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Story
There was an old man living in the desert who served God for so many years and he said, "Lord, let me know if I have pleased you." He saw an angel who said to him, "You have not yet become like the gardener in such and such place." The old man marveled and said, "I will go off to the city to see both him and what it is that he does that surpasses all my work and toil of all these years."...
So he went to the city and asked the gardener about his way of life.... When they were getting ready to eat in the evening, the old man heard people singing in the streets, for the cell of the gardener was in a public place. Therefore the old man said to him, "Brother, wanting as you do to live according to God, how do you remain in this place and not be troubled when you hear them singing these songs?"
The man said, "I tell you, Abba, I have never been troubled or scandalized." When he heard this the old man said, "What, then, do you think in your heart when you hear these things?" And he replied, "That they are all going into the Kingdom." When he heard this, the old man marveled and said, "This is the practice which surpasses my labor of all these years."
—www.thenazareneway.com
Comments
How we see other persons, especially those unlike us, says much about how we are growing into the likeness of Christ. Therefore, a Christian is better defined not by how she relates to those who confess Christ explicitly but those who do not.
What would the world be like if all persons of differing religious faiths sought truly and graciously to love all other persons, not just love persons of religious faith? However, is this not the essence of the teaching of the Gospel?
St. John 1 speaks of the “light.” The Gospel reads,
“In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (St. John 1.4, ESV)
First, let us consider the “in him.” This is the Word (Logos), in and with God, in the beginning (v. 1). However, “beginning” can refer to God. God is the beginning before time, or Eternal Life. “Beginning” can refer to “before time.” However, beginning cannot refer to an extension of time prior to creation, for time is a movement, or sequence, within creation and one with space; creation manifests space-time.
The Logos is the wholeness of what manifests as male and female. Therefore, the Word is not, eternally, male alone but incarnates in space-time as male. Jesus Christ is a historical man, or the Son of Man (i.e., humankind). The Logos idea appears in Greek and Stoic philosophy as the universal power, mind, or intelligence giving order to the universe. This term has given rise to what is called in Christianity “Logos Christology.” That is, Jesus begins with the Logos and is the incarnation of the Logos.
There is no discontinuity between the Logos, or Son of God, and the Christ, the Son of Man. Therefore, all truth, before the Incarnation and since, arises from the Word. Therefore, to be in Christ and to be the Body of Christ is to live in truth. To be in Christ is to seek and live for truth. Likewise, in the Word, eternally, is the seminal unity of all truth that arises in time as truths. Therefore, no truth can be separate from the Word, from Jesus Christ.
“In him” cannot, then, relate to a spatial Reality. “Beginning” has no time-space. The Word is eternally omnipresent, or all pervading. Within this Reality, this Word, and now known in the resurrected Christ, is “life.”
In the Gospel of St. John “life” is a quality of life. The Word, Jesus Christ, offers a distinctive kind of life. In Christ is not mere existence: existence, too, pertains to sequential movement in space-time. In Jesus Christ we are offered the enjoyment of Eternal Life. In Christ we are offered the blessing of a life not confined within the logic and limitations of sequential procession. We, in Christ, while in time, transcend time, through life.
Possibly, we have an example of this life in the witness of persons aging. Likely, we have heard of persons say something like the following, “My body is growing old, but I feel young inside.” Also, persons get to a point of wanting to pass on from the body, to die, and are certain that life continues. Life does continue, the “life” in the Word, Christ. For that in the Word cannot discontinue. To enjoy eternal life is to be reconciled to this life consciously and through Grace. Why through Grace? For we, not participating directly by being in the Trinity, do not possess the insight or power to gain this life. Therefore, Grace implies that we each are derivative beings, while the Word is being. Being encompasses beings and, thus, we only enjoy life through invitation and enablement from Grace, at one with Being:
9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people [or things, creatures] did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God [i.e., derived being of Being]. (ESV)
The life was the light of men, or of everyone. Therefore, the life and light inhere in the Word eternally where all creation exists in seminal, or seed, form and manifests in space-time. This light pertains to reason as a faculty of the spirit. The enjoyment of life and the discernment of life are one in Christ. Therefore, the very reason that allows one to get even a glimpse of truth is from Grace.
