Colossians 1:15-27
The spirit of unity and reconciliation is one of the important themes
of the New Testament and one which is so necessary and so valuable in our
time. It has also been the overarching theme of Worldwide Communion
Sunday, which, with Christians around the world, we celebrate today.
But to set what I want to say this morning in a very broad context, I
want to go back to the very beginning, if you will. If we read the first
chapter of John's Gospel or the first chapter of Paul's letter to the
Colossians, we find John and Paul talking about how, from the beginning of
time, God has acted in a Christly way, as the Christ Spirit, we sometimes
call it, that aspect of God which reaches out and relates to the universe
and to all living beings.
"In the beginning," says John, "was the Word (the Christ
Spirit) and the Christ Spirit was with God and the Christ Spirit was God,
all things were created through the Christ Spirit." This is one
of the important messages of the New Testament. And then in a certain
time
and place, and in a particular person, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ
Spirit, that was eternal and existed before Jesus of Nazareth, this
Christ Spirit became fully embodied, fully realized, and that's what
we mean when
we speak of the incarnation. And because in Jesus of Nazareth, the
fullness of God's presence as the Christ Spirit was embodied, we, who
are Christians, have reverence for Jesus the Christ as our Lord and
Savior.
This helps us understand the one who is at the center of our faith.
But John and Paul go on and say something very exciting in addition
to all of this. They tell us that the same Christ Spirit that was in
the
beginning, the same Christ Spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth, is
also in us. Paul, for example, speaks of "Christ in us as our hope of
glory." Or in John's Gospel, Jesus says, "In that day you will
know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you…. Those who
love me will keep my word and my Father will love them, and we will
come to them and make our home with them."
Now what does this mean? It means that one of the surest signs of God's
love is that God has created us with an inner space, a divine center,
where the Christ Spirit, where God's Spirit, is present to us.
This past summer, Jeanne and I went down to Louisville, Kentucky,
to the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University and to the Abbey
of
Gethsemane, to take a course on the life and writings of Thomas Merton,
a 20th century mystic, spiritual teacher, social activist, who not
only
experienced deeply, but wrote often about this inner spiritual presence.
In one place he said, "At the center of our being is a divine point
or spark which belongs entirely to God. This is the pure glory of God in
us. It is like the pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of
heaven. It is in everybody. And if we could see it, we would see these
billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of the
sun. It would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely.
I have no program for this seeing, it is only given, but the gate to
heaven is everywhere." There it is, the indwelling Christ Spirit.
This morning I want to talk about this indwelling Christ Spirit and
to share two words, which I associate with it. And the first word is
enabler.
The Christ Spirit within us is an enabling spirit, and by this we simply
mean a source of power, a source of strength. "I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me," Paul said. That's a kind of
symbol of what Christ within us does for us: overcoming our fatigue
and our depletion, overcoming our addictions, in some cases, our compulsions
that rule over us, overcoming our suffering, our pain. Or, empowering
us
for the challenges of our life and the opportunities of our life, making
it possible for us to become the whole person God intends for us to
be.
I think of a young woman I met this summer during a workshop I was
attending, a woman who had been going through a very difficult time
in her life. It was during this time that she had turned to her faith
and became
involved in a spiritual practice, as well as a small support group.
She said, during one of our sharing sessions, that she had often felt
this
inner spirit, and it was as if a loving presence had come behind her
and put their arms under her shoulders and around her chest and was
almost
physically supporting her in this time. And when she was describing
how this enabling presence had helped her to overcome her difficulties,
she
used two phrases to describe herself that I'll never forget. She said, "I feel now as if the windows of my life have been washed."
That's a beautiful phrase to describe new light, a new sense of clarity
about herself as a person. But she also said, "As I looked back over
the three years, I hardly recognized the person I was then." And
I thought, when I heard that, what a wonderful example of the transforming
power, the enabling power, of the Christ Spirit, when we open ourselves
to
its presence.
The second word, or actually a phrase, is unifying presence: the Christ
Spirit is not only an enabling presence, but also a unifying presence. And
this is where the possibilities for reconciliation and for peace, that we
spoke about earlier, suddenly become very real for us. The need, of
course, is very, very great; there are so many things that happen to
divide us, to cause hostility and bitterness and estrangement in families,
between races, and religions, and nations.
This became a living vision for Thomas Merton one day in March of
1958. That morning Thomas Merton went into Louisville to discuss with
a local
printer the details about the printing of a new Postulate's Guide for
the Abbey. While he was standing on the corner of Fourth and Walnut
Street and
watching the crowd of people in front of him, walking the sidewalks
and going in and out of the stores, he had a vision. He was suddenly
overwhelmed with the realization that he loved these people and they
belonged to him and he to them. He wrote, "It was as if I suddenly
saw the secret beauty of their hearts… the core of their reality, the
person that each one is in God's eye."
What he was actually seeing was that divine spark of divinity in each
of these persons. And he reflected that if only they could see themselves
as they are, if only all of us could see each other that way all the time,
that war and hatred and greed would disappear from the face of the earth.
This is one of the great things that the Christ Spirit makes possible,
that when we recognize its universal nature, that it is within all people,
we begin to see our relationships in a new light, a new sense of oneness
with all people, and the possibilities for reconciliation and for peace
and for harmony.
There's a simple illustration, which seems to summarize this matter
so well. There was an elderly Hindu man who was talking to a young
Christian.
The Christian took a great deal of time to talk about Jesus and to
explain the life and the teachings of Jesus, and when he was finished
this elderly
Hindu said to him, "I have known Jesus all my life, but I call him
atman, Vishnu, Shiva. Now I can call him Jesus as well." Well,
people in other religions can know the Christ presence, because of
the
universality of this Christ Spirit. And whether they use the name of
Jesus or not, this presence provides a common ground, a way by which
the
dividing walls of hostility can be broken down in very practical ways.
And, as Christians, we need to recognize that this Christ Spirit may
have different names in different religions, but it is the same Spirit.
I read a prayer once, which is the official prayer of the Greek
Orthodox Women's Christian Society. It is used very often and it reflects
this same spirit so beautifully. "O God, who has made all persons in
thy likeness, and lovest all whom thou hast made, reconcile us with one
another and with thee, and as thy son and our savior was born of a Hebrew
mother, rejoiced in the faith of a Syrian woman, and of a Roman soldier,
welcomed the Greeks who sought him, and suffered a man from Africa to
carry his cross, so teach us to look the members of all the races as
fellow heirs of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, our Lord." This is
the official prayer of the Greek Orthodox Women's Christian Society,
and it is
a further reflection of this critical teaching of the New Testament,
that the Christ Spirit that is within all of us is a unifying presence,
always
working, in the words of Paul, to break down the dividing walls of
hostility, to build up, to create, to bring reconciliation and peace.
This is good news.
And so today, as we partake, with Christians throughout the world, of
the symbols of this great universal Spirit, let us do so knowing its power
to enable and to bring reconciliation among all people.
Let us celebrate our Lord's Supper.