From the first light of Creation to the launching of the Ark, the stories of Genesis are unforgettable, and the issues they raise are as compelling as ever. But they're also more than stories—they're theological reflections of a high order, challenging us to grapple with fundamental questions about God, the nature of the world, and humankind.
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Think about it, and you’ll spot yourself through the bars in the prison window. Somewhere. Think about it, and you’ll know what that old hymn means when is says “O Come O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel.” Because we are all prisoners of one kind or another. Prisoners of our own brokenness, prisoners of the world’s brokenness. Captive. With no obvious way out. No way home.
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John tells those of us who are preparing for the coming of Christ that this is no easy path of instant joy. John is here to hold up a mirror to us. To show us that we, like the Pharisees and Saducees, can become so complacent, so accustomed to our yearly rituals and traditions, that we slide into them every single year with ease or hesitation. We go through the motions, rest on our laurels jump through the hoops.
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Truth be told, I don’t know when or if a time like this will come for us. There’s plenty of stuff for us to be worried about on the horizon. It’s hard to say. Maybe there won’t be one. I pray there won’t be one. But Jesus says that when that time comes, we don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to drop the ball, or toss out our deepest convictions. Because Jesus says that it’s when the whole world’s falling apart. It’s our time to shine. Or more precisely, time for him to shine through us, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Resurrection is all about God. It’s not about us having a blueprint for the future. It’s not a theory, or an explanation. It’s not about us having faith in the immortality of the soul, or that there is a better place when we die. Resurrection in the end is all about God. And the power of God’s love.
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Jesus is kind of like a new baby. We all love the idea of welcoming a new life into our own. But when it finally happens it turns everything upside down. When Jesus walks into Zacchaeus’ home, when he walks into his life. He gets so much more than he bargained for. Because Jesus ruins everything.
Read Morethe spiritual life, Way of Jesus Christ is not our way to get a leg up a ladder to the heavens. Or to get a leg up on others. It’s a way to come to terms with the darkness in ourselves. So it can be illuminated by the love of Christ. And we can carry that love to the world’s dark places.
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This gets to the heart of it, you could say. About how real change happens. Real change doesn’t come to us from the outside in—as rules, fixes, or techniques to change us from the outside in. Whereas laws written in stone can be broken and put aside, the divine relationship etched into our hearts, the Spirit that is at work inside of us is more enduring. This is what God is up to at St. George’s. This is what God is up to in our fragile, hurting world.
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Friends, this is the power that gratitude can have. It’s not something so glib as “be positive.” It’s not something so simple as “be satisfied with what you’ve got.” Or “changing our personal vibrations,” in the words of our dear friend Oprah. No, it’s so much more. It’s that within all of our lives. However joyous they may be. Or however dark they may become. Within each of these, within our world, there is light, if we have the eyes to see.
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