We looked specifically at 1 Corinthians 15 (among the earliest and most important resurrection texts in the New Testament), and noted several things:
1) Paul thinks Christianity is pointless if it is not connected to the presence of the future redemption of the world in Jesus Christ through his bodily resurrection. That is, Christianity is not about a disembodied "there" up there in the sky that we all go to when we die. It is about the presence of a glorious, renewed future for the good creation that has arrived as a foretaste through Jesus' resurrection and will one day come to its fullness at his coming.
2) Paul sees continuity between this world and the one to come - The Messiah is now "putting all his enemies under his feet."
3) But there is also discontinuity - The world to come, while having continuities with the one that is, will also be qualitatively different.
The state of the cosmos we compared to Jesus pre- and post-resurrection body. Continuities, yes. It was the same body. The disciples recognized it as the Jesus they knew. And yet radical discontinuities. He walked through walls. Apparently no blood and yet he lived. Jesus' flesh resurrected and glorified was indeed his flesh, but different.
We connected this with Paul's talk about Christianity's being "kenos", empty, apart from resurrection. In keeping with our three above points, we noted three things:
1) If you believe this framing story, you'll be very devoted to bringing the kingdom of God to bear on planet earth. Here is what it's all about. If you believe in the framing story of "pop" evangelicalism (God is spirit, spirit is better than physical stuff, physical stuff is bad, praying the prayer gets me a ticket to heaven when God blows up the world, nothing I do matters here since I prayed the prayer, etc), you'll be encouraged to moral apathy when it comes to life here. Here mattering is the beginning of the cultivation of a robust virtue.
2) If the world to come shall be contiguous with this one, then we can commit ourselves wholeheartedly to "the good", knowing that it's part of Jesus' collecting all power to himself right now and "putting all his enemies under his feet." Engaging the powers, working for justice, displaying generosity, hospitality, and truthfulness is part of his disarmament of the powers in the here and now.
3) And if the world to come shall be discontinuous in some measure with this one, then we know that even if the good we commit ourselves to seems to be making no difference whatsoever, it shall not be lost on God, the author and finisher of the good. Such acts are the seeds which though they may die, will be brought to life at the consummation of the ages. So giving $5 to a homeless man or woman, though it may seem "kenos", empty, futile, since it's such a small gesture and does not address the structural or systemic problems that created such a condition, nevertheless shall not be lost on God, who though the good deed may die in this life, will in a sense be resurrected in the age to come.
I am astounded at how motivating this is to commit ourselves to what is good. And I am so deeply saddened at how many Christians have been robbed of the joy of committing themselves to the good because they bought into a different, sub-Christian framing story. It's high time we reclaim Paul's theology of resurrection.
3 comments:
I wholeheartedly agree with Andrew that we have polarized Christianity into the disconnected from this present life and focus only on what they see as the eternal and those who give no consideration for anything other than the practical.
However, I think it's equally possible to try to pigeonhole other people's Christianity into fitting in a framework that makes sense to us and neglects to see how God may be working in individual in a way that focuses on one or the other--or that seeks a balance between the two. An individual given to acts of service may find it easy to say that the kingdom of God is manifested in this fashion. Like James, he may say, "I show you my faith by my works." Another more aesthetic Christian may say, "I see your works minister to the poor, but who ministers to their spiritual condition? You feed them, but my prayer intercession has its value as well."
Does bringing food to the poor failed to minister to a spiritual condition? Does prayer or another more intangible outreach failed to minister to physical conditions? It requires both, and as students of Christ, I feel we should seek to develop both aspects--that we would be as comfortable with praying for someone's healing were speaking into their lives as saying "be warm and filled" and then following through with action.
This requires us to have our feet in both worlds, the here and now and the unseen. Unfortunately, over emphasized spirituality seems to have caused a reactionary movement away from all things supernatural. I even see this in our own church. I don't know quarter as much about prophecy as I do about forgiveness. I don't know fraction as much about intercessory prayer as I do about Smart Christianity. The smart Christian may say this is all right and perhaps hungers for nothing more, but I've noticed a yearning in my soul to discover what other things Jesus participated in on this earth that may be intended for me as well. Things like prophecy and tongues were put into the Church to encourage and to provide an avenue for which God could speak to his people. These things are very intangible, inland seeking practicality--when seeking the works to prove our faith--they can seem vague and tenuous. So long abused, they can even seem dangerous.
But I want to be like Christ. He walked in the intangible supernatural as fluidly as he walked in the practical. He was concerned with the poor, but he cast out evil spirits. He taught forgiveness, but he heard from and shared the words of his Father with his disciples. Do we even expect to hear the words of our Father? A few generations of Christians grew up expecting to hear from God for every task of their lives--whether they should go to McDonald's or Burger King--and it often paralyzed them. Yet I think that we have taken it too far when we no longer expect to hear from him on any topic and only see our spur to growth come solely through the practical.
Yes we must truly love one another. Yes, we should minister to those around us in ways that put food in bellies and embrace social justice. Yet I believe we are doing them a disservice if we showed them only a church of practicality, lacking an understanding of the supernatural, such as we finite beings are able understand it. We need more than bread alone, we need every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, and so I have seen the captains of social justice illustrate to me how to get to the disabled, the elderly, the poor, and the disenfranchised, they don't feel I have had the same luxury in witnessing and practicing in my own spiritual life any element of spiritual gifts or the other intangible elements of a faith that embraces both the physical and spiritual.
Jesus’ resurrected body was the perfect blend of physical and spiritual--he ate, he had touchable wounds, he walked among them; but he also veiled his identity, and even walked through walls.
I want my walk with Christ to be that blend of tangible and intangible, and spiritual life and living in the now, with my hands and feet on the ground my head on the things above.
I want both.
Josh, great points, all.
My question is, are the "natural" and the "supernatural" necessarily dichotomous?
Charismaticism seemed to implicitly assume that they were. And then they focused their attention almost exclusively on the supernatural. Prayer, prophecy, gifts, signs, wonders, etc.
I have never had and will never have a problem with those things as such.
I grew increasingly skeptical, however, of the overweening emphasis on them, how fanciful and speculative much of the teaching on them became, and how they got almost completely divorced from the general overarching narrative of Creation, Fall, Israel, Jesus, Church, New Creation/Kingdom. They became almost the whole program. When in reality, Scripture gives them a clear and well-defined supportive role.
I also find it interesting that the New Testament doesn't spend very much time teaching on the "supernatural" (save for 1 Co 12-14 et al). Instead, it teaches the story, and the mission that flows from the story, and teaches the church to be the church by throwing themselves into the mission. The assumption seems to be, "What you need for the journey will arise as you need it."
But I do think you are right - we need balance. However, I wouldn't call it a balance between the "natural" and the "supernatural". I think in a sense it's all "natural" and "supernatural" at the same time. Everything is spiritual. I would probably instead call it "teaching the whole counsel of God", helping en-story people fully into their identity as God's people (an identity that includes prophecy, prayer, the miraculous, etc) who participate with him in the renewal of all things. For this, they'll need all the help they can get.
You had a great sermon this morning... well done!
It is strange... I haven't spoken with you in weeks, and yet these posts, and the topics of your sermon are spot-on with what I have been talking about with God and others.
I hope to make time to be at Tuesday night awesome this week... I miss you all!
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