love in human flesh
Loved this section of the christmas message from Rowan Williams:
He does what we do; he is born, he grows up, he lives for many years a life that is ordinary and prosaic like ours - he works, he eats, he sleeps. Here is ultimate love, complete holiness, made real in a back street in a small town. And when he begins to do new and shocking things, to proclaim the Kingdom, to heal, to forgive, to die and rise again - well, we shouldn’t panic and run away because we have learned that we can trust him. We know he speaks our language, he has responded to our actions and our words, he has echoed to us what we are like.
Christ does not save the world just by his death on the cross; we respond to that death because we know that here is love in human flesh, here is the creator’s power and life in a shape like ours. As we read the gospels, we should think of God watching us moment by moment, mirroring back to us our human actions - our fears and our joys and our struggles - until he can at last reach out in the great gestures of the healing ministry and the cross. And at last we let ourselves be touched and changed.
November 24th, 2004 at 9:45 am
Urgh. Thats a bit semi-pelagian…
November 24th, 2004 at 9:50 am
I think I see how you could get there, but the rest of the message probably provides the needed context - the “mirroring” image comes from a story about the way an autistic boy interacts with his environment.
I guess that in the current position of the Anglican church, the focus needs to be on reconciliation and accepting the worth of the other and maybe this is a part of that.
November 24th, 2004 at 10:23 am
Yeah, true.
I was more refering to his line “And at last we let ourselves be touched and changed”. I don’t think that is consistant biblically, considering the work of the Spirit that regenerates us and brings us to trust in Jesus. We don’t “let ourselves” do anything…
-A-
November 24th, 2004 at 10:27 am
Hmm, I wouldn’t have thought that there was no biblical support for the idea that we have a role in allowing the spirit to work. In fact, through much of his ministry, Jesus rails against those that hear but do not understand, those with hardened hearts. Ultimately, the spirit does the prompting, but we need to choose to respond. As evidenced by those that don’t (and who undoubtedly are also prompted by the regenerative power of the Spirit).
November 24th, 2004 at 8:10 pm
Dan, I’m with you…what is “sanctification” if not a result of our active decisions to allow the Spirit of God to transform us, heal us….