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by eric lange
If you ask someone well schooled in the basics of modern Christianity,
they can explain to you quickly the basics of what you need to believe
to make it to heaven and encounter God again.
It’ll go something like this:
1. God loves you.
2. Humanity is sinful. God doesn’t like sin, and that creates a break
in our connection w/ him
3. Jesus came to bridge that gap by dying for us
4. We can get back to God by accepting Christ’s sacrifice for us.
It’s remarkable that we’ve been able to work the basic message of
Christianity down into such an easily presentable format
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Spiritual_Laws>. While there’s a lot
of truth in those statements, reducing the Christian message to a set
of numbered statements (an effort that fits well with the suburban,
post-war spirit of 1950s America) misses a great deal of the true spirit
of Christianity.
The church has often emphasized easy-to-follow outlines to bring the
basics to people in a controlled, clear to understand and
non-threatening manner. Christ’s death seems to fit well in conceptual
systems like this – since it happened in the past, we can always apply
20/20 hindsight to an issue. But the resurrection doesn’t fit as easily
into the numbered statements. Just as you can’t adequately describe your
best friend through bullet-points or ordered lists, you can’t fit the
unpredictability, spontaneity and creativity of the risen Jesus in any
outline.
If we began to live by emphasizing the resurrection of Jesus, life
simply wouldn’t be as predictable. It’s impossible to count all the ways
that it could be different.
One humble suggestion:
Jesus’ resurrection was the unexpected victory that suggested, even
when things seem overwhelmingly bleak, another way of living is possible.
Even when everything seems to be suggesting things can’t change, we
can point to Jesus’ resurrection as proof that even in impossible
situations a better life is possible. Broken relationships can be
restored. Oppressed people may be freed from injustice and domination.
This world can be a better place.
Emphasizing the resurrected Jesus means it’s OK to be hopeful.
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4 comments:
i smell nt wright, and i like it.
as my pastor's daughter says "he be risen"
also, i think this is a very important message for us in this day and age. i tend to get very discouraged with the state of things in church, government, society, etc... the message we hear daily isn't always hopeful, so it is easy to forget that we are meant to be hopeful. that is one thing that sets us apart. imagine living every day of your life with the real hope that is demonstrated by the resurrection. i can't help but smile and rest in the joyful thought of that.
Sometimes, hope can be scary. In fact Mary Magdalene and Mary seemed not to believe what happened at the burial site. Hope is the best of things. But yet removes the timidity of our bodies and encourages a moving away from the ordinary. Scary yet how much can it change our lives? That's for the impossibility to decide.
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