Authenticity

Friends in Christ,

John M. Buchanan, a Presbyterian Pastor who serves as editor and publisher of The Christian Century, has written a cogent editorial recently in which he expresses some thoughts I think we would all do well to hear, and to remember as we mark our movement into this year's post-Easter season. He reminds us that if we try to put the stories about Easter from the four Gospels together into one, it doesn't work very well. Each Gospel sees the event very much in its own peculiar way that can't be meshed very easily with the way the others see it. For him, this speaks more to the authenticity of the Easter accounts than otherwise because, as he says, he would be more suspicious were there to be greater harmony. It might seem as if folks had gotten together after the fact and created an artificial account. The writers would have paid more attention to having everything agree in a nice, neat, and orderly fashion. He writes, "If the accounts were tidy and consistent you could imagine that someone made it all up."

For Buchanan, the deepest issue about Easter is the matter of truth - and that should matter to us all. But he asks, "Is truth defined and limited by human understanding, intellect, science, and common sense? Or is there a truth bigger than human reason, a truth that transcends our ability to understand, a truth that flies in the face of the reality we experience and read about in the newspaper? Is there a reality more real than the harshness and finality of death? The affirmation we gather in churches to make is yes, there is a reality that transcends our intellects. Yes, there is a God who can make a way where there is no way. Yes, there is a reality stronger than death, and it is the love of God?The resurrection is the kind of truth Emily Dickinson had in mind when she wrote: 'Truth must dazzle gradually, or every man be blind.' "

I like that. I hope that you find it hopeful as well.

Peace,
Brett P. Morgan