To Be ~ Fully Human & Fully Divine

To Be ~ Fully Human & Fully Divine
 

If you grew up celebrating Christmas, as I did, one of the questions you may have asked yourself as you grew older is who is Jesus to you now?  And even if you were not raised as a Christian and practice another faith or follow another spiritual tradition, this is still a good question to ask.
 
I believe it needs to be a more profound question and answer than what you may have been taught as a small child in Sunday school.  And it begins with the story of the Nativity, with the Christ child born in a manger and watched over by an ox and ass.
 
There is a beautiful aspect to Jesus we so often forget and don’t focus on, as much as we ought, the humanity of Jesus. The story of Christmas is only the beginning.
 
The story begins with Jesus, as the Incarnate Word and First Born of Creation, who emptied himself, being born in human likeness and form, and all this means.
 
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, God with Us.

Trinity Episcopal Church Midtown Houston

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To be human is to be vulnerable. To be human is to endure pain and suffering. To be human is to discover love. To be human is to learn forgiveness. To be human is to live for others as much as for ourselves. To be human is the gift of life. To be human is to live our lives, and to live them fully.
 
When we see Jesus as fully human and divine, it is “meet and right” to stress his humanity as much as his divinity. As found in the words of the Sursum Corda, Latin for “Lift up your hearts" or to have our "Hearts lifted" in the opening dialogue to the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer.
 
Eucharistic Prayer
 
                   The Lord be with you.
People        And with thy spirit.
Celebrant    Lift up your hearts.
People        We lift them up unto the Lord.
Celebrant    Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.
People        It is meet and right so to do.


And come to understand that the gift of Christmas is transformational because ultimately, this gift opens up to the People of God an indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  However, you may see the Spirit at work in your own life.
 
As fully human as we are, it opens us up to an indwelling of "God the Father" as Divine Mystery, an indwelling of Christ and the Spirit, and it awakens our fullest human potential to love.
 
The literature of scripture and liturgy, the poetry, psalms, parables, images, and symbols of all our sacred stories and liturgies are pointing us towards a way of understanding the Divine Mystery that cannot easily be named or wholly described.
 
These stories are intended to be internalized, to stretch our imaginations, to help suspend our sense of disbelief, to believe in something beyond ourselves, to teach and reveal the truth, to see beyond the story into a deeper and richer mystery that is true, which is real at the inmost levels of the self and soul.
 
To see beyond our earthly sight, to see with insight the invisible and unseen power of God at work within the world. The Holy Spirit at work within the world. To see God’s love actively at work in our lives and the lives of others, transforming creation.
 
God as a Verb; God as Spirit; God as Truth; God as Divine Mystery; God as Love; God as an Indwelling of the Spirit within each and every one of us in this world. God as InterBeing (Thich Nhat Hanh), and God as the "Connecting Spirit" to paraphrase theologian Paul F. Knitter, as an interconnection that flows in and with and through all creation, bringing us into a relationship with one another.
 
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Trinity Episcopal Church Midtown Houston ~ Christmas Eve

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Kenosis Hymn from Philippians 2:5-11 (NRSVA)

5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

6  who, though he was in the form of God,   

   did not regard equality with God   

   as something to be exploited,

7  but emptied himself,   

    taking the form of a slave,   

    being born in human likeness.

    And being found in human form,

8  he humbled himself   

    and became obedient to the point of death—   

    even death on a cross.

9  Therefore God also highly exalted him   

    and gave him the name   

    that is above every name,

10 so that at the name of Jesus   

     every knee should bend,   

     in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue should confess   

     that Jesus Christ is Lord,   

     to the glory of God the Father.

Trinity Episcopal Church Midtown Houston

In Buddhist and Christian traditions, we are taught to be mindful and mind our thoughts.  Christmastide offers us an opportunity to be mindful from Christmas Eve through Epiphany and beyond.  We are what we think and how we view the world. We are shaped by the people we love and by loving them in return. Practicing (praxis) wakefulness allows us to see how valued we are by God.

The Dhammapada - Translated by Thomas Byrom

1. Choices
 
"We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world. 
Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world. 
Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your shadow, unshakable."

2. Wakefulness

"Wakefulness is the way to life. 
The fool sleeps
As if he were already dead, 
But the master is awake
And he lives forever.
He watches.
He is clear.
How happy he is!
For he sees that wakefulness is life. 
How happy he is,
Following the path of the awakened."


Ron Starbuck
Saint Julian Press