BECOMING
CHRIST
May 27, 2001
TEXT: John:17:20-26
Ben Kingsley starred as the main character in the 1982 motion
picture, Gandhi. He spent months preparing for the role, visiting the various
Indian locales Gandhi had frequented. He even learned to spin cotton thread on
a wooden wheel while holding conversations as Gandhi did. The physical resemblance
between Gandhi and Kingsley was almost startling. After filming a scene in a
village south of Delhi, Kingsley stepped out of a car, and an elderly peasant
knelt to touch his feet. Embarrassed, Kingsley explained that he was merely an
actor playing Gandhi. "We
know," replied the villager, "but through you he will surely live again."
That was the prayer of Jesus, that he will live again through the lives of his
followers; that the world will see Christ in us; through our unity and through
our love.
How do we get into the mind of Christ and experience the presence of God as Jesus
did? How do we achieve that mystical sense of unity with God that the great mystics
of the church tried to achieve, to really know God and feel God's presence?
office that allows him to en In the absurd comedy, Being John Malkovich, a puppeteer
finds a door in his ter the mind of and literally become the famous actor, John
Malkovich for 15 minutes. Imagine being able to actually walk right into someone's
brain and to experience life though their eyes. Its an amazing concept.
You live the life of another person before getting tossed out and find yourself
on the New Jersey Turnpike. Someone once said, "The two greatest things
I have learned in life are: God is God and I am not."
And yet Jesus says,"I and the Father are one," and that
Jesus' desire is that his followers may also be in Christ and in
God, so that all may be one.
Perhaps another way of asking the question is, "How do we get inside the
mind of Christ in order to experience the nature of God as Jesus did?" How
can we see the world as God sees it, and understand the nature of human suffering
and the power of redeeming love?
The answer, of course, is not just to see, or to understand, but to be the Christ.
It is one thing to have an intellectual understanding of a person=s experience,
but it is much to actually live the life.
In the newsletter, Net Results, a story is told concerning the distinguished
pastor Dr. Dale Galloway, who is now on the faculty of Asbury Theological Seminary.
Dr. Galloway was responsible for building from scratch a 6,400 member church
in Portland, Oregon, called New Hope Community Church.
Galloway tells the story of a single mother who belonged to the
church along with her son. She was involved in a women's group
at the church. One of the members of that group said, "Donna, you look yellow. Have you been to a doctor?" Donna
said that she couldn't afford insurance. The group took up an offering and sent
her for a checkup. The doctor found a serious problem with her liver. Without
a liver transplant in the next six weeks, she would die.
Doctors told her that specialists at a hospital in Texas could perform the operation
for $140,000. (This was ten years ago.) The situation appeared to be impossible.
The women in the small group went to talk to the pastor about whether
the church could do something for Donna. The pastor was troubled.
They were completing a building addition and were $400,000 in debt.
He was convinced that the church was financially tapped out and
he was losing sleep over money as it was. But as he prayed about
Donna's situation, he was convinced that the church had to help.
A lay leader whose business was known across the city agreed to
be honorary chair of the effort. It would be called "Save My Mom." Another
person volunteered to give the next six weeks working full-time
on the project.
That Sunday, the pastor shared the need of this mother with his congregation
and was shocked when $60,000 in cash was given. The next day, the pastor received
an invitation to testify before the Oregon legislature with Donna about the issue
of people who couldn't afford insurance. A major newspaper took a picture and
ran it on the front page. People started bringing jars of money from bars. Kids
brought in their allowance. TV stations joined in the publicity. The effort raised
$220,000 in seven days, and Donna, check in hand, went to Texas for the transplant.
A decade later, when people talk about that church, they do not talk about their
new building. They talk about the love, the caring that mother received. That's
how Jesus wants us to be. Jesus wants people to know the nature of God through
the way in which God's people live and treat others.
Eknath Easwarn, the Hindu philosopher, writes about the projections we make on
those we love. He says that most of us never really see the people we live with.
What we see is an image, or caricature, of the person that we form in our own
mind. We do not interact with that person, but with idea of that person that
we have created. You are different from my perceptions of you, just as I am different
from the way you perceive me. We only give each other partial information and
on that basis we are supposed to form a concept with which we interact.
What Eswaran has said about the projected images we hold of our
friends, also holds true for projections of God. People say, "I'm angry with god." They
may have some a reason: a serious illness, a death, loss of a valued job, the
betrayal of a friend, or some other misfortune. But who is the god you are angry
with? A god who punishes people, or worse, toys with them and their well-being
is not a God who is worthy of our worship and love. Perhaps that god is worthy
of our fear and our attempts to appease that god, but not worthy of love and
worship. We form caricatures of God; we create God in our image, and then react
to this God which have created. If you are dissatisfied with God, then change
your mind. Your response to God will depend upon the kind of god you have.
Marcus Borg speaks of students who tell him that they no longer
believe in God. "Who
is the god you don't believe in?"
He asks. "After all," Borg acknowledges, "there
are many gods I don't believe in. To the Greeks who believe in
Zeus, to the Indians who believe in Indra, to the Persians who
believe in Zarathustra, to all these, I'm an atheist." In
fact, what Borg finds out from his students is that the very god
in whom they don't believe is the projection of the god they don't
want to believe in.
So where is the God we do want to believe in? How do we become the Christ in
whom this God dwells? How do we get into the mind of Christ and experience the
nature of God?
Do you remember the character Celie, in Alice Walker's classic
novel, The Color Purple. There is this in a letter to Nettie: "She
say, Celie, tell the truth, have you ever found God in church?
I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show.
Any God I ever felt in church, I brought with me. And I think all
the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not
find God."
We come to church to share God. Each of us brings our concepts of God to this
place, and here, in this community, we determine how God will be manifest to
the world by what we do. We can become what we intend to become.
There is an old story about two brothers. They were likable young men but they
had a little bit of a wild streak. It got so wild that they began earning their
money by stealing sheep from the local farmers. As happens to all thieves, one
day they were caught.
Rather than kill them, the villagers decided to brand the two brothers on the
forehead with the letters S. T. for "Sheep Thief."
The action so embarrassed the one young man that he ran off, never
to be heard from again. The other brother was so filled with remorse
and repentance that he chose to stay and try to reconcile himself
to the villagers whom he had wronged.
At first the villagers were skeptical. Most of them wouldn't have anything to
do with him. But he was determined to make reparation for his offenses. Whenever
there was sickness, the sheep thief was there to help care for the sick person.
Whenever there was work that needed to be done, the sheep thief showed up to
help. It made no difference whether the person was rich or poor, the sheep thief
was there to lend a helping hand. Soon he was an integral part of the community,
never accepting pay for anything he did. His life was totally lived for others.
As a consequence, he was a friend of all and became very well respected.
Many years passed and a traveler came through the town. As he sat
at the sidewalk café eating his lunch, he noticed the well respected old man with the
strange brand on his forehead, sitting at a table nearby. It seemed that everybody
in town stopped to pay their respects or share a kind word. Even the children
stopped to play or give and receive an affectionate hug. The stranger's curiosity
was peaked and he asked the café owner about the old man.
"What does the strange brand on his forehead stand for?"
The café owner, a contemporary of the old man, thought for a moment then
said, "It happened so long ago that I don't rightly remember. But I think
it stands for Saint."
It's not what we do, it is what Christ does in us and through us when we become
the Christ to others. What we envision is what we become. The perception becomes
the reality. Put the image of Christ in your heart and you will become the Christ
in whom God lives and becomes known to others.
-Harry Serio
|