The Pattern Includes Resurrection
The Pattern Includes Resurrection
Resurrection Sunday – April 12, 2020
Resurrection follows death. Every time. It is the immutable, God-given pattern for all of life. Death is not the end. Life is the end.
In John 11, Martha, the sister of Mary and Lazarus, goes through a litany of titles for Jesus. Jesus tells her straight-out that he is the resurrection and the life. Then he asks, “Do you believe this?” He is not asking if she believes in resurrection as an idea or as a theological proposition. He is asking if she believes that resurrection and life are God’s established pattern for the world.
Affirming Jesus’ resurrection is not enough. Rather are you willing to enter into this rhythm of birth, life, death, and new life for yourself?
This is not only new life. It is also real love. English mystic Evelyn Underhill wrote a great deal about spirituality in the last century. She taught both significant religious leaders and ordinary lay persons with a simplicity that I find compelling. We’ll spend the week with some thoughts from her book, The Ways of the Spirit.
We begin our time together with two related statements of St. Augustine: “Love, and do what you like,” and “Love cannot be lazy.” He did not say: “Love, and do nothing if you prefer it. Just sit on your devotional mat, purring.” Real love never did behave so.
A woman who knew much of the spiritual life lately said to me that she held that it should involve, as its very essence, “torment and effort for the sake of the brethren” (tormento e travaglia per fratelli). That sounds like a pretty tough ideal, but it is Christ’s life, the saint’s life, the redemptive life.
If we return to what we said about choosing God, growth and service might be considered as the two aspects, inward and outward, under which the results of that choice, faithfully adhered to, will reveal themselves. Growth means inward purification and expansion; service means outward expression. Both mean life on a new scale, and more abundant life.
[Evelyn Underhill, The Ways of the Spirit, edited by Grace Adolphsen Brame, (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2001).]
For Reflection:
o The resurrection of Christ is not merely historical information. Resurrection is part of the God-ordained pattern for all life. That means the life of Christ continues to animate my living.
o The life Christ now lives is my life, energized by the Spirit of Christ within me.
o A maturing spiritual life generally entails a more consistent attentiveness to God, others, the created world, and one’s innermost self. This growth is characterized as an inward movement.
Resurrection Sunday – April 12, 2020
Resurrection follows death. Every time. It is the immutable, God-given pattern for all of life. Death is not the end. Life is the end.
In John 11, Martha, the sister of Mary and Lazarus, goes through a litany of titles for Jesus. Jesus tells her straight-out that he is the resurrection and the life. Then he asks, “Do you believe this?” He is not asking if she believes in resurrection as an idea or as a theological proposition. He is asking if she believes that resurrection and life are God’s established pattern for the world.
Affirming Jesus’ resurrection is not enough. Rather are you willing to enter into this rhythm of birth, life, death, and new life for yourself?
This is not only new life. It is also real love. English mystic Evelyn Underhill wrote a great deal about spirituality in the last century. She taught both significant religious leaders and ordinary lay persons with a simplicity that I find compelling. We’ll spend the week with some thoughts from her book, The Ways of the Spirit.
We begin our time together with two related statements of St. Augustine: “Love, and do what you like,” and “Love cannot be lazy.” He did not say: “Love, and do nothing if you prefer it. Just sit on your devotional mat, purring.” Real love never did behave so.
A woman who knew much of the spiritual life lately said to me that she held that it should involve, as its very essence, “torment and effort for the sake of the brethren” (tormento e travaglia per fratelli). That sounds like a pretty tough ideal, but it is Christ’s life, the saint’s life, the redemptive life.
If we return to what we said about choosing God, growth and service might be considered as the two aspects, inward and outward, under which the results of that choice, faithfully adhered to, will reveal themselves. Growth means inward purification and expansion; service means outward expression. Both mean life on a new scale, and more abundant life.
[Evelyn Underhill, The Ways of the Spirit, edited by Grace Adolphsen Brame, (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2001).]
For Reflection:
o The resurrection of Christ is not merely historical information. Resurrection is part of the God-ordained pattern for all life. That means the life of Christ continues to animate my living.
o The life Christ now lives is my life, energized by the Spirit of Christ within me.
o A maturing spiritual life generally entails a more consistent attentiveness to God, others, the created world, and one’s innermost self. This growth is characterized as an inward movement.
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