I am aware our ancient ancestors readily accepted that the supernal transcendent could and did immerse itself, incarnate itself, in the world, from the plenitude of forms Zeus acquired in pursuit of beauties, to Alexander, Caesar, and Jesus of Nazareth. All of these divine manifestations in the flesh bespeak of an encounter with extraordinary and realigning power in some form; only the last impacts decisively the spiritual vision of humanity.
We are not the society of our predecessors. Adamantine or literalist dogmatics may enrapture certain hearts, but such slam the door closed in the face of many without either need or reason. While we each have the right to cherish the visions of a heart’s desire, we as church have the duty to remove from ourselves all but Christ, and proclaim him in the language of the world to the world. Let us all be well aware of this: we are not called to define either God or Jesus Christ, but to put on Christ, to be Christ, the agent of God understood as loving creator. Jesus Christ is not for me, not for many, a metaphysical statement about “the being of God incarnate in a man”, but about the valuation of a man, the self-valuation of a man, the aspiration of a man, to be to his world, his time and place, a godly, a god-filled being, a force of creativity, of enfolding and infolding embrace, of healing and healthful love. I do not deny the metaphysical statements validity, but they are, at best, ancillary to our mission.
The scriptures depict Jesus ascended to God precisely that we may stop looking up to and at him, so we may get on with the mission of carrying on the good news that the work of Christ continues until the world is saturated (in the ancient cultic terminology, baptized) into the very life of God. To that end, my prayer today and every day is that every heart, mind, and soul the world round will embrace the name and gospel of Christ, that every man, woman, child will be to his time and place the presence, the focus, the force of divine creative love.
I have no illusions about the inherent, the incarnate, limitations of that mission, that vocation. We cannot be there creatively and lovingly to and for all. Neither could Jesus. There will always be scoffers of one style or another, always battlements, demons, powers, issues that defy all but the very depths and heights of all we can summon. Thus, we, poor in spirit, must always humbly admit that others poor in spirit, in vision, in body, in mind, in estate, will always be with us. We are called to carry on the name and work of Christ, to nurture creation toward its maturation, not to complete it. There are times when even the most ardent will need to step back and recognize the lack of facility and faculty to deal with an issue or a person. Some things, Jesus discerned, are cast out only with fasting and prayer, only by stepping away in body and soul and allowing room for a strategic realignment of focus and force.
Christianity begins with the proclamation Christ is risen. Christianity continues, not by looking up or back, but out, out into the world, by taking up the mantle of the risen one, and saying: I am here. Christianity continues by looking within and casting aside the amoeba-me endlessly grasping moment by moment for “me”, and in finding that richer self-understanding, that more humble and brilliant valuation of self that says I am here for you, in bowing down in the depths of me, the depths of me anchored in the very well of creation and font of life, to the image of god within.
The church sings Hodie, Christus natus est [Today, Christ is born]. Amen [so let it be] in your heart, in your life.