Easter
Resurrection: Myth and Metaphor speak to our hearts.

Hope is the thing with feathers 
That perches in the soul, 
And sings the tune without the words, 
And never stops at all, 
 
And sweetest in the gale is heard;         
And sore must be the storm 
That could abash the little bird 
That kept so many warm. 
 
I’ve heard it in the chillest land, 
And on the strangest sea;       
Yet, never, in extremity, 
It asked a crumb of me.

- Emily Dickinson

I'm sharing this, one of my favorite poems,
   on this Easter Sunday morning
      because I feel it expresses well
         what Easter is all about for me.

In a word, it's all about hope.

Yes, of course Easter is a myth.

The entire story of Jesus
   is steeped in mythology.

Remember that the term, mythology,
   simply refers to stories that involve
       supernatural intervention,
           gods, goddesses and heroes,
                and they tell the stories
                    of events that are not
                        historically verifiable.

The whole story of Jesus
   as presented in the New Testament
       is a story of divine intervention.

The only uncontested records we have
    of that story
        are told to convince us
            of religious truths.

So the story as a whole is unverifiable.

That does not in any way diminish the value
     of the story
         any more than the word mythology
              means that it didn't happen.

It just means we cannot prove anything
      about what really happened.

Something may well have happened,
     but because the mythology describes events
          that cannot be verified
                we may never know
                      exactly what happened.

And yet the hope that Easter inspires is real,
   just as any true and uplifting story
       can build hope in our hearts.

A myth is true
      if it helps us understand better
            who and how we are
                    and where we are going.

A metaphor is true
       if it provides greater clarity
             to some aspect of our experience.

The Easter story is surely a true story
    in the sense of helping us understand
        our identity as human beings
             and our ultimate destination (teleology).

The resurrection metaphor is true
     in the sense of clarity concerning
          our individual
              and collective
                  self awareness.

In my own understanding,
   the Easter story,
      as the culmination of the Jesus story,
          is the most deeply true
              of all myths and metaphors.

Let me back up just a bit.

The Jesus story has a place
    in many people's hearts,
       not just because it is in the Bible,
           but also because it is
               a great and powerful story
                    in its own right.

Jesus lives in your heart if you love His story.

Maybe Frodo lives in your heart, too,
    or maybe Harry Potter.

Maybe even Luke Skywalker!

I certainly do not mean to belittle
     any of these great characters of literature.

The analogy may simply
    help us understand the process.

Great literature has a powerful effect
   on all of us.

Many times, the characters of great stories
    feel real to us, helping us draw meaning
         from the events of our own lives.

For me, again, the greatest of all stories
    is the story of Jesus.

It has been told from four (and more)
    different points of view.

The different ways of telling the story
    provide more than different ideas.

They sometimes even contradict each other.

More importantly, each Gospel
    appears to look at the story
        from a different direction.

What seems to emerge
   is more than a well rounded portrait.

It's more like a hologram.

A personality emerges, 
    a Person whom we can get to know.

The universal Christ
   is a spiritual reality
      that is different for every individual.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote,
    "The supremely personal
          is the universal Christ. "

The Easter event or story (or myth)
   is what plants that personality
      or concept
          in our hearts.

You don't have to believe the details.

You don't have to accept any doctrine.

Just enjoy the story.

In it you will find hope
   because it portrays a deeply personal reality
        that is also universal in human hearts.

There is always a new beginning.

That is the heart of the matter.

Weeping may endure for a night,
    but joy comes in the morning. (Ps. 30:5)

Even for the cause of our weeping,
    there just may be a new beginning.

Our perceptions of things can change.

Love is stronger than death.
    (Song of Songs or Song of Solomon 8:6)

Many of us have actual, personal experiences
   that bear witness to the truth
       that love is stronger than death.

That reality alone is enough to live out
    the meaning of the Easter myth,
         the power of the resurrection metaphor.

And yet, I believe, there is more.

Life itself is stronger than death.

Consciousness is not extinguished
    by mortality.

We feel this intuitively,
    and that may be wishful thinking.

At the same time,
    I have an inkling that it is more than that.

Of course, I can't prove it.

If I could, even to myself,
   I would not be as much of an agnostic as I am.

At the same time,
    many things are true that we cannot prove.

Many things can only be known intuitively.

