A friend of mine was recently telling a story about her college age son. I knew that she and her family had drifted from the church for a variety of reasons…some of them pretty good. Some of us may be wrestling with similar reasons ourselves. At one point in her story, as a sideline filler, she said very nonchalantly “and well, of course my Son doesn’t believe in Jesus.”
I remember this comment because she really made belief in Jesus sound so passe’…so “last week.” She and her son, in her words are “spiritual, but not religious.” People who believe in God but not Jesus as God.
Now I’m all for a mature respect for people’s experience and beliefs. It is right and good that we seek and foster all that is common among the great religious traditions and promote what unites us not what divides. But, it got me thinking, what is so distinctive about being Christian anyway? Not in a judgmental, circle-the-wagons, exclusionary kind of way, but rather, concretely, how would the way I look at things and understand my purpose in life change if I didn’t believe in Jesus.
For me, the answer is: Sacrament, and, related, our belief in the incarnation that is the foundation to our practice of the sacraments. Our understanding of sacramentality is something I (personally) could not NOT believe. It is something that connects me irrevocably to the person of Jesus.
“In 100 words or less, we think of the incarnation this way; in the beginning God created the world and everything in it, concluding with humanity. But humanity soon strayed and God, in his mercy decided to come be with us, as the infant Jesus, in our own history to show us the way. Jesus was with us for 33 years revealing God’s nature, teaching great truths, healing people, working miracles, but was eventually falsely accused, arrested, crucified and died. He rose from the dead, spent 40 days helping his disciples adjust to this new reality, and then ascended into heaven.” - Ron Rolheiser
But the story doesn’t end there. We don’t’ believe that the incarnation is something that began in Bethlehem and ended on the cross. But rather, it continues in us. We are now the physical body of Christ, the hands and feet of Christ, continuing God’s mission. And our Sacraments, preeminently the Eucharist, are physical signs and rituals that both celebrate and reveal the on-going presence of Christ among us. To close, a story…
3000 Kings sat in succession on a high marble throne on the eastern gate of a great powerful city. All of them called upon God to appear so that they might see him, but all went to their graves with their wish unfulfilled. After the kings had all died and the city had fallen into shambles, a pauper, barefooted and hungry, came and sat upon that throne.
“God,” he whispered, “the eyes of a human being cannot look directly at the sun, for they would be blinded. So, of course, I know I cannot look directly at you…Have pity Lord, temper your strength…turn down your splendor so that I, who am poor and afflicted may see you.”
Then God came as a piece of bread….a cup of cool water…. the oil of healing and a warm tunic offered by a friend, a small hut for shelter and in front of the hut sat a woman nursing an infant. “Thank you Lord, the pauper whispered, you humbled yourself for my sake that I might see you…and I do see you…and I bow down to your beauty and truth.”
No comments:
Post a Comment