been a while

Greetings long lost readers...if there are any of you. I've begun to read a very old book by a man named Athanasius. He was an adversary to the Arian Heresy immediately prior to the first Christian Council at Nicea. He was the Bishop of Alexandria and also wrote a biography of sorts about St. Antony one of the first monastics in the Christian faith. Anyway, I'm reading "On the Incarnation". I've just finished the first "chapter" and it was very interesting. He talked about sin being not only a transgression but in sinning and transgressing we allowed corruption to take hold of us, and therefore death. So the first part of this book has been focused on how in the Incarnation of Christ did away with the corruption that is a part of our very being as a consequence of sin in our lives. He talks about how int he Incarnation God, who is by nature incorruptible, took upon flesh, which is corruptible and therefore able to die. In doing So God exposed himself to death in Christ which we all know Jesus died upon the cross. After that death the incorruptible came into conflict with the corruptible and the incorruptible won out and triumphed over the corruptive power supreme, death. Thus the resurrection is of prime importance because of the nature of the incarnation. It is within the incarnation that God came among us and experienced the depth of our corruption through aging and all the other crap we deal with because of our sinful habits and ultimately through death. Now I don't know what Athanasius would say "happened" when Jesus died, but it seems to me that when Jesus' body died the real battle began between the corruptible and the incorruptible. Whether that was in a spiritual form or not I don't know. I'm inclineed to think that there isn't so much of a separation of mind and body simply because I don't want to bow my head to Plato. The Hebrews had a more wholeistic view of heart (being), soul (mind), and power (energy?) being linked together and inseparable. I'm inclined toward that mode of thinking first because I like it and second because everything else in creation is connected, why not the things which make us, us? So back to the incarnation. I think that it is interesting that God in the creation stories in scripture calls creation "good". So after creation which I'm inclined to believe was at that time incorrputible, or as close as it could be to that nature with God being the only true incorruptible being. Maybe it was the tree of life and our constant proximity to it that made us "incorruptible". Maybe God is the "tree of life" or the tree is a type for God? Regardless of the literal or symbolic nature of the tree, when we were expelled from the Garden of Eden for our trespass we subsequently began to experience corruption. According to the story it tool a while for it to take hold of us...sometime after Noah I believe. It seems since then that the only way to escape the corruption was to "walk with God" as Enoch did (though he was before Noah I am pretty sure). So maybe that is a part of it. In the incarnation God not only "came near" but gave us (humanity) someone we could relate to on a very intimate and personal level. Someone we could "take, eat, and drink" from. This brings me to Jesus, because he is that person, God made flesh, the incorruptible dwelling in a corruptible form. God gave us access to the incorruptibility that HE is through relating to us as one of us. AS MAdeleine L'Engle has said regarding this idea that in Jesus taking upon himself flesh he made "matter matter". In a sense re-purposing it from corruption to life. So as we relate to Jesus in our daily lives we are renewed by that which is incorruptible and are given a sense of that incorruptibility. You see, the Spirit which was in Christ is also in us renewing us into that incorruptible image of God that Jesus bore. So in a sense we are experiencing a form of regeneration (as John Wesley called it) every time we relate to that which is incorruptible. Also, if that which is incorruptible is within us as it was within Jesus then we too shall not be held by death. This is the Christian Hope! I think I'm beginning to see it, The Holy Spirit in Jesus, incorruptibility in Him, is now given to me and this incorruptibility within me is transforming me in a regenerative fashion and dwelling within me thus someday making me too incorruptible. Thus defeating death within me. That while I may die that which is incorruptible within me, the Spirit of God which is regenerating the image of God within me will rise again because death cannot defeat me, what was once corrupted by sin and death is in the process of being transformed into incorruptibility. This is the necessity of being in communion with GOd and giving God room in our lives, so that we might be transformed by the renewing of our entire being to the heart which was in Christ Jesus. I am so glad to be a United Methodist and able to believe in the process of sanctification and regeneration! God continue to renew me, day by day! Help me to become more like Jesus every moment I live. Put in me, what I cannot be of my own accord. REnew the incorruptible within me, the corrupted.