Jesus of Nazareth: Week 2<\/p>\n
Thursday, January 25, 2017\n(Feast of St. Paul)\n<\/iframe><br \/>\nIncarnation should be the primary and compelling message of Christianity. Through the Christ (en Christo), the seeming gap between God and everything else has been overcome \u201cfrom the beginning\u201d (Ephesians 1:4, 9). [1] Incarnation refers to the synthesis of matter and spirit. Without some form of incarnation, God remains essentially separate from us and from all of creation. Without incarnation, it is not an enchanted universe, but somehow an empty one.<br \/>\nGod, who is Infinite Love, incarnates that love as the universe itself. This begins with the \u201cBig Bang\u201d approximately 14 billion years ago, which means our notions of time are largely useless (see 2 Peter 3:8). Then, a mere 2,000 years ago, as Christians believe, God incarnated in personal form as Jesus of Nazareth. Matter and spirit have always been one, of course, ever since God decided to manifest God\u2019s self in the first act of creation (Genesis 1:1-31), but we can only realize this after much longing and desiring. Most indigenous religions somehow recognized the sacred nature of all reality, as did my Father St. Francis, when he spoke of \u201cBrother Sun and Sister Moon.\u201d It was always hidden right beneath the surface of things.<br \/>\nThe dualism of the spiritual and so-called secular is precisely what Jesus came to reveal as untrue and incomplete. Jesus came to model for us that these two seemingly different worlds are and always have been one. We just couldn\u2019t imagine it intellectually until God put them together in one body that we could see and touch and love (see Ephesians 2:11-20). And\u2014in Christ\u00ad\u2014\u201cyou also are being built into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit\u201d (Ephesians 2:22). What an amazing realization that should shock and delight us!<br \/>\nThe final stage of incarnation is resurrection. This is no exceptional miracle only performed once in the body of Jesus. It is the final and fulfilled state of all divine embodiment. Now even physics tells us that matter itself is a manifestation of spirit, a vital force, or what many call consciousness. In fact, I would say that spirit or shared consciousness is the ultimate, substantial, and real thing. [2] Yet most Christians, even those who go to church each Sunday, remain limited to a largely inert materiality for all practical purposes. Such emptiness sends us on a predictable course of consumerism and addiction\u2014because matter without spirit is eventually unsatisfying and disappointing.<br \/>\nMatter also seems to be eternal. It just keeps changing shapes and forms, the scientists, astrophysicists, and biblical writers tell us (Isaiah 65:17 and Revelation 21:1). In the Creed, Christians affirm that we believe in \u201cthe resurrection of the body,\u201d not only the soul. The incarnation reveals that human bodies and all of creation are good and blessed and move toward divine fulfillment (Romans 8:18-30).<br \/>\nDeath is not final, but an opening and a transition for ever new forms of life. An Infinite God necessarily creates infinite becoming. God is the one who \u201cbrings death to life and calls into being what does not yet exist\u201d (Romans 4:17b).<\/p>\n<p>_____________________________________________________<\/p>\n<div class=\"row title-row\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"utmost-devo-title col col-sm-12 col-xs-12\">\n<h2 class=\"entry-title\">Leave Room for God<\/h2>\n<h4>By <a href=\"https:\/\/utmost.org\/oswald-chambers-bio\">Oswald Chambers<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"clearfix\">\u00a0<strong>When it pleased God\u2026 \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&search=Galatians+1%3A15\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Galatians 1:15<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n<div class=\"row entry-meta\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-4\">\n<div class=\"top-sharing\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"top-rule\">\u00a0As servants of God, we must learn to make room for Him\u2014 to give God \u201celbow room.\u201d We plan and figure and predict that this or that will happen, but we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses. Would we be surprised if God came into our meeting or into our preaching in a way we had never expected Him to come? Do not look for God to come in a particular way, but <em>do look for Him<\/em>. The way to make room for Him is to expect Him to come, but not in a certain way. No matter how well we may know God, the great lesson to learn is that He may break in at any minute. We tend to overlook this element of surprise, yet God never works in any other way. Suddenly\u2014God meets our life \u201c\u2026when it pleased God\u2026.\u201d<\/div>\n<section class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"post-content\">\n<p>Keep your life so constantly in touch with God that His surprising power can break through at any point. Live in a constant state of expectancy, and leave room for God to come in as He decides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus of Nazareth: Week 2 Thursday, January 25, 2017 (Feast of St. Paul) Incarnation should be the primary and compelling message of Christianity. Through the Christ (en Christo), the seeming gap between God and everything else has been overcome \u201cfrom the beginning\u201d (Ephesians 1:4, 9). [1] Incarnation refers to the synthesis of matter and spirit. 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