So Great a Salvation
Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
II Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15
St. Mark 5:21-43
Death is not our natural end, according to the Wisdom of Solomon. It is a ruinous consequence of the separation brought between us and God our Maker. He states emphatically, "God did not make death." (Wis. 1:13) Death is a deviation, a corruption of the Created order.
So when the Creator descended into His creation, it is no wonder that He came with life in his very touch. The prophet Malachi anticipated the incarnation powerfully, "For you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings." God did not make death, but made all things to persist. So Christ comes as "the Resurrection and the Life," and even the fringe of his robe brings healing to the wounds of the world.
This restoration, this renewal of Creation by the entrance of Life itself, of Truth itself, into the fabric of the fallen world, brings with it responsibility. The responsibility given to us is simply to imitate the life of the incarnate Creator. The renewal of Creation means that we are meant to live in accordance with the created order, and with the life of the Creator. We awake to a new world.
So St. Paul writes in our epistle that our abundance is meant for the relief of others, and that there is to be a balance between abundance and need. But he does not give this as a command, so that we would not do it under duress: he gives it as a test of character. The indictment that St. Paul's request carries with it is weightier than any commandment, "I am testing the genuineness of your love." So great a gift have we received: the very Life of the World, the King of Kings becoming a poor man for our enrichment. How will we respond? Not to a command to give, but to so great a love.
A man may follow a command out of a sense of obligation. He may follow an order out of fear. He may follow instructions out of selfish hope for gain. But how will we respond to a generosity that defies our attempts to describe it? With enormous profligacy God endured poverty and excruciating torture; he destroyed death and burst from the grave, purging contamination from the universe with his blood, burning away sin and dross and death in the fury of his generosity.
Are we dead or alive? What will we give in answer?
II Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15
St. Mark 5:21-43
Death is not our natural end, according to the Wisdom of Solomon. It is a ruinous consequence of the separation brought between us and God our Maker. He states emphatically, "God did not make death." (Wis. 1:13) Death is a deviation, a corruption of the Created order.
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| Christ Pantochrator Sixth Century |
This restoration, this renewal of Creation by the entrance of Life itself, of Truth itself, into the fabric of the fallen world, brings with it responsibility. The responsibility given to us is simply to imitate the life of the incarnate Creator. The renewal of Creation means that we are meant to live in accordance with the created order, and with the life of the Creator. We awake to a new world.
So St. Paul writes in our epistle that our abundance is meant for the relief of others, and that there is to be a balance between abundance and need. But he does not give this as a command, so that we would not do it under duress: he gives it as a test of character. The indictment that St. Paul's request carries with it is weightier than any commandment, "I am testing the genuineness of your love." So great a gift have we received: the very Life of the World, the King of Kings becoming a poor man for our enrichment. How will we respond? Not to a command to give, but to so great a love.
A man may follow a command out of a sense of obligation. He may follow an order out of fear. He may follow instructions out of selfish hope for gain. But how will we respond to a generosity that defies our attempts to describe it? With enormous profligacy God endured poverty and excruciating torture; he destroyed death and burst from the grave, purging contamination from the universe with his blood, burning away sin and dross and death in the fury of his generosity.
Are we dead or alive? What will we give in answer?
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