Bishop's Blog: Mottos Part 3

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On Mottos III: Seven Hard Things ‘We are Resurrection People’ Means. This is our motto, and for good reasons. At the same time, it might appeal for reasons short of what the term really means in the Bible. So let’s clear away some underbrush so it can be better heard. It doesn’t just mean that the Bible gives us an old-fashioned word for being a member of the Optimists’ Society.  It means more than "hope springs eternal."  Nor is it emphasizing the appealing bits of the faith and soft-pedalling the hard parts.  So in this spirit, lets list what it really does mean in Scriptural perspective. 

  1. The same God who made the world has redeemed it, and will bring it to its consummation, by His hand and in His manner and time.  "The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His Temple, but who can abide the day of coming…" (Malachi 3:1)  We have no power to build His Kingdom nor bring it in - see Temptation of Jesus story!
  2. He means to reclothe us in spiritual bodies and have us stand before His throne. No easy continuation in some disembodied heaven - see any book by Tom Wright! But what a spiritual body is is quite beyond us. The judgment that ensues involves heaven and hell…
  3. Resurrection is life from the dead! It implies that all intra-mundane means of hope for the redemption of this world are vain. It implies that on its own the world as it is is a dark and broken place. Resurrection is the kind of hope that can be heard, however, in a war or in a cancer ward…
  4. We are indeed a people, not just a conglomeration of individuals. But we do not have the power or vision to execute Resurrection. We are witnesses to what He has done. We are totally dependent on grace, being ourselves powerless.  Christianity is the original 12-step program!
  5. In this vein, resurrection fulfills the prophetic words of Ezekiel 37 and Daniel 12, whose domain was the despair of exile and alienation from our home.
  6. Our resurrection follows on that of Jesus not only in time but in being. And Jesus’ resurrection is tied to his death.  He still has the scars, now glorious. To be Resurrection means we are necessarily Vicarious Atonement people.
  7. Jesus’ resurrection was bodily, and so shall ours be. It is hence all of us He now claims as Lord. And it is our ecology, our society, our cosmos that he rules over. Getting our mind around these facts is the main agendum of Christian ethics.

All this and far more packed into a sentence….

Peace,

+GRS

 

Posted by The Rt. Rev. George Sumner with

Complete the Race (II Timothy 4:17)

At the end of our vacation we find ourselves in Chicago for its Marathon weekend (the fastest, I have read this morning, perhaps because it is cool and relatively level). Marathons offer many good things. You can see world-class athletes from places like Ethiopia and Kenya. There is a feel of fiesta with signs by family members, getups by some for-fun runners, and food for sale.

But as I looked out my hotel window at 7:30 a.m., I watched the race of competitors who have lost legs or their use. Wheeling vehicles by arm for 26 miles means serious fitness and determination.

Those competitors were to me, this morning, a symbol of the Church too. For each is wounded. The larger family cheers them on. Each by grace has risen up to run the race. Ahead is the goal, the prize, the welcome home. We find the companionship of Jesus the Lord, there, and along the route too.

Amen.

GRS

 

   

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