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Scripture
Read St. John 3.1-12, with special focus on:
Jesus answered, "Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit." (NAB)
Story
A monk spoke to his abbot, “Father, you do not seem surprised at how some of the brothers' behavior seems so contrary to our belief in Christ.” “Right, I am not surprised,” spoke the abbot. “But why?” inquired the monk. The abbot replied, “Son, because I am neither surprised that the monk living outside Christ will fail to bear the Fruit of Christ nor that the monk living in Christ will bear the Fruit of Christ. Would I be surprised, my son, if an apple tree bears apples and a pear tree pears, as well as a thorn bush thistles? Likewise, for the apple tree to bear pears it would have to born anew as a pear tree, and for a thorn bush to bear oranges it would have to be born again as an orange tree.”
Expecting someone not born anew into Christ to bear the Fruit of the Spirit is as futile as expecting a cow to crow or a crow to low.
Comments
The profound truth of the ancient teaching on being “born again” or “born from above” is one of the deep mystical facts of the true Christian Communion. Sadly, Christian fundamentalism and much conservative Christianity has interpreted this as a private experience, largely in terms of being freed from sin. This anti-traditional Christianity fails, as usual, in the name of biblical fidelity to interpret the theological depths and richness of the Christian faith, as extended to the early Church, or patristic era.
So, what are the depths of “born again” or “born from above” usually missed in the more conservative Christian communions. Precisely this: being “born again” or “born from above” is not principally about freedom from sin, as interpreted generally in such communions (sin as moral failure), but is about something else and much grander on the scale of what God is doing to redeem all creation. And, second, this experience of new birth is not chiefly a matter of the individual at all. And, interpreting such conversion from an individualistic perception unveils a Christian humanism and cultural individualism that has little to do with traditional Christianity and is, in fact, inimical to it. Indeed, the divisions in our churches and in the Church is linked, possibly to a great extent, with the individualizing of the Christian faith and, thereby, uprooting it from its ecclesial nature.
Basically, being born anew and from above is a communal experience, not an individual one. The early Church taught that we take on an ecclesial personhood through being born anew. This personhood is not the individual; rather, it is the person in communion with the whole Body of Christ, the person as equally, with all other persons in the Body, being Christ. The individual is not saved or redeemed; rather, the individual is converted, or translated, to person. Ironically, through Christ, we become Christ, for we are grafted into Christ, not simply grafted onto or beside or with Christ. Each person is person for being part of the Body of Christ, while he or she is the whole Body through the mystical abiding in Christ and Christ in him or her. You might say, “I do not understand this?” Well, you and I are not meant to understand it. This is a mystery, and part of the Mystery of the Christian faith.
So, when I am born again, or born anew, as a process of being joined with the Christ, which means being joined to the Body of Christ, the spiritual Church through the ages past and future, I am able to transcend the limitation of biological individuality. Born once, I am bound to individuality and biological fate. In such individuality, I am a part, but never a whole. In Christ, being the Body of Christ, means I have been born to capacity transcending biological necessity, need, and desire.
The Church has used the Greek word synaxis for this I write of. John D. Zizioulas, an Eastern Orthodox Theologian, speaks of this synaxis as “a community, a network of relations, in which man ‘subsists’ in a manner different from the biological as a member of the body which transcends every exclusiveness of a biological or social kind.” Therefore, only in being an ecclesial, or in-Christ, body do we make sense of when the terms “‘father,’ ‘brother,’ etc., lose their biological exclusiveness and reveal … relationships of free and universal love.” (Being as Communion)
The implications of Zizioulas’ statement is profound for present churches and all seeking the Christ of Love and Unity.
1. Only in Christ, as part of a unitive body of Christ, being Christ, do we have the capacity and gift of escaping the constrictions of biological necessity and its ramifications of a relationship kind with persons and other creatures. But, indeed, to be one of the pneumatikoi, the “spiritual ones” of whom St. Paul refers in the New Testament, means a person is a being-person pilgrimage and growing into the likeness of Christ, which is capacity and consciousness to love beyond biological necessity, preference, or conditions. This love is not simply an emotional affection; this love is the extension of personhood to others and the world, including nonhuman species. Simply put, outside of being Christ, you and I can never love like Christ, or extend ourselves as Christ; that is, our love, even our most noble efforts at loving, will arise from biology, not Christ, and, thus, cannot transcend to be universal love.
2. Being ecclesial, meaning being eucharistic, or being Christ (that is, the Body of Christ in relation with all others in that Body) is not merely equivalent to being a member of the Christian religion or a Christian church. Indeed, the Church is not a building with membership on the corner of any street. To an extent, hopefully, large extent, that valid and essential institution of church is an expression of the whole Body of Christ in that local community. But, how do we witness the true Body of Christ, as opposed to religion or pure cultural institution?
3. The Fruit of the Spirit is evidence of the presence of the Body of Christ, of Christ, and its absence is the loss of any right to speak of being Body of Christ. Consistent dedication to and growth in the Fruit of the Spirit will always accompany the true expression of Christ, the Body of Christ. What is the Fruit? ... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness (generosity), faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
4. Now, we connect this to the transcending and synergistic energy of synaxis. Only in the relational context of Body of Christ, Trinitarian synaxis, can the Fruit of the Spirit be consistently practiced and matured in. Why? Because a consistent evidence of and growth in this Fruit cannot derive from mere biological capability or potentiality, and, so, is the failure of every form of secular humanism and merely mere Christian humanism.
Therefore, being born again, or born from above, is a second birth. In this birth you and I are gifted with the potential and capability to be Christ, that is part of the Body of Christ, and, thus, be Christlike. I can attend a church all my life, read Scripture daily, pray daily, but I can do all those things from biological need, necessity, and impulse. And, to identity the Christ Way with such religious biology is a reducing of the transformation of Christ in us to Christ serving our fleshly, or self-securing and indulging, appetites. We are, then, living in the “flesh,” not in the “Spirit.” In the Spirit, you and I are no longer seeing, interpreting, loving, giving, receiving, forgiving, enduring, praying, … within the limits of biology, the first birth of water: that is, the womb. We are born again, not to repair the first birth, but to transcend it and take it up into a second: of the Spirit.
The teaching on “individual” salvation is not a true teaching of the Church. Salvation is to personhood, person being in synaxis, and synaxis being the Body of Christ, and being that Body means losing individuality. In Christ, there are persons, outside Christ are individuals. Individuals cannot consistently manifest the Fruit of the Spirit; persons are inclined to and want consistently to live the Fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, entire churches are transformed when enough persons think and behave as persons, new creatures in Christ who want to and do transcend, through Grace and surrender to Grace, the dictates and weakness of biological nature, or the first birth nature.
Reflection
Did the above writing challenge any of your thoughts on being born again? … Christian? … Church? Explain.
What does it mean to be the Body of Christ?
What is the difference between religion in the name of Christ and the religion of Christ?
Spiritual Exercise
Read and prayerfully reflect on passages in the New Testament that speak of the Church being the Body of Christ. Consider the following question, “How might I be a better witness to the Body of Christ in the world?”
Consider, if you are not already, sponsoring a child through Compassion International. You can find out more about Compassion International by going to www.compassion.net to read about sponsoring, in the name of Jesus, children living in poverty. Thanks! Brian K. Wilcox
To contact Brian, write briankwilcox@comcast.net .
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