Monday, 17 June, 2002

The lead piece is from "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.



CHRIST

I often felt a void at the heart of things. My Christianity seemed to be missing its center. When I confessed this to a monk, he reassured me by saying, "Oh, most of us fee that way at one time or another. Jesus is the hardest part of the religion to grasp, to keep alive." I told him that I probably felt Jesus' hand in things most during worship, whether I was in church at home, or at the monastery. Just a look around at the motley crew assembled in his name, myself among them, lets me know how unlikely it all is. The whole lot of us, warts and all, just seems so improbable, so absurd, I figured that only Christ would be so foolish, or so powerful, as to have brought us together.

Sometimes it is quite hard to see how that which appears to be foolish is indeed powerful. In looking at the gathering of saints in worship, I would agree with Norris as she mentions the "motley" crew. In a world that can be so easily divided over the least little difference, the Christ, seeks to unite. No power is greater than that which unites what so easily could be separated. It is like the opening line of a hymn: "In Christ there is no east or west..." What would appear to be the greatest example of separation is indeed a part of the whole. Christ makes the community of strangers and aliens whole. Norris writes that when she was in a monastery and the sisters would line up two-by-two to come into worship, as they came to their pew, they would bow to the Christ at the altar and turn to face our partner, and bow to the Christ in each other. There is something very human and real...very divine and eternal in this one we call the Christ.



Connection: Once before I note how people in some religions greet one another with a simple gesture and phrase that acknowledges the divine in the other person. That doesn't always mean that we will truly treat the other person as such. Then again, it may be a good practice if we were able to bring to mind - remember - the connectedness we are invited to share with all God's people in Christ's name.



Uniting Lord God, we stand in so many places and carry so many different banners over our lives and yet you call us to greet one another in peace and share in the relationships that bring wholeness and healing to our world. Praise be to you for abiding with us in all our attempts to be divided and separated and seeking to bring us home to each other. Amen!