easter reflections.

this is jurgen moltmann.
while i was out on the beach all by my lonesome on easter Sunday, i happened to bring with me EXPERIENCES OF GOD by Jurgen Moltmann. i love this man. he is this amazing german theologian, who writes about god so poetically, beautifully and practically. he was in the german military in WWII, and spent time in a belgian POW camp. it was there, in the midst of that horrendous experience that, he says, "Christ found me." so i love that his knowledge of God is rooted in this tangible experience of his. i was introduced to his writing in seminary, and it’s hard to pull me away from something of his. if you have yet to read anything by this man, i would recommend SOURCE OF LIFE. it’s amazing.

but anyways. i’ve got EXPERIENCES OF GOD with me and i’ve read about half of it already, but had left off with it sometime ago for some reason or for some other book i wanted to read at the time. i typically don’t sit down and read through a whole book on theology at one time. i peruse it. until i eventually get through it. but today – THIS DAY – this easter Sunday, i picked up THIS BOOK, and where did i leave off? “The New Beginning That Finds the Future” – where he talks about what” you guessed it – “Born Anew to a Living Hope Through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ From the Dead”. talk about the write book on the right day. so i want to share with you a progression of his thoughts that spoke to my soul on easter day.

"It becomes quite a different matter if we stop looking at Christ's resurrection in the perspective of history and look at history in the perspective of the resurrection. Then we sense that the compulsion of evil has been broken. Life is stronger than death. And then we shall find the familiar way of the world in comprehensible."
"Faith means rising up out of indolence and joylessness, and participating in the resurrection process. Christ's resurrection is God's way of giving us new life. Being born again to hope is the way in which we acknowledge Christ."
"The rebirth of an individual person is nothing less than an anticipation of the rebirth of the whole creation. So the rebirth of our small, unimportant human life is linked with the divine future for the whole of creation. In this way it gives our transitory life a permanent significance. Our life becomes the sign of hope for the future of the whole world. We ourselves become hope - God's hope in this world." (!!!!!!!!!!)
"Christian faith is essentially faith in the resurrection."
"Faith in the resurrection does not look past death to eternity. It sees the raising of the tortured and crucified Son of Man as GOD'S GREAT PROTEST against death and against everyone who plays into death's hands and threatens life."
"Faith shares this passion. It shares in God's protest, by rising up out of the apathy of misery (and even more out of the cynicism of prosperity) and by fighting against death in the midst of life."
"We show our hope for the life that defeats death in our protest against the manifold forms of death in the midst of life. It is only in the passion for life and our giving of ourselves for its liberation that we entrust ourselves utterly to the God who raises the dead."

man that's good stuff. i come ALIVE when i read stuff like this. because he doesn't just talk about God - but about who we are to live as a response to God. beautiful stuff. anyways - i offer it to you. i pray that it speaks to your soul as well.