life overflowing

"Life Overflowing" is the theme for the thirteenth assembly of the Uniting Church (July 2012). I'm officially open to creative ideas on how to develop it. Here's some of the background on why I proposed this theme to the Assembly Standing Committee. It was approved this weekend.

The expression “life overflowing” is drawn from John 10:10: …egō ēlthon hina zōēn echōsin kai perisson echōēsin; variously translated, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (NRSV), “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (NIV), “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life” (NLT). The tricky word to translate is perisson which, used adverbially as it is here means something like: over and above, more than necessary, to excess. “Abundantly” is a very good translation but is a term that is not common in the English conversation of Australians. It seemed too “in house” to me. I suggested to my colleague in New Testament studies that “overflowing” might be a reasonable alternative to “abundant”. She replied, “I thought about something like : ‘to the brim’, but you actually want it to mean ‘to the brim and over!’ (like when I pour a beer…) It’s even more than you need. Overflowing is accurate, I think. Life to the brim and beyond.” Other colleagues have suggested “life in excess” (too reminiscent of INXS, to me) and life@full (or even life@full+).

The theme of “life overflowing” commends itself for several reasons.

John 10:10 is, of course, a much-loved text in itself. But the theme of God’s gift of and sovereignty over life is central to the Biblical witness. God’s breath or Spirit gives life to human beings and every living thing (Genesis 2:7, Psalm 104:29-30). The Law is given as a call to “choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19). Christ is proclaimed as “the bread of life” (John 6:33-35) and “the word of life” (1 John 1:1-2), and following him together is true life (Romans 6:4, 8:6; Colossians 3:3-4). The vision of the consummation of God’s mission is of “the river of life” and a whole avenue of “the tree of life”, for the sake of which Adam and Eve had been expelled from the garden (Revelation 22:1-2; Genesis 3:22-24).

“Life overflowing” also has resonances with the theme of the Twelfth Assembly, “living water – thirsty land”. There is an obvious link between “life overflowing” and the Assembly policy “An Economy of Life”. This would present opportunities to keep that policy before the church. This will be especially important as the Australian National Development Index project begins to roll out during 2013.

Comments

[steve]

This fits with some advertising advice courtesy of Gruen Transfer. More on my blog :) www.emergentkiwi.org.nz

[Andrew]

Thanks for the link, Steve. I remember the episode. A free tutorial on marketing the Gospel, courtesy of "your ABC". Now that was worth every one of the "eight cents a day"!