Sunday, May 06, 2007
A Moment of Clear Spirituality
This past weekend our class met in the boat house at Aldridge Botanical Gardens next door to the church. I arrived early and reflected on Galatians with terms of 'justification' and 'gospel' swirling through my mind as red-eared sliders, bluegill, and carp rippled the glassy surface of the pond. The morning sun burned away the early haze and things became clearer. The sharper focus revealed a beautiful unity in the vibrant pond community and for a long moment I enjoyed becoming part of something greater than myself.
Justification and gospel are generally preached and conceived in modern terms of personal intellectual salvation. Recently, theologians such as N.T. Wright have insightfully proposed that Paul would have viewed those concepts in a more experiential communal way -- as a description of the unified and active community made possible in Christ. What if these perspectives are two of many integral facets in the complex concepts of justification and gospel? Perhaps our comparison of the modern and ancient perspectives should be both/and rather than either/or. Things are taking shape and a pulse quickening picture is appearing, but there is no one to share it with.
Disrupting the calm surface, a stone sinks to the bottom and stirs up the mud. The fish scatter. The turtles dive. I turn back to Galatians and the momentary clarity is replaced by muddled questions. What is the gospel? What does it mean to be justified? These are spiritual things we must discern together.
Justification and gospel are generally preached and conceived in modern terms of personal intellectual salvation. Recently, theologians such as N.T. Wright have insightfully proposed that Paul would have viewed those concepts in a more experiential communal way -- as a description of the unified and active community made possible in Christ. What if these perspectives are two of many integral facets in the complex concepts of justification and gospel? Perhaps our comparison of the modern and ancient perspectives should be both/and rather than either/or. Things are taking shape and a pulse quickening picture is appearing, but there is no one to share it with.
Disrupting the calm surface, a stone sinks to the bottom and stirs up the mud. The fish scatter. The turtles dive. I turn back to Galatians and the momentary clarity is replaced by muddled questions. What is the gospel? What does it mean to be justified? These are spiritual things we must discern together.
Labels: community, Epicenter, Galatians, nature, religion, spirituality, unity
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]