Saturday, December 3, 2011

Working on the resurrection in Advent

I know it is Advent but a biblical studies conference beckons and I am working on a paper on the resurrection, exploring the historicity of the empty tomb.

That, a sermon tomorrow on a collect (see below), and a series of obligatory social events (two lunches, two dinners, one ball in the space of three days) are taking up precious blogging time :)

Meantime, in a slow way, the resurrection of Theology House is proceeding, but we have not quite clinched a deal on a new location so I can only prophesy that resurrection, not give an eye-witness account of it!

Here's the collect:

O Lord, raise up, we pray, your power

and come among us,

and with great might succour us;

that whereas, through our sins and wickedness

we are grievously hindered

in running the race that is set before us,

your bountiful grace and mercy

may speedily help and deliver us;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

to whom with you and the Holy Spirit,

be honour and glory, now and forever. Amen.

(Church of England - Common Worship. Based on collect originally from Gelasian Sacramentary and translated and adapted by Thomas Cranmer)

4 comments:

Fr. Bryan Owen said...

Hi Peter. Even though it's Advent, I was also reflecting on the resurrection of our Lord today as I read the following passage from Thomas Oden's Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology:

To understand why the resurrection is so decisive for Christianity, it is necessary to consider whether there is meaning in the whole narrative of universal history. Put in a late Judaic frame of reference: The resurrection is best understandable as a historical event in the context of apocalyptic hopes.

Universal history is the most comprehensive horizon of the human imagination. The revelation of God cannot be grasped apart from the end of universal history. If God is revealed in history, history as God's address cannot be finally revealed until it is over. Universal history, if its meaning could be grasped, would necessarily constitute the decisive revelation of God.

The intellectual burden of Christian teaching has always been to inquire rigorously into the meaning of universal history. The creeds of the churches have sought to interpret the whole of history from beginning to end, not merely a part of history. The meaning of universal history is the proper subject matter of theology. What the resurrection is all about is disclosing the meaning of universal history.

liturgy said...

Greetings Peter

Are you preaching in NZ?

Correct me if I'm wrong - but as far as I know this is yet another great Cranmerian collect removed by the Prayer Book Commission and not "resurrected" (to keep to your regular metaphorical use of this word) in our NZ Prayer Book by General Synod!

So I look forward to reading the sermon. If the sermon is in NZ, and hence (surprisingly?) is about a collect not in our own Prayer Book, I hope it presses our diocesan synod's unanimous call "as strongly as possible that in any revision the Western taonga/treasure of Trinitarian collects inherited from the early Church via Cranmer and so shared with the rest of the Anglican Communion and other great Western denominations, be the primary option provided in every service"

Blessings

Bosco

Anonymous said...

Peter, Gary Habermas gave a good lecture recently on the very early dating of the Pauline tradition, connecting 1 Cor 15 and Galatians 2 and noting how soon (within 3 years of his conversion?) Paul met Peter and James and how much they agreed with his message.
His website is full of good stuff.
Martin

Peter Carrell said...

Thanks for good suggestions Bryan and Gary ...

Bosco, as you know my membership application to the International Preaching Circuit is unaccountably held up :)

I will see what I can do re upholding the decisions of our Synod!