Beyond Us and Essential to Us
The life we are called to live as followers of Jesus is supernatural, and not just a matter of natural human choice. The ethic of Jesus is at once beyond us and yet essential to who we are, for it is based upon the being of Jesus, which is anthropneumatic. Jesus is anthropneumatic insofar as his conception, life, death, and resurrection was overseen and saturated by the work of the Spirit. The life of a disciple is meant to be drawn from the very Spirit-filled life of Jesus, and this is what we have when we live by trusting him.
Wrote the following comment on March 13th, 2008 at 5:53 pm #
anthropneumatic?
I Googled the word and the ONLY reference was to THIS POST!
Please enlighten.
Wrote the following comment on March 13th, 2008 at 6:54 pm #
Roger – “anthropneumatic” is a word I coined from two Greek words “anthropos” and “pneuma”. Anthropos means human being, and pneuma means spirit, but in the context of Xian theology it often refers to the Holy Spirit. So, in using this term I was trying to connote the idea that Jesus’ humanity is one that was forged and empowered by God’s Spirit.
I first started thinking about the relationship between Jesus and the Spirit when I read a work on the incarnation that stated that the word the Scriptures uses in reference to the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary to conceive Christ, was the same word used of the glory of God’s presence filling the temple. So, somehow in the mystery of the incarnation the Spirit is intimately involved, and by incarnation I mean the whole of the human ministry of Jesus.
In relation to the believer this is important because it is this new humanity that we are given in Christ. Being Anglican, I particularly see this in baptism and in communion, where we are given the body and blood of Jesus to “feed upon in our hearts by faith”
Wrote the following comment on March 15th, 2008 at 2:25 pm #
I never really have a great deal to add to Jesus posts. But I am glad to see you are making words up, and such clever sounding words too!
What I really wanted to say though was happy birthday ol’ boy! You’re now in a whole different decade of life to me… and your wife! 🙂 Man you’re old!! LOL!!!
I’m just kidding of course. 40 is the new 30 anyway, or so they say. That somewhat alarming though because it means that 10 is the new 0 and so your kids are in negative numbers!
According to something I just read in Douglas Coupland’s new book, none of us actually get into our 40’s in our heads anyway. We stop aging mentally at or around 32. So hey, with all this evidence about the fact that you’re not really 40, then you surely mustn’t be 40 at all. 🙂
Wrote the following comment on March 15th, 2008 at 9:01 pm #
I’m not sure what I expect when I post my theology notes. I write these posts in part to process ideas that strike me about God and particularly Jesus: who he is and what he has done. I write them as assertions, as things I believe, but there is also a way that I am just trying to articulate the mystery, lay a hold of what I don’t quite understand. I at least hope that it sparks some reflection.
Anyways, thanks for the birthday wishes. It did strike me that I probably should have posted something in observance of such a transition in my life, but honestly, I didn’t want to draw attention to it. It feels weird dropping the 3 from my age. I am in my 40s, which is middle age, and yet, as you said, I am still mentally around 32, and actually there is a part of me that is still 24, and another part that is about 13. It’s funny because a few days before hand, even the day before hand, I wasn’t fazed by this change, but on the day, something about not having that 3 in my age, not being 30 something, really hit me. Mind you, I am not tempted to get a Corvette, or some other kind of lame midlife crisis thing, but it is evoking a feeling or mood that I can’t quite identify.
I will probably process this some more and write a post about it later.
Wrote the following comment on March 18th, 2008 at 6:26 pm #
If you see my March 7 post, you’ll see a perfectly good theological reason for acknowleding birthdays. BTW, did you get the package yet?