Resurrection and ANZACs

I am glad to see that SSM is still up, and that she has put up an Easter Post. Which moves to today’s reading.

Today is Anzac today, where we celebrate in NZ the deaths of those in the wars our young nation has fought — from 1841 to 1881 over land locally, and from 1897 until now as part of either a British or American led alliance.

The text today reminds us that this world is not there is. As Christ rose, so will we. And on that day the generations before us will hold us to account.

Neoreaction is, by comparison, …hipster. And as much as everyone might claim to hate hipsters, they do tend to have better taste in music, among other things.

“Fashion does not accrete, but maybe reality does. And I would like to think that the rationalist movement is a part of that. And if that’s true, that’s a way in which reality will eventually come to overpower fashion and the arc of the universe might tend toward justice after all.”

But you can’t join us until you learn to stop talking like that.

But our broken and wounded bodies will be changed.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:51-58

⁵¹Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” ⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

LUKE 24:1-12

¹But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they went in, they did not find the body. ⁴While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. ⁵The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. ⁶Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” ⁸Then they remembered his words, ⁹and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

Now, many people turn up this morning at ANZAC parades. It is part of our civil religion, and it is much bigger in Australia than NZ. But I generally avoid public displays of worship. I would rather put the energy into training my sons.

And here I’m counter-intuitive. The boys hate youth group, so they don’t go. They argue their faith with me: at times for hours. And they are quite aware that their dad is not perfect, and that their dad blogs here. I don’t have the boys in Church schools: they have to deal with the feminist ideology of this day.

Wintry Knight got this right. He calls it good training. For we are in a battle, and as casualties can be reduced by good training in war (the Kiwis were taught in WWI to hug the rolling barrage and accept losses from their own artillery and that meant they could attack Germans over no-man’s land. In the Somme) so in the spiritual battle hard training will increase the chances that there will be victory.

Even if you don’t agree with them, it’s an interesting view. Would the church really turn away from being inward-focused and rooted in blind faith and emotional singing, and re-invent their approach so that it takes the other side seriously?

By the way, this is something I like to use in my mentoring of young people and in courting women as well. If I am trying to choose someone to work on, my first questions are always about what they do for a living, what they’ve studied, who in their lives is a non-Christian. I am always looking for people who have some opposition to Christianity in their lives, because it’s those people who have a motivation to learn. I am always surprised how naive pastors and worship leaders and youth pastors are about the opposition to Christianity in the world. They seem to be in their own little happy bubbles, never coming out to deal with people who disagree with them. I think the problem is that they often think that Christianity is not about truth but about feelings, and so no work needs to be done to defend any truth claims.

We do not live in happy little bubbles. We live in a world of blood and tears and mud and pain. The sooner we get rid of the pretty lies and get ourselves back into training the better we will be.

And that training is both spiritual and physical. We need to discipline our bodies — by exercise, diet, and at times fasting — and we need to discipline our spirits by obedience, prayer and meditation on the word. Meeting together should be about training.

This is not to deny that feelings have a place. They do: but they cannot trump facts. We are in a battle, and we are told by the almighty that he will in the end preserve us. But this world is fallen, and we will take casualties. At times we will be casualties.

Paul and Peter lived lives of great triumph for Christ — and both ended up being executed.

This is a war. There may be glory. There will be pain. Train for it. This last song (Col. Bogey) is one for the POWs from the wars.