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Humanism Humanism and Definition: According to the free dictionary the way humanism is defined is in the following manner: -A system of thought that reject religious beliefs and centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth. -Concern with the interests, needs, and welfare of humans. What does it mean to be a human being especially in 21st century modern America and especially in the context of the church? We are going to use as our main point the following phrase to define what it means to be a human being: "Christ shows us what it is to be God in the way He dies as a human being." -According to Irenaeus, a 2nd century Bishop of Lyons, said the glory of God is a living human being. Irenaeus had been a disciple of Polycarp who had been a disciple of John the Theologian. But what does these words mean or who or what is a living human being? -Going back a few years before Irenaeus penned these words we have the encounter with Ignatius of Antioch speaking similar words: "It is better for me to die in Christ Jesus than to be king over the ends of the earth. I seek him who died for our sake. I desire him who rose for us. Birth pangs are upon me. Suffer me, my brethren; hinder me not from living, do not wish me to die. ...Suffer me to receive the pure light; when I shall have arrived there, I shall become a human being (anthropos). Suffer me to follow the example of the Passion of my God Do not wish me to dieby finding a way to get me out of my coming martyrdomdo not hinder me from livingby stopping me from being martyred. Compared to our usual patterns of speech, life and death are here reversed. His martyrdom is his birth, ...and it will be a birth in which he becomes a "human being" -a human being in the stature of Christ, the "perfect human being" or the "new human being," as the martyr refers to "the faithful martyr, the firstborn of the dead" (Rev 1:5), "the Pioneer of our salvation" (Heb 2:10). These are dramatic words and, as we will see, very profound. Death, here, is a defining moment: not the end, but the beginning; not disappearance but revelation.

This revelation is only made visible to us through the person of Christ. When Christ was alive we never understood this (the disciples never understood him). It was only through passing through his death and resurrection that we understood who Christ is as a human being. Who is Jesus Christ? When we look at the synoptic gospels (Matthew Mark and Luke) we see that the disciples never knew who Christ was. And even if they knew they didnt understand what the Christ was meant to be. If you look at the crucifixion they all ran away, at the empty tomb they didnt believe that his body was gone and even after appearing to them they doubted. There was only one time in the synoptic gospels that the disciples made a true confession of Christ. Can anyone think of when it was? (Matthew 16 or Mark 8) What happens after? The paradox is absolute! The one who makes a correct confession of who Jesus is automatically called Satan. The term Satan is used in reference to anyone who got in between Christ and the cross. Before the cross the disciples simply do not understand who Christ is and dont understand him when they run away in fear in the garden or even after the Resurrection. Each account of how they do come to recognize him has a particular point to make-that is, a point for us. One important encounter is the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24 read the passage). Clearly a point is being made here. The Risen Lord then opens the Scriptures to show how Moses and all the Prophets had spoken of how the Christ had to suffer to enter into his glory. Only then do their hearts start to soften, and after persuading him to stay the night, their eyes were finally opened with the breaking of the bread. Hence, from the beginning, Christians have been waiting for his coming. The earliest Christian writings that now comprise the New Testament do not speak of a "second coming," but instead describe more simply and directly how Christians await the coming of their Lord. Christ was, is, and always remains the "coming one"- whose coming, whose presence, whose parousia, coincides with his passage, his transitus, his exodus -leaving us a trace of his presence and igniting a desire for him. As St Augustine wrote in his Confessions: Through him you sought us when we were not seeking you, but you sought us that we might to seek you. Considering how the disciples came to know Christ it is important for two reasons. Firstly, that there is no historical distance between us and the disciples. Being there 2000 years ago has no importance because the disciples were there and they still didnt understand who Christ was. When we speak language like that we are actually placing ourselves in the category

of the demonically possessed because they thought they knew Christ as well. However, we know Christ as a human being through the opening of Scripture and the breaking of bread. It is in the church that we are called to become human beings in the image and likeness of Christ. It is through the hymns, icons, the preaching, the readings that we are called to be transformed in the image of Christ. If we look at Paul the same experience he went through is the same experience we go through today (tell the story about how he was blameless in the law but when he began to read the scripture anew his mind changed. It was his starting point that changed and his starting point was Christ). The second point is that it is by his death that Christ conquers death, revealing life everlasting. (What do we chant during Easter and for the 50 days afterwards?) Christ does not show himself to be God by being "almighty," as we tend to think of this- as moving mountains, throwing lightning bolts and so on- it is rather by the all-to-human act of dying, in the particular manner that he does. Death is, in point of fact, the only thing that all men and women have in common from the beginning of the world onwards, through- out all regions and cultures of the world. And thus Christ reveals what it is to be God through the only thing that we have in common. He does this not simply by dying-for that would merely have been a capitulation of God, the endrather, he does it by the way that he has died. If Christ showed us what it means to God in any other way some people would have been excluded (give a few examples). Christ conquering death by death has enabled human beings also to use their own mortality to come to life to him. In the early church Good Friday and Easter were celebrated as one event! The apostles and early council understood this concept as lived it out. If you look at the church and what it means to us and the mysteries it is all meant to bestow life achieved through the very means of our death. Baptism, Eucharist, marriage and all the mysteries are all a death being paid in order to live. Behold the Human Being-It is finished: The gospel of John begins were the other three end (expand on this). Behold the Lamb of God and we have found the one the scripture and Moses spoke of. Instead of the disciples running away we have his mother and the beloved disciple at the cross and instead of screaming out in pain he speaks out it is finished. What is finished? The work of God is done but what is this work? St. Irenaeus says the work of God is the fashioning of the human being.

And we are back to this human being. What is the human being? We must look at the book of Genesis. God says let it be let it be let it be. When he comes to the human being he says let us make man in our own image and likeness. The human being then is the handiwork of God however the work is not done at this point. The human being is a working project. It is only in the gospel of John does this project come to a conclusion. Right before Christ declares it is finished Pilate declares the human being behold the human being (Jn 19.5). Christ, in whom death had no dominion is the first true human being. The project announced by God in the beginning is completed at the end by the one who is God. Christ as human, completes what he himself, as God, has predetermined to take place. If this is the case, then we have yet to become human-and, as St. Ignatius testifies so resoundingly, we only and finally do so by following Christ through our own martyria, our own witness and confession of him. Conclusion: God became man that man might become god (St. Athanasius). You are probably wondering how all this can apply to service Sunday school and life in general. Well simply putting it, it is life! This is the starting point in which we must approach everything. We must recognize our brokenness in order that Christ can penetrate us through scripture and the Eucharist. If we allow Christ to penetrate our beings our service will flourish. As we begin to see Christ in others we will notice how we are all broken in nature and need Christ working act of salvation in our lives. It is in the way we live for others that we are transformed in the image and likeness. Its not about the words I am speaking or our worldly interests but rather it is Christ and Christ alone that we live for the life of the world.