Spring and Resurrection

If you do some research, you might find that the word "Easter" could have pagan connotations.  It is a word that was used long before Jesus meaning "spring".

Celebrations surrounding the Spring equinox are much older than Christianity or even Judaism.  One of the ways that we interpret the world around us is through our faith.  We recognize that the concept of resurrection comes with the spring.  Vegetation leafs out once again after being "dead" during the winter months.  Animal life that has been in a hibernation state begins to become active again.

There is something mystical about
reconnecting with the wilderness

The reproductive drive seems to kick into overdrive in the spring all through the animal kingdom.  We associate the egg with the new birth and it becomes a symbol of who we are in Christ as we break through the shell of sin and greet life anew.

As the early Christian community began to interpret the world through this new lens of Jesus Christ, we had to discover what it meant.  How are we going to look at things differently now?

The earliest gospel, Mark, begins the story with the baptism of Jesus.

Matthew and Luke were written next and they stress that this is not early enough and begin the story with his birth.

Finally John takes us back to the very beginning - to Genesis itself as we see Christ involved with the creation of the world.  Jesus, a humble peasant, is a cosmic Christ or Messiah who is God.  We have this mysterious sense of the dual nature of Jesus Christ: we believe that Jesus is fully human and at the same time fully divine.

As we understand Christ redeems humanity in the world, we see in John's Gospel the bonding of Christian faith and the very created order itself.

What does this mean for my faith today as a Christian?

How do I see God at work in the natural world?

We'll be sharing in a different understanding of resurrection faith as contained in John 1:1-5 this Sunday at First United Methodist Church of Edmond.

In Christ,

Sam