judas...betrayer or betrayed?

did the christian church sell out judas and give him the undeserved reputation of a monster?

did jesus go to the cross because judas betrayed him or because jesus told him to betray him?

what does the gospel of judas have to say about this?

dr. gordon heath lead a packed immersion through such questions. we talked about the conflict within the scholarly world about whether or not the gospel of judas even portrays judas in the positive light that the national geographic special claims it does. we talked about the difference between gnosticism and christianity and how some claim that christianity simply was the 'lucky winner' of the debate and that is why it is more popular than gnosticism.

dr heath talked about the beliefs held by some of this ancient sect and how it would impact our learning of god. we learned that were we to accept the teachings of the ancient gnostics we would throw out the idea of the trinity, the old testament, jesus' death on the cross, the resurrection and, effectively, everything we attach to the work of salvation accomplished by jesus. we could no longer see yahweh [ our god] as powerful and the 'real' god would never interact with us because matter [what we see, touch, smell etc.] is evil and too far removed from the spirit of god. our incarnate god would never contaminate himself by engaging with sinful humanity. god would be untouchable.

it was a powerful night full of discussion, debate and learning. next week gord concludes his two-week stay with us and we are going to dedicate more time to discussion because people did not want to leave but wanted to keep on talking [or listening]. hey, immersion is nothing if not community run so we look forward to even more engagement in the upcoming service.

c'mon out if you've got the time!

reflection

here is the first of a couple of vids that we are going start putting up of our services.

the new 7 deadly sins

an intersting article just appeared about the vatican talking about new deadly sins for this day and age.

see the article here

among them are genetic intervention, drug abuse, and environmental concerns.

this is an interesting development within Catholic theology and begs the question about whether or not 'sin' changes from age to age.

a while ago the vatican came up with a kind-of 10 commandments for driving [opposing drunk, driving, road rage and even inconsiderate driving] and this is in keeping with this move within the Catholic hierarchy to maintain christian teaching in the post modern world [some of the vatican is even going to solar power!]

the church is continuing to cry against the mistreatment of the poor by societal systems which keep the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

all in all an interesting article worth the read and a potential future iMMERSION topic.

stations of salvation

the cross is always seen as the central message of the christian faith

in fact, the cross is one of the most recognized symbols in the world [the golden arches of mcdonalds are more recognizable]

but did the notion of jesus dying on a cross come out of nowhere? was this a last minute audible called by god the quarterback? or, was the cross the culmination of the story of salvation that god had been calling since the beginning?

at this time of year the stations of the cross are quite popular with our catholic brothers and sisters and we want to partake in this worship service but add another element to it as well. we are going to, quite literally, spend some time walking through some of the old testament to see god's plan of salvation for the world in action even before the time of jesus.

there will be music, movie clips, discussion and time to explore the past in a new light.

your comments will be appreciated both on the evening and afterwards for posting.

let us take time to truly reflect and celebrate this special time of year as we see that god's plans have existed for centuries and continue to live on in this day and age.