Elaine Wainwright suggests that we read the resurrection story of Luke 24:1-12 as the culmination of Jesus’s life and death and as God’s continuing acting in all of creation.

At the beginning of March many of us in Australia and New Zealand were grappling with the death of Denis Edwards, outstanding eco-theologian in our region and internationally. A priest of the Adelaide Archdiocese, South Australia, Denis was captured by the question of how God acts (the title of one of his books) in an evolving universe. Having spent his life questioning how we might understand the Christian tradition in an evolving universe and amid complex eco-systems, Denis now knows the profound experience of this reality at the heart of life in a new way.

In How God Acts, Denis describes resurrection as “an unimaginable and amazing act of God in our history . . . a promise that human beings and with them the whole creation will be transfigured in Christ.” He goes on to say that resurrection “contains a claim that the final transformation of all things has already begun in Jesus and is at work in the universe.” Elsewhere, he says that “resurrection is not only the culmination of the life and death of Jesus, but also the inner meaning of creation.” He makes this very explicit when he says that “resurrection is the central expression in our history of the self-giving love of God who is present in every ancient oak tree, every ant, and every kangaroo, closer than they are to themselves, as the source of their being and the enabler of their action.” He invites us through the enduring quality of his words to encounter this “self-giving love of God” not only in ancient oak but also majestic kauri; in kangaroo and kiwi. God is appealing to us through Denis’s life and work to discover anew how God acts…

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Tui Motu Issue 236, April 2019 (PDF)

Elaine Wainwright is a biblical scholar specialising in eco-feminist interpretation and is currently writing a Wisdom Commentary on Matthew’s Gospel.
Painting: Mary Magdalene Discovering the Empty Tomb by Herschel Pollard © Used with permission www.pollardgallery.com