Saturday, June 20, 2015
V Easter May 3, 2015
V Easter
May 3, 2015
Holy Trinity & St. Anskar
As in Adam all die, even so
in Christ shall all be made alive.
.
+In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity
We are born
into a sense of alienation — apartness.
This sense of apartness is what we call sin. The opposite of sin is love. John tells us that God is love. I think this is more than a metaphor. Being is life in love. In fact life is love. Almost the same
word, in German: lebe, liebe.
. Without God there is no life,
which means that without love there is no life.
So, in Adam — the symbol of apartness, all die. The New Adam destroys apartness — In Christ shall all be made alive. Interpersonal communion in love is
life. The only life.
Today’s Collect prays for know-ledge: that we may so perfectly… know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the
truth, and the life that we may steadfastly follow His steps in the way that
leads to eternal life. But this
complete knowledge of Jesus Christ is not information that we receive and
understand, or a creedal affirmation about Jesus that we accept. Complete knowledge of Jesus Christ is the
experience of God as love. How do we
experience that? By loving.
John tells us that anyone who loves is born of God and knows
God. That is a pretty radical thing to
say. Anyone who loves.
Anyone. For love is the opposite
of sin and death — love destroys apartness; love is eternal life. To love completely is to know Jesus Christ to
be the way, the truth, and the life.
This is so, even for those who do not know His Name. That's why Karl Rahner cal-led them
"anonymous Christians," Christians who do not know the Name. Because they love, they are born of God and
know God, even if they don’t k now His Name.
This is the
Gospel: Good News indeed! All who love are born of God and know God…
for God is Love. Furthermore, Love
is victorious and invincible. All who
love are ultimately immune to death.
Christ’s death overcomes the ultimate apartness, trampling upon death by
death, and bestowing Life — that is, the Communion of Love — upon all who had
been subject to death. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive. Speaking symbolically, the stronghold of death is the
place where there is neither love nor life – the place of utter apartness,
which is to say nothingness. By breaking into that stronghold of non-love and
non-life, God has freed Adam in whom all die, and united him to the Body of His
Son, in Whom all are made alive.
Having died
to sin – having gone to utter apartness – once, Christ will never die again,
death has no more dominion over Him. Nor over any who love. Christians are
privileged to know this Good News – to think of ourselves consciously as
enjoying eternal life right now – to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive
to God in Christ Jesus. That doesn’t mean that Christians are the only ones in
that blessed state. All who love are born
of God and know God. We may not even
be the only ones who have the joy of consciously considering ourselves dead to
sin and alive to God, as understood in these terms. All we know for sure is
that we are among the blessed. As
John says: God abides in those who
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known
and believe the love that God has for us.
John tells us nothing about those who do not confess that
Jesus is the Son of God. He just says that all
who love are born of God and know God. And that those who say they love God
but do not love their neighbors are liars. Even if I confess that Jesus is the
Son of God, I do not abide in God if I do not love, for God is love. So
whatever I may think I am confessing, I am not actually confessing Jesus as the
Son of God if I do not love. God is love,
and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. To be perfected in love, perhaps, is to live
more and more in conscious awareness of abiding in love. Maybe that’s what Paul
means when he advises us to consider
ourselves dead to sin: to be
aware that we are beyond the reach of apartness and alienation. Perfection
would be constant awareness of abiding in the love of God. Fearlessness is the
sign of that perfection, because perfect
love casts out fear.
As in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive.
Alleluia! Christ is risen from the
dead, trampling down death by death, and giving life to all in the tombs.
Alleluia!
