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Christmas 1995 |
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C is for the Cascades, as in Washington State.
That was the opening line on the first issue of Crossings. Date: August 1985. In the ten years since then we've sent out a few more. This one's number 40. Like Vivaldi, we're hooked on the four seasons, church seasons, that is. Advent-Christmas, Lent-Easter, Pentecost, and Michaelmas. We wonder: is there anyone out there who has read them all? You deserve a prize (Maybe the Ethiopian Christmas creche pictured on the last page?) We could simply repeat the Cascade caption here for this report as well. In 1995, also in August, it was Crossings at Holden Village in Washington state. For thirty years this Alpine Shangri-la in a valley running down from Glacier Peak has drawn thousands of thoughtful Christians, curious seekers, and also burned-out believers for a few days or weeks or a whole year of R&R. Holden is definitely set apart--no radios, no TV's, no phones, not even a road to take you there! Three hours by boat on Lake Chelan is the only access. Besides the mountains, there are the Holden people, four hundred staff and guests when the village is full. Among these people are the pros, who are invited in to show and tell on topics from aerobics to zoology and most points in between, theology included. All of it is framed by prayer and praise. Holden was already working out its own crossings model for faith and life before Crossings Inc. was born. So when we learned of each other in 1975 they invited us out that very summer to do our thing. This summer's invitation was the fourth. For one week we were crossing from Gospel texts for the late summer Sundays of the church year. The second week was a teaser titled "Why Jesus?" Why |
 indeed keep promoting (or hanging on to) Jesus when there are so many other healing options, religious and secular, on the market today?
The memorable word for the week came when we looked at therapy. John Parfitt, manager of the Holden bookstore, told us how grateful he was for therapy and the genuine help it brought him. "Great," I replied. "So why Jesus for you?" "Simple," he said, "to get my sins forgiven." John's bon mot gave us the touchstone for the rest of the week. With it we checked out "alternate gospels." More about this below under letter "O." ehs
Surprisingly enough, folks asked that already in New Testament times, which surely was an "age of religion." Christ-confessors met the question coming from two sides. One was from the Jewish community where the Good News about Jesus began. The other was from Hellenistic Greek culture that permeated the Roman empire.
"We have Moses and the prophets," said the first
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