08/27/2023: Rediscovering Jesus as Presence

Jesus as Presence:

Christ with us, in us, and among us

Luke 13:34; John 1:14, Rev 22:13, and Matthew 18:20

Rev. Loren McGrail

Holmdel Community United Church of Christ

August 27,2023

           This is the truth of Jesus. That Jesus---the one known
intimately as friend and teacher, experienced as Savior and Lord,
who guides on the way and inhabits the ordinary ---
is also the universal Jesus, the welcoming and inclusive Jesus,
the Jesus of the circle and in the circle, the all- in- one.
From Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher,
Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence

            We have come to the end of our journey with our Freeing Jesus series. We have come to the last and in many ways the most difficult concept to talk about because it entails talking about such heady theological and spiritual things as God’s Spirit in relationship to presence, wisdom, and power. It involves talking about incarnation and mystery.

            So, on this baptism Sunday, let’s start with the birth of Jesus when the whole cosmos witnessed the birth of Mary and Joseph’s son, God’s beloved. Incarnation means the presence of God made manifest as a human. God so loves us that they sent their son who is both born from above and below. Everyone one of us is born of both flesh and spirit.  The problem, as Bass points out, is that we forget which is why as she puts it, “Jesus, the birthed one, is also the ever-birthing presence, calling new life from the womb of God into the world. Not once, but many times.”

            The Word became flesh and lived among us says the Gospel writer John focusing our attention on Jesus of Nazareth but Dear Ones, I believe Bass is right this is an ever reoccurring miracle of the meeting of flesh and spirit. Why else celebrate the eucharist then if we do not believe on some level that we can ingest real bread, drink real juice, and then commune with God’s holy presence. Furthermore, according to Sally McFague, “The distinctive characteristic of Christian embodiment is its focus on oppressed, vulnerable, suffering bodies, those who are in pain due to indifference or greed of the more powerful…”The body of Christ is so significant to Christianity because it also reminds us that all bodies are part of the story of redemption. Bass reminds us that “Our born God has a body. Just like us.”

            This means when we speak of Jesus as presence, we are speaking of one filled with shekhinah, one filled with the divine feminine. In Judaism, shekhinah is sometimes referred to as God’s female wisdom. Now we know Jesus was born male, but Jesus also brings the sacred feminine into the world. Thanks be to God. For many in the early church he was the embodiment of Divine Wisdom or Sophia in Greek.

            Jesus’ deep compassion for Jerusalem and its people allowed him to express his love like that of a hen in the Gospel of Luke, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under wings, and you were not willing.” Dear Ones, we have gone from Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Lord, and Savior to Jesus as Mother Hen.

            The Anglican church while revising their Book of Common Prayers for inclusive language however rejected the imagery of a protective mother hen and changed their prayer to one, that emphasized his call not his protection.

            “Living among us, Jesus loved us.

            Gone is the image of the protective mother hen. Dear Ones, we aren’t heedless of his call to walk in love. We’ve rejected the wingspan of his protection. There is a difference.

            There is an image of Jesus as a mother hen that has been painted beneath the altar in the church called Dominus Fleuvet Church. The church is shaped like a tear marking the place Jesus might have stood and wept as he looked out over his beloved Jerusalem.

It is one of my favorite holy sites. Take a look at my photo here on the altar after the service to see Jesus as Mother Hen.

            Dear Ones, I believe like Bass that worshiping a mothering God can bring us back in touch with the God who was born and who continues to birth us again and again as we grow more deeply into our faith.

            I would like to share a poem where I explore this idea like many Christian mystics before me have done:

Mothering God
Source of all living things
it was you who breathed life into us.

In your likeness we were formed.
In the darkness of your sacred womb.

Your creative energy pulsates through us.
You birth life within us.

You carry us close to your heart
and sing your lullaby of comfort to us.

You cradle us in your arms.

Gather us under your wings like a hen.

You bathe us in life-giving waters.
With the milk of compassion, you nurture us.

You call us together to be

Your love song of joy

Amen.

            “Wherever two or three are gathered, I am there,” says the Gospel writer Matthew. Theologian Kathryn Tanner describes Christian identity as a “hybrid, relational affair,” because figuring out what we believe comes from engagement with each other.  Christ is with us.

Christ is with us when we come together for a Council retreat, celebrate a baptism, sing, pray, or eat beautiful and delicious cakes. Christ is with and between us. 

            I would like to conclude by sharing a few words about Jesus and the Universal Christ. First, let’s remind ourselves that Christ is not Jesus’ last name. There was no Mary and Joseph Christ. Christ is the name, as Catholic contemplative activist, Richard Rohr says for “the transcendent within of everything in the universe. It is a name for the immense spaciousness of all true Love. Christ is another name for everything – in its fullness." Jesus is not the only Christ, but he is the One we have chosen to show us the Way to live into God’s incarnate and transcendent love.

            Dear Ones, the presence of Jesus, as the living Christ, can be experienced everywhere and anytime. I invite you to keep the eyes of your heart open. I invite you to allow yourselves to be wrapped in love’s feathery embrace. I invite you to celebrate birth and rebirth in yourselves and others. I invite you to accept the invitation to become one of God’s dwelling places. Amen.