God loves you by becoming you, taking your side in the inner
dialogue of self-accusation and defense. God loves you by turning your mistakes
into grace, by constantly giving you back to yourself in a larger shape. God
stands with you, not against you, whenever you are tempted to shame or
self-hatred. If your authority figures resorted to threat and punishment, it
can be hard to feel or trust this inner give and take. Remember, the only thing
that separates you from God is the thought that you are separate from God
Richard
Rohr
______________________________________________
What does it mean to take the incarnation seriously?
I mean really!
All that is Sacred coming into all that is Common?
What does it mean to think of the incarnation as
something more
Than a nice story
What does it mean to believe that distinction between the
Sacred
And all things human was blurred, diminished by
The Sacred coming among us?
It means we must understand that the story of Jesus
Is also our story
This is not to insist that Jesus was not, well, Jesus
Unique
But still
Each element of his story become tied with our stories
The story of Mary carrying Jesus
Is the story of us carrying Jesus
It is the call for us to join Mary “into a spirituality
of interior poverty, readiness to conceive, and human vulnerability” (Rohr)
If it remains just his story, is does not change us,
restore us, rebirth us
The story of Jesus being assailed
Rejected
Beaten and killed
Is the story of just how profoundly faith collides with
culture
If it does not collide and challenge culture
It loses much of its power
And we become seduced by culture, compliant to culture,
and we support the unsupportable.
It we do not see the resurrection as not just the story
of Jesus triumph over death
But also as a parable about our journey, our being lifted
out of death
They we may have belief, but we will remain unchanged
(again thanks to Rohr)
And it is all about incarnation
About Jesus coming to be among us
About the Spirit coming to be in us
Another kind of incarnation
Jesus coming into us
The spirit being woven into our very being
God loving us by becoming us
Our beating heart
Our racing pulse when we are afraid
Our heart singing when we are in love
Our brain crashing when we are overwhelm
God is woven in to that person
That one we see in the mirror
God in us
Constantly incarnating
Becoming present
As savior
Lover
Guide
Advocate
Comforter
Changing
Challenging
Moving
Transforming
Reconciling
Making us new
The author of Colossians had it right
The secret is this, Christ in us
Meaning nothing
Not the horrid state of this world
Not a failing planet
Nothing
Can separate us from God
We can ignore the presence
We can be intensely doubtful
We can get caught up in other things
But still
Incarnation
It is how the Sacred works.
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