Monday 4 January 2010

Blessed New Year. Today we will start a section that is labeled "Tutu's Christian Ubuntu" from Michael Battle.

Ubuntu is a way of knowing in which one's intellectual growth, concerning the manner of God, moves synchronically with whom one becomes in God. Essentially, Tutu solves the problem of Western dualism by embracing the Eastern church's concept of deification or theosis, in which human salvation is understood as participation in the life of God. Concomitantly, this means that sin is not so much a punctiliar occurrence which results in the fall of human begins, but that sin is more akin to an Irenaean account of how human beings mature as they participate more deeply in the divine life.

Some time ago, I ran a series of devotions that were centered around the writing of a couple of Finnish Luther scholars. They too wrote about this notion of theosis which they claim is a part of what they hear in some of Luther's writings. Our life is a "participation in the the life of God." We do not become God. Rather, as we continue in the Word and press on in the richness of such a community that also is in the Word, we begin to reflect the God that creates the community and all who are a part of it. Therefore, when we turn to the 'other,' we do not merely see an 'other' - we see a glimpse of our God. So along the way, we each are walking through a transformation of sorts. It always reminds me of the verse so often put into the form of hymns and songs: "God is love, and all who abide in love, abide in God, and God in them." Wouldn't you think that this idea of theosis is a reminder of the position we are place when we say we are children of God?!

Connection: So...we are an ever-expanding community within God's Reign. It is ever-expanding because as God embraces more people, there are more ways to see who God is among us. We are never left with our own images that often limit our vision and thus our hope.

Shaping God, when you form us into the saints that stand before you and wander through the days of our lives, we know that you give us direction and comfort and encouragement to walk in the ways of your Reign. Inspire us again and again so that your face will be seen among ours. Amen.