|
|
The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
|
a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
|
|
|
|
|
October 2005 |
|||
|
|
||||
One degreeWe have just one degree of separation, says Doug Edmonds I have a cousin, who is married to Domenic, and his mother still lives in Sicily. Her neighbour there has a son who lives in Rome and is Pope Benedict's chauffeur. So, when you think about it, the Pope and I are just like that, practically family. That's an almost entirely mythical example of a theory that was doing the rounds just a few years ago, known as Six Degrees of Separation. The intriguing theory proposed that every single person on the planet was connected to every other person on earth by no more than six degrees or connections. While the theory may not be precisely accurate in every case, there's enough truth in it to make it particularly appealing. One of the most stunning and revolutionary aspects of the good news Jesus taught is something we have become so used to, that we don't see how revolutionary it actually is, and tend to just take it for granted: that, under the New Covenant which Jesus offered, there would be only one degree of separation between us and God. The barrier of sin which separates us from God can be broken down; we have no need for a priestly caste to act as intermediaries (although they might serve other useful functions!); even Jesus is not a degree of separation between us and God. He tells his disciples: 'When that day comes (his death and resurrection) you will ask in my name; and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you, because the Father himself loves you for loving me and believing that I came from God.' (John 16:26-27). We are so close that we can speak to God as 'Our Father'. This is an amazing thing! Of all our relationships, our relationship with God is not only direct - just one degree of separation - but it is also to be our primary relationship: 'You shall love the Lord your God... This is the great and first commandment.'
|
|
|||