Those things do not appear - or belong -
                 in a science class.

They do appear -
  -  and they do belong -
        in a Literature class
              for they do appear in all kinds
                  of great literature, past and present.

The Easter story is the culmination
    of what has been called
           the greatest story ever told.

I'm not sure I agree with that,
      even though I am a Christian of some sort.

At least I do believe that it is
     the greatest story ever SOLD,
           and that selling is continuing to this day.

Yet it is a great story!

Easter is a sign of hope,
    even as a festival and holy day of Spring.

Passover is similarly a sign and story of hope,
    and, like Easter, it is a lunar Spring festival.

It involves the rebirth of a nation,
    and the hope that comes
         from the Passover story
             is meant for everyone.

Easter is the story of the rebirth
     of a Redeemer,
          and, likewise, its hope
              is meant for everyone.

Eggs, bunnies and lilies are signs of rebirth,
     and each one points to a reality 
           beyond itself.

Springtime is a natural rebirth
      that can be an emblem of hope
           in every human heart.

That is worthy of celebration!

What we may or may not believe in can be real,
     whether we believe in it or not.

Good things are coming,
    no matter the appearances,
         and it is possible to hold on to that hope
              without limitation.

We may be foolish if we do so,
   but I would much prefer to be foolish
       in the name of hope
           than foolish in the name of despair.

Albert Einstein was one of the greatest minds
    in natural science -
       and he was also deeply mystical.

Upon hearing of the death of a good friend,
    he wrote to his friend's family:

“Now he has departed from this strange world
  a little ahead of me.
   That means nothing.
    People like us, who believe in physics,
     know that the distinction
      between past, present, and future
       is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

I can only speak for myself,
    but I find in those words
        an expression of the hope
             I find also in the Easter story.

There is more to this world
   and more to life and death
       than meets the eye.

We have not even well conceived an idea
    of ultimate reality
        even though we live and breathe in it
            every moment of every day.

Great stories remind us of this,
    and the story of Christ's resurrection 
        is among the greatest.

If the Crucified God can rise again,
   then maybe, just maybe, so can I,
        and so can you,
             even if the rising again
                  is simply out of despair and into hope.

That alone makes Easter a great story,
    a worthy myth,
         and resurrection a powerful metaphor.

Amen
Ameen
Omeyn
So Mote it Be

Blessed be! 

The Myth About Brigham Young's "This Is the Place"
by Casey Paul Griffiths, Mary Jane Woodger, and Susan Easton Black, excerpted from "What You Didn't Know About the 100 Most Important Events in Church History"

Departing from Fort Laramie, a vanguard company of Saints, including President Brigham Young, trekked across the high plains of Wyoming, passing such landmarks as Independence Rock, Devil’s Gate, and South Pass. During this phase of the journey, the pioneers encountered Jim Bridger, the legendary mountain man who offered advice and encouragement about the unfamiliar territory stretching before them. Bridger spoke optimistically, though cautiously, about the Salt Lake Valley. Wilford Woodruff recorded, “He spoke . . . highly of the great Salt Lake for a settlement,” but warned “there was but one thing that could operate against it . . . that would be frost.”

With Bridger’s warning still ringing in their ears, less than two days later the party met Sam Brannan, the colorful leader of the Saints who had sailed around the horn of South America and settled in northern California. Brannan brought tales of the ill-fated Donner-Reed party and gave a full-fledged sales pitch to Brigham Young and others of the beautiful, temperate country on the Pacific Coast. Brigham listened with cautious skepticism but remained undeterred in his search for a new home in the Rocky Mountains.


As the vanguard company neared their chosen destination, danger stalked the camp. Rocky Mountain fever, an illness spread by ticks and characterized by chills, a hacking cough, severe headaches, acute pains throughout the body, fevers, and delirium, proved debilitating and sometimes deadly.

Elder Heber C. Kimball, second in command of the camp, asked that the pioneers “humble ourselves before the Lord that we may obtain power with him to turn away sickness and disease from our midst.” Elder Wilford Woodruff said, “The devil was constantly striving to hinder our progress and thwart the purposes of God, and now, by causing the President to be sick, hinder our getting through in time to return to our families.”

