|
In the 2003 “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” after escaping Shelob, Frodo, and Sam begin the final leg of their quest. Frodo and Sam lie exhausted on the slopes of Mt. Doom. Sam encourages Frodo by reminding him of the Shire, the beautiful home to which they long to return. Sam recounts for Frodo how spring has come, and how the planting of the barley is coming and the sweetness of the first fruits of the strawberries with cream. Frodo is spent, however. He tells Sam that he can no longer taste food, hear the sound of water, or even feel the grass. Frodo is completely absorbed by the power of the Ring. "There's nothing. No veil between me and the eye of fire. I can see him with my waking eyes!," says Frodo. Sam urges, "Then let us be rid of him, once and for all! Come on, Mr. Frodo. I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you! Come on!" Sam, then, bends down, picks up Frodo, and placing one foot in front of the other, slowly makes his way up the mountain toward the cracks of fire, with Frodo holding the ring to be placed, finally, in the fire, to free that world of its evil power.
Spiritual community can take place on a universal scale, or it can be between two persons. Spiritual community is mirrored in terms like “synagogue,” “church,” “sangha,” “mosque,” “covenant group,” "family," "soul mates," "marriage," "one flesh," … These terms testify to a universal longing and search for intimate, spiritual togetherness. Likewise, the concept “Body of Christ” is an evocative image of a unity realized little by little in the concrete circumstances of our everyday world.
|
|
This "Body of Christ" is not "Body of Christianity" or "Body of the church," anymore than it is "Body of Islam" or "Body of Buddha," rather, this "Body of Christ" is the loving union our common Creator calls all humans to, a union embodied in Jesus Christ and actualized through the this-world means present to us on this earth. This union will transcend the politics and religion that divide humans appealing to the divine right of state and religion, masking the fear of losing "personal" and "group" power to a larger Whole of Love. What I write about today allows no spiritualized escape to dreamy dreams of another time and place. And, generally, what I write about seems far from the minds of popular Christianity and popular, majority, right-wing politics in our culture.
I have witnessed how congregates in churches can fear and seek to sabotage pastoral efforts to model the vulnerability required for intimate spiritual communion. Indeed, many congregations, as is true of our culture, associate strength with invulnerability, not vulnerability. Jesus, however, provides us another model, one we need to recall as we are nearing Holy Week, and one held in high esteem in Christian tradition from the early Church until now:
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.(Isaiah 53.7, ESV)
Continued... |
