Movement 123

Ia)
new environments and ecologies - but the modes by
which viruses need to work make them potentially
dangerous just where they are so useful. Neither Job
nor we can take it all in or see where it is destined to
lead. Cod's goodness and justice is in tension with
evil and waste in the creation. Job can only acknowledge
his smallness, his mortality, but it is just this
that reconciles with the infinite; each beautiful thing
or tender moment, each person becomes of great
worth; our securities open up to be inclusive.
This is all central to the Bible's challenging humanism.
There is no suggestion that Adam would not
die if it were not for the Fall. lt is the inability of
human beings to live with good and evil, their forlorn
desire to master it rather than themselves, that
God fears in the eating of the forbidden fruit. Sin
arises when we resent our mortality and grasp at
immortality, when we resent that doing good to our
brother sacrifices our own. We want to feast forgetting
those we leave impoverished. The young want
to let loose their lust, forgetting their vulnerability
or the dignity of the one they ought to love. The
religious want to believe they are sinless and so expunge
themselves, giving reign to unholy violence.
The world is an ambivalent place and it is hard to
believe it is good when things like HIV/AIDS devastate
persons and countries. God and the meaning
of it all are veiled. Not until the last day shall Job
see Cod, his redeemer, standing upon the earth.
Not until then can we understand the meaning of it
all. Till then we can only live bravely in the reality
of our mortality, lamenting suffering and choosing
courageous acts of mercy and faithfulness.
Along the way there are hints. Such is Jesus' inclusive
love with the Father. By healing on the seventh day
he revealed the Father's will to forget no one, and
to bring creation to fullness. He showed the Father's
mercy through reconciliation and forgiveness. The
story of HIV/AIDS is full of hints that point to Christ.
The world takes on a new value as life and children,
especially, become precious. Their responsiveness
and hopes reveal depths; their love and laughter are
starkly genuine. There is a remarkable ability to let go
and be honest and to acknowledge limitations, and
so too to lament and not resent the fears of those who
recoil. Bravely, men and women pick up and selflessly
care for one another, reaching out to awaken
dignity, relieve pain and in the face of an uncertain
future hope for a better world, a more caring society.
Like Jesus, we are closest to God when we are most
human. ln Jesus the divine image was clearest when
he was obedient unto death. ln it Cod revealed not
his sovereignty nor his judgement, but passion, and
he suffered hopelessness with us. ln Jesus the divine
glory, which is humanity, man fully at home,
appeared. ln this generation the many living with
HIV/AIDS through their deep tenderness as well as
their profound cries realise love and are images of
the divine, one with Christ as a new Adam. Thusly
Cod displays his good pleasure and the world
awakens to joy and life. I
Andrew Scott studies theology at Clasgow IJniversity
and is a member of SCM's Ceneral Council.
easter
seryi,Ge
a creative response
to our life in all its
fullness theme from
SCM General Council
member laurence
Graig
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leading Marv
from thc Tomb,
Easter Service
'l'm up to my neck
decapitated
put a dockleaf on it
... no need for surgery
it'll heal itself
you'll grow a new head
good as ever, strong and fine'
(Comanesca)
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