Easter DayALMIGHTY God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: We humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
EasterO GOD, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the resurrection from the dead of thy only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we who celebrate this Paschal feast may die daily unto sin, and live with him evermore in the glory of his endless life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
IV. Of the Resurrection of ChristAlleluia, Chris is risen!
Christ did truly rise again from death, and took again his body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of Man’s nature; wherewith he ascended into Heaven, and there sitteth, until he return to judge all Men at the last day.
Having begun this series to mark the occasion of the 100th post on Canterbury Calgarian, it didn’t quite work out to have Article IV arrive when was most thematically appropriate to be discussed, which was Easter Sunday. So instead Article IV was simply omitted until now in order to avoid discussing the resurrection during Lent.
Article IV is firmly rooted in the ecumenical creeds, though it goes somewhat further into detail of Christ’s resurrection body, emphasizing, as the Biblical accounts do, that upon his resurrection he was not some form of Spiritual manifestation only, but was flesh and blood, just as we are told from Scripture where it is emphasized that he ate food with the Apostles.
The Article goes beyond what the Creeds say, however, focusing on other aspects of the Resurrection, and speaking to why it is important. For many Christians, there is a tendency, to respond to the question of why the Resurrection matters by pointing to the forgiveness of sins. The reality is that this conflates the atonement of Christ’s passion and crucifixion with the hope of his Resurrection. Had Christ simply died upon the cross for the forgiveness of sins, we would still have his ministry of reconciliation and the assurance of the forgiveness of our sins and its promise of newfound intimacy with God. The Resurrection itself becomes meaningless if it is simply lumped in to that view. It must go further.
Article IV states that in his Resurrection, Christ took on the, “perfection of Man’s nature,” which goes quite beyond what the Creeds say and speaks to the hope we hold in Christ’s Resurrection.
Christ himself was without sin. When it says he took on perfection, it therefore cannot simply mean he became sinless. It speaks to the idea that his Resurrection body’s humanity was made perfect in a way in which all humanity will be made perfect in the general resurrection to which we profess in the creeds.
When we speak of the hope of Christ’s Resurrection, we speak of the hope that Christ has made possible not simply our reconciliation with God, but also the possibility of our own resurrections and the perfection of our human nature. Not just the washing away of sins, but the utter and complete washing away of our sinful natures.
In Christ’s Gospels, he invites all people to join him in a new life, the life God had intended for us all. He promises the Holy Spirit, which arrived in power on Pentecost, to enable that living out of a life in Christ, a life which absent God’s grace would be impossible for any person, in their fallen and sinful nature to live in. As St Paul reminds us, all fall short of God’s glory.
It is a keen reminder of what God wishes for us. It is popular today to speak of Christ’s mission through the lens of liberation, either directly with Liberation Theology or simply in the language of Liberation Theology. Liberation theology arose from Roman Catholic bishops in Latin America in the 1950s and seeks to interpret the Gospels in light of a message of liberation, particular for the poor and oppressed. In more recent years, this has been taken beyond what the original intent seemed to be to suggest that Christ’s ultimate goal was the physical liberation from bondage of all people, with bondage having meanings which are not always consistent with Biblical standards.
This form of using the language of Liberation theology is quite common today in many traditions, including in the Anglican Church of Canada, and while it does speak to a particular reality of Christ’s ministry, it also obscures his ultimate mission which is referred to here in Article IV.
Passion Sunday, we recount the story of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The oppressed Jews welcomed him as Messiah, viewing him not as the liberator of their souls from slavery to sin, but rather as the liberator of their persons from the Roman oppressors. It was through his death, which brought forgiveness for sins, and his resurrection, which was the promise of new life, that Christ’s true liberation came. The promise to share in his perfection and the restoration of our human nature.
It is through the forgiveness of sins and strengthening of the Holy Spirit that, in love of God, we strive to live the life of perfection, all the while knowing it is impossible on our own merits and a part from God, but confident in the Resurrection promise that on the day of God’s choosing the promise will be fulfilled. It is in this striving that Christians do promote the same type of care and attention Christ showed to the poor and the oppressed, though we must always be careful that we are following in Christ’s example and not in our own desires. Christ’s message of freedom was at its core spiritual in nature; temporal freedom is promoted but not always provided for in our current times, and God’s laws sometimes still restrict us.
God has, for instance, maintained lows of sexual morality, saying humanity’s sexuality is to be lived out monogamously in the context of Holy Matrimony. We cannot, therefore, say that if someone deems themselves oppressed or in bondage in some way through God’s moral laws, that Christ came to relieve that oppression. The reality is that God does not oppress, and what is being described here is a sense of oppression that comes either from ignorance or unwillingness to trust in God’s commandments, that his will for us is good even where we do not fully understand why God tells us to act in particular ways that might go against our own desires.
This ignorance or unwillingness to follow God is something we all constantly strive against, but it is something that will be with us through this age. Yet, in the Resurrection, we have hope. Hope for a time when we will not struggle in this way, a hope for perfection!
Alleluia, Christ is risen!