The Absurd Cross: Escaping the Tyranny of Certainty and Satisfaction

Religions, in both their spiritual and secular varieties, offer various techniques designed to help us live more meaningful, fulfilling and satisfying lives. There are priests and prophets all over the planet ready to tell us that the path to salvation lies in everything from power, money and fame to prayer, meditation and Cross Fit.

Even in the midst of our daily routines, we can be painfully aware that our world is precarious. At any moment we might be undone by the feeling that this world is absurd. In response, we shore up all manner of religious defenses that promise to keep the void at bay.

In contrast, Peter will argue that there is a religionless heart to Christianity that overturns the tables of meaning, clears out the temples of tidy answers and drives out the sellers of certainty. Here the supposed “good news” that we can be all that we can be, is exposed as bad news. In its place we will hear a gospel with the incendiary ability to break down our defenses against the abyss, so that we might confront it face to face.

Join us as we sensitive ourselves to the scandal of this gospel message. A message that promises personal and political transformation only when we embrace a life beyond meaning, beyond certainty and beyond satisfaction. A life freed from the frenetic pursuit of wholeness, and from all the demons hidden along that path. Pastor Josh will lead this class on Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/556795333