January 24, 2010: Epiphany 3
We hear today that God has become one of us, and our deepest needs are being met by God in Jesus Christ. For us as a church though, how well we live into this truth is something for us to consider. For God in Jesus Christ is willing to be a part of our world, our fallen and broken creation. Our response is to make the Christ the center of our world. How we go about recognizing and living into a Christ centered world is the challenge for us in our daily lives, our worship lives, and ultimately in the totality of our existence.
Jesus declares that he is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. If the eyes of those in the synagogue began that day blind to this truth, then upon hearing Jesus’ proclamation those who believed were opened to this new light, this good news now in the world. Those unable to have their eyes opened to this news remained blind, left in the dark to the truth that stood before them. God no longer would live separated from his creation. His favor, once only a prophecy and a prayer, was now made real. God embodied, enfleshed, incarnate stood before them then and now us.
This incredible light and truth is something we as faith-followers meditate on as part of our spiritual journeys. We never fully can grasp this truth, that God, the creator and lover of all creation, became a part of creation. It would be like the potter becoming part of the pot, the weaver part of the tapestry, the carpenter a part of the house. It does not make sense to us. Theologically though it is essential, and even more as part of the Israelite prophecy God becoming human is the proof. No matter what happens to us in this mortal life, God is with us. God is willing to be human.
In response to God’s willingness to be human, we place this God in the center of our world. Into the milieu of human life we try our best to center ourselves and our communities on God. The phrase “Christ Centered” tries to capture this desire of ours. Christ Centered means that we know that God’s calling to us is primary, that God’s mission for us is first for us, and that where we end up is ultimately in God’s hands as well. Our entire lives, both individually and corporately, are entirely found in God, who creates us, sends us forth, and through the grace of God in Christ ultimately receives us back, no matter our faults and failings. Our whole existence is fully grounded in God.
Hence Jesus’ title “The Christ”, the anointed, the Messiah. Yes the term Messiah has changed meaning over time. The Israelites first believed that the Messiah would be an ‘ultimate warrior’, who would restore the Israelite people through Earthly victory. We have since learned that God’s plan for his Messiah leads to a remarkably different victory, for to God earthly victory is worth little. Victory for God is over death itself, over the sin that leads to death itself. Victory for God is redemption from human failings and faults, and this is the victory that Christ leads us to. Not a victory on human terms in human time frames, but it is to victory on God’s terms in God’s time frame that The Christ leads us. Being Christ Centered means being centered on the one who leads us through to God’s understanding, even if we never fully understand God’s mind.
Yet as we try to live into a Christ Centered life, we are challenged to make the mystery of God’s victory a reality for our day to day lives, and here is where we run into difficulty. As much as meditating on the incredible nature of Christ’s actions for us in God’s eyes is difficult (who ever fully understands salvation anyway), so too is living a life that honors Jesus’ work, a life with the Christ at its center.
Over the past several years a research project has been studying Episcopal Identity. This project has recently begun releasing some data, and several folks have begun drawing out some conclusions and reflections from this wealth of conversations, surveys, and analysis. If you want to see one such reflection, the Episcopal Church’s website has downloadable copies of a document called “Around One Table”, written by VTS professor David Gortner. In it the Rev. Dr. Gortner pulls out some of the core identity phrases of Episcopalians and wouldn’t you know but the top choice is that we are “Christ Centered”. Not that other church’s are not Christ Centered, but that we recognize this is one of the central concepts to our understanding of what the life of the Episcopal church. Other central concepts include of course our beloved BCP, Scripture, Sacraments, and another fuzzy theological term “Incarnational”. But again, number one on our list is Christ Centered. Yet the data and analysis from the Identity Project indicated that there is wide disagreement over just what this phrase “Christ Centered” means. Three general understandings emerged. One, that Christ Centered means that we place the Eucharist, the sharing of Christ’s body and blood, at the center of our worship lives. Another understanding of Christ centered is that of Christ drawing all to himself, no matter what might separate humans. Radical inclusiveness then becomes the act of a Christ Centered community. And the third understanding that emerged from the analysis is that of living a holy life, in that if Christ is the center of our lives, then we should live Christ life lives.
In summary, we have three branches of understanding Christ Centeredness. Communion, Inclusion, and Holiness. Seems simple then to pursue these three avenues of centering our lives on Christ! Yet what happens when we try to decide what a holy life consists of? Do we not find ourselves deciding who is and is not being holy, thus being a little less inclusive? And what of pursuing Communion as central, do we then find ourselves disregarding how we live out the rest of our days when we are apart from the table? In fact, pursuing any of these avenues for living into a Christ Centered life lead to conflict with others!
The desire to live Christ centered lives, instead of providing security and contentment, drives us to tear ourselves apart, for in trying to run the race completely in any one direction we end up tearing away part of what it means to be Christ centered.
And yet, this very tearing apart is Christ centered in itself. Christ announcing the truth of what he is in that synagogue was every bit as important to the story as Jesus’ choice to hang on the Cross. The life of one called into Christ Centeredness is every bit as dicey as the life that Jesus led himself. Boldly proclaiming the truth of God’s light in the world even as that light is being torn apart by that very mission. If not for the blessing of Christ’s action in God’s eyes and in the precious food he provides us day to day living a Christ Centered life would be impossible. The Good News of Christ is not a comfort or a blanket, but a calling to a life torn apart and remade, not in human terms of safety and peace but in God’s eternal plan for salvation and peace. This is the peace we share, that passes our understanding. This is the joy we celebrate as God announces his light to the world, this is the Christ Centered life we share.
