Living Tradition

A Sydney (Anglican) trained evangelical (now a bishop) said, in response to me talking about 'the tradition', "How can you believe in something that changes?" I took it to mean he was contrasting scripture with 'the tradition' minus the scriptures. A couple of clarifying points:

• Without the tradition it is impossible to correctly understand the Scriptures. Tradition came before Scripture. (St Paul hands on to the Corinthians what he himself was taught. See 1Cor 11.) Remember, heretics were/are always adept at scriptural 'proofs'.
  
• The Scriptures are only one strand (utterly unique, authoritative and irreplaceable) of the rope that maintains apostolic succession. (More on this later.)
• The tradition changes so that the tradition lives for each age. Traditions that don't change die out. The hard part is being faithful to the tradition without betraying it; but when we do we are part of the living Christian tradition.
  

A good quote on tradition from Yoder to be found at Inhabitatio Dei.

The Resurrection of Jesus as Future Event

If tonight you heard the newsreader announce that peace reigned throughout the world you would be sceptical. If the newsreader said there was a new conflict in such-a-such country, perhaps not suspicious at all. Why? Because of precedent, or expectation based on experience. This is part of the reason why people struggle to believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Their experience suggests that the resurrection of Jesus is unlikely. It does not fit their view of the world, and is without a validating precedent. (Which is also why some wish to discover precursors to the church's proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus in other religions of antiquity. A precedent is then provided, although not for the resurrection. Rather, these 'precedents' are then used as evidence to deny the uniqueness and truth of the resurrection of Jesus.)

The gospel says that the resurrection of Jesus is a unique event, without precedent in history. The resurrection of Jesus is not to be justified by historical precedent, as though it (the resurrection) needs to be ordered to the past to gain credibility. Rather, it is the other way round. In the Christian scheme of things history is to be ordered to the resurrected Jesus. (This is part of the theological meaning of "Jesus as judge".) The reason is that the resurrection of Jesus is not a past historical event to be judged by the canons of historical research. (The life and death of Jesus, and the preaching by the church of the resurrected Jesus can be so investigated, but the resurrection itself is opaque to the usual processes of historical analysis.) The resurrection of Jesus is the future (come to meet us), not one event among many stuck in the past. The resurrection of Jesus is God's action in breaking us out of the cul-de-sac of history as we have come to experience it. Which is exactly why faith in the resurrected Christ is liberating.