Jesus - Today

This is the second in a Series that began with Jesus - Yesterday. Enjoy.

It might sound like an incredible no-brainer to talk about Jesus in relationship to the now of history, at least for the believer. But thinking that this relationship is so obvious means we tend to not think about it enough. In fact it is so easy to live our lives in such a way that we completely miss the fact that Christianity is not a religion relegated to another time in history - but a religion that is immenently realized in the here and now. If it were not so, then much of what Jesus did was nothing but a sideshow to somehow tie us over for the "main event". Jesus is the main event in history! This is realized as much today as it was during the incarnation and as it will be during the consummation of the Kingdom in Christ's return.

So what does Jesus have to do with me, here and now, today? Well, everything!

I was astonished when reading Brian McLaren's "A Generous Orthodoxy" (a rocking book BTW) and come across a very familiar landscape. I too taught a number of weeks in Santa Clara. I loved hanging out at the Vineyard kinship, but just down the road from the office I was teach at (this was IT BTW) was a huge metal statue of Mary. There was a grove with a smaller statue and a pathway around in front of the big statue. So I'd go there to pray. It was cool because I had made a bunch of good Roman Catholic friends and so I was always reminded to pray for them. One night I decided to sit in the grove and pray, I had just sat down and closed my eyes when I felt like there were people all around me. I opened my eyes and there was no one visible around. But just then a scripture reference dropped into my head (that happens a lot with me, it is kinda odd I know, but I like it). The reference was familiar - "no one comes to the Father except through the Son". A passage that even I had misused in the past to speak out against my precious brothers and sisters in the Roman Church. Yet here am I at a Marian shrine with my bible opened to this. Immediately Jesus began to remind me of how I had seen the undeniable presence of the God in my dear Roman friends - and then I knew that Jesus was actively drawing folks to the Father is so many ways I had never even thought of. I understood that verse different from that day on (note this is a devotional interpretation), if something is drawing people to the Father, then chances are that Jesus is in it.

Jesus once said that He didn't do anything except what He saw the Father doing. There is something incredible about this. Especially when we meditate on the next thought. We are the body of Christ.

I think we are so concerned about the end of all things, heaven, and even our less than well defined ideas of "salvation". That we miss the fact that we are called to be Jesus to this world. We are called to draw people to the Father. This isn't fire insurance, this is a deepening and widening of their relationship with God. This is a ministry of reconciliation that restores the intentions of God in the lives of everyone around us. It isn't necessarily calling them to Christianity - it is sharing the same invitiation that Jesus made to us. The Kingdom of God is near. Turn from those things that are destroying you and receive life in the arms of the Father.

This invitation should extend through us to all of the world that God so loved. It calls us to be responsible for the welfare of our neighbours. It beckons us to respond with mercy to the poor. It compels us to pray for the sick. It motivates us to ecological responsibility. And the list goes on. When we see these things, we are seeing Jesus here and now.

I'll leave you with this to meditate on. And close with a prayer:

Father show us Jesus.
Spirit reveal Christ to us.
Jesus dwell in us richly.
May we be your body, your love, your bride.
Amen.