Called to flourish
We are meant to flourish! We are called into blessing and to be blessings to others. This is the wonderful promise of life, which the Christian scriptures affirm again and again. By God's grace, we can never be ultimately ground down, even in death, by the powers and principalities of sin, shame, violence, hatred and fear. What a great message of hope that is for trans people as for everyone! How often that is misunderstood, - just as the 'new creations' which (literally and metaphorically) transgender people can be are so often misunderstood. We are intended to live in the light of what theologians call 'eschatology'; the promise of love becoming all in all. This is not to be postponed to some future date, or after life. It begins, though it is of course never complete, right here and now. Can we therefore affirm and celebrate every sign of loving transformation? When we see the possibilities and realities of transgender flourishing, why would we turn away?
becoming what we might be
Only God, Christian orthodoxy says, creates 'ex nihilo' from nothing. All of us are limited in that respect. We are also part of what has formed and shaped us, however much we succeed in being transformed from what has been negative in our past. Indeed we are also subject to what the Christian faith calls sin' For we cannot wholly escape our circumstances. We will fail and sometimes fall over, again and again. Yet at the heart of Christian faith is the affirmation that we, as part of God's Creation, are 'good'. Indeed we even bear the image of God in our different ways. This reality can never be crushed, as Jesus's death and resurrection witnesses. Rather we called into what many scriptural passages call the 'new creation' of God.. We are not bound to sin and mortality but are meant for natality, to flourish. John's Gospel at one point calls this being 'born anew', or 'born from above': being converted into something more full of life. Let us therefore not be cast down by shame, oppression or false 'sin'. Rather let us not sin - which really means 'not to miss the mark',: failing to be what we are called to be. Let us cast off fear - trust in the power of eternally creating, redeeming and transforming love - and become every moment a little more the amazing new creations we are intended to be...
some further reflections:
Coming Out as Embodiments of God Herself: Why is it so difficult? by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott
We are meant to flourish! We are called into blessing and to be blessings to others. This is the wonderful promise of life, which the Christian scriptures affirm again and again. By God's grace, we can never be ultimately ground down, even in death, by the powers and principalities of sin, shame, violence, hatred and fear. What a great message of hope that is for trans people as for everyone! How often that is misunderstood, - just as the 'new creations' which (literally and metaphorically) transgender people can be are so often misunderstood. We are intended to live in the light of what theologians call 'eschatology'; the promise of love becoming all in all. This is not to be postponed to some future date, or after life. It begins, though it is of course never complete, right here and now. Can we therefore affirm and celebrate every sign of loving transformation? When we see the possibilities and realities of transgender flourishing, why would we turn away?
becoming what we might be
Only God, Christian orthodoxy says, creates 'ex nihilo' from nothing. All of us are limited in that respect. We are also part of what has formed and shaped us, however much we succeed in being transformed from what has been negative in our past. Indeed we are also subject to what the Christian faith calls sin' For we cannot wholly escape our circumstances. We will fail and sometimes fall over, again and again. Yet at the heart of Christian faith is the affirmation that we, as part of God's Creation, are 'good'. Indeed we even bear the image of God in our different ways. This reality can never be crushed, as Jesus's death and resurrection witnesses. Rather we called into what many scriptural passages call the 'new creation' of God.. We are not bound to sin and mortality but are meant for natality, to flourish. John's Gospel at one point calls this being 'born anew', or 'born from above': being converted into something more full of life. Let us therefore not be cast down by shame, oppression or false 'sin'. Rather let us not sin - which really means 'not to miss the mark',: failing to be what we are called to be. Let us cast off fear - trust in the power of eternally creating, redeeming and transforming love - and become every moment a little more the amazing new creations we are intended to be...
some further reflections:
Coming Out as Embodiments of God Herself: Why is it so difficult? by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott