We are booked on a cruise next August from Istanbul to Athens. The first stop is Ephesus. We will be in or near a lot of the geographical territory that was transversed by the Apostle Paul.

I am one who has always had a difficult time with Paul. Some of his teachings about wives and slaves being submissive and his condemnation of homosexuality are difficult to deal with in the twenty-first century. A book, The First Paul, by John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg gave me a whole new appreciation for Paul.

It was only after a retreat with John Dear over ten years ago that I started to get the Good News. Jesus was not some saccharine religious figure who came to offer God a sacrifice for original sin. What God would send his son as a sacrifice for sin?

It is evident that Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew who died because he opposed the Roman Empire and the priestly class in Israel. Jesus came to proclaim the Kin-don—a new world order based on justice, truth, mercy, compassion and love.

I never really saw Paul as much more than an itinerant preacher who talked a lot about sins of the flesh and ended up founding the Christian church. But Paul was much more. Like Jesus, Paul was always a Jew. He saw himself, like Jesus, as a reformer of Judaism once he has encountered the Messiah on the road to Damascus. Paul too opposed the Roman Empire and the values of that empire. He opposed the priestly perversions of Judaism. Continue reading →

TVA Lake Chatuge Hayesville, NC

[Note: I will be inserting pictures, mostly of nature, into this and future posts. I hope they will help us reconnect with the Cosmic Christ. Click on the pictures to enlarge on another screen.]

For me, one of the most poignant lines in the Old Testament is Joseph’s. “I am Joseph your brother.” “I am Joseph your brother.” Put in the context of jealously, death plots, and Benjamin’s saving tactic of selling Joseph to caravaneers, this is the story of story of forgiveness that foreshadows Jesus’ forgiveness of his executioners and, ultimately, his disciples.

The Risen Christ greeted his brothers and sisters—yes, his sisters—the faithful women who stood by him when the guys headed for cover—with the greatest words of forgiveness, “Peace be with you.” “Peace be with you.” Just as Joseph did not go into a tirade about how his brothers had treated him, Jesus did not berate the cowardly and betraying disciples who abandoned him in his greatest moment of need. Continue reading →