Community Christian Church of Springfield, MO
Roger Ray, pastor
Easter April 20, 2014
Among the historically anomalous gather of geniuses who were the signers of the American Declaration of Independence and who later gathered to write our constitution was that Renaissance-man, and our third president, Thomas Jefferson. Though more famous lately for some siring a family blood line through a mistress who was a slave on his farm, other than being a fairly typical 18th century scoundrel, he was also a man who had many interests in which he was well ahead of his time.
He studied architecture, botany, animal husbandry, agriculture, medicine, surveying, government and, of personal interest to me, he dabbled in historical Jesus studies. He didn't have much to go on beyond his own intuition but he was an uncommonly smart fellow.
Those must have been heady days, once the War of Independence had been won and this robust gathering of thinkers stood on the starting line of what would be the most rapid advance in technology, transportation, communication and philosophy that the world had ever seen. They were both liberated and compelled towards greatness. They looked backwards for guidance from the great civilizations of human history but they gave themselves complete liberty to do new things.
Most of our nation's founders were either deists or they were nominally Christian. As indifferent towards religion as we believe our own time to be, some religious historians estimate that only about 2% of Americans actually attended church at the time the Constitution was written.
The reason you didn't run into any traffic jams on the way here this morning is because even on Easter, only about 20% of Americans are going to church.
An American president couldn't do it today because our nation is much much more religiously conservative now than it was two and a half centuries ago, but President Jefferson read the Christian gospels and felt that there was a message there that was vital to preserve but that message was obscured by a layer of miracles, magic. To recover the teachings of Jesus, Jefferson wrote that, "we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves."
He removed the resurrection texts, the miracles and all references to the divine and had the end product published at tax payer expense so that he could give a copy to every member of Congress. Something that would have resulted in an impeachment in our era though even then it did kick up a bit of a furor.
Jefferson didn't have the benefit of having access to well thought-out books of theology or historical reviews of scripture. He was, however, a very intelligent rational man and he just knew that the magical parts of scripture were the commercials but not the real show. There were those in the ancient church who knew this as well.... When I learned about them in seminary, we called the "heretics".... Arianism and Ebonism both argued for a human Jesus but their perspective and their literature was stamped out by what became the official orthodox view in the time of Constantine.
In the past century, better equipped scholars from the early part of the 20th century tried to rescue the message of Jesus again. Albert Schweitzer, Paul Tillich, and Rudolph Bultmann would be among the more familiar names from a rising tide of Biblical, theological and historical scholars who worked to bring rational thought back to the practice of faith.
When Tim Rice wrote the lyrics to Jesus Christ Superstar, he was only in his mid-twenties and he claimed to have no particular theological training beyond his parochial school experience. I find that almost impossible to believe given that I was also a product of the church of the 1960's and there was no such sophistication present in the religious lessons in my childhood.
It is possible that he, like Jefferson two centuries before, just looked at the story and was able to dismiss most of the obviously contrived theological hocus-pocus that had been layered over the real Jesus. The lyrics of Jesus Christ Superstar do not rise to the level of the work of Tillich or Bultmann but it sure does have a better beat.
Were it not for this music, I doubt that I ever would have gotten around to reading Bultmann or Tillich. Tim Rice claimed that he was trying to tell the story from the perspective of Judas and, to a certain degree, he does though there is a lot of power in the words of Mary, Pilate and even Caiaphas to let us hear the teachings of Jesus more clearly.
I regret for those who follow us on YouTube and iTunes that we cannot legally share with you the music as we are hearing it performed live here today. I do encourage you to dust off your old album or video and give it another listen.
For those of us here in Springfield, though, I am pleased to be able to join you in this experience of hearing a musical rescue of the Jesus whose teachings still define us.
Roger Ray, pastor
Easter April 20, 2014
Among the historically anomalous gather of geniuses who were the signers of the American Declaration of Independence and who later gathered to write our constitution was that Renaissance-man, and our third president, Thomas Jefferson. Though more famous lately for some siring a family blood line through a mistress who was a slave on his farm, other than being a fairly typical 18th century scoundrel, he was also a man who had many interests in which he was well ahead of his time.
He studied architecture, botany, animal husbandry, agriculture, medicine, surveying, government and, of personal interest to me, he dabbled in historical Jesus studies. He didn't have much to go on beyond his own intuition but he was an uncommonly smart fellow.
Those must have been heady days, once the War of Independence had been won and this robust gathering of thinkers stood on the starting line of what would be the most rapid advance in technology, transportation, communication and philosophy that the world had ever seen. They were both liberated and compelled towards greatness. They looked backwards for guidance from the great civilizations of human history but they gave themselves complete liberty to do new things.
Most of our nation's founders were either deists or they were nominally Christian. As indifferent towards religion as we believe our own time to be, some religious historians estimate that only about 2% of Americans actually attended church at the time the Constitution was written.
The reason you didn't run into any traffic jams on the way here this morning is because even on Easter, only about 20% of Americans are going to church.
An American president couldn't do it today because our nation is much much more religiously conservative now than it was two and a half centuries ago, but President Jefferson read the Christian gospels and felt that there was a message there that was vital to preserve but that message was obscured by a layer of miracles, magic. To recover the teachings of Jesus, Jefferson wrote that, "we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves."
He removed the resurrection texts, the miracles and all references to the divine and had the end product published at tax payer expense so that he could give a copy to every member of Congress. Something that would have resulted in an impeachment in our era though even then it did kick up a bit of a furor.
Jefferson didn't have the benefit of having access to well thought-out books of theology or historical reviews of scripture. He was, however, a very intelligent rational man and he just knew that the magical parts of scripture were the commercials but not the real show. There were those in the ancient church who knew this as well.... When I learned about them in seminary, we called the "heretics".... Arianism and Ebonism both argued for a human Jesus but their perspective and their literature was stamped out by what became the official orthodox view in the time of Constantine.
In the past century, better equipped scholars from the early part of the 20th century tried to rescue the message of Jesus again. Albert Schweitzer, Paul Tillich, and Rudolph Bultmann would be among the more familiar names from a rising tide of Biblical, theological and historical scholars who worked to bring rational thought back to the practice of faith.
When Tim Rice wrote the lyrics to Jesus Christ Superstar, he was only in his mid-twenties and he claimed to have no particular theological training beyond his parochial school experience. I find that almost impossible to believe given that I was also a product of the church of the 1960's and there was no such sophistication present in the religious lessons in my childhood.
It is possible that he, like Jefferson two centuries before, just looked at the story and was able to dismiss most of the obviously contrived theological hocus-pocus that had been layered over the real Jesus. The lyrics of Jesus Christ Superstar do not rise to the level of the work of Tillich or Bultmann but it sure does have a better beat.
Were it not for this music, I doubt that I ever would have gotten around to reading Bultmann or Tillich. Tim Rice claimed that he was trying to tell the story from the perspective of Judas and, to a certain degree, he does though there is a lot of power in the words of Mary, Pilate and even Caiaphas to let us hear the teachings of Jesus more clearly.
I regret for those who follow us on YouTube and iTunes that we cannot legally share with you the music as we are hearing it performed live here today. I do encourage you to dust off your old album or video and give it another listen.
For those of us here in Springfield, though, I am pleased to be able to join you in this experience of hearing a musical rescue of the Jesus whose teachings still define us.
