If? Then!

Luke 24 1-11

⁵ …. ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. (NRSVA)

Colossians 3: 1-4

⁴ When Christ who is your ^[a] life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. (NRSVA)

Those of us who follow such things are well into Epiphany (a time of reflection when some of us consider ‘If God exists, how does He make Himself known to us?’). The small group of disciples that I share my life with do this in a structured way until Ash Wednesday when the season of Lent begins. Perhaps the presence of the word ‘If’ puzzles some on the basis that disciples’ of Jesus must be totally question free about God’s existence and His revelation. However, this is simply not the case. The disciples in the New Testament are always asking questions, puzzling, pondering and doubting. Jesus Himself challenges His disciples to consider the questions they have through the lens of His own teaching and example. When arguments and assertions (stories) are deployed in scripture, the bible, the beginning of the story of our discipleship, they are done so in response to the circulating questions of the time. These stories can be seen as the product of the interaction of the contextual understanding of the story of God and the cultural developments in knowledge and the social, political, economic, environmental challenges of their time. So it is with us. We take the story of the bible read it and apply it in our own personal, social, political and economic context. We live in a time that has undergone industrial, scientific, digital, social, religious and economic revolutions among many others. Indeed we are undergoing these revolutions again and again. The practical application of the story of God in the contemporary lives of disciples is the product of the contemporary challenges and the story of scripture. In our day and time we accept the presence of unseen power and influences on our lives in very different ways than those of the disciples of the first century.  We know about nuclear power and the great benefits this knowledge brings to us but we also know about the horrors of nuclear war.  For the disciple of Jesus His story is always used to interrogate current knowledge and cultural contexts to arrive at how to live practically. The presence of the word ‘If’ is always present and active. If the story of Jesus is true how should we use nuclear power? If the story of Jesus is true how should we conduct debate about Brexit?  If the story of Jesus offers any truth to live by how should we treat asylum seekers, workers and / or people who have a different personal and social identity to ours?     

‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.’ Challenges us as disciples to apply the living Jesus and His teachings to our lives.  If He and His teaching is dead what is the point? We need to do the hard work of applying Jesus teachings in a very different context than that of the first century when they were first written down.  His revelation to us will be contemporary, situated and practical.  As Paul put it, ‘When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.’ Jesus is our life and in Him we become the people and community we were always intended to be.

May the Lord bless us and keep us; the Lord make his face to shine upon us, and be gracious to us; the Lord lift up his countenance upon us, and give us peace.

Grace and peace to you