I’ve been recovering from surgery lately subsequent to a
boating accident that nearly killed me years ago. I am reminded of my theme that the body,
though wonderful in its recuperative powers, is the weakest and most
problematic of our parts. As Jesus said,
“The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
It’s impossible to emphasize too much in this day and age
how the New Testament is based on Greek philosophical dualism. We cannot appreciate as we ought the miracle
of the Incarnation or God’s condescending love toward us without first positing
the enmity between flesh and spirit. “Flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” says Paul (1 Corinthians 15:50)
and:
Those who live according to the
flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according
to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind
on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For
the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to
God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans
8:5-8 ESV)
That being said, I had an interesting conversation with my
surgeon last week. We agreed that there
must be some form of intelligence that operates in our bodies on the cellular
level and in knitting together damaged tissue.
In other words, our body is not a machine but a living organism in
which, as Paul, again, notes, the various parts are intricately linked: the
church, or Church, or both, depending on your ecclesiology, is the body of
Christ. In a play on words Paul speaks
of each individual Christian being a member
of the body. So just as the physical
body has a way of mending itself there must be a way for individual Christians
to know what the larger community of believers needs, working as a whole.
That intelligence comes to us through the Spirit and
expresses itself in words that we must communicate to each other in preaching, teaching,
prophecy, administration, and fellowship.
This is what I am hearing.
I do not trust the emerging church movement. I think the appropriate word is the reform of existing structures. The surgical procedure I just endured was
called a revision. The doctor worked on
the leg that I have. He said to me, “Dr.
Lhowe had to play the hand he was dealt and I had to work on what was presented
to me.” Both doctors did a wonderful job. I would almost want to use that word, revision, because I expect great things
as a result of this painful procedure. But
historically we know and understand that the Church is in constant need of re-form because of the tendency of the
flesh to be weak, sinful, and corrupt.
2 comments:
Michael I think what you have bumped into is Gregory Bateson's idea of Mind as a cybernectic system. The world as we know it is not limited to the skin. We are all hard wired to the world and persons around us. Spontaneos healing is a natural phenomena and is in all of us. We are all connected in a manner we cannot explain or have words to talk about. Glad healing is coming to you. In fact it is all around you. I miss our good conversations. Gary.
Gregory is way late to the game, Gary. That the world is connectd through the mind/word of God is both a Hebrew and Greek philosophical concept. The Stoics, for instance spoke of the LOGOS, or divine logic of the universe, and John said it was incarnate in Christ. Kant picked up on the idea of NOUS, the living mind of mankind, from the Greeks and spoke of practical reason that permeates all thngs and can be accessed by the rational mind and some forms of social intuition. Why, for instance, is America, which aborts its children by the millions, being invaded by millions of those that love theirs? They are guided by a form of reason, which some call natural law: reject evil; seek and do the good AND whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.
Post a Comment