Rolheiser:

"I can look at the church that gave me the faith, recognize that it (like my own youth) has died, grieve its passing, let it bless me, let it go, and then receive the spirit for the church within which I am actually living.”

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For me, this image represents the understanding of resurrection that is understood only spiritually; that after death, our souls float away to some place in heaven to live "at home" in some other place. Often this understanding of resurrection leads to a lack of concern with our bodily existence and further lack of concern with the Earth that is seen as doomed for destruction. It also leads to a narrow view of resurrection where only a small minority of the human population of history will be able to participate in it.

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"The atoms comprising his body were once part of other creatures. The

genetic structure of the cells in his body were kin to the flowers, the fish,

the whole community of life that descended from common ancestors in

the ancient seas. "Deep incarnation" understands John 1.14 to be saying

that the sarx which the Word of God became not only weds Jesus to other

human beings in the species; it also reaches beyond us to join him to the

whole biological world of living creatures and the cosmic dust of which they

are composed. The incarnation is a cosmic event."

"Viewing Jesus as God-with-us in this way entails a belief not at all

self-evident for monotheistic faith which Christians share with Jewish and

Muslim traditions. It affirms the radical notion that the one transcendent

God who creates and empowers the world freely chooses to join this world

in the flesh, so that it becomes a part of God's own divine story forever.

Rahner asserts this truth bluntly, leaving no wiggle room: "The statement

of God's Incarnation - of God's becoming material - is the most basic

statement of Christology.""

Both quotes from "Ask the Beasts- Darwin and the God of Love" by Elizabeth Johnson (SUCH a good read!)

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These two images depict a belief that after death if you believe in Jesus and the resurrection, your eternity will be spent in paradise which is in the clouds, with angels, pearly gates, and roads of gold. This narrative I think is incredibly unhelpful, and if I may say dangerous and inaccurate to what scripture tells us. I think it is harmful in our witness, because it does not call people to anything more than to save themselves and sit and wait for paradise to take them in. It's a very self centered theology. It is hard for most critical thinkers to embrace, so for those that wrestle and question, it leaves them frustrated. It allows poor stewardship of the planet we currently live on, because there is this idea that we are all jumping ship anyway, so what would it matter to care for the planet we currently inhabit. And lastly, it reinforces poor biblical literacy.

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"Then the most fundamental move theology can make, in my view, is to affirm the compassionate presence of God in the midst of the shocking enormity of pain and death. the indwelling, empowering Creator Spirit abides amid the agony and loss. God who is love is there, in solidarity with the creatures shot through with pain and finished by death; there, in the godforsaken moment as only the Giver of life can be with the promise of something more... The experience of a tortured, unjust, tormented death of the worst sort dragged Jesus of Nazareth through godforsakenness into the silence of the tomb. There he was met not by annihilation but by the creative power of the Spirit who transformed his defeat into unimaginable new life in the glory of God." (Johnson 191-192).

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Jesus’s resurrection is often politicized and used in all sorts of ways to prove all sorts of things. To me this is a comical example of how someone would turn the resurrection into a political commentary for not social distancing. Jesus is used by all sides of the political spectrum often to argue two or more sides of the same argument. Jesus does care about a lot of things but I don’t think he rose to tell us not to shelter in place.

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This image focuses on the divine nature of Jesus. This depicts his identity as Son of God, validating his teachings and divine nature. This image focuses solely on Jesus and the divinity of Christ.

The resurrection serves as the final, and absolute proof of Jesus' divinity. It demonstrates his authority, validates his teachings. Images like this show the resurrected body of Christ as immortal, imperishable and glorious.

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Saint John Chrysostom, Paschal Homily- "O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen."

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Leonard Bishop- "I had known him in a deeper way than I could ever have imagined, but God is to be found in the Resurrection, as well as in the Cross, and it is the Resurrection that has the final word.

God, in all His power and strength and comfort, is available to every one of us today. "

Philip Sheldrake- "The risen Lord, although beyond time, enters our experience at this specific moment, and brings the Easter mystery to life for us, and in us, in the Eucharist. Thus too, in imaginative prayer, the Lord can make the mysteries of his life, death and resurrection present to us in their significance now."

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This kind of imagery, often found in Jack Chick tracts and common in the minds of a lot of Christians, distorts the understanding of the Resurrection by reducing it to a simple reward-and-punishment system focused on avoiding hell. These tracts are short, comic-style pamphlets meant to persuade people to convert, usually by emphasizing fear of judgment.The Resurrection is not about a one-time decision made out of fear, but about Christ defeating death for all and inviting humanity into a lifelong process of healing and union with God. By focusing so heavily on punishment and urgency, these images shift the meaning of the Resurrection away from hope and transformation and instead make it feel like a choice driven mainly by fear rather than love.

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I love this painting by Caravaggio. It's real. It might not be said out loud, but sometimes there is a sense that because of the resurrection and the return of Christ we minimize fear, pain, and doubts. At worst we ignore those feelings, because when we express them, we might be viewed as of having a lack of faith. (This is how pharisees are made. Pretend like everything is good on the outside, but dead on the insider.)

However, the resurrection and Paurousia show us that we can embrace our pain, doubts, and fears. We don't have to ignore them.

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The mystery of the resurrection is not a feel-good happy ending, canceling and annulling the mystery of the cross. One of the great theologians of the twentieth century, J. B. Metz, emphasized that when we proclaim the message of resurrection “we must not silence the cry of the Crucified;” otherwise instead of a Christian theology of resurrection we offer a shallow “myth of victory.” Tomas Halik

Resurrection must be understood as a total, exhaustive realization of human reality in its relationship with God, with others, and with the cosmos. Resurrection is therefore the eschatologization of a human being who has arrived at the end of the evolutionary process and been inserted into the divine reality. Leonard Boff

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What does your "eternal salvation" cost you?  Can you buy your way into heaven?  Most Christians would say "of course you can't buy your way into heaven."  But that's not how we've always acted.  I'm reminded of medieval indulgences - the idea that you could literally buy your way into heaven - and the way many modern Christians feel they must work hard enough to be good enough to earn their way into heaven.
To me this seems like an over-emphasis on works instead of grace, an over-emphasis on what we can do instead of what the Christ has done.

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"In this Spirit of the resurrection I can here and now wholly live, wholly love and wholly die, for I know with certainty that I shall wholly rise again.  In this hope I can love all created things, for I know that none of them will be lost."
Moltmann p. 87

"Faith in the resurrection of the body is the belief that the spirit that empowers the universe and all its living forms is working with us, in life and in death, to bring about the well-being and fufillment of all the bodies in creation.  Resurrection of the body puts the emphasis where it should be in an ecological theology:  on the physical basis of life.  As often as Christianity has forgotten and repudiated that basis, its most ancient and treasured belief in the resurrection of the body reminds it of its denial of the physical."
McFague p. 174

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I think about this picture as it relates to the “rapture culture,” where the emphasis seems to be on making people afraid of being left behind. Hope is bound to idea of an afterlife, taking away the importance of this “earthly life,” except for in its conclusion. Therefore, the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus only matters because it opens the doors of heaven for us.

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“Wherever people seek the good, justice, humanitarian love, solidarity, communion, and understanding between people, wherever they dedicate themselves to overcoming their own egoism, making this world more human and fraternal, and opening themselves to the normative Transcendent for their lives, there we can say, with all certainty, that the resurrected one is present, because the cause for which he lived, suffered, was tried and execute is being carried forward.” Boff, p. 219