With Brigham Young languishing, Heber C. Kimball sent Orson Pratt, John Brown, and a few others in an advance party to locate the Salt Lake Valley. Elder Pratt and his small group entered the valley on July 20. After counseling with them on their return, Brigham declared, “I know it is the spot and we have come here according to the suggestion and direction of Joseph Smith who was martyred. The word of the Lord was to go to that valley and the best place you can find in it is the spot. I prayed that he would lead us directly to the best spot, which he has done, for after searching we can find no better.”

The still weak but recovering Brigham Young saw the Salt Lake Valley for the first time on July 28. According to the familiar story, Brigham Young gazed at the view and remarked, “This is the right place; drive on.”

There is little evidence from the vanguard company that Brigham made this proclamation, however. If he did, it went unrecorded in the contemporary accounts of the event. Though President Young’s exact words on the occasion might not be known, Wilford Woodruff summed up Brigham’s reaction to seeing the valley: “President Young expressed his full satisfaction in the appearance of the valley as a resting place for the Saints and was amply repaid for his journey.”

BYU Church history professors Casey Paul Griffiths, Susan Easton Black, and Mary Jane Woodger have written engaging vignettes about our history, ranging from familiar events, such as the First Vision, the trek west, and the origin of Primary, to not-so-familiar events, such as the retrenchment movement, the political manifesto, and the beginnings of seminaries and institutes.

LDS, the Mormons
A 19th Century American prophet establishes a new religion.

Upstate New York in the 1830's was known
   as the burned over district.

It had been revived so many times
   that it was said
       that Jesus Christ Himself
          could not have raised a crowd to be revived.

Revivalist religion was immensely popular
   in those early years of the American Republic.

Tent meetings were a place where a new prophet
    and preacher
        could draw a crowd to hear new ideas.

The 19th Century tent meetings were quite similar
   to the tent revivals many of us remember
      within our own lifetimes.

The burned over district was fertile ground
     for craziness in religion.

This is not to say that all participants
    in religion of that time and place
        were in fact crazy,
            but there was enough craziness
                  to raise questions
                      and cause us all to think twice.

One of the best known and most successful prophets
      of the burned over district
             was Alexander Campbell.

He believed that he was bringing a restoration
    of the New Testament faith and church.

He also wanted to bring all Christians together
    in one very open and accepting community.

Unfortunately those two strands of Campbellite faith
    resulted in two separate and successful churches.

The faith in restoration of the New Testament church
         became the so-called Church of Christ,
 not to be confused with the United Church of Christ,
   the Christian denomination most closely related
        to the Unitarian Universalist tradition.

                     (More on this later!)

The Churches of Christ are Campbellites
    who refuse to talk about their history,
         and they lean toward
            a kind of toxic fundamentalism,
                believing that they are the only true
                    Churches of Christ
                          in the world today.

The open and accepting Campbellites
   are the Disciples of Christ,
       the so-called Christian churches
          found in many cities as "First Christian Church."

The idea of a restoration
      of true New Testament Christianity
           was found among others
                in the burned over district.

The most successful movement
     to make such a claim
         was founded by the prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr.

I refer to him as a prophet
   simply because he claimed to be one.

He claimed to speak for God.

Historically speaking,
    the great analyst of literature and history,
         Harold Bloom,
              referred to Joseph Smith, Jr.
                   as an authentic prophet.

This does not mean that
     Joseph Smith was a true prophet.

His authenticity derives from the many people
    who believe in his prophecy and movement.

Looking at the Mormon movement from the outside
   it appears obvious that Joseph Smith
       was a charlatan and a con artist.

There was certainly a market for both
    in the Burned Over District.

Prior to founding the Mormon movement,
    Smith found and sold all kinds of 
        supposed artifacts from ancient times,
 some of which he claimed to be Native American.

There was at the time, in fact,  a popular obsession
   with all things Native American,
       especially their origins and history,
            and Joseph Smith made the most of that.

The fate of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel was part
                of the popular obsession.

The ancient middle eastern tribes
    that formed the nations of Israel and Judah
         were overrun by great empires
              more than once.

The northern tribes were never restored
     after the Assyrians overran them.

The people of the land in the north
     became the Samaritans,
           a small ethnic and religious group
                 that is mentioned in the New Testament
                        (remember the Good Samaritan?)
                             and that exists to this day.

After it had been overrun by the Babylonians,
 the southern kingdom was restored by the Persians,
       and it became known as Judea.

