April 19-Lk. 24:36-48-I John 3:1-7
After a death between ⅓ and ⅔ of survivors have some sort of experience concerning the deceased, a vision, a sensed presence, a scent, a voice. Alton seems to be an epicenter of paranormal activity. Like the movie Ghostbusters, folks have detecting devices. I just learned that some say that our limestone bluffs offer some sort of sanctuary for spirits (maybe ghosts have an increased need for calcium) Luke is very careful to qualify Jesus’s appearance as distinct from that as a ghost, so the resurrection body is a transformation of the pre-mortem Jesus.
I John promises that we will see see him as he is We get what Paul calls a spiritual body. It appears, but it is manifestly jesus.When we comes to heaven’s resurrected appearance, all of us have a bit of Missouri show me; all of us crave some more tangible proof. I admire the bible’s reticence in describing the afterlife of jesus or anyone else for hta tmatter.
At the very least, Jesus is showing to be more than ghost in that culture. Jesus has a transformed physicality. Jesus is identifiably Jesus. It is not too great a step, i think, to see the resurrection of the body, as a transformation of our embodied lives, of a perduring self.
the cultural indicators of visions of heaven
opening of minds to the Scripture
The bible’s open-ended descriptions of paradise invite all sorts of speculation to fill in the huge gaps.To assuage the anguish of the carnage of the civil War, The Gates Ajar imagined a Victorian small town with people having perfect little tea parties. It reminds, a little English utopia, a hobbit village, if you will me a bit of the utopian community Rugby in TN.People while away their time in shops and at teas. People do good deeds and find their interests well employed. .Most important, after the civil War, it has reunions with the dead youths massacred in that great bloodletting.the book and movie heaven is real
In Heaven is For Real, the boy sits on the lap of Jesus and jesus rides a rainbow colored horse.Boy who came back from heaven has disavowed the work.
I continue to be fascinated that Jesus demonstrates his wounds here as well as in the gospel of John. I suppose it is a method of identification as himself. How will our wounds be healed in heaven? Will it be a progressive movement, instead of instant perfection? I do think that we will carry our wounds with us then into heaven, but we may come to view them differently.
Last week we emphasized forgiveness as Easter experience. It is here as well, but here is a stress on minds being opened at a new understanding of Scripture through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Christians read Scripture less as literal words on a page, but have the very experience of jesus as the way we read it.We could ask where do I see Christ in this passage, in these words? Christ is the center, the goal, the interpretive key for Scripture for Christian. Part of Easter life is seeing the Bible come alive through Jesus, as Luther said that teaches and inculcates christ’s life within and among us.Calvin:This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in him and are offered to us by him from God the Father. If one were to sift thoroughly the Law and the Prophets, he would not find a single word which would not draw and bring us to him.
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