Wednesday 27 May 2009

Here we have Willimon giving us some thoughts from Karl Barth.

In an aside in his "Dogmatics in Outline," Karl Barth wonders why a political hack like Pontius Pilate made it into our Apostles' Creed. Why do we have to believe in Pilate while we are believing in Jesus? Pilate is affirmed, says Barth, in order to remind us that Jesus is always "hic et nunc" (here and now). Jesus was not some mythological figure who hovered above this grubby, politically infatuated world. Jesus went head-to-head with Pilate over who is inn charge. Jesus came to deliver people, to save people from Caesar's power, to transfer their citizenship to another Kingdom. The kingdom of God has come near and, in so doing, rescues people from the grip of politicians. Salvation thus conceived is not simply that which believers receive when they die and go to heaven but rather that present dynamic in which we pass from death to life here and now (1 John 3:14). Salvation is thus a given, decided, present reality, not a yet-to-be-accomplished work of God. "We are not left alone in this frightful world. Into this alien land God has come to us," says Barth. To discover who sits on the throne is yet another way of saying that God is salvation.

I like this talk of an emphasis on Jesus being "here and now." Nothing abstract about that. Nothing distant about that. The Reign of God and the salvation that comes within that Reign is at hand as some would say...it is breaking in...it is all around us. It is, a life that is handed to us in which our lives become something quite out of the ordinary even as we are right in the middle of the ordinary. Therefore, we live within a gracious freedom to already be the beloved that our God sees as God comes to be for us. We are then free to be "for others" in the image of our God. That becomes the way in which our humanity begins to shine as it is truly meant to shine from the beginning of our storytelling of our origins. Made in God's image for here and now! That's powerful.

Connection: What a difference we can be in this world in which we will move today!

Come, Holy Spirit. Come and revive us so that we will step away from our fears and anxieties in order to come near to those around us and do so in the way of our Lord, Jesus. When we are unable to see ourselves living in this way, touch our hearts and pull us close so that we will be able to rest and then to go. Amen.