where am I?

Below is our second reading for this coming Sunday, Easter Day. I don't have to agree with St Paul when he says, "If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." 

Paul, who, along with Gospel John (and the early church councils under the Roman emperors), basically set in concrete the theology of the Christian church, teaches that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the first act of the general resurrection when all living and dead will meet Christ in the air for judgment in the process of populating the new kingdom of God on earth with Christ as Lord reigning for God. 

Paul's theology is that those who place themselves under the "umbrella" - - the mercy - - of the God of Jesus Christ will be forgiven of sins by the shed blood of Jesus and saved into the new kingdom of God, people with spiritual bodies - - Paul's experience with Jesus having been vision or visions encountering Jesus' spiritual presence. The significance of Jesus' death and resurrection, then, for Paul, is the salvation of the faithful into the next life - - which, again, is not into heaven the abode of God, but into the new kingdom of God here on earth.

Whereas the faith theology of the Christian church has evolved to believing that at death our souls leave our bodies and move on to the next life (which may be direct into heaven or via cleansing purgatory, depending on each denomination's doctrine/dogma). 

Faith, which is hope and assurance, not knowledge and certainty, is chosen, one may opt in or out. Depending on the free-thinking nature of denomination and individual, one may wrestle with what to believe and make up one's own mind within the overall parameters of The Faith. 

One may call oneself a Christian in that one tries to follow Jesus in the Way of the Cross, a life of love and sacrifice

One does not have to agree with Paul about the trumpet and the general resurrection, for example. Nor does one have to agree with what most other Christians believe about accepting Christ as Lord and being as sure for heaven as if one were already there. One may settle on faith that keeps one within the Church without necessarily believing "all the stuff," and just letting it be without minding it too much. For myself, what I may settle into is that Jesus did indeed come not about afterlife but about this life, to show and tell us the perfect godly image in which we are created to be, loving ourselves and others, and to lead us to live our lives here, lives of agape, lovingkindness. And that whatever comes after this life, eternity or oblivion, is God's domain not mine. And not the church's to control in some sort of human authoritarianism over creation and life that church leaders take unto themselves. 

What would "saved" and "salvation" be and mean then? Saved into freedom from fear and worry.  

Here's that lesson for Sunday:   

1 Corinthians 15:19-26

If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

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In a life in the appalling New America, which I cannot control, and which is what most Americans wanted, I am trying to be resolved to live peaceably within myself and refrain from agonizingly tormenting myself. I cannot imagine a better place to live into this resolve than 7H.

RSF&PTL

T89&c