Seismic Shift; Smart Guy

I recently picked up N.T. Wright's latest, Surprised by Hope. Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham (U.K.), is an erudite New Testament scholar who has the ability to publish incredible amounts of work in short periods of time. His latest, frankly, has had the greatest impact on me than any other theological work in recent memory. Not because what he said was necessarily new - but that he synthesized resurrection, death, and hope in such a profound way that it causes one to really rethink everything.

There is little doubt that the overwhelming majority (say 98%?) of bible reading, church attending, faithful Christians believe that when we die - our souls leave our broken/diseased bodies and find themselves eternally in heaven with God. That same majority may even say that the whole point of being Christian is to enjoy that eternal life in heaven. But is that view biblical? Is is consonant with the early church? Is is orthodox?

N.T. Wright says absolutely not. He challenges the statements we sometimes make in passing; 'this body is temporary,' 'we are just passing through,' 'the body is but a shell,' etc., that not only promote a theology of escapism or evacuation but also promote a Platonic view of an evil material world and a holy spiritual world. If, at our death, our disembodied souls ascend to heaven and live forever with God, as wonderful as that is, is that really victory of death, Wright asks. If our resurrection is mainly concerned with the soul (as popular theology suggests), why did the gospel writers so strongly state that Christ's tomb was empty?

Wright's main point is that Christian hope is not life after death - rather it is 'life after life after death.' Christ's resurrection is victory over death. His resurrection is the prototype of our resurrection. His spirit did not escape the confines of the material world - the resurrection redeemed it - recreated it, and by doing so - defeated the power of death.

When we die, our souls go to paradise, heaven. We rest, we are at peace, we are with God. But that is not the end. It is not our final destination. We wait for the resurrection when the redeemed body and soul and made new and the heavens and the earth are recreated and joined together.

I can't summarize 300 pages of Wright's theology here, but let me add a couple of quick things. Not only does the resurrection give hope in the recreation of our own bodies - with body and soul - but the whole earth is to be redeemed, recreated. It makes sense doesn't it? If God created the heavens and the earth and it was good - it was perfect - wouldn't God's victory involve redeeming that creation and not just destroying it? Wright asks us to read Romans 8 and Revelation 21 in this light.

But furthermore, if in our baptism we die and are raised with Christ and we are already experiencing a foretaste of the resurrection as we are new creations (as St Paul said), then we are charged with changing the world - by being people of resurrection - new creations - we are called and charged to invite all of creation to participate in resurrection. Instead of escapism and evacuation, we are responsible (see the previous post) for the world and all that is in it. This deals with the environment and with social problems and everything in between.

I highly encourage the reading of Surprised by Hope. I highly encourage a seismic shift in theology.

St Joe

Today at the convent, we celebrated the Feast of St Joseph. Many calendars had this transferred feast yesterday and the Annunciation today, but when in the convent - do what the sisters tell you! I always find preaching to the sisters a challenge. It's not as if the usual congregational needs are reflected in the convent. I don't think I can get away preaching about the need to 'give our lives more to our faith.' For crying out loud - they have taken vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity and perhaps even more difficult - they live in community and work on a consensus-based government style. But it is nice to preach to a different community and they seem (nuns wouldn't lie would they?) to enjoy/appreciate my preaching.

Today for St Joseph, I found myself thinking about our parish hall. There's a nasty little habit we (and I mean all of us) have that is demonstrated in schools, homes, and churches. In the parish hall - not every one pushes back the chairs when they leave a table. Not everyone puts their coffee cup in the dishwasher. In the church, not everyone takes their bulletin home, and just leaves it in the seat. In the bathrooms, not everyone can make the difficult shot of putting paper towels in the trash can (I have a similar problem of putting clothes in the clothes hamper). We believe - or in many cases we know - that someone else will take care of it. Don't we pay someone to do this for us? Isn't there someone who's job this is? It'll get done.

Ours is a society of passing responsibility or assuming that others will pick up where we leave off. "If I don't help - someone else will." Name the societal ill - name your issue - and we can find large masses just knowing that someone is taking care of the problem. And if anyone had the chance to say - this is not my job...this is not my responsibility - was it not Joseph?

The child inside Mary's womb was not his. I think he was pretty sure of that. He had every societal right to dismiss her quietly as he planned and he had every societal right to dismiss her loudly! It wasn't his responsibility. But if Mary is the patron of the church in saying "yes" to God - then Joseph is the patron of the church for assuming responsibility - for stepping up.

I am responsible for you. You are responsible for me. Every child (or adult) we baptize - we take vows in that effect - I am responsible for YOU. The homeless person is our responsibility. The addict is our responsibility. The lost executive is our responsibility. The trouble makers are our responsibility. The earth and that is in it - is our responsibility. Even if it's not our job. Even if it's not our business - wait a minute - God's business is our business, right? Our business should be God's business, right?

It is. It is.