|
Advent is a rite of passage, preparing for the Christ birth within our hearts, but this sequential process is one Event, eternally. In birthing the Christ Presence, gestation and birthing are one Event. We cannot, spiritually, locate a point of demarcation between the two.
The life of the Church, not as a physical institution, but as spiritual Reality, is a birthing Process of Love. Where Love is, Christ is. Where the Church is, Christ is. If a “church” is not birthing Christ, then, it is not the Church. If a person is not birthing Christ, she might be a “good Christian,” but she is not aligned with the Living Fact of Christ. And, there is a Christless christianity even as there is a Christful Christianity. If a Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, … or atheist is birthing Christ and apart from official declaration of “Christian” belief, then, he is more the Follower of Christ than the “good Christian” who is basically a devoted “church member” but is not birthing Christ. This Christ, of which I speak, cannot and will not be contained within religiousness and its attempts to domesticate the Good, True, and Beautiful to itself, even by claiming divine right. This Christ holds and transcends tradition, in one Eternal Act of Self-Giving, or Self-Emptying in Love.
The means of tradition may or may not serve Christ birthing; rather this birthing prepares and relies on the disposition of the heart of both the individual and the collective. And, if Christ is not born within our hearts, then, the birth of Christ over two millennia ago is not real to us, except as an assumed fact lodged into our brain, like any other idea or concept.
Quote all the scriptures and creeds you want, but I want to know only one thing, “Are you birthing the Christ now, daily?” I have no interest in how good one thinks she is, “Are you birthing the Christ now, daily?” I do not want to hear about personal convictions, “Are you birthing the Christ now, daily?” So what, he attends some “church” and serves on this-and-that committee…: “Are you birthing the Christ now, daily?” So what, one is fundamentalist, conservative, moderate, liberal, even theist or atheist: “Are you birthing the Christ now, daily?”
|
|
I am saying that an unlived Christ, even if held in the deepest conviction of belief, is nothing more than another mentality taking up room in the file cabinet of gray matter. I am saying that when one begins and keeps birthing the Christ, much that goes under the name of church, religion, spirituality, good, right and wrong, … will fade in importance. I am saying persons who are attached to their church, religion, “god,” doing good, beliefs, and personal convictions will not understand you and think you odd that what turns them on no longer turns you on.
See, to birth Christ entails seeing, that is, heart knowing, a difference between being in the church, being good, doing good, standing up for what is right, … and being “in Christ.” Paul addressed true followers of Christ as “in Christ.” He did address individual churches or groups of them as “church at” or “church in,” but when it came to defining a Christian, essentially, he wrote “in Christ.”
So, if you want to have the Advent Spirit, extend your body, open your life, let others hold your hands and help you, and begin struggling with the remnant who know, with a heart knowing, that Christ is more than a pious and heady, acculturated, and churchy religious devotion to a man who lived two millennia ago.
If this writing offended someone, then, possibly, it could serve to awaken him to consider that possibly, just possibly, much that goes under the name of Christ has little to do with the essentiality of following Christ, which means birthing the Christ Presence, living and present, through our lives. If this writing delights you, then, likely, you have caught the Advent Spirit and realize that the sole purpose of life is, in every means given you by God, every relationship, every inspiration, and every aspiration, to bring the Christ Spirit more fully and thoroughly into the common events of everyday life. You, then, likely realize that to do this, Christ being born is a personal, indeed, intensely personal daily experience, happening inside you, where you and Christ abide together as OneLife in God.
|