The two tribes there were Judah and Benjamin,
    and the Jews of today take their name from Judah
          - as in Judaism.

The ten tribes of the north were lost to history
     apart from the Samaritans.

Joseph Smith created an amazing new mythology
     about those ten supposedly lost tribes.

He wrote in the Book of Mormon
     about how those Ten Tribes
            were brought by God
                  to North America.

Here they lived among the Native American tribes,
      and here they were visited by
           the Risen Jesus Christ Himself.

These stories and many others are recorded
           in the Book of Mormon.

Smith's genius was twofold:
     He was a myth-maker
          rarely equaled in human history,

and he was a personally charismatic leader
     who could convince people of his ideas
         even contrary to the evidence before their eyes.

He could show an empty box to his followers
      and get them to believe that they were seeing
            golden plates upon which the words
                  of the Book of Mormon were written,

and they would even believe that they had seen
     magic seeing stones
             by which Smith had been enabled
                    to translate those words.

From the outside this seems absurd,
     but from within the Mormon faith,
          the truth of these events
                 is basic, the foundation
                       of believing.

Smith attracted quite a following
    by force of his personality
        and by providing answers to questions
             that many people were wondering about.

To this day,
   one of the attractions of Mormonism 
        is the claim to provide true answers
            to the most basic questions of life.

You won't find many agnostic Mormons.

I consider myself agnostic because I don't claim
     to have any final answers.

Mormons claim to have final answers
    to almost any question one might have.

On the other hand,
     there are a couple of interesting divisions
         in historic Mormonism.

The first came about after the death of the prophet,
                        Joseph Smith, Jr.

Brigham Young was acclaimed prophet
    by many of Smith's followers,
        and he led the Latter Day Saints
             along a westward trek
                 until they reached and settled
                       the Salt Lake Valley.

Not all of the Saints followed Young westward.

Not all of them agreed
     with the teaching of polygamy.

Chief among those who did not accept polygamy
     was, not surprisingly, Emma Hale Smith,
          wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.

Her son, Joseph Smith III,
    was believed by many of the Saints
          to have been designated successor
               by his father, Joseph Smith, Jr.

He became the first president
     of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ
           of Latter Day Saints (the RLDS rather than LDS)
                  headquartered in Independence, Missouri.

Interestingly, the Mormons, the LDS church people,
     believe that the Second Coming of Christ
          will take place at Independence, Missouri.

Perhaps then, the LDS and the RLDS
           will finally reconcile.

The other division among the Mormons
    also took place on account of polygamy.

Utah was permitted to become a state
   only if polygamy would be made illegal.

The Mormon President and Prophet proclaimed
    that it was necessary to obey the law of the land,
         and the LDS church itself began
               to forbid polygamy.

Some fundamentalist Mormons said
           it was necessary
                   to obey God rather than men,

and they broke away from the mainstream,
       or orthodox, Mormons.

Some of them call themselves the FLDS church,
   and they do, notoriously, practice polygamy,
       sometimes defending it with violence.

Whether calling themselves fundamentalists or not,
   too many people practice their religion
      with the belief that they alone are right,
          that they alone have the true and final answers
              to life's questions.

Of course, not all Mormons have that characteristic
    of toxic faith,
           but it's a young religion,
                 and too many still do.

They need us to help them find a better way
    not to leave their faith behind,
         but to learn to open their minds a bit
              when they are ready to do so.

We would never try to force it on them,
     but we can befriend our wonderful Mormon
          friends and family,
               and be there for them
                     when they have questions,
                            when some things begin
                                   not to make sense any more.

Some of my favorite people in my life have been LDS.

They make great neighbors
  so long as we can avoid
     the topics of religion and politics!

That can be difficult, because they are taught
   to be very pushy about faith and politics.

If we can speak the truth in love
   as far as we are able to speak the truth;

if we can be as humble as often others are not,
   we too can bear witness
       to progressive qualities of faith
           in our own times,
               when so many people are in need
                    of progressive options
                        in their own lives.

There are progressive Mormons all over the world.

So far, they are still in grave danger
    of excommunication,
        but sometimes the truth
             can be even more important than that.

Our encouragement and love
    can sometimes provide the ground
         on which they will need to stand.

Amen
Ameen
Omeyn
So Mote it Be

Blessed Be