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Jesus' Resurrection: 'The First Installment'
Roman Catholic priest and New Testament scholar Gerald O'Collins tends toward universalism and has a less than robust view of Scripture, seeing historical revisionism and significant redaction in both Testaments.
But the edifying tone of his scholarship combined with his refusal to try to sound intellectually impressive is a breath of fresh air. I especially like some remarks he makes in a new book of his about the eschatological significance of Christ's resurrection:
But the edifying tone of his scholarship combined with his refusal to try to sound intellectually impressive is a breath of fresh air. I especially like some remarks he makes in a new book of his about the eschatological significance of Christ's resurrection:
For New Testament Christians, the resurrection of Jesus is inextricably linked to a new creation that touches the entire universe. This resurrection is nothing less than a (new) creative activity of God that initiates the end of all things (Rev 21-22). (p. 101)--Gerald O'Collins, Believing in the Resurrection: The Meaning and Promise of the Risen Jesus (Paulist, 2012)
"Reconciling all things" (Col 1:20), "gathering up all things" (Eph 1:10), or "making all things new" (Rev 1:5) puts the resurrection and redemption in a cosmic context. The resurrection of Christ had not happened without, and certainly not against, creation. It brought a new world in which not only human beings but also all living creatures and the Earth itself would share. (119)
The new creation, which opened with the events of the first Good Friday and Easter Sunday, produced a state of affairs that anticipated the consummation of life in the new Jerusalem conveyed by Revelation 21-22. The risen and transformed Jesus was the first installment of what would come at the end (1 Cor 15:20). . . . We live now in the situation of the already present kingdom that anticipates, in reality and not merely in thought, the final fullness of the kingdom. (120).
Misplaced Sorrow
Toward the end of Anne Bronte's (sister of Charlotte) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Gilbert laments that one day his romantic relationship with Helen will come to an end when one of them dies and goes off to heaven. He is also dismayed that she seems unbothered by this. "But how can you, Helen, contemplate with delight this prospect of losing me in a sea of glory?"
Helen responds:
Helen responds:
"I own I cannot; but we know not that it will be so; and I do know that to regret the exchange of earthly pleasures for the joys of Heaven, is as if the groveling caterpillar should lament that it must one day quit the nibbled lead to soar aloft and flutter through the air, roving at will from flower to flower, sipping sweet honey from their cups or basking in their sunny petals. If there little creatures knew how great a change awaited them, no doubt they would regret it; but would not all such sorrow be misplaced?"--Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, in The Life and Works of the Sisters Bronte (7 vols; New York: Harper, 1900), 6:412
The Lifeline Is a Death Line
In the essay "A Slip of the Tongue," Lewis is talking about how reluctant we are to give ourselves fully to the Lord, how frighteningly dangerous that feels--and yet how it is our only safety.
This is my endless recurrent temptation: to go down to that Sea (I think St. John of the Cross called God a sea) and there neither dive nor swim nor float, but only dabble and splash, careful not to get out of my depth and holding on to the lifeline which connects me with things temporal. . . .--C. S. Lewis, 'A Slip of the Tongue,' in The Weight of Glory, 139-41
Our temptation is to look eagerly for the minimum that will be accepted. We are in fact very like honest but reluctant taxpayers. We approve of an income tax in principle. . . . But we dread a rise in the tax. We are very careful to pay no more than is necessary. And we hope--we very ardently hope--that after we have paid it there will still be enough left to live on. . . .
Swimming lessons are better than a lifeline to the shore. For of course that lifeline is really a death line. There is no parallel to paying taxes and living on the remainder. For it is not so much of our time and so much of our attention that God demands; it is not even all our time and all our attention; it is ourselves.
Faith: 'Get You to Christ'
Evangelista, the wise Christian in Fisher's Marrow of Modern Divinity, on faith:
I pity the preposterous care and unhappy travail of many, who study the practice of this and that virtue, neglecting this cardinal and radical virtue; as if a man should water all the tree, and not the root. Fain would they shine in patience, meekness, and zeal, and ye are not careful to establish and root themselves in faith, which should maintain all the rest. . . .--Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (Christian Focus, 2009), 222
To pray, to meditate, to keep a Sabbath cheerfully, to have your conversation heavenly, is as impossible for you yourself to do, as for iron to swim, or for stones to ascend upwards; but yet nothing is impossible to faith; it can naturalize these things unto you; it can make a mole of the earth a soul of heaven.
Wherefore, though you have tried all moral conclusions of purposing, promising, resolving, vowing, fasting, watching, and self-revenge; yet get you to Christ, and with the finger of faith touch but the hem of his garment; and you shall feel virtue come from him, for the curing of all your diseases.
Wherefore I beseech you, come out of yourself unto Jesus Christ, and apprehend him by faith. . . . and then you shall find yourself loathing sin, and loving the law of Christ; yea, then shall you find your corruptions dying and decaying daily, more and more.