Resurrection Thoughts Pt 3

Something that has struck me in recent months is the social nature of the resurrection. Resurrection is a community thing, and more than that, it is a world thing. I'm not raised just by myself with Jesus, but I'm raised with the church and I'm raised into a new world. Eternal life is about sharing in this risen community and living in this risen world. So the personal/individual and the world is held together. Perhaps there's a danger that we've inculcated the mindet of modernity that sets the individual over and against community and the world. But we are interdependent - we are both social and dependent upon the physical environment. It's interesting that flesh in the Bible can have a sense that is more than just human beings (Gen 9:11, Ps 136:25, Ps 145:21, Dan 4:12). Our hope is the raising of all flesh - as in 'everything'. Just as our fallenness is not just a private, individual thing, so our personal 'healing' and transformation must mean the transformation of the whole world. This is perhaps made most clear in Colossian 1:15ff. The world is reconciled and raised "in Christ". My hope is not just for my own little corner in God's universe, but for a whole universe!