The Big Idea
The whole Greek philosophy thing that there are perfect images or ideas of things off in some other realm that inform what is here is a bunch of junk. It makes sense enough. Like there is the “perfect” idea of a chair that all actual chairs aspire to. It is inherently a disembodying way of thinking.
God has not revealed himself in some kind of abstract or perfect ideal state. He has always come in the rumble of mountains, the parting of waters, miraculous bread, signs and wonders and the word of the prophets and poets. These things are earthy and vibrant. They have a postcode in a particular place and time. God even comes down himself as a particular man in a particular place.
I think the desire for the perfect ideal is an understandable desire and an acknowledgement of the brokenness of the world as it is. But the goal and direction and telos of things is turned on its head when humans are seeking some kind of escape to a disembodied ideal realm rather than seeking God in the profound revelation He has authored not in the realm of ideas but in the realm of the real and actual. Real people and places and things and experiences that all come into contact with the transcendence of God in a real way. The big picture goal is heaven on earth the reorientation of all things around the city and mountain of God not some ghostly dance into a realm of nothingness. Rather it all has flesh and bones but not the broken kind, not the selfish dying kind. The I want some fish on Easter morning kind of flesh and bones. The flesh and bones of Jesus the bear the mark of His sacrifice and the glory of His exaltation. The raising of earthly bodies into heavily bodies not as an unclothing but as a further fuller clothing of our being in the presence and reality of God.