Never mind the carnival being put on by the church next door, here at Our Saviour we have been having an old fashioned Holy Week. The only thing we missed was a good Maundy Thursday p.m. service. The services at Grace Lutheran were offered, but I just could not see having drums and a praise band for this service, so I abstained and studied the theology of Andrew Lloyd Webbber instead.
Today's Easter sermon was delivered by Fr. Dunbar. He took us through Job and Ecclesiastes to illustrate the difference in Old Testament thinking about death and New Testament's startling claim of Resurrection. Without getting into the walking cadaver question, the somebody stole the body argument, or the Star Trek transporter hypothesis, Fr. Dunbar helped keep us aware of the remarkable claim of Christians that Jesus lives. The "dualism" that Bobby referred to had me going back for further reading in the Catholic Encyclopedia. Years ago a philosophy student I knew was grappling with the "Mind-Body problem." I was too immature to ask about the "Body and Soul" problem, but after trying to read these linked papers, and becoming hopelessly confused, I think I will stick to what I believe is a simple Christian approach. That is, this is just another one of those things I will have to have Jesus explain to me after this body dies.
It was refreshing indeed to hear a theologically sound, biblically based sermon for a change.
ReplyDeleteAs to the Pewster's comment about being totally confused, I'm reminded of Edward R. Murrow's dictum that "anyone who is not totally confused, clearly doesn't understand the situation."