{"id":17789,"date":"2019-02-15T09:13:51","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T14:13:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17789"},"modified":"2019-02-15T09:33:50","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T14:33:50","slug":"personal-and-universal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17789","title":{"rendered":"Personal and Universal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Jesus and Christ<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/personal-and-universal-2019-02-15\/\"><strong>Personal and Universal<\/strong><\/a><br>\n<strong>Friday, February 15, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1T2tMt0Ky6g\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>A truly transformative God\u2014for both the individual and all of history\u2014needs to be experienced as personal <em>and<\/em> universal. Nothing less will fully work. If the overly personal (even sentimental) image of Jesus has shown itself to have severe limitations and problems, it is because this Jesus was not also universal. He became cozy and we lost the cosmic. History has clearly shown that worship of Jesus without worship of Christ invariably becomes a time- and culture-bound religion, often oppressive, misogynist, and racist, excluding much of humanity from God\u2019s embrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe, however, that <em>there has never been a single soul who was not possessed by the Christ, even in the <\/em><em>ages before Jesus existed. <\/em>Why would we want our religion or our God to be any smaller than that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have felt wounded or excluded by the message of Jesus or Christ as you have heard it, I hope you sense an opening here\u2014an affirmation, a welcome that you may have despaired of ever hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have hoped to believe in God or a divinized world, but have never been able to mentally assent to the church\u2019s doctrines, does this vision of Jesus the Christ help? <em>If it helps you to love and to hope, then it is the true religion of Christ. <\/em>No circumscribed group can ever exclusively claim that title!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have loved Jesus\u2014perhaps with great passion and protectiveness\u2014do you recognize that any God worthy of the name <em>must <\/em>transcend creeds and denominations, time and place, nations and ethnicities, and all the vagaries of gender and sexuality, extending to the limits of all we can see, suffer, and enjoy? All of our human differences are \u201chidden with Christ in God\u201d (Colossians 3:3).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>You are a child of God, and always will be, even when you don\u2019t believe it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why I can see Christ in my dog, the sky, and all creatures, and it\u2019s why you, whoever you are, can experience God\u2019s unadulterated care for you in your garden or kitchen. You can find Christ\u2019s presence in your beloved partner or friend, an ordinary beetle, a fish in the deepest sea that no human will ever observe, and even in those who <em>do not like <\/em>you and those who <em>are not like <\/em>you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the illuminating light that enlightens all things, making it possible for us to see things in their fullness. Light is less something we see directly and more <em>something by which we see all other things. <\/em>When Jesus Christ calls himself the \u201cLight of the World\u201d (John 8:12), he is not telling us to look just at him, but to look out at life with his all-merciful and non-dualistic eyes. We see him so we can see <em>like him<\/em>\u2014with the same infinite compassion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When your isolated \u201cI\u201d turns into a connected \u201cwe,\u201d you have moved from Jesus to Christ. We no longer have to carry the burden of being a perfect \u201cI\u201d because we are saved \u201cin Christ\u201d and <em>as <\/em>Christ. Or, as Christians say correctly, but too quickly, at the end of our official prayers: \u201c<em>Through <\/em>Christ, Our Lord, Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SbfPJWL7ykc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus and Christ Personal and Universal Friday, February 15, 2019 A truly transformative God\u2014for both the individual and all of history\u2014needs to be experienced as personal and universal. Nothing less will fully work. If the overly personal (even sentimental) image of Jesus has shown itself to have severe limitations and problems, it is because this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17789"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17789"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17795,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17789\/revisions\/17795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}