Equinox Easters

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There’s been a bit of discussion recently online, about the connections between the Christian festival of Easter and pagan celebrations of spring and fertility. During a radio interview on Easter Saturday I was asked about the tendency for eggs, rabbits and chocolate to overshadow the “real meaning” of Easter. I responded by reflecting on the spring Equinox origins of the Anglo Saxon celebration that became associated with Jewish passover, Jesus’ arrest, death and resurrection. Christian and Jewish meanings can be seen as a bonus for people who are looking for further meaning. The religious need not be threatened by people celebrating a deep and ancient appreciation of new life.

The Christian festival known in English speaking countries as Easter is known in many parts of the world through a local form of Passover: Pesach (Hebrew), Paskha (Aramaic), Påske (Danish and Norwegian), Pasen (Dutch), Pâques (French), Πάσχα (Greek), Cásca (Irish), Pasqua (Italian), Pasche (Latin), Páscoa (Portuguese), Pascua (Spanish), Påsk (Swedish) and Pasg (Welsh). In English and German speaking countries it appears as though the names Easter and Ostern come from the proto-Germanic Austron (Ēostre or Ostara).

Bede, an 8th-century British church historian, in his work “De temporum ratione”, states that during Ēosturmōnaþ (the equivalent to the month of April) feasts were held in Eostre’s honor among the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Bede believed that Eostre had been a Germanic goddess in times gone past. These feasts had died out by the time of his writing, replaced by the Christian “Paschal month” but retaining the pagan name. The feasts would have been held around the time of the spring equinox, the point in the year in which the sun starts coming up earlier and setting later. The goddess was gone, but the symbols of new life, fertility and spring remained in what we now know as Easter eggs and Easter bunnies (the hare in Germanic culture).

The Christian Easter tradition is connected with the Passover festival, which is roughly connected with the Spring equinox in the northern hemisphere. Emperor Constantine ruled that the paschal celebration would be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the vernal (spring) equinox.

Down under, however, we miss the spring connections. It’s actually the autumn equinox here in late March/early April. This is a time when it’s starting to get darker, colder and more difficult to nurture life in the garden. It’s a time of harvest, not new shoots.

So how do Christians connect today to the ancient customs associated with the spring equinox tradition? Do we just ignore them? Or do we find a way to connect with the commercial promotion of eggs and rabbits? Some churches use hollow chocolate Easter eggs to reflect on the significance of the resurrection. The egg is hollow in the same way the tomb of Jesus is empty because of the resurrection. We talk about the hatching of the egg as a sign of new life, connecting with the resurrection of Jesus. I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone tie the Easter rabbit in with the Jesus events.

Could we run a second Easter in September/October, when the spring tradition makes more sense? It could be an opportunity to celebrate God-given creativity, fertility, new beginnings, and maybe fresh expressions of mission. And another chance to explore the Jesus story with fresh eyes.

Good Friday Prayer Walk

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For the second year in a row I’ll be walking through Canberra’s Parliamentary triangle with a group of pilgrims on the afternoon of Good Friday. The prophetic prayer walk begins outside the National Art Gallery at 1 pm and proceeds to the High Court, Portrait Gallery, Reconciliation Place, The National Library, Old Parliament House and finishes outside New Parliament House. At each landmark we will pause to reflect, pray and sing, focusing on justice issues in the light of the Good Friday story of Jesus, from his arrest to his death on the cross.

Old Parliament Cross Carrier

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Genesis 1 to 11

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I spent last Wednesday night with the Canberra Region Presbytery’s Reading The Old Testament class, working through the first eleven books of Genesis. It’s the third night of sixteen for a group of 14 adult students, facilitated by myself and Anne Ryan at Tuggeranong Uniting Church.

Wednesday night was a chance to get our heads around the complexities of a collection of writings from different sources. The first creation story, and parts of the Flood story, appears to have been written by someone or a group of someones during the Exilic period in Babylon. The stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, parts of the Noah flood story, and the Tower of Babel, reflect the language and style of the period of David and Solomon in Jerusalem. Which leads to the question, “So did Moses not write the Law of Moses”? We had a healthy and respectful conversation on the origins of these writings and their significance for readers through the centuries.