But, does everyone receive this light? Yes. In the Incarnation, the Word, as the Word became male, so the Word expresses the inherent life and light outwardly. Therefore, this implies that the intuition of a Reality corresponding to the idea “God” derives from the revelation of the Word in human nature.
9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. (ESV)
Therefore, the Early Church taught logos spermatikos, Greek for “germinal word, seed word.” The great apologist Justin Martyr (c. 100-165) used the term to express that each human being is joined with God by means of reason and, therefore, may consciously know God apart from special revelation and could have known God prior to the incarnation of the Word, Jesus Christ.
Why the incarnation of the Word as Jesus Christ, if persons have an inherent germinal word? I would not even dare present some proposed over-all theory of this Mystery. But, we get indicators in the Gospel, as well as in human reason.
In Christ Jesus, we can rightly assume, the Eternal One chose to communicate more clearly and fully with creation. Scripture shows a Reality that moves from generality to specificity. This is vital. I may say, “I love the world,” but there is in Love a longing to enjoy an intimate and thorough knowing of another person. To have a seed of the light speaks of the potential to know the light through other revelation more fully. Likewise, it indicates that great philosophers and religious teachers before and after the Incarnation are instrumental in preparing many persons for a fuller revelation that is specifically Christian in form and content, one centered in Jesus Christ.
While radical pluralists assume such specificity is exclusionary, such is not the case. Rather, such specificity focuses the general and is invitational, not exclusionary. Inhering in God is no exclusion. The Incarnation is not an exclusionary act, but it is an invitational act. In Love does not inhere exclusion; however, in Love is a call for specificity. I appreciate the historical Buddha, and I appreciate the Buddha as a great teacher and philosopher, for example, who is Christlike to the extent that he lived and witnessed to the Word, fully manifested in Jesus Christ. Much in the teachings of the Buddha agree with the Gospel teachings of Jesus Christ, as each addresses eternal principles. And, this applies to all teachings that share a witness to the Word, wherever the teaching derives from.
However, eternal principles are not enough; in the Gospel, the Word, the Reality in which, or whom, the eternal principles derive, becomes a person in space-time. That is both the Mystery of the Christian faith and the stumbling block for those who cannot grasp such specificity as of Love.
Therefore, today, I challenge those who follow Christ Jesus to two matters. First, a joyful, even if mystified, acceptance and living the Incarnation. The Christian is to celebrate and witness to the specificity of Christ Jesus. This can be done without any judgment toward persons in other faith traditions. Second, to a celebration and honoring of the seed expression of light found among all peoples, faiths, and philosophies. The Christian, knowing the fullness of the special revelation in the Incarnation, is prepared by that to rejoice in the truth wherever the light is found among us.
The Abba in the opening story exemplifies the compassionate insight of the spiritual Christian. Let us do the same. If we do, then, Christianity can become a major force in modeling the compassionate insight and graciousness that is essential for the world religions to be leaders in resolving the major challenges of societal patterns like war and poverty. We, religious and nonreligious, can agree on the light given through the Word, to the extent we can agree, and work together in Love. That compassion begins with each one of us, or it will not begin. Let it begin with you, every day.
Reflection
What did you learn from the above writing?
What did you agree with?
What did you disagree with?
What does it mean to say that God moves from generality to specificity? What evidences do you find for that in the Christian Scripture?
What is the relationship between the Word, Jesus Christ, and other faiths and philosophies?
Spiritual Exercise
Meet a person of a different faith than your own. Seek to understand where she and you agree and disagree. Invite the person for you to share a time of prayer together.
Consider attending a worship meeting of another faith.
Ask your pastor or priest or spiritual leader to consider inviting someone from another faith tradition to share with your faith community about her faith tradition and possible means of cooperation between the two faiths in community outreach.
Each morning, dedicate all the members of your body to the use of the Sacred One. Name parts of the body, including the tongue, the ears, the hands, the feet, the brain, the eyes, …
Make sure you have a sacred space in your home for time alone in prayer and spiritual reading.
Make sure you are in a covenant group. For more information on covenant groups, write me at the address below.
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
Brian’s book An Ache For Union can be purchased at major book dealers.
To contact Brian, write briankwilcox@comcast.net .
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