Merthyr Explorers at New Farm

Our next gathering on 27th April will be facilitated by Rev Dr Cliff Hospital, who has given us this ’taster’ of what we will be exploring.

A Progressive Take on Resurrection: “Which Resurrection?”

My argument will be that in order to arrive at a critical take on the resurrection event and its implications for Christian faith and life in the contemporary world we need to begin with an honest awareness that traditional orthodox Christian thinking reflects a composite of disparate strands of tradition available to us in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the Quran, etc.

So, to explain the question “Which Resurrection?”:
Is it the collective resurrection of the people Israel (Ezekiel 37)?
Is it the raising of dead individuals on the last day–the day of judgment–shared by the Pharisees, but not the Saducees, by Christians following Paul in 1 Corinthians 15: 51-52, by Muslims following many passage in the Quran such as sura 78: 17-40?
Is it the thinking reflected in Jesus’ words to the good thief crucufied with him:  “…today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23: 43)?
Is it the earliest accounts of resurrection appearances of Jesus found in Paul’s letters, and most fully in 1 Corinthians 15: 3-8, which includes the appearance to Paul himself?
Is it the apparently related distinction made by Paul later in 1 Corinthians 15 between a physical body and a spiritual body (the latter being the body of the raised dead)?
Is it the resurrection as depicted in the gospels and Acts 1, with forty days of appearances (little in common among the accounts) culminating in the Lukan narrative of Jesus’ ascension into heaven from Bethany (Luke 24:50) or the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12)?

I will attempt to develop a plausible account of this diversity; thus Part A.

Part B of my talk will look at a variety of modern expressions of resurrection faith and hope that I find persuasive in the light of our conclusions in Part A.

Cliff

Everyone is invited to join in at Merthyr Explorers on 27th April.
Merthyr Road Uniting Church, 52 Merthyr Rd, New Farm.
10 am for morning tea (a few contributions to this will be welcome)
10:30 we begin our exploring of the topic.
A donation of $5 towards costs is appreciated as we do pay for the cleaning and give a donation to Merthyr Road Uniting Church each year for the use of the facilities.

Desley

St Lucia Spirituality Group

Firstly, we apologise for not writing sooner or holding our meeting in March as we envisaged but, as you’d be aware, floods and disrupted internet curtailed our activities.

Secondly, we have decided as a result of feedback we have received, to no longer record zoom meetings. The benefits of holding a recording for others does not outweigh the perceived limitations that recording has on the sharing of intimate and personal thoughts. It is also important to understand that each of us is on a journey, formulating our own worldview and seeking to grow in our spiritual formation. Being able to participate in a group where everyone has this common objective is beneficial and it is helpful if we ensure an atmosphere that is gentle, respectful and non-judgemental – especially when we are exploring subjects that are not simply black/white or right/wrong.

Meanwhile, there is a trade off between holding physical meetings and zoom meetings and we have decided, on balance, to continue with zoom meetings for the time being.

Butterfly Series – Next Meeting on Growing Up

Our meeting to consider “Growing Up” will be held on Zoom at 6:00pm AEST on Tuesday 19 April. To obtain your preliminary reading material and to register your attendance, please email John at jscoble@hradvantage.com.au.

You will recall that we have been exploring Ken Wilber’s model of spiritual and personal development, which is founded in knowledge gained over the last century in psychology and other social sciences, along with Wilber’s extensive study of all religions.

To summarise, we have previously examined Wilber’s model that can be initially categorised as Waking Up, Cleaning Up, Growing Up and Showing Up.

• Waking up refers to a realisation that the way in which we have viewed our world has been an illusion, that reality is something different and we want to understand what that is. Yet it is still only a starting point to a process that requires reflection and personal growth.
• Cleaning up is necessary when we realise that our previous unconscious behaviour is not in accord with our new vision for ourselves. The psychologist, Carl Jung, identified this process as addressing our “shadow self”.
• Growing up is the process of development of personal maturity as described by a number of different behavioural models.
• Showing Up represents the fourth pathway that requires bringing our heart and mind into how we live our lives, to how we address the actual suffering and problems of the world.

Robert will lead our discussion on “Growing Up”.

Butterfly Series – What’s Next?

The St Lucia Spirituality Group is a community seeking to develop a more mature understanding of what lies at the core of spiritual beliefs, embracing explanations for the nature, meaning and purpose of life. We currently have 32 members, of whom about half are active. Interaction is the lifeblood of a community. Therefore, we wish to encourage you to make posts on Facebook about questions you are considering, books you have read or interesting podcasts you have listened to. Furthermore, we would ask you to invite friends who you believe may be interested in spiritual enquiry and development to join us. You could share this newsletter and invite others to our next meeting.

Regarding the Butterfly series, we expect to complete our current focus on Ken Wilbur’s integral theory at our May meeting. This leaves the open question of what topics we might consider afterwards.

We are seeking your help in providing guidance as to the topics of interest to you.

Go well…
John Scoble & Robert van Mourik

oOo