You Are a Body, We Are a Body

Was reminded today of that silly "you are a soul. You have a body" thing that gets attributed, by people who don't understand how orthodox he actually was, to CS Lewis.

And it reminded me of the original version of the Phatfish song,  "There is a Day."

The Day in question being The Big One, of course:

"A Day of freedom, and liberation from the Earth".

Now, my little Beaker Folk, you can see what's wrong with this, can't you? That's right. It's nothing like the Biblical, Gospel hope. We aren't hoping for liberation from the earth, but with it.

The Gospel hope isn't that our souls all sail off to Heaven leaving a torched and battered world behind. In John's Revelation, there would be no point to that, as the Heavens will pass away as well. That would be like taking all your shares in Comet and investing in Woolworth. And yes, when I was 12, Dunstable Woolworth was about as good as it got.

The appropriate analogy for me seems that if Jesus was resurrected, if we are to be raised, then the Universe also will, when it gasps its last photon of energy into the entropic soup that remains, be raised as it should be.

And if Jesus's body is scarred forever by his time here; then, while transformed into brightness, maybe we will still carry, shining, the scars we've accrued. And maybe then so will the world - restored by God - hold the marks we've put on it.

You are a body. Look after it. We are a body. Look after each other. This world is not disposable, but maybe it's reusable. Take care of it.