Religion revisited

We were driving around town trying to do some last-minute errands today before heading out to Tucson. One of our stops took us past a church, which Sayer identified as we drove past. I asked her how she knew it was a church, and she told me it was because 'of the sword on the top.'

Oh, gracious.

So I explained that it was not a sword, it was a cross, and then I told the story about how Jesus was killed on the cross. This led to a bit of history about how the Romans had conquered the land where Jesus lived, and how they didn't like the things he was teaching any better than the Jewish priests did, and how it had come to pass that they had nailed him to a cross and killed him. But we also talked about sacrifice. Sayer is familiar with the concept, a bit, anyway, from reading Greek myths. She knows that it's an offering to god to show reverence. From the stories we've read sacrifices are generally food or animals. But, I told her that in the story of Jesus' death, he was the sacrifice. And that he'd actually allowed himself to be killed in order to be the sacrifice.

We discussed the betrayal by Judas, and the story of the 3 days in the tomb followed by the resurrection. And how after he'd explained to his friends that he wanted them to continue teaching he went up to Heaven to be with his father, who was god.

It was a lengthy discussion. It was a good discussion.