03 April 2015

Good Friday

Good Friday to you. Good Good Friday? I dunno.

Good (i.e. Holy) Friday is the day that Christians commemorate the death of Jesus. Some of us think it happened as read. Some of us think there's truth in the story, but the story is not exactly true. As usual, I fall into the latter camp. I really think that taking the Bible as literal truth misses the vast majority of the message. Jesus was their hope. He was their plan for the future. And then he was gone. Hope was dead. A gut punch.

Ever feel like that? I kinda felt like that when Harper got his majority. And when Clark won the last election here in BC. Good God did I ever drink a lot that night. I think I drank two bottles of wine. And it wasn't sacramental wine. :) Because I was expecting she'd lose. I got my hopes up high (where they belong, I might add) that we'd get a new regime. A kinder, gentler one. We didn't. We got people who think the poor are lazy or stupid. We got people who think minimum wage shouldn't pay the very modest bills. We got people who can't understand why disabled people don't work more. And I was heartbroken.

A friend of mine suddenly lost her beloved almost 3 weeks ago. She knows the gut punch feeling better than anyone I know. She's grieving for the loss of all the time they expected to have together. She doesn't know how she'll ever climb out of the darkness. She will, because she's strong. But it won't be easy.

It's never easy. That wasn't the deal. Jesus didn't say it would be easy. Simple, yes. Easy, no.

And that's where we're at now. Trying to make our way without decent leadership. Without a strong, vibrant, healthy church (I don't think that's ever existed, somehow). 2000 odd years gone, and we still can't remember the basic idea is to love. Just love. Nothing more. That's the rule. And yet, in many places, we use the name of God to hate. That's the 1st commandment broken, btw. It didn't mean don't shout "goddamn it". It meant don't use God's name to promote your own agenda. Indiana passed a law allowing people to hate gay people so much that they can kick them out of their businesses, and they did it in God's name. It's quite literally nauseating to me that they do this.

And I don't fucking care what Paul said. Paul was not Jesus. Remember how often the apostles got it wrong, and Jesus had to tell them "DUDES. No. Let the kids come to me" Or, "DUDES. The guy in the tree just wants to talk to me. He's allowed." Or "DUDES. The lady who touched me didn't sully me. I healed her. Actually, no. Her faith healed her." And those were his buddies. I'm supposed to believe Paul (who by most scholars' accounts was more than one dude) was always correct in everything he said? Are you shitting me? Hell no.

I have to remember Easter. That hope will never die. That evil may have the upper hand, but it will never have the last word.