Sometimes we think about Christ dwelling in us
It’s a nice thought
The idea of the sacred camping out in our souls!
The secret is this !!!
Christ in us
But more often than not Paul (and others)
Talk about us being in Christ
It’s an interesting dichotomy
Is it more a matter of the transcendent being imminent,
or is it a matter of us participating in
becoming one with
something massively bigger than ourselves?
There is a danger in the first concept
Jesus and me!!
Jesus in me
Jesus is mine
It’s all about me!
I know we don’t have to go there
But we do!
We hear it all the time.
“It could have been awful, but it turned out good! That’s MY God.”
Yep, God came in and took care of things for me!!
There is truth in the reality that the Sacred makes a
difference.
But I struggle with the idea
That Sacred chooses to help one person and abandon
another
Faith seems to have nothing to do with it.
Good faithful people have horrible things happen to them
Awful people flourish.
Is it a private collaboration?
Or think about the phrase that is often uttered
Sometimes shouted
“God Bless America”
God bless US
God bless ME
There is something wrong here.
Something that takes us (thank you Brian McLaren)
Into the world of US
It’s us (God and us) against the world!
God is in us
With us
For us
And therefore we are protected, blessed, empowered
And you?
Not so much
Not if you aren’t one of US
How soon we forget it is not about US
Not about our wisdom or righteousness
Not about our creeds
It is about Jesus
Who is in ALL, and over ALL
And so perhaps it is better to think of Being in Jesus
To see ourselves as participating in something greater
To have our own little (teeny, tiny) selves broken open
Expanded
We are part of a whole
All creation
All people
We are in Christ
And thus we not only participate in Christ
But in one another
It is like a spiritual “big bang”
Where our souls go “boom”
And newness happens
And reality expands outward
And just keeps getting bigger and bigger
World without end
Amen
I love the idea of being “in Christ”
More than the idea of being “in Christianity”
Or “in Islam” or “in Judaism”
Or
(thanks again to Brian McLaren in Why did Jesus, Moses,
the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road)
Yes Christ comes to me
But comes not to merely camp out in my soul
But to break open my soul
So that I am open not only to God,
But to all those around me
McLaren quotes a Jewish friend who was reflecting on the
current situation between Israel and the Palestinians. He believed that Jesus came to the Jews and
that the church was born among Jews. But
that some, in wisdom, understood that Jesus came to blow apart the walls that
divide, and thus the faith moved out of the confines of Judaism.
But the key lines in this Jew’s missive were these: “Jesus as a Jew came as a reformer, as one
challenging who “Us” had become. So
that’s why we need Jesus today. I mean
we Jews need Jesus. Not to become
Christians but to become better Jews”
I think we need to be in Jesus
To be better Christians too
We’ve got too much “me”
Too much “us” in our faith
This faith pushes us out of our safe little rooms
Out of our armed encampments
Into the world
The Spirit, like wind and fire
Drives us out
To intermingle with all
Welcome all
Work with all
Love all
Do I believe Christ is in me?
Yes
But more, I believe I am in Christ
That the Sacred presence I experience connects me
Irrevocably,
To all others
And that I must move beyond a concept of “US”
That denies that Jesus is
Over all and through all and in all
So help us
God
