No Equal Mythologies

The message of the Person of Jesus, Rabbi, Sage, and yet, God-in-the-flesh brought to the Mediterranean basin, Europe, the Global East and South, a change of Being: to be marked with water infused by the grace of God through the work of the Holy Spirit, a new society invades the world to change it not accept it; to bring people out of spiritual darkness not “meet them where they are” or “be accepting and non-judgmental” … “affirming our struggle” — to bring them life implies where they “are” is death. Jesus’ death is a horrid reminder of what the world actually is; what “being real with people” actually looks like. He was born so that the tragedy that is the human experience could end in triumph; that we may know him as another Rabbi – Saul of Tarsus – says, in both Jesus’ suffering and the power of his resurrection. “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die” (Dietrich Bonhöffer). The death of the autumn season that his highlighted in the poverty of the manger and Advent purple dogwood leaves shows up in the Springtime with the green life of resurrection. Christianity changed the society of the ancient world with its imposition of eternity in time, its transcendent moral ethic and its ritual that drives us out of ourselves into the world of others, to baptize them and make them disciples of Jesus. He did not die so we could all get along. He was not born that he may join a pantheon of equal mythologies. He came to give life to the dead.

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Previously posted 5 DEC 2019 on The Mythology of Hope