Incarnation and Resurrection

A fundamental meaning of the incarnation and resurrection is that the material world is good, but not as good as it will be. Jesus' 'enfleshment' is God's ultimate 'yes' over what He has made. We can and should remain skeptical about materialism as a worldview, but we must never stop believing that what God has made is good and worthy of love. As Christians, we should be the most hopeful people around. Someone told me last night that when Desmond Tutu was asked if he was an optimist, he replied 'no, not an optimist, but I am very hopeful.'

This is where the resurrection comes in. Matter as it is opposes God's final purposes for the world, hence Jesus is crucified. But the story does not end there; it is only just beginning. Jesus' new life shows us that what will be is even better than what we have now. We have to hold these two truths in tension if we are to be true to the Jesus story.

The outworkings of this tension are of great value. Firstly, this is where a true and pure concern for the environment begins. If matter is good and of God then we had better keep it in good order. The resurrection shows us that God builds on what we have here with his new vision of creation. We are to be in love with life and the gift of God in this very moment. The failing of much of the environmental movement at the moment is that at its root it does not affirm life at its core. Consequently people end up blowing up other people in the name of animal rights!

Secondly, this tension helps us to love humanity as it is, whilst also recognising that it is not fully as it should be. As believers in the Christ story, we will be able to tread the fine line between pessimism and denial. We need to hear God's 'yes' over each of us before we can hold these two truths together. If we are OK, then it is just possible that everything and everyone around us is too.

"The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." (Psalm 24.1)