The
angel appearances and messages remind us that our Christmas sanctuary is about meeting
God in the flesh. God loves this world
and everything in it so passionately, so immensely, that God showed us who God
was in the flesh and blood of a tiny baby.
That’s our party line…but, what
that exactly means - how that exactly happens…well, that falls into the
neighboring sanctuary of Mystery. I don’t have any scientific data on the
matter. I just know that when I think about it, when I contemplate it,
something very deep and very authentic stirs within me.
We
love Christmas, because in its deepest, holiest part – we somehow can find
ourselves in the sanctuary where we are reminded that God can be met face to
face. For me this is a possibility because
I believe we’re made of the same stuff.
I believe God and me…and all of us… are deeply and truly connected. We’re all the same stuff. But, it’s easy to think we’re not. Our individual lives are like islands poking
up above the surface of an immense ocean. If we can’t see other islands, we
feel isolated…and even if we do see other islands, we still feel autonomous
within ourselves. It usually takes a
pretty hefty canoe to paddle over to the nearby island and say hi. Yet, deep beneath the surface of the water,
the stuff of all the islands – the earth’s crust, still connects everything.
The islands aren’t separated at all..it’s just that the bowls we call oceans,
are holding the water and covering up the ways we are connected.
And,
since you are reading my blog, I’ll let you in on a little of my Christology
that lies a bit beyond the standard doctrines.
Jesus wasn’t the only one that incarnated God. Jesus was the revealer of how we ALL incarnate
God. Remember…we’re all the same
stuff. The baby-boy-in-a-manger who grew
up to be the teacher-rabbi-savior was exactly the same stuff as you and
me. That’s why no matter what I’m
feeling at the moment – the lowest lows or the highest highs, I can think about
what I know of him and usually figure out something
– some perspective, some wisdom, some compassion, some grace that relates
to me. I can’t think of any other one
person that does that for me. You may
have someone or something else…the Buddha, Mohammed, the cycles and seasons of
the earth…whatever. But,
whatever/whoever it is, it can show us God face to face. We’re all the same
stuff. To me, it less important that
somehow, in some inexplicable way, God incarnated in the person of Jesus of
Nazareth, than it is centrally important that God incarnates – every moment of every day in everything and everyone. We are not left alone in our islands of isolation.
To
me, that is some good news.
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