Rev. Don Erickson

 I’d like to approach this topic a unique, hopefully fun way. The iconic Buddhist teacher to the West, Thich Nhat Hanh, wrote a couple books on the relationship between Buddhism and Christianity, the first the classic Living Buddha, Living Christ and the sequel, Going Home: The Buddha and Christ as Brothers. By the way, there’s no mandatory reading for these 3 classes, but those two books are a great suggested reading list, as is Jesus & Buddha, the Parallel Sayings, compiled and introduced by Marcus Borg Anyway, instead of Buddha and Christ as brothers, I’d like to a slightly different approach. Buddhism and Christianity as buddies in a buddy story. Here’s a little snippet from one of the best buddy tales ever that will get us in the right mindset as well as give us a fun way to introduce our two buddies.   In this buddy tale, we focus today on the Buddha and Buddhism, which we’ll dub Rico Buddhism. The name Richard, by the way, means brave in power. We’ll also meet...

As low-key as a Congregational church usually is, the practice of Communion can't escape the elements and the words the Lord uses. "This bread is my body." And "this wine [or juice] is my blood." The idea of eating and drinking bread that is Jesus' body and juice that is his blood is still rather radical from the outside looking in.  The church must confront the reality that as younger generations unfamiliar with church life come of age, Communion especially must be explained. Here's my explanation. Jesus was one of the most poetic teachers to ever teach the truth of God and faith. He was an expert at meptahor. He said, for example, "I am the vine." Or "I am the living water." Jesus is not actually a vine, but he produces a good attitude in us like a vine produces grapes. Jesus is not really water, but his teaching and the way of life he taught quenches our spiritual thirst.  Well, as Protestants, we believe that when Jesus says this ...