Looking toward Jerusalem II

Thursday January 29, 2009, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams gave an address at the World Islamic Call Society Campus, Tripoli, Libya. The address was titled: "How does God reveal himself? A Christian Perspective" of which I would like to share the following as we continue our journey toward Jerusalem and the Cross.

God has made the world to display something of his nature and his power, but he also speaks through his witnesses in history. So for St Paul, the habitual ignorance of human beings as a result of the betrayal and fall of the first human beings has to be addressed first by the giving of the Law to Moses. But sadly, this Law has itself become – against God's purpose – another means by which human beings try to get beyond their dependence on God, so that they imagine they can make themselves pleasing to God simply by their own efforts. So God acts once again to overcome this new error and rebellion. He acts in history to open the door to a new possibility for human beings , and he does so in the person of Jesus Christ.

Thus God always seeks to make himself known. God knows that when we fail to see him and know him, we condemn ourselves to a darkness of spirit that means we never become what God wants us to be. So he desires to bring light into that darkness – not only for the sake of human beings but for the good of all creation.

The address in its entirety can be found here: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2150

Looking toward Jerusalem

"...in order for this life and death to have the sort of saving effects on others that it has, one must be God, and work by the power of God. Thus, Jesus, to all appearances and as far as any metaphysical inquiry can tell, weeps and feels terror before death just as any human would: what is odd is the way Jesus overcomes these anxieties and fears - for example, the way he nevertheless conforms his will to the Father's as the Father's own Son would - and the saving consequences of such acts - Jesus overcomes our weeping and terror by weeping and being terrified...

A locus classicus of this process can be found in the words attributed to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: 'Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from me; yet not my will but your will be done.' A human fear of death, both natural and accentuated by anxiety before death as what brings separation from God through sin to its awful culmination, is here expressed, accompanied by the tears and tribulation that are the human lot under conditions of sin, and then overcome through conformity with the will of the Father, a conformity that is naturally Jesus' own in virtue of being the Son of God, the one whose very will is the will of Father."

Tanner, Kathryn. Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology. Edinburgh: T &T Clark Ltd., 2001. 18 & 30.

Life, Death, and a lil in between.

Recently I attended a funeral as part of my parish placement. Seems like a simple enough task, show up, don't get in the way, robe and observe as part of ones educational experience. What was not forthcoming in this preparation was any thought that the death of a stranger could be move one to a sense of real loss.

The funeral ticked along as one might expect in a Church, excellent prayers, music and setting, and led with real respect and dignity. Then one of the congregation got up and gave the eulogy - and excellent eulogy and introduction to the deceased for those who knew her not. That's when it struck me - my loss is in not having met this wonderful child of God.

Upon some further reflection and thought it struck me - when one of God's children dies, all of creation cries out in rejoicing at the person's homecoming, likewise, the children of God, though they may not know it, weep at the loss of another child of God - tears that will be turned to the rejoicing that can only be found in Christ.