Resurrected, wounds and all

Thurs., April 12's Upper Room Daily Reflection quote:

I DO NOT BELIEVE that … our inner wounds, once healed, will be forgotten and wasted. God’s spirit wastes nothing! We are told in the twentieth chapter of John that the risen Jesus showed Thomas and the other disciples his wounds. I used to wonder why those wounds remained on his risen body of light. Why weren’t those earthly marks of suffering swallowed up, forgotten, in glory? Was it so his friends could identify him? Partly. But I think there was a more important reason. I think all his friends through the ages to come were being shown that wounds, especially when healed, can become sources and signs of new radiance of life. No longer the sources of pain and despair, the wounds now healed can become the channels of healing for others.
- Flora Slosson WuellnerPrayer, Stress and Our Inner Wounds


It's really crazy how things come together liturgically - at worship on Friday at all-staff retreat, Rose mentioned something about being "resurrected, wounds and all," then I go to church on Sunday and hear about the "doubting Thomas" story and how it was not just Jesus' spirit that was resurrected, but his very body and what that means for us, etc. - and then I come back from retreat and read this reflection.

For now, I just want to share this reflection and offer how this struck me - later I want to connect it back to our kingdom debate, because I think it has great implications for it.

I do hope to go back and reflect on all of the kingdom dialogue soon, now that I've had a few months break from it. Somehow, even though I think I may end up in a marginal-ish camp on this theological point - a point which I think is a very critical one in Christianity - I still don't doubt my likely future official role in the church - be it in a community-based non-profit, or as a pastor of a church, etc. Even if I deny an idea possibly essential to Christianity, I can't divorce myself from this family, this body of Christ. This whole being resurrected wounds and all thing gives me hope that I can come to some kind of conclusion about a new kingdom that looks something like Christian doctrine, though - so that's good news. I hope to be able to be more specific in my reflections later on.