Easter and Salvation
Rev. Jim Fuller
A “traditional” view of creation and salvation…
First God created a perfect world with perfect people but it didn’t stay perfect for very long. Depending on whom you listen to, either God or God’s adversary tempted God’s people into disobeying Him and thereby bringing eternal trouble into His formerly perfect world. Later around the year 4 BC God sent his son Jesus (or perhaps Himself as Jesus) to serve as a human sacrifice to atone not only the errors of the first two people and those who came after them, but also for people who had not yet been born, but who would be born and would continue to commit errors even though he had atoned for them. We are then encouraged to accept this story as good news and hope that through it we might somehow achieve reconciliation with God and Jesus, but probably only after we die. To me all of this sounds very confusing and also like pretty poor planning on that part of God. Taken at face value it would appear that God is neither capable of creating an enduringly perfect world or of saving His creation from continuing troubles. Is this really God?
Another way of looking at creation…
First we must understand that our Bible’s creation stories are allegories; stories created to symbolically address questions like: How did the world come to be? And, how did problems come into the world? Since the book of Genesis offers two completely different accounts of creation we can deduce that neither was being offered as a literal history. As we examine them carefully we will notice that God is presented as Spirit and so His creations must be the offspring of Spirit. We will also notice that God as Spirit is able to create physical substance out of the unformed, out of Itself. In the New Testament Jesus clearly states, “God is Spirit…” (John 4:24.) He goes on to teach that we are children of God and therefore spiritual and eternal in nature. He also teaches that we have the ability to create or un-create just like our Creator, “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20) From this we begin to realize that it is God’s laws of creation working through us that are building our world. The way our physical world shows up for us has its foundation in the thoughts and beliefs that we, God’s creations, place our faith in.
Now about all those troubles we experience…
In the Old Testament we see references to problems and difficulties caused by the “hardness of the hearts of men” (and women) and in the New Testament by a lack of compassion and disconnection from the Spirit of God and God’s Love. To me this is the most basic explanation of how trouble came into our world and why it still troubles us today. We are creative by nature but often we create without much love or compassion and so we make things that feel painful and alien to us. This process begins with our thoughts and then becomes solidified into the very substance of our bodies and our world. Each time we think unlovingly or uncompassionately we create a little more difficulty and suffering. The second Genesis allegory uses Adam and Eve to symbolize all of humanity. When our minds turn toward thoughts of “good and evil”, love and its opposites, we join Adam and Eve in confused thinking and we suffer along with them.
Jesus taught that our salvation or release from suffering lies not in sacrifices but in a consciousness of love and compassion; an opening of mind and heart that allows Creative Love and Life to move freely through us. Each time we recall that we are spirit and life and turn our minds toward goodness alone we move ourselves toward salvation and freedom. Jesus used not just his teachings but his very life to convey this message. He taught this one message consistently in all circumstances, even in the extreme circumstance of his own trial and execution. Through his unswerving identification with and faith in his spiritual nature and the power of God he transcended death and tomb. As timeless spirit he still continues to teach and guide and inspire.
Now is our time for remembering…
Easter is an opportunity for us to remember that our lives will either be an expression of our true spiritual nature and a reflection of our Creator’s Love, or they will be an expression of some form of loveless thought or superstition that we choose to put in its place. Since God is Spirit and we are spirit our salvation can never come through a body. It can’t come through the glorification of a body or the sacrificing of a body. Salvation lies in our willingness to remember Spirit and to begin to look beyond physical appearances. We must find this in our relationships with our brothers and sisters as well as for ourselves. We do this in part by building faith or trust in God alone rather than in God and evil. We do this by choosing to align our thoughts with God’s loving ideas rather than with lesser ideas like blame, anger and fear. And as we do our part the remainder of our salvation is accomplished by the Spirit of God, the higher loving intelligence that already exists within us and all those around us. This spirit of holiness illuminates us from within and releases us from the fearful images we have made. The best news of all is that since salvation is an inner shift made in Spirit it can happen for us in any circumstance and at any time.
May your mind be open to the Holiness within you, that you may find your innocence and your salvation, your timeless perfection and your oneness with God. Amen.