Resurrection: Hope for Life

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Jason Davies-Kildea considers the great Christian hope.

The road to despair is wide and runs downhill for many of those who find themselves on the doorstep of The Salvation Army.  The ‘Our Homeless Children’ report included this short quote that is unfortunately indicative of the thoughts of too many people: “What do I most hope for? That I die pretty quick“.

One might rightly wonder why anyone would want to work against such dire circumstances on a daily basis?  For me, the answer is that, despite so many contrary indications, not only is there real hope, but to be a bearer of hope is a deeply meaningful role.  There is something almost counter-cultural about spreading hope today.  In a review of the Oasis movie, Captain Paul Moulds was described as a ‘delusional optimist’ - the kind of description I would proudly share.  Hope may be unexpected, but it is a crucial component of Salvation Army social ministries.  Liberation theologian, Jon Sobrino, says this:

Those who have a radical hope for the victims of this word, who are not convinced that resignation is the last word…can include in their experience a hope analogous to that with which Jesus’ resurrection was first grasped and can direct their lives to taking the victims down from the cross.  Furthermore, those who, in the midst of this history of crucifixion, celebrate what there is of fullness and have the freedom to give their own lives will, perhaps, not see history as nonsensical… but as the promise of a ‘more’ that touches us and draws us despite ourselves.[1]

If, as the apostle Paul claimed, resurrection is the central affirmation of Christianity, then this deep symbol of hope should still be a vital, life-giving metaphor for us today.  In a similar vein, Jewish people celebrate the story of the Exodus, the liberation of an entire people from slavery and the beginnings of new life, new opportunities in the Promised Land.  Both are powerful stories of hope grounded in the historical memory of people of faith.  Yet to leave them entrapped in history is to rob them of much their power to continue to inspire us today.

If our message is to transcend the barriers of the faith community, we may need to learn to find ways of talking about resurrection beyond the category of history - for this indeed has become a stumbling block to many of our current generations.  In Alice in Wonderland, when Alice tells the Queen that one can’t believe impossible things she gets the reply:  “I daresay you haven’t had much practice.  When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why sometimes I believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!”  This has become the all-too-common picture of a Christian, someone who is able to twist their brain into a doctrine-conforming pretzel - and who can no longer speak sensibly to a post-modern world.

It is important, then, for us to remember that resurrection is firstly a theological proclamation.  It says something about the nature of God.  God is on the side of life!  God cannot be defeated by death.  When we experience suffering and death, this God is not absent but is actively sowing the seeds of new life.

The real challenge of resurrection is not about belief, but about experience.  It challenges us to place deeds before creeds, to live resurrection before we can begin to preach resurrection.  Here the message of Leonardo Boff resonates powerfully with the mission of The Salvation Army:

Wherever people seek good, justice, humanitarian love, solidarity, communion and understanding between people, wherever they dedicate themselves to overcoming their own egoism, making this world more human and fraternal and opening themselves to the normative Transcendent for their lives, there we can say, with all certainty, that the resurrected one is present, because the cause for which he lived, suffered, was tried and executed is being carried forward.[2]

There is only one appropriate response to the reality of resurrection experience: to seek out and work towards creating resurrection experiences and opportunities for new life in the lives of others.  The Salvation Army is continually finding ways to impart hope into people’s lives.  Surely this is something we want to multiply, so that every corps, every social centre can function as a community of resurrection possibility.

May the source of our hope never fail. May we always impart hope with generosity.  May we know the experience of resurrection, of new life, of new hope, in our own lives and in the lives of those whom we serve.

Writer: Captain Jason Davies-Kildea is currently serving with his wife, Michelle, at the Brunswick Corps and Community Programmes in Australia. He received a Churchill Fellowship in 2006 and travelled last year to the US, UK and Kenya to look at “models of holistic service, for highly disadvantaged people, which have been established in faith-based communities”. He recently graduated with a Masters in Theology and writes regularly on his own blog, which you can find here.  

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[1] Jon Sobrino Christ the Liberator: A View from the Victims (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2001), 78

[2] Leonardo Boff Jesus Christ Liberator (London: SPCK, 1980), 219

2 Comments to Resurrection: Hope for Life

1. So… did Jesus actually get up after His body had ceased to function, and move around and communicate and really appear to the various witnesses enumerated in the Bible? Some people might dismiss this as naive and fundamentalist and ‘entrapping’ it in history, but strangely enough it actually seemed to matter to Paul.

   If I want worthwhile sentiment I can watch the movie Leap of Faith. Personally, I’d rather know the real power of a real Saviour who actually got better. That’s something that can reach into humans who are entrapped in their history and give them the power to be lifted up - by the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead giving life to their mortal bodies.

   Oh - and I know they’re not your words, but I’d rather called God ‘God’ than the “normative Transcendent”. Just like I’d rather be known as Russell, because I’m a real person who values real relationships.
Russell on November 8th, 2009

2. I think you’ve captured the essential heart of resurrection, Jason - experience.

   Anyone who has ever ‘got it’ in a moment of God-kissed epiphany, or has been nearly crushed by life - been bereaved or divorced or bankrupted or fought off a dire illness - knows that you can’t fully communicate that state you existed in unless the person you are speaking to has also shared that experience.

   Pain and laughter are both good teachers. It’s in the giving and sharing of resurrection hope and the renewing of our minds by the Holy Spirit that we experience Jesus as Immanuel - God with us.

   Barry
Barry on November 9th, 2009

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