Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Jacob Marly in Purgatory


The Christmas Carol is a great story, but the theology isn't sound. I think we all would like to think that God will punish all the greedy and hateful people of the world, according to their sins. But Jesus messes all that up. Jacob Marly et al, don't get hell fire and damnation for their misdeeds, if they get it at all they get it because they've resisted God's grace. I don't think God's grace is utlimately resistable, so I think that everything gets saved (even the demons and Hell, as Origin would say). That's the whole point of the incarnation, of Christmas, all gets reconciled to God. So, for me, eventually, God gets us, even if we don't want God, which is our current state of affairs, the fancy theological term for this is apokatastasis, and it's not quite heretical, but almost. The simple point of the matter is that God is not Just, God is not Fair. And thank God for it! We will all be offended, surprised, and even glad for God's wacked out sense of inclusion. Come Lord Jesus!

1 comment:

Andy Olivo said...

Good post. At the Christmas Eve service that I attended last night the priest echoed what you are saying, or maybe you echoed him! He said that his father used to say to him when he was growing up "Charlie, if you can't get out of it then you might as well get deeper into it." He then went on to say that because of the Word becoming flesh, God has declared God's eternal love for all of humanity. God can't fall out of love with us (and won't), and neither can we fall out of love with God. We may think that we can, but in the end we will realize that all along we have loved God and God has loved us. "So," he said, "since you can't get out of this love of God then you might as well dig a little deeper into it."

Merry Christmas!