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Gebetswoche für die Einheit der Christinnen und Christen 2012
Faith and Fantasy
What is the difference between faith and fantasy? This is the question which Paul faced as he wrote his first letter the Corinthians. For many leading members of that early church the resurrection of Jesus was the answer to their personal dreams. Their worship was uninhibited, even outrageous, and expressed their freedom from the ties of social conventions and religious regulations; freedom from anxiety about the dangerous political and economic crises of their day. (When Paul wrote this letter the Emperor Nero was coming to power. Paul was eventually killed by Nero’s soldiers.) For Paul, the resurrection of Jesus had indeed revealed the answer to the human predicament. But for him the Corinthians’ interpretation of this answer was no better than fantasy. Their pleasure seeking and self-centred attitudes showed that they had not grasped what it is to be fully human, and had not begun to understand the implications of the Gospel. Whatever their intellectual beliefs, nothing had really changed in their attitudes. Paul urged them to see that the Good News was not only about abolishing rules but growing in relationship, not only about celebration but also about service, this was the way of transformation. Paul risked his life to spread this message. He trusted in its heavenly truth because he saw it at work on earth. Paul’s faith was not a fantasy. His belief in the transforming power of Jesus’s victory over the forces of death and destruction was not an escape into sort of religious virtual reality. It was a resource which enabled him to engage with life as it really was in the chaotic world of the Roman Empire, and step by step, to change it. His vision was, on the one hand cosmic, global, heavenly and timeless. But it was also rooted in the everyday risks and realities of ordinary life and personal relationships in the local communities in which he lived and worked. Nearly two thousand years later, as we face social, economic and political crises throughout the world, as well as our own personal challenges, perhaps Paul’s inspiration can be a resource for us. Chris Lyon
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