Called into Relationship

God has no hands but ours, no bread but the bread we bake, no prayers but the ones we make, whether we know what we are doing or not. When Christians speak of the mystery of incarnation, this is what they mean: for reasons beyond anyone’s understanding, God has decided to be made known in flesh. Matter matters to God. The most ordinary things are drenched in divine possibility. Pronouncing blessings upon them is the least we can do…. Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World. HarperCollins. New York. 2009.

What you seek is seeking you…. Jalal al-Din Rumi, ca.1200.

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing…. Jesus, John: 15:4-5.

Long before Jesus arrived, the wisdom of the prophets declared the mystery and abundance of God’s love, God’s presence, God’s saving grace. About the time Jesus began his ministry, John the Baptist declared: “prepare the way.” Some thought he might be Elijah, the Old Testament prophet come back to life. Others thought he might be the Messiah. But John said:

I am not the Messiah … I baptize with water … the one who is coming after me … I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal … he will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

The revolution in thinking Jesus unleashed transformed humanity’s understanding of God’s will and our purpose on earth. Jesus manifested in his own life a relationship with the divine. Jesus taught us that relationship was God’s intention for all humanity. Jesus showed us that relationship made all other considerations secondary.

“Love God, love your neighbor” was Jesus’ summary of the law. According to common wisdom no law was less important than any other law, which made people’s lives a burdensome and tedious exercise. Jesus summarized all laws by establishing relationship as the context for our connection with God and the purpose of religion.

If you are ever asked the question: what is the purpose of it all? This is the answer:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

God calls us into relationship. To be bread for the world, to pray whether we know what we’re doing or not, to bear fruit … to be Christ’s Church.

~Harrell