9 November 2006

Today we will focus on baptism in the life of the Body of Christ - again by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Baptism makes us members of the body of Christ. We are "baptized into" Christ; we are "brought in to one body by baptism". In our death in baptism, the Holy Spirit thus appropriates to us personally what Christ in his body has gained for the whole of humanity. We receive the community of the body of Christ in the same way the disciples and followers of Jesus received it in the early days and this means that we are now "with Christ" and "in Christ," and that "Christ is in us." Once the body of Christ is properly understood the meaning of these expressions becomes perfectly clear.

The distance between our Lord becomes absorbed in the closeness of the Christ through our baptism. Sometimes I think we are afraid to think of the body of the followers of Jesus as Jesus' body here and now. And yet, the power of the work of Christ is meant to be about a life that is available for us even as we do not think that we are up to it or we think that it was only a real event back in time. The availability of the body of Christ takes place as we are overwhelmed by the Spirit of our baptism and begin to engage the world as the the Christ is in us - even when we cannot comprehend that amazing reality. Therefore, the body of Christ today takes on an understanding of itself (ourselves) that works to embody the Christ who calls us to with and in Christ's presence and life - now. That can be frightening to consider. Because of that, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to engage that thought and have it become a new life among us. An ongoing theme for me is the community of saints who are to be that body. Alone, all this language about the body of Christ alive today is hard to grasp....and yet, when I look at the whole of the body, I can see it - at times - out of context - beyond what I would consider - moving along without me and yet calling me to be there in the middle of it all.

Connection: When you are wondering about how all of this is to come to life, do not be held back by what you may be able to do or what you are able to comprehend. Today may be an opportunity to walk into this life as you simply run across someone else living within that vision.

Come, Lord, grant us the many opportunities to be in the presence of your body as it is bursting in our world right in the middle of the everyday stuff that makes us our lives. Amen.