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Permalink Reply by Rick Massengale on 3rd mo. 2, 2014 at 9:54am

For what it's worth,

My concept of Christ,, and the need for Christ goes back to the disobedience in Eden.

God created all with his word.  God then gave "man" dominion over all creation,, "man's" disobedience gave that dominion to Satan.  Now what was God to do... Create form the dust of the earth which did not belong to him.. speak into existence more "men" and place them on an earth which no longer belonged to him.. No a "man" had given it all away so a man would be the only one who could get it back.  This is where I believe Christ enters the picture... God, himself became "man" to redeem all creation.

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Permalink Reply by Forrest Curo on 3rd mo. 2, 2014 at 11:10am

Resurrected savior-gods are very useful and I'd like to see one hovering overhead myself about now... Certainly Jesus has been portrayed in that role; but the truth is that a certain man named Jesus in a specific period produced some remarkable wisdom, whether he found this in himself or got it from some incredibly wise person we've never heard of.

And this wise being is also at work in our own Spirit (or how else could we recognize it?) but we find it specifically expressed as a certain very human person who came to a bad end due to giving the authorities more truth than they're ever in the mood for.

Also within us is a seemingly inexaustible capacity for not hearing, for getting it all wrong, for badly messing up. [from 'Thomas']: "My soul was afflicted for the children of men, for they are blind in their hearts and do not see. I found them all drunk; there was no one athirst among them -- but when they shake off their wine, then they will repent."

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Permalink Reply by Sonja Darai on 3rd mo. 7, 2014 at 8:20pm

In my worship, I have seen that:

• I am the wick,
• my worship practice is the wax/oil/fuel,
• the Holy Spirit is the air,
• God is the flame, and
• Christ is the spark that makes the Holy Spirit/air bring God/flame to the me/wick (fueled on by wax/oil/fuel: my worship, witness of my testimonies, my rest, my exercise, my good nutrition, my relationships). 

Christ is that combination of friction, heat, air, energy that brings all together.  I think Christ can be elusive (how HARD is it to make a fire with wood sticks?) until you totally get the knack of it.  It can be hard to be in touch with Christ.

When Jesus is with people, he is sparking/teaching people to take all the necessary parts and put them together:  love the vulnerable, the marginalized, the harmed and the harmer; hold people accountable; and understand the soul inside matters more than the flesh on the outside.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Kingsbury on 3rd mo. 13, 2014 at 4:03am

The first thing that comes to mind concerning the nature of the Christ (and the death and Resurrection of Jesus) is a phrase from the Orthodox Liturgy: translated from time into Eternity. This makes me think of the titles Great High Priest, and Mediator. Jesus, having died, is Risen to become the Eternal Christ, the connection between us poor mortal slobs in the phenomenal realm and God, Ultimate Being. Christ the channel to God; following Christ, the Way. Those Greeks have a way with Liturgics!

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