Truth?

Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?"
Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
Pilate asked him, "What is truth?"
John 18:37-38


What is truth? Here's (oh, you'll never guess who I'm gonna quote) Nouwen on the matter:

"Jesus sends us the Spirit so that we may be led to the full truth of the divine life. Truth does not mean an idea, concept or doctrine, but the true relationship. To be led into the truth is to be led into the same relationship that Jesus has with the Father; it is to enter into a divine betrothal." (Making All Things New 54)

Gives "The truth will set you free" all new meaning, eh?

Ordinary Sacraments...again.

Ohhh....another quote from Nouwen: "When God took on flesh in Jesus Christ, the uncreated and the created, the eternal and the temporal, the divine and the human became united. This unity meant that all that is mortal now points to the immortal, all that is finite now points to the infinite. In and through Jesus all creation has become like a splendid veil, through which the face of God is revealed to us.This is called the sacramental quality of the created order. All that is is sacred because all that is speaks of God's redeeming love. Seas and winds, mountains and trees, sun, moon, and stars, and all the animals and people have become sacred windows offering us glimpses of God."

In a time of worship last night - alone - I was graced with one of those experiences of...just knowing His love. Reading in John 1 (such an amazing expression of His love) this morning, in the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible, the footnotes asked: How does it impact the way we live out our creation to recognize it as the work not only of the Father, but of the entire trinity?

God the Father shows great love in creating us. And I am in no way trying to "down-play" this role....but I am particularly struck by the roles of God the Son and God the Spirit, The expression of God's love though the Incarnation communicates the great worth of our flesh-and-bone existence. Our lives here and now are not worthless, but priceless. The deep expression of love and trust in sending the Holy Spirit (thus designating us as the ongoing incarnation of Christ in the world - go chew on that for a while) adds infinitely more to the reality of Jesus' life on earth. Drolling through our lives with a religious emphasis on "heaven when we die" or on the "rapture," and overlooking the beauty and value of life here and now, regardless of the filth and pain that often comes with it...is an insult to His love for us!

If we really believed this...how would it change the ways we engage in life on a day to day basis?

From the IJM...

Dateline NBC this evening will feature a special update on IJM undercover work in Svay Pak, Cambodia that resulted in the rescue of 37 girls. The Dateline NBC story, entitled “Children for Sale,” originally aired in January 2004 and has received significant airtime as well as two Emmy awards.
Tonight’s update will include a new interview with Gary Haugen as well as interviews with several of the young girls rescued by IJM in the original raids.

9pm EDT/PDTDateline NBC
Please watch and spread the word to friends who may be new to IJM!

Gratefully– International Justice Mission


P.S. Feel free to visit www.ijm.org/presscenter for previous Dateline NBC footage along with recent IJM media coverage. For more information surrounding the Svay Pak operation, please read Terrify No More by Gary Haugen.

I complete Christ?!

Further thoughts on the Incarnation....

Mom and I are (working on) memorizing the first chapter of Colossians. We were going over the verses on our walk yesterday morning (or was it the day before?), up to verse 23. Then we read ahead to get an idea of where we'd be going next.....and discovered this:

" I am now rejoicing in my suffereings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. (v. 24)

Completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions????????? This is saying, in other words, that Christ's suffering on the cross is incomplete...and we have what it takes to complete it?
And in John 15.....there's a vine and a branch. Apart from the vine, the branch dies - but can a vine bear much fruit without the branch?

If I weren't reading it directing out of my Bible, I might call this heresy! But I am...and it's not.

I (can) complete Christ...the Incarnation. God - almighty creator and ruler of the universe, omnipotent, omnipresent (and all the other "omni's"!) - needs me. Not because he is weak, incompetent, or otherwise incapable...but because this is how he chooses to love me. By involving me in this mystery of the Incarnation - even making me indispensable to the "project"!

Can this be true.....or am I having delusions of grandeur?

Christians or Theists?

The mystery, the reality of the incarnation is what defines us as Christians. Bring Christ to the world around us, seeing Christ in all things....this is what we are to be about. If its not about this, we are only theists, believing in a God who is aloof and "out there." A Christian life is an incarnational life. Richard Rohr says that either we see Christ in all things....or we see him in nothing.

God...with skin.

Ronald Rolheiser, in The Holy Longing, explores what he calls the "under understood" mystery of the incarnation:

"The incarnation is not a thirty-three year experiment by God in history, a one-shot, physical incursion into our lives. The incarnation began with Jesus and it has never stopped. The ascension of Jesus did not end, not fundamentally change, the incarnation. God's physical body is still among us. God is still present, as physical and as ready today, as God was in the historical Jesus. God still has skin, human skin, and physically walks on this earch just as Jesus did (The Holy Longing, p 79)."

This physical body is us. You and me. Here on this planet...We are the Body of Christ.

What are the practical effects of this incarnation on our spirituality?
(Note: A theist is a person who believes in God; a Christian is one who believes in a God who is incarnate. Thus a theist would not be much affected practically by the incarnation; a Christian is defined by it.)
I am sure the practical implications are countless....Rolheiser names eight....and I've only read the first one: how we should pray. If we am the continued incarnation of the Christ spirit, and we pray through Jesus Christ (or in his name), "not only God in heaven is being petitioned and asked to act. We are also charging ourselves, as part of the Body of Christ, with some responsibility for answering the prayer. To pray as a Christian demands concrete involvement in trying to bring about what is pleaded for in the prayer (p 83)."

We are to be God with skin to the people around us. We pray for people and situations...but we do not leave it at that. We look for very real ways to be part of the answer to our own prayer.

Make sense?

This brings to mind a recent "experiment" Mom and I did in Kidz Church a few weeks ago. We were starting on our compassion ("social justice tradition") series....and sat everyone, including ourselves, in a big circle. Everyone was given a card that said, "This week I will pray every day for _____. S/he has asked that I pray for __________." Everyone wrote the name of the person on their right in the first blank; that person's request in the second. Mom was being prayed for by an 8-year-old girl, fairly new to the group but very attentive. She promised to pray every day that Mom would have new ideas for her artwork. Later that week, we held our mid-week gathering out at the Cedar Creek picnic area/campground. This little girl came with her mother....and brought a big, thick book of great art ideas and gave it to Mom.
She had been praying....and she became part of the answer to her own prayer. This is how the incarnation brings life to our prayers.