Thursday, December 22, 2011
Inspiration for the Day, December 22, 2011:
The Christmas Story in a Modern Context by Bishop Shelby Spong
Far back beyond the beginning, stretching out into the unknowable, incomprehensible, unfathomable depths, dark and void, of infinite eternity behind all history, the Christpower was alive. This was the Living, bursting, pulsing, generating, creating, smoldering, exploding, fusing, multiplying, emerging, erupting, pollenizing, inseminating, heating, cooling power of life itself: Christpower. And it was good! Here all things that we know began their journey into being. Here light separated from darkness. Here Christpower began to take form. Here life became real, and that life spread into emerging new creatures evolving into ever higher intelligence. There was a sacrifice here and a mutation there. There was grace and resurrection appearing in their natural order, occurring, recurring, and always driven by the restless, creating, energizing life force of God, called the Christpower, which flowed in the veins of every living thing forever and ever and ever and ever. And it was good!
In time, in this universe, there emerged creatures who were called human, and the uniqueness of these creatures lay in that they could perceive this life-giving power. They could name it and embrace it and grow with it and yearn for it.
Thus human life was born, but individual expressions of that human life were marked with a sense of incompleteness, inadequacy, and a hunger that drove them ever beyond the self to search for life's secret and to seek the source of life's power. this was a humanity that could not be content with anything less.
And once again in that process there was sacrifice and mutation, grace and resurrection now in the human order, occurring, recurring. And it was good!
Finally, in the fullness of time, within that human family, one unique and special human life appeared: whole, complete, free, loving, living, being, at one, at peace, at rest. In that life was seen with new intensity that primal power of the universe, Christpower. And it was good! Of that life people said: Jesus, you are THE Christ, for in you we see and feel and experience the living force of life and love and being of God.
He was hated, rejected, betrayed, killed, but he was never distorted. For here was a life in which the goal, the dream, the hope of all life is achieved. A single life among many lives. Here among us, out from us, and yet this power, this essence, was not from us at all, for the Christpower that was seen in Jesus is finally of God.
And even when the darkness of death overwhelmed him, the power of life resurrected him; for Christpower is is life eternal, without beginning, without ending. It is the secret of creation. It is the goal of humanity.
Here in this life we glimpse that immortal, invisible, most blessed, most glorious, almighty life-giving force of this universe in startling completeness in a single person. Men and women tasted the power that was in him and they were made whole by it. They entered a new freedom, a new being. They knew resurrection and what it means to live in the Eternal Now. So they became agents of that power, sharing those gifts from generation to generation, creating and re-creating, transforming, redeeming, making all things new. And as this power moved among human beings, light once more separated from darkness. And it was good! They searched for the words to describe the moment that recognized the fullness of this power living in history, living in the life of this person. But words failed them.
So they lapsed into poetry: When this life was born, they said, a great light split the dark sky. Angelic choruses peopled the heavens to sing of peace on earth. They told of a virgin mother, of shepherds compelled to worship, of a rejecting world that had no room in the inn. They told of stars and Oriental kings, of gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. For when this life was born that power that was and is with God, inseparable, the endless beginning, was seen even in a baby in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.
Christpower. Jesus, you are the Christ. To know you is to live, to love, to be. O come, then let us adore him!
Far back beyond the beginning, stretching out into the unknowable, incomprehensible, unfathomable depths, dark and void, of infinite eternity behind all history, the Christpower was alive. This was the Living, bursting, pulsing, generating, creating, smoldering, exploding, fusing, multiplying, emerging, erupting, pollenizing, inseminating, heating, cooling power of life itself: Christpower. And it was good! Here all things that we know began their journey into being. Here light separated from darkness. Here Christpower began to take form. Here life became real, and that life spread into emerging new creatures evolving into ever higher intelligence. There was a sacrifice here and a mutation there. There was grace and resurrection appearing in their natural order, occurring, recurring, and always driven by the restless, creating, energizing life force of God, called the Christpower, which flowed in the veins of every living thing forever and ever and ever and ever. And it was good!
In time, in this universe, there emerged creatures who were called human, and the uniqueness of these creatures lay in that they could perceive this life-giving power. They could name it and embrace it and grow with it and yearn for it.
Thus human life was born, but individual expressions of that human life were marked with a sense of incompleteness, inadequacy, and a hunger that drove them ever beyond the self to search for life's secret and to seek the source of life's power. this was a humanity that could not be content with anything less.
And once again in that process there was sacrifice and mutation, grace and resurrection now in the human order, occurring, recurring. And it was good!
Finally, in the fullness of time, within that human family, one unique and special human life appeared: whole, complete, free, loving, living, being, at one, at peace, at rest. In that life was seen with new intensity that primal power of the universe, Christpower. And it was good! Of that life people said: Jesus, you are THE Christ, for in you we see and feel and experience the living force of life and love and being of God.
He was hated, rejected, betrayed, killed, but he was never distorted. For here was a life in which the goal, the dream, the hope of all life is achieved. A single life among many lives. Here among us, out from us, and yet this power, this essence, was not from us at all, for the Christpower that was seen in Jesus is finally of God.
And even when the darkness of death overwhelmed him, the power of life resurrected him; for Christpower is is life eternal, without beginning, without ending. It is the secret of creation. It is the goal of humanity.
Here in this life we glimpse that immortal, invisible, most blessed, most glorious, almighty life-giving force of this universe in startling completeness in a single person. Men and women tasted the power that was in him and they were made whole by it. They entered a new freedom, a new being. They knew resurrection and what it means to live in the Eternal Now. So they became agents of that power, sharing those gifts from generation to generation, creating and re-creating, transforming, redeeming, making all things new. And as this power moved among human beings, light once more separated from darkness. And it was good! They searched for the words to describe the moment that recognized the fullness of this power living in history, living in the life of this person. But words failed them.
So they lapsed into poetry: When this life was born, they said, a great light split the dark sky. Angelic choruses peopled the heavens to sing of peace on earth. They told of a virgin mother, of shepherds compelled to worship, of a rejecting world that had no room in the inn. They told of stars and Oriental kings, of gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. For when this life was born that power that was and is with God, inseparable, the endless beginning, was seen even in a baby in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.
Christpower. Jesus, you are the Christ. To know you is to live, to love, to be. O come, then let us adore him!
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