Easter Op-eds

A few select quotes from the Good Friday opinion pages. They made quite intriguing reading today. I think the first piece challenges us to think about how we can make our churches more 'culturally-relevant' without changing the message. The second article by Melbourne Critic Peter Craven spoke about how Christian literacy is disappearing and that our culture lost something as a result. I was taken by the issue of 'truth' which was raised in the final two pieces.

I'm always blown away by the 'conclusion' to Mark's gospel, which I really identify with, as I could see myself responding in a similar manner on Good Friday, so I finished with two verses from Mark and Acts, which summarised to me the amazing transformation in the disciples; from fear and confusion to faith and certainty.

~~
As a report in The Age today shows, an increasing number of younger Australian Christians are seeking solace and spiritual comfort in smaller groups, away from a church that they regard as daunting and too institutional. They have a friend in Jesus, but, for them, Jesus has left the main building and is more easily sought in cafes, clubs, homes or galleries more hospitable to private contemplation and prayer.
~~

~~
Even worse, we live in a culture of forgetting and any loss of knowledge of the icons of Christianity can seem like the loss of the most precious tokens in the world. Intellectuals don't come more secular and liberal — and Jewish — than the late Susan Sontag, but towards the end of her life she deplored the fact that most American art history students were not religiously literate enough to know the Stations of the Cross .... And this is more than a loss of symbol recognition. It's also a loss of a climate of feeling.
~~

~~
If we knew for sure what happened, there'd be no need for faith: doubt is both the engine and the essence of faith.
~~

~~
This order of truth is as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago. It offers release from the bondage of despair, a basis for hope that what we know of our lives and deaths is not all there is to either, and trust in the intrinsic value of every human being and of the ultimate purpose God has for all humanity
~~

++++

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Mark 16:8

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Apostle Peter)
Acts 2:36

++++