New Paradigm

Renewal

“The symbolic language of the crucifixion is the death of the old paradigm; resurrection is a leap into a whole new way of thinking.”

Deepak Chopra

Easter is the day on which we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. The stone rolled away, the empty tomb, Jesus in the garden speaking to Mary Magdalene. It is a good story on its surface, and the foundation of Christianity, but it is also a metaphor and a symbol. Jesus' mission was to overturn the punishing, increasingly commercial, elitist, religious structure of his time because it ignored the suffering of the poor and underclass, and banished sick people to the catacombs. Jesus brought the message that these actions did not represent the God he knew. That God was compassionate, and generous, and that God was scornful of religious laws and customs, and especially, of religious people who held themselves out as “special.” The God Jesus knew loved all people, especially children—all children, everywhere. Jesus' purpose was to shift the paradigm—no more old, dangerous, punishing God. No more grinding down of the poor and lording over the vulnerable. Now, a new covenant in bread and wine—a loving God whom one could think of as a father. We're still trying to work that out two thousand years later. We talk the talk, but we do not walk the walk.

Resurrection happens every day. It's happening right now in our waking up, in the Springtime sun and rain that brings the earth alive. It happens every time someone has a new baby, and every time we experience the loss of a primary relationship which requires us to redefine who we are now without that person. Little mini-resurrections happen when a depression lifts and we see that life has possibilities and even joy. It happens when one who has been in the deadly grip of addiction emerges into sobriety and new life. There are a million little deaths over the course of a lifetime, and a million small resurrections. The old passes away, and something new emerges.

Renewal. That's the meaning of Easter. Renewal of life and of possibilities. Renewal of each of us, and the whole of creation in the miracle of Spring. Happy resurrection to you. May all your old paradigms fall away and an entirely new creature take flight.

                                                          In the Spirit,

                                                              Jane