Onward - with death and God and life. The resurrection of Jesus, at the same time as it showed the unimagined strength of divine love for a particular human being and therefore revealed the loving proximity of God, also marked a final and definitive sundering of God from any human reprresentational capacity. Whereas before it could be understood that God did no die, not change, nor have an end, this was always within a dialectical understanding of what does happen to humans. With the resurrection of Jesus from the dead there is suddenly no dialectical understanding of God available, because God has chosen his own terms on which to make himself known quite outside the possibility of human knowledge marked by death. The complete freedom and gratuity of God is learned only from the resurrection, not because it did not exist before, but because we could not know about or understand it while our understanding was shaped by the inevitability of death. At the time of death, it is over. There is nothing else to be said. That is death - utter separation. No wonder death and sin are so closely linked - co controlling. But then comes the laugter. In the resurrection, the beginning and the end are made into something new. What appears to be the end is not as it appears.In the resurrection everything must be reconsidered. If death is not as it was seen, could it be that life before death is also not as it seems. Could it be that we do not need to fear death - or see it as a threat - or be anxious at its mere mention? Could it be that life is now shaped by - as the old hymn puts it - 'a love that will not let us go, today, tomorrow, or yesterday (If only I knew that yesterday!). Yes death come, but it com Connection: Our identity never changes - we are beloved of God - and as Paul writes "nothing can separate us from the love of God." Yes, death appears to be the power of the day (we know its many forms) but what else is within the grasp of the possibilities of our God. Too much to even consider for now. Acts of mercy and kindness and love seem to be the beginning of our trip through that door. O God of life, when we are marked as you beloved, no other story can rule over us. Keeps us mindful of your endu |
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