Chaplain's Corner

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”  Paul, the apostolic theologian, wrote these words between 50 and 60 A.D. or about 1960 years ago.  He was not one to mince words, the purity of truth was so important to the future of the Christian Faith that there could be no compromise.  Of all the things Christians have fussed about down through the years; this is not one of them.  For nearly 2000 years Christians regardless of denomination, have agreed that Jesus rose from the grave.

According to a news report published on October 2009 by Richard Greene in CNN.com; 2.25 billion people, one third of the words population, will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Now some may want to debate that number, or question the criterion on which the designation “Christian” is attributed to many of these 2.25 billion people, but the fact is, one third of the people on earth will commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ in one way or another.

In my work, the resurrection of Jesus is something that I confront nearly every day.  This might not be true if I worked as a chaplain in one of the hospitals in Winnipeg, but it is true here in South Eastman.   As I deal with death so much in my work, I do a lot of listening and a lot of talking about everlasting life through faith in the resurrected Jesus.  Because in just four days the resurrection of Jesus will be commemorated, I thought it might be worth while reflecting on that event for a bit.

Although many would try to convince us that all religions lead one ultimately to the same God and to the same spiritual destiny, any honest examination of the distinctive in the many religions and spiritual traditions in the world would have to conclude that the various religious and spiritual traditions do not make such claims.  In fact, the only religious tradition that claims that its founder is alive and present with us in a real, spiritual way is the Christian Faith.

These words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 also indicate that if this is not true, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, literally, in actuality and that he is alive, with us and mediating our cases before the Father; then the entire Faith is bogus, a lie, and leaves those of us believing it “are to be pitied more than all men.” (15:19b).  This is how critical the belief in the resurrection of Jesus is to the Christian Faith.  Everything about the Faith falls to pieces if this is not true.  Why?  Because the Bible, on which the Faith is built, is “Christocentric” or to put it in regular language, Jesus is the very center of everything God reveals to us in the Bible.

Yet in our current spiritual environment, we are being told that open minded, honorable folks, not only respect the right of another to believe whatever they so chose, but a fully evolved spirituality requires that we see all the religions and spiritual traditions melding into one, universal, spiritual truth.  One that embraces all others, that makes sense out of all others, and that breaks down all the differences until there is nothing but oneness.  This dream is being espoused by many.

Perhaps one of the first to popularize this belief was the late John Lennon.  IN 1971 he released the song “Imagine” that espoused this senseless utopian universalism.  Think just for a moment about the lyrics:  “Imagine there’s no heaven, It’s easy if you try, No hell below us, above us only sky, Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there’s no countries it isn’t hard to do; nothing to kill or die for and no religion too.  Imagine all the people living life in peace.  You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one; I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will be as one.  Imagine no possessions; I wonder if you can; no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man.  Imagine all the people sharing all the world.  You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one.”

The very thing that John Lennon encouraged us to imagine, he himself was unwilling to even attempt to put into practice.  When he was killed he was worth approximately 75 million dollars, some sources put it at 150 million; so much for “no possessions” and “no need for greed” that he sung about.  If he would have attempted to usher in this utopia that he sang of, he would have discovered the absolute impossibility of achieving such a dream.  What John Lennon espoused was a godless world and a godless world would, most certainly not be a world of utopian unity, but one of uncontrollable self-centered wickedness.  For what John Lennon would not reckon with was the reality of sin: that inbred, inherent, instinctive bent in the human soul to be “I” centered and to perpetrate unspeakable atrocities against others in order to satiate the passions of the “me”.  The fact is, this “imagining” that John Lennon did is an expression of the sinfulness of the human heart, not an expression wholesome spiritualityof any kind.  Let’s not forget that God tells us that it is the fool that says in his heart, “There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1)

No, far from seeking to eradicate the belief in the resurrection it is vitally important that those who do believe seek to encourage and invite others to believe, for if it were not for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, there would be no way at all to be saved from the foolishness of our sin and the downward slide into godlessness that it always leads to.  If there are anything optional beliefs in the Christian faith, it certainly IS NOT the belief in the resurrection and instead of seeking to eradicate such a belief, those of us who do believe will continue to work to spread the good news that Jesus indeed arose from the grave, that first Easter morning almost 2000 years ago.

Admittedly, as a man who has devoted his life to the Jesus who died, was buried and arose, you would expect me to say nothing less.  But let me ask you this.  How else do you explain the fact that in just 4 days 2.25 billion people will commemorate an event that took place just about 2000 years ago?  How else do you explain the fact that approximately “171,000 Christians worldwide are martyred for their faith per year” according to the World Christian Database run by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary?  I don’t see anyone being willing to give his life for John Lennon’s imagined new world?  I wonder why?  Maybe, just maybe it is because it is nothing more than foolish imagining, whereas the Christian Faith and it’s central belief in the resurrection is the real deal, worth living for and if necessary, dying for as well.