John Davies - Notes From a Small Vicar

James Bond, Jesus and the myth of redemptive violence

The myth of redemptive violence affects us all. But many are uncomfortable with it, many question it. Think of the many ex-servicemen deeply troubled by their memories of killing another human. Picture, at the war memorial on Remembrance Sunday, the ex-serviceman standing there out of duty and respect but feeling deeply torn inside, burdened with unresolved guilt, recalling the consequences of their actions: 'The tears in the eyes of veterans during the annual two minutes’ silence may not be for those whose names are etched on the memorial, but for those whose names they never knew.' (Ted Harrison, Church Times, 9/11/2012) Such people are made heroes by the myth of redemptive violence, but their hearts cry for a different sort of atonement altogether.

James Bond, Jesus and the myth of redemptive violence  - my talk today, in homage to the late, great Walter Wink.

There is no death, in Christ

It seems to contradict the spirit of our season, of All Souls’, All Saints’, and Remembrance, but in the face of the evidence of scripture we must affirm that Christ empties tombs, that Jesus unbinds the dead and lets them go. We must embrace a future in which ‘death will be no more’ and in the meantime we must permit God to remove from us ‘the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations’: the heavy weight of death which oppresses us. And we must learn to live as if death is not.

- Not my usual 'remember your granny' All Saints' sermon. Instead, There is no death, in Christ, today.