Interesting thread. Despite being a newbie, I'll throw in my two cents (it is Lent after all, and I can spend a little time on this).
Here's my take on the questions:
First, why did Christ die? Or what was accomplished by His death?
Cindi said it right on the first page-- He died for the sins of the world? The follow up question is how? How does Christ's death atone for our sins?
St Paul's Epistle to the Romans says "The wages of sin is death". This is commonly interpreted to mean that you deserve death as punishment for your sin. I don't know that I really buy into this concept, at least not completely. Jesus says in John's gospel that "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." This concept of sin as both task and taskmaster is more to the heart of the matter, or so I think. That's why I say I don't buy into the concept of death as punishment for sin, at least not completely. There's more to it.
Here's a quote from one of my favorite blogs (
http://slacktivist.typepad.com/):"That neatly encapsulates one of the major themes in Paul's epistles: the idea that sin becomes both employment and employer, both task and task-master. Odds are, though, if you're listening to someone presenting the Romans Road, that's not what they'll tell you. They will tell you, contra-Paul in this very passage, that your sin makes you deserving of death and that it is God, not sin, who will pay you this deadly wage."
Christ accepts this payment on your behalf. He dies in your place. In my place. Not because God wants to punish you, and will punish His own Son in our place. Christ dies because that is the nature of sin.
I'm sure there's additional room in this for discussion of the "bread of life" passages from John's gospel. I think those fit nicely in with this concept of how Christ's death atones for our sins. Ultimately, there is no actual answer. Or at least there's no answer key for the question. The Church itself gets to this point and describes our salvation as a mystery. I sort of like that. I'm okay with not know or understanding every little detail. If you're familiar with Catholic beliefs, we believe that Christ is really present in the Eucharistic elements (bread and wine). When I take a wafer from the priest, it still tastes like a cracker, but that doesn't mean that it's just a cracker. You can get a lot of info on this topic from writers like CS Lewis and also Thomas Aquinas. I'll avoid quoting extensively in the interest of keeping the post short.
A few final passages from John's gospel about Christ's death—
From the 12th chapter: "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour."
From earlier in chapter 12: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."
So, I hope that at least gives us somewhere to start talking more about the first question. The second set of questions it seems you were asking dealt with why churches have bookstores, vending machines, ATMs. Isn't that contradicting the whole "my house should be a house of prayer"?
When I was a kid, my parents attended Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa. It was sort of the original mega-church (or at least it preceded all the other mega-churches that I know of in Southern California). There was a bookstore there that sold books written by the pastor. The books were sort of an extension of the pastor's ministry (as David said in quoting St. Paul "the worker is worthy of his hire"). The bookstore also sold tons of other books—Bible commentaries, dictionaries, that kind of stuff. The bookstore also had a tape lending library. You could get sermons on tape if you missed a week. These were necessary functions at the time because you couldn't get these services from anywhere else. There was no such thing as Barnes and Noble, no
Amazon.com, and not many places would custom order a book for you. You were basically out of luck if you wanted Bible commentaries and didn't have a church bookstore that was able to get things like that for you. That was my experience, anyway.
Things have changed significantly since then. And not for the better. I used to patronize church (and burgeoning Christian bookstores) for necessities like Concordances until I noticed something very troubling. Go into any Christian bookstore now and you'll find "The Purpose Driven Life" and the companion diary, prayer journal, meditational devotional and paper dolls. The fiction section is amok with "Left Behind" and its sequels, prequels, spin-offs and other sins against mankind. The section of Christian Classics used to be stocked with things like "The Pilgrim's Progress" or something like that. Pretty much all you can find now is something by CS Lewis. I like CS Lewis, but there's more to the historical writings of the church than CS Lewis. You will find absolutely nothing by any of the church doctors. You might find a copy of St. Augustine's "Confessions". A good book. But certainly not the alpha-omega of all the Church's literature. Ask an employee to order you something and you'll get blank stares. The very sad thing is that the Christianity sections at stores like Borders or Barnes and Noble are actually better than an entire Christian bookstore. You can find writings by authors of the early church, including some of the Christian mystics. Very interesting stuff, that.
I'm not saying that all church bookstores have lost their charted course, but it certainly seems to me that many of them are missing out on their once useful purpose. But part of the problem is with the modern consumer. They aren't interested in looking to the historical church for information, but would rather work through one of the dozens of iterations of "The Purpose Driven Life" or some such.
In this sense, Mara, I agree with you completely. Some churches have missed out on the purpose of having a bookstore. It's moved from being a useful service to becoming a commodity, something to earn money.
I'm going to wrap up here. First, I'm terribly sorry about writing for so long. You've just happened to bring up two issues that are very dear to me. The death of Christ is something I can't resist talking about because I just enjoy talking about it. I hope I've done more than just some sermonizing. Church bookstores are just one of those things that gets my goat. Especially when it's Lent and I'm looking for good books to read. I've been able to pick up "Dark Night of the Soul" by John of the Cross, at Barnes and Noble, but I'm always so let down by the poor selection at most Christian stores.
The last thing I want to say is an advance apology to anyone I may have inadvertently offended. I am not trying to belittle anyone's love or appreciation of the "Left Behind" series. I use that as a common example of some of the problems in the "Christian marketplace" because it really has spawned a franchise of its own (along with the Purpose Driven series). These get picked on by virtue of their popularity and ubiquity. So, sorry if I ticked anyone off. It wasn't deliberate, I was just trying to point out that so many Christian stores don't even stock literary works of the early Church, let alone know of their existence. It is a horrible oversight.
