Gregory Bateson asks a disturbingly timely and critical question of religion: " Is humanity rotting it's mind with a slowly deteriorating religion?" Bateson both strikes at the heart of the problem and offers a hint of a solution when he speaks of a " rotting mind." Without mind and mindfulness, religion is reduced to mere acts of will. Even well intentioned acts of charity do not make up for the loss of mind...knowing our place " In Christ. " Does our faith truly grasp the reality of what is " In Christ." Do we grasp the cosmic reality of that truth.
15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
It excites me to awaken to the dawn of each day to the reality of " Christ in Everything". Jesus words, the Kingdom is near...that it is among us, draws us into the mysterious truth of the Word, and Spirit that holds all together. I can remember in my university physics classes, the pursuit of scientists searching for a unified field theory, the " thing " that holds all together. If we have the eyes to see and the ears to hear we will discover the " Christ in all."
A faith that discovers the " Christ in All ", will have a redemptive imagination that concerns itself with all creation, all the broken dislocated pieces of the universe...people, environment, justice, poverty, sickness. Anything less will cause the mind of what it is to be fully human, and in the image of God to shrink until we forget who we are, and to what we are connected to.
Happy Birthday Ron! (Lately I've been thinking about how God is big enough to hold everything, including each person right down to particles that are too small to see... it made me remember the scripture that I've read on your blog often. The one that you've just posted again. The Message version. So roomy. I guess this is what it means. Big, roomy, God.
Paige Hughes
Posted by: | August 28, 2008 at 03:06 PM
Ron,
Beautiful. Well articulated here. I especially love your last paragraph.
Blessings,
~Amy :)
http://amyiswalkinginthespirit.blogspot.com
Posted by: Amy | August 29, 2008 at 07:58 AM
Read a book awhile back, Ron, by Marjorie Suchocki entitled: "In God's Presence: Theological Reflections on Prayer". I'd recommend it. She seen God much as "water" running through all there is and I really enjoyed the image she brought forth...
Posted by: jim | September 02, 2008 at 01:43 PM