Happy Easter, everyone! Ah, how I missed my German friend! And what better way to celebrate than to share some of his words on the resurrection from The Way of Jesus Christ:
Seeing history in the perspective of resurrection means participating through the Spirit in the process of resurrection. Belief in resurrection is not summed up by assent to a dogma and the registering of an historical fact. It means participating in the creative act of God. A faith of this kind is the beginning of freedom. If God reveals himself in the raising of the Christ crucified in helplessness, then God is not the quintessence of power, such as the Roman Caesars represented. Nor is he the quintessence of law, such as the Greek cosmos reflects. God is then the power that quickens into life, that makes the poor rich, that lifes up the humble and raises the dead. Faith in the resurrection is itself a living force which raises people up and frees them from the deadly illusions of power and possession, because their eyes are now turned towards the future of life.
I love Moltmann’s elegantly simple description of how the resurrection speaks of a very certain kind of power, one that in its very nature stands over and against other, lesser forms of power (might, law, possession, etc.). I also am very fond of the definition of resurrection as a process, a creative act of God, a quickening into life. I envision resurrection as a turning away from one direction of seeing life down a narrow and closed path and toward an entirely new and open direction where the future of life extends brightly ahead of you. The process of resurrection is the act of looking up and out, ahead and beyond. I think this is what Wendell Berry means when he urges us to practice resurrection.
I feel satisfied after reidnag that one.