Let me continue with my 'add on' text from James Alison.
The resurrection made possible an understanding of being human as in some way, yet to be discussed, unnecessarily involved in death. It is, as it were, the fact of the resurrection which revealed the fact of unnecessary human involvement in death, the possibility of forgiveness reaching even into human death. However, there is more than this. The resurrection mad possible a shift of perception on the part of the apostolic group as to the content of human involvement with death. This is related to what the disciples had not understood while Jesus was teaching them before his death and to what they did understand after his resurrection. This nonunderstanding is clearly presented in all the Gospel as related to Jesus' death in a rather particular sense. It was not that they merely did not understand, and after the resurrection, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, they did understand. The nonunderstanding of what Jesus was about was marked by the normal human limit of understanding which is that death is a definitive reality, and therefore that their relationship to Jesus and what he was teaching was something circumscribed by the normal parameters of human life and death.
I deliberately stopped here because the next few sentences speak about Jesus' understanding and I don't want to go there yet. I am in the realm of these disciples. I am one who only knows the limits that seem to be in place in and through all times. And yet, that is not the way of Jesus. I can hear that again and again, and yet fear and anxiety keep pulling me back into he realm of unbelief. I can think about how the resurrection life is for all people and yet I will not allow myself the freedom to walk toward that reality. I am limited by death - by any and many of death's faces - by that which is not yet and yet I don't want to give it a chance. Within those 'normal parameters of human life and death' I sit dying. Isn't that odd. And yet, that is what life becomes - existence ruled by death. That - we are told again and again - is not life at all. So, I call on that Holy Spirit of God to give me a life - give me the courage - the character - the love, to never shy away from life that will involve a cross and death. Still - always frightening.
Connection: Too often the church doesn't let itself deal with death - the power that tries to rip love to pieces. Therefore we do not touch the issues that can divide - we do not embrace the ones with which we may become 'associated'. For in these kinds of situations, it may be the death of us - socially, politically, relationally - and we are not sure we can make it into new life. Therefore, we remain inside of normal life and never within the expansiveness of resurrection life.
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