Easter came early for me this year. Our Jesus in the Gospels Bible study discussed the crucifixion and resurrection in Mid-March and our discussion of the Gospel of John brought a new light to the issue. We shared our own interpretations of the meaning of Passion Week and expanded our studies beyond the workbook and the videos to also review some of the official positions of the Methodist Church accessible on their web site including citations from the Book of Discipline and some of the sermons of John Wesley on death and dying, atonement, heaven, resurrection, the end times, the Kingdom of God, eternal life, and the meaning of the Holy Spirit. It was pretty heavy work in getting into some of the basic and most significant theological tenets of our faith, but it caused us to think and reflect a little more deeply. I won’t take the time to summarize our discussions on these issues for several reasons. First of all, I’m not a theologian, and secondly we shared a lot of personal insights that were confidential to the group. But in the Wesleyan tradition, that’s what bible study is supposed to be about.

About the same time, the media flap over the Discovery Channel program “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” was a distraction that caused some people concerns about the issue of “false prophets” and whether or not the program conflicted with our understanding of the Resurrection. Frankly, I wondered why one television program would be such a concern if one’s faith were secure. Because of my interest in biblical archeology developed during the broadcasts of the TV series “Mysteries of the Bible” on the Arts & Entertainment Channel several years ago, I found the Discovery program very interesting. It wasn’t a question of whether or not I “believed” their hypothesis or was convinced that what they purported was true. As far as I was concerned, it was just a good story. The program raised a possibility and cited the probabilities but didn’t reach a conclusion. They merely invited further inquiry, which is a reasonable thing to do. I also was surprised how quickly it received national attention and then just as quickly disappeared from the scene. We like to feed on controversy but shirk from the hard work of studying and analyzing issues in a thoughtful manner.

We hear a lot about the commercialization of the Holy Days such as Christmas and Easter and how children learn to focus on Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny rather than the story of Jesus, but I’m afraid that within the church we’re just as guilty of focusing on pageantry and pretty stories rather than trying to teach what Jesus really was about. When I was a teenager, Easter outdoor pageants were still the big thing and I remember chilly Sunday mornings portraying a Roman soldier in a clumsy homemade costume on an open hillside next to a cemetery outside Forth Worth, Texas. The pageants have moved indoors now and have become big “Hollywood-style productions” with casts of hundreds, elaborate costumes, original music scores, paid admissions and professional productions comparable to Radio City Music Hall. Don’t get me wrong; I think we have to use contemporary media to tell the story of Jesus and to reach people where they are --- not necessarily where we would like them to be. But as a lifelong Methodist, this study has revealed to me how shallow my understanding has been not only of the Gospels but also some of the basic tenets of Methodism.

I think one of the reasons the issue of homosexuality has been so controversial in the church is that it challenges our understanding of the meaning of the scriptures and forces us to acknowledge that many of our interpretations of specific passages are filtered through cultural mores and tradition rather than academic exegesis. In our bible study group, we were reminded of the multiple interpretations possible in the metaphors in the Gospel of John that relate to the “signs” in some of the stories that he refuses to call “miracles.” I have been helped in my study by reading “The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture” by N.T. Wright, Harper San Francisco 2005, and “How United Methodists Study Scripture” edited by Gayle Felton, Abington Press 1999.

I don’t think that the Reconciling Movement is so much calling us to re-interpret the scriptures as to apply their messages to our lives in a deeper and more meaningful way. Rather than focusing on the controversial passages that may divide us, they ask us to focus on the great commandment to go and evangelize the world. Sometimes we get caught up so much in the externals and the trappings of religion that we lose sight of the message that we are first of all called to bring others to Jesus. And that includes everyone, even homosexuals, who are not beyond redemption. The question then becomes whether or not they are required to “repent” of their sexual orientation before they can be baptized. And so the debate continues as to whether or not orientation is a choice, whether or not it is a question of nature or nurture, and a thousand other debatable points. And so we get lost haggling over issues that are not conclusive at this time and never get on to the larger issues. Like the splintering of Protestant denominations during the past two hundred years into enclaves of exclusivity rather than bastions of comfort and acceptance, we drift into a debate that carries on for generations without resolution. So let’s get over it and spend our energy on more important issues.

I don’t care how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.