On Easter Sunday pick up a beer from THE BEER STORE across the street from my place at 463 Bathurst in Toronto. Drop in and have a beer in the presence of this authorized replica of The Turin Shroud.
What I find remarkable about the man on the Turin Shroud is the look of peace on his face. For myself that look echoes the last words from the cross: “It is done.” I do not need more than this to accept that that image is of Jesus of Nazareth. Others may need more. It seems they do. I don’t. We might think walking with him (which is different from following) we are to bomb the Hell out of our enemies. We are not. We are to pray for them. We are to return the wrongs they do to us with right. We are to turn the other cheek, walk the second mile, give our shirt to those who sue us for our coat. We are to forgive that we may be forgiven. This is not easy. Neither was getting crucified. This is why Jesus is unique.
Once I got my Shroud replica I ordered every book and video I could find.
Then I stopped ordering them. I let the Shroud speak directly to my heart.
Did I need the Shroud replica? No. But getting it caused me to look deeper than I otherwise would have.
Dr. Robert Bucklin was the inspiration for the TV series QUINCY. His paper on The Legal and Medical Aspects of the Trial and Death of Christ (Reprinted from Medicine, Science and the Law, January, 1970) https://www.shroud.com/bucklin2.htm nails it (pun intended).
“Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. I would take out that word “little.”
Asked by a man to be his teacher (rabbi) Jesus said, “You have one teacher, the Father. Let no one call you teacher.”
I had started doing that in 1968 after reading THE WILHELM BAYNES edition of THE I CHING, meeting Jane Jacobs, Judith Merril and becoming part of Rochdale College where each Rochdalian was called to be their own teacher. I write about that in my self-published THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED ROCHDALE.
Right now I’m reading Leo Tolstoy’s THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU. Tolstoy found he could walk with Jesus or the church but not with both.
I found that out years ago.
Does this mean I think myself better than everyone else? No, it does not. As Paul wrote, “Among sinners I am chief.” He was, I am.
We are told the path is strait (not straight) and narrow. A churchman once said to me, “I don’t know why my life is so hard.” He was a much learned man I was drawn to because he knew so much however that elemental thing he did not know.
Strait means impossibly hard. Narrow means one by one.
We are a carbon based life form. Carbon under intense pressure becomes diamond. Diamonds are forever. When we consciously choose the strait path we begin the process of transforming ourselves into something created to be eternal.
We also become beings who embody peace.
On April 5th we celebrate Easter.
It has been said The Shroud of Turn documents a new beginning, a moment just like the original Big Bang in which the whole cosmos was literally made new, born again.
John, in his letter, wrote we have no need that any man should teacher for the spirit (breath) with which we are anointed at birth is our teacher.
Jane Jacobs stated, “I would like it to be understood… that all our human economic achievements have been done by ordinary people, not by exceptionally educated people, or by elites or by supernatural forces, for heaven’s sake.”
Jane was a housewife and a mother who stood up to and brought down powerful forces first in New York and then in Toronto. I met her the year she arrived in Toronto. We became friends for life.
The word “church” means “community.”
My church is found in the community I am part of.
That community includes believers and non-believers.
It includes people of all faiths.
I am not here to convert anyone. No one needs to be converted.
Jean Cocteau stated, “Whatever the world condemns you for make it your own. It is yourself.” As a homosexual man born at the dawn of the 20th century Cocteau lived the life he taught.
Calvary/Golgotha (The Hill of the Skull) on which Jesus was crucified was so called because David buried there the skull of Adam and the skull of Goliath. Both skulls were anointed with the blood from the Cross. Both were baptized with that blood. Both were washed clean.
Waging war to bring on the Messiah (The Anointed) is not how it is done.
You and I gathering in peace tuning the other cheek is how it is done.
We create a world in which the Messiah is not needed.
That, it seems to me, is worth doing.
Jesus was known as a friend of wine drinkers and sinners.
Those who think themselves saved say only weak people are sinners.
We are all weak. Paul asked that he be made better so he could better do the work. He was told by the Father, “My grace is sufficient unto you for in your weakness my strength is made perfect.”
Each of us as we are is just the way the Father wants us.
The word “Adam” I thought meant first man. I learned it actually means red man because the first man’s skin was red like the clay from which he was made.
Our red brothers and sisters have much in common with Adam. They gave up their land and, many of them, their lives and all of them their way of life.
On Easter Sunday pick up a beer from THE BEER STORE across the street from my place at 463 Bathurst in Toronto. Drop in and have a beer in the presence of this authorized replica of The Turin Shroud.
On Easter Sunday pick up a beer from THE BEER STORE across the street from my place at 463 Bathurst in Toronto. Drop in and have a beer in the presence of this authorized replica of The Turin Shroud.
Think of that as you drink your beer.–Reg Hartt
Version 1.0.0
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