We spent the second half of the evening reflecting on the concepts of mythology and legend. Mythology is a term used to describe stories that have symbolic significance, helping us reflect on our origins, our shared humanity and in some cases the reasons things are as they are now. Legends are stories that have become larger than life, often for a reason. For example, the stories of people like Methuselah living for 969 years, could be seen as ways to remind readers/listeners that these events were a long, long, long time ago, and yet are connected with us through real people. Poetic or epic language, such as the creation of everything in six days or phases, points us to the deeper significance of a benign creator creating a universe that is inherently of value.

I remember the first time I grappled with the Documentary Hypothesis for the Old Testament, posed by Julius Wellhausen, which proposes a four-stage development of the Torah through the J (Yahwist), E (Elohist), D (Deuteronomist) and P (Priestly) streams. Years later I’m still committed to caution about buying into any such theory with absolute certainty. However I’m sure that Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy in their current form were not written by Moses.

I’m encouraged by Walter Brueggemann, who in his commentary on Genesis reminds us that we need to get past speculation on the origins and accuracy of these texts, and discover again the powerful, subversive and empowering messages found within. Sure, there are elements that reinforce patriarchal and religious prejudices. However we find here counters to the arrogance of expanding empires, and a reminder that life is worth nurturing. We discover that even when we stuff things up, there are opportunities for ongoing relationship with God.

We’re using “Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction, written by Lawrence Boadt in 1984, revised and updated by Richard Clifford and Daniel Harrington in 2012. It came out a couple of weeks ago on Kindle.

Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction; Second Edition

One of Us

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I remember the stir when Joan Osborne came out with the hit single, “One of us”, written in 1995 by Eric Bazilian of The Hooters. The music video, filmed on Coney Island, uses multiple actors to stand in for the “God” face, associated with the question, “What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us”. This week St Matthew in the City, an Anglican church in Auckland, New Zealand, put up their annual Christmas billboard, suggesting that Christmas is time for Jesus to come out, a statement about God identifying with the gay and lesbian community. Back in 1995, and now in 2012, it’s time for revisiting the good news that God, in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and the presence of the Spirit of God, is with all of us, identifying with all of us, in solidarity with all of us. The Christian gospel has at its heart the reassurance that at every part of our lives we are not alone.

Face from One of Us music video

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Writing on Gospel

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I’ve put aside the next three weeks to write full time on “Gospel”, working towards the publication of a book and study resource, and maybe even a new DVD in the Stories series. I’m pulling together material I’ve been using in workshops around Australia over the last four years, as well as in the Faith Stories DVD and study guide. I’m motivated to get something in print by what I’ve seen working with Christians in New Zealand and Australia over the last thirty years. Time and time again I am struck by the inability of Christians to articulate how their faith might have any relevance for the lives of their friends, family or neighbours, apart from their belief that they are called to live out their lives with integrity, compassion and generosity.

Somehow “Christian gospel” has been equated with a narrowly defined set of beliefs associated with personal evangelism focused on sorting out guilt (forgiveness), getting connected with God (reconciliation) and planning a long term destination in heaven rather than hell (salvation?). The call to live with compassion, generosity and integrity has been treated as a desirable after effect (gospel imperative), rather than having anything to do with the gospel itself. And so, for some, community service is seen as distraction from getting people saved and brought into a daily routine of Bible reading and prayer and a weekly routine of worship with other Christians.

Recent debate over ways of understanding the doctrine of atonement has brought this all into the open in Evangelical circles. By Evangelical I mean the Christian movement in which people are considered to be authentic in their Christian belief if they adhere to correct doctrine, profess personal trust in Jesus as their Saviour, treat the Bible as authoritative and seek to share Christian faith in a way that will invite people to become Christians. I’ve written a paper exploring a range of New Testament metaphors available to us, which when conflated together become a distorted, unhelpful, irrelevant or even dangerous framework for understanding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

I’m aware of a much older debate from the early twentieth century, in which a line was drawn between those following a “social gospel” and those holding to what they perceived to be a personal and orthodox gospel associated with traditional understandings of the cross and the push for personal conversion. SCM, the Student Christian Movement, was split in half, with the formation of Inter Varsity Fellowship. That polarisation in the 1920s has led to a century-long crisis of faith formation.

