Marginal Christianity

“Roll Away Your Stone” is one of my two favorite songs off Sigh No More. It uses the most explicit Christian imagery of any song on the album and the music is simply glorious. It's a song of resurrection or new life. “Roll away your stone” can hardly refer to anything else than the stone rolled away from the entrance to Christ's tomb on Easter morning. Because of his resurrection, the rest of us can hope to “roll away” our stones and emerge from the lifeless reals to new life. M&S also strike a biblical note in eschewing individualism and affirming that exploring this new life is a communal matter. Emerging from death to life is like leaving the womb for the world in birth can be a traumatic experience. We leave the known for the unknown, exiting the only security we have experience for the exciting but also scary unknown. We need one another on this journey and God intends that we walk it together and not alone. “Roll away your stone, I’ll roll away mine ...

1 John 3:1-7 1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us in that we should be called God’s children, and that is what we are! Because the world didn’t recognize him, it doesn’t recognize us. 2 Dear friends, now we are God’s children, and it hasn’t yet appeared what we will be. We know that when he appears we will be like him because we’ll see him as he is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. 4 Every person who practices sin commits an act of rebellion, and sin is rebellion. 5 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and there is no sin in him. 6 Every person who remains in relationship to him does not sin. Any person who sins has not seen him or known him. 7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The person who practices righteousness is righteous, in the same way that Jesus is righteous. The lectionary offers a variety of texts during the Easter season that invite us to reflect on the impact of Jesus’ resurrection on o...