"Every One and Everything Belongs"

        "He's got the whole world in his hands"

“The Whole of The Created Order is Sacred”

July 2 , 2017

I understand that it is very difficult for many Christians to allow Jesus the freedom he once had as a non-Christian to offer his revolutionary view of an all-inclusive God.  A God who loves all that has been created unconditionally.   There was never a chosen few, nor was there to be a superior race, and there is no them and us folks.  God loves all peoples equally, everywhere, no matter what they have or have not done, regardless of race, color sexual orientation or ethnic background.   This may be a hard pill to swallow for some Christians but Jesus’ world view of God was and still is for all people everywhere at all times.  We all have been set aside from the very beginning because we all are precious, worthy and unique in the eyes of our Creator.    

I think it might be a good time in our Christian history to take a page from the Franciscan theological worldview.   The Universal Christ of Hebrew Scriptures is the same Christ of the New Testament and can be found in everything and everywhere.  With Christ nothing is secular or profane.   You don’t really “get” the Christ mystery until both body and spirit begin to operate as one.   This is what true transformation is all about.  In fact this is what Jesus was trying to get Nicodemus to understand using the metaphor of being "Born Again".  Once you see the material and the spiritual working together, everything becomes holy, “The Sky”,  “The Earth”, “The Water” and everything that has come into existence because of these “Three”.  We humans which are a product of the three are also holy and we were given stewardship over all to care for and protect for our future.   Without proper stewardship we are murdering all “Three”.   The Christ within is, whenever and wherever the material and the spiritual co-exist—as one, which is always and everywhere!  Everything, the Universe with all its mystery, kayos, beauty and vastness has already been “christened” by its Creator for “Christ”.  As John Gospel so wonderfully puts it.  New International Version (NIV)   The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Christ is the entity that was there with God in the beginning.   Don’t take my word for it, look it up, Genesis 1: 26.  And I quote New International Version (NIV)

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  Did you notice the plural us and our?  Early theology recognized the other in Genesis as the Universal entity “The Christ” which was with God and existed from the beginning. 

This may come as a shock to many Catholic Christians and to many Christian Protestant denominations but, any anointing, blessing, declaring, baptizing, or the sharing of bread and wine {Holy Communion}, was and still is just to help us get the point.  There is no conclusive evidence that these were meant to become sacred or saving sacraments as they have become for many.   We did that, it does not appear to have been Jesus’ intent.  I challenge you to find a conclusive directive within the Gospels?  Please do not misunderstand me as I am not saying that we should disregard or throw these wonderful and worshipful rituals out of our weekly worship because for many of us, they really do help us get the point, which brings about transformation, remembering that everything belongs.   What I am saying is, let us not make more of them than was intended so they do not end up becoming a requirement of belonging or even worse an instrument of division which divides people into us and them.  This dualistic way of thinking is not supported by Jesus, nor the Universal or the Risen Christ.  As the song so many of us love to sing implies “We are One in The Spirit, We are One in the Lord and some day all unity will one day be restored"