Moving into the 21st century I think we need models of faith formation that include an awareness of the grace and action of God, the deep significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, an understanding of images, stories and beliefs carrying significance for the early church, through history and today, along with “gospel practices” for individuals and communities ranging from prayer, capacity for personal reconciliation, through to community development and advocacy for societal change.

Questions to address:

Where do we draw the line between gospel and good idea?
How do we deal with the legacy of “colonising” approaches to conversion?
It’s been said that the Christian gospel is God’s good news for our bad situations. Is that always the case?
Why do we use “atonement” as a metaphor to summarise the gospel when Jesus talked about the good news of the kingdom of God?

Greendale Country Fete

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I spent the middle of Saturday at Greendale Country Fete, an annual fair on the grounds of Greendale Uniting Church. The Church began as Primitive Methodist Chapel 150 years ago at Jerrawa Creek, out in the country near Dalton and Gunning. The church is known for its cemetery, which provides a connecting place for families who have grown up in the area. Every year there’s a remembrance candlelight service, during which candles are lit on the graves. In the middle of winter people gather for a soup and sandwich lunch in the corrugated iron shed next to the church, warmed by a log fire. The spring fete draws people from all over NSW, and this year people came from as far away as Brisbane. This year, for the 150th anniversary of the church, the members published a book. Most church anniversary books focus on buildings and ministers. This book is a history of the people – the residents of Greendale Cemetery. Far more interesting and truer to what a church should be about. What I liked about this country fete was the sense of welcome to the stranger, and the evidence of multi-generational inter-connectedness. I left the fete having spent money on an Aussie burger, scones and cream with fair trade plunger coffee, a Neil Gaiman novel, and two bags of sheep manure for the compost bin and garden. I also left feeling reconnected to the land, its people, faith and faithfulness.

Greendale Uniting Church Country Fete

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Wisdom in the Streets and Marketplaces

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I spoke at Kippax Uniting Church this last Sunday morning on the theme of “Discovering God’s wisdom in everyday life and culture”. My text for the day was Proverbs 1:20 – 33. The New Revised Standard Version translation reads: “Wisdom cries aloud in the street; in the markets she raises her voice; 21 on the top of the walls she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks”. My reflection for the morning, using photography and film, was on the ways in which we enter conversation with the streets and marketplaces, and ways in which we discover God’s wisdom already there when we look with discernment.

Wisdom Prayer

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What we learn from winemakers

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Rick Morrell and I have connected a couple of our meetings in Adelaide with local food and wine tours. It’s part of our commitment to going the extra mile in our support of our colleague Craig Mitchell as we reflect on what we can learn from his research on Christian education in the Uniting Church in Australia. It’s also a way to build “sabbatical” time into our hectic calendars, providing time to unwind. Today we reflected on the connection between the wine makers we’ve visited and the many expressions of local faith formation found in the UCA. Read on for a few initial thoughts…

Hahndorf Hill Winery wine tasting

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Future of Christian Education

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I spent this morning in Adelaide as a member of a reference group for the Uniting Church in Australia’s research fellow Craig Mitchell. Craig has spent the last two years interviewing local Uniting Church leaders and developing an overview of where the Uniting Church is at with Christian education. The UCA has a strong heritage in this field over many many years, with a strong part to play in the publishing of Australian and New Zealand curricula and books through Joint Board of Christian Education (JBCE) and Uniting Education. Christian education, for all ages, became a focus for many Protestant denominations in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, influenced by writers such as Thomas Groome, James Fowler, Paulo Freire and John Westerhoff. Through the 1980s and 1990s we started talking about faith formation, conscientization, inculturation and discipleship. Christian education was often the primary discipline in practical theology courses taught in theological colleges. Over the last fifteen years practical theology has been picking up mission and leadership as a stronger focus, sometimes overshadowing the valuable lessons we picked up through the Christian education discipline. Craig’s research, designed to support a report to the Assembly as well kickstart a PhD, explores the dynamics of Christian education in local and regional learning communities. The report, with a range of recommendations, will be ready in March 2013.