| As we looked at a 'recasting of God' through the resurrection last week. So today will we have James Alison do something like that with a 'recasting of sin." In the first step it is exactly in the degree to which the understanding of God is separated from death that the fullness of the human nature of death becomes apparent. This is so because there is no longer any divine necessity or fatality about death: whatever death, is, God has nothing to do with it. That is to say, it become apparent not only that death is simply present as something which just is, but, precisely because of the resurrection of Jesus, it becomes present as something which need not be. How many times have you heard people make reasons for why someone died and they are tied to comments about God. In ancient times, even the 'bad' stuff that happened to folks would be tied to what they did or didn't do - and how this was what God had done. Well, Alison is once again telling us - no. Death happens. And yet, it is not something that must control all that we do. We live through the resurrection as a people who now know that death - its threat and its claim to power - is not at all in line with any thinking that ties God to the cause and reality of death. I still like his remark: God has nothing to do with it (death). When I hear that, some of the 'sting' is gone and I do not at all feel the need to develop stories about what goes on with death. Rather, I am more easily influenced by what can go on through resurrection. Connection: Imagine all the storytelling that would be let go if we let our God be the God of the Resurrection - just as the gospels encourage us to do and be.! Lord of the Resurrection, present us once again with your life that will not be manipulated by death. Amen. |
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