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The Sacred Oneness

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By Linda Rex

January 14, 2024, 2nd Sunday | Epiphany—During this season of Epiphany, we rehearse the journey of the magi who followed a star to find the infant born to be king. When they reached Bethlehem, Jesus was probably about two years old and was living in a home with his parents. These men from the east were gifted people who studied the stars, and were curious enough to follow a particular star to the home of Jesus, where they presented the child with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. All of these gifts became very helpful, no doubt, when Jesus and his parents had to flee Judea, going to Egypt to avoid having the child killed by the vengeful King Herod.

It is significant that the magi recognized and worshiped Jesus as a king, when the king of Judea sought instead to have him killed. The magi had an “epiphany” that King Herod did not have, and allowed it to guide them to Jesus’ feet to worship and honor him. In the gospel passage for today, John 1:43–51, Nathanael had an epiphany as well, recognizing who Jesus was as the Son of God in human flesh. In the Psalm for this Sunday, Psalm 139:1–6, 13–18, we learn how the Spirit is ever present and near to each of us in every moment and circumstance. So, as Nathanael learned, there is no deep secret Jesus doesn’t already know and no hidden motive Jesus isn’t already aware of.

Our New Testament passage today gives us insight about who Jesus is and what this says about our human bodies, and what it means to be united with Christ by the Spirit. The apostle Paul says to the Corinthians, “Do you not realize that your body by design is the sacred shrine of the spirit of God; he echoes God within you. Your body does not even belong to you in the first place” (1 Cor. 6:19, Mirror Bible). When we come to faith in Christ, we are united with Christ, and we find that we already live in our resurrection bodies, in the sense of the already-not-yet of God’s kingdom. We’re not glorified yet, but we do live “in Christ” even now, by faith.

Being united with Christ, sharing in his risen, glorified body, has great significance for us even today. It teaches us the great value God places on our human body:

  • The Son of God/Word of God left the dignities of heaven to take on a human body in Jesus Christ, forging within us the capacity for God to dwell within man.
  • The Son of God/Word of God/Jesus allowed himself while he was in a body to be beaten, abused, and crucified and killed for our sake.
  • God raised the dead body of the Son of God/Word of God/Jesus and in Jesus Christ, our human flesh united with Christ’s body, stands in face-to-face oneness with his Father in the Spirit.
  • Jesus sent the Spirit from the Father to indwell in our human body here on earth, so that, as we put our trust in him, we can be united with God in Christ by the Spirit. As we receive his gift of the indwelling Spirit, our body becomes the sacred dwelling of the Triune God. Together with other believers, we are bound together in sacred oneness as the Body of Christ, the Church.

Because God values our bodies this much, we ought to value them as well, using them as God intended, as the place of oneness with God through Jesus in the Spirit, oneness in covenant relationship with God and our spouse, and not for any other purpose.

We are embodied spirits. Our body is a sacred space for the Spirit to indwell, and we are meant to indwell God through Jesus by the Spirit. Our body was created to enjoy and take pleasure in many things (including sex, alcohol, and food), but was not designed by God for self-indulgence or self-pleasure, for gluttony, drunkenness, or immorality, but for oneness with God and others through Christ in the Spirit. Our volition or decision-making is meant to be governed by the Spirit and the Word of God, Jesus Christ. In regard to things such as sex, as well as food or intoxicants, our union with Christ means we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit, with God’s presence guiding and directing us enabling us to follow Christ’s lead, and we are not meant to be controlled by a substance, an intoxicant, an evil influence, or other people.

When we focus on the spiritual realities Paul reveals in this text, we see that anything we do with the human body needs to be seen through the lens of union with Christ. Uniquely, though, when it comes to sex, our union with God in Christ by the Spirit means that our body is a sacred shrine designed for intimate communion with God and with our covenant partner. Any animal being can have sex or commit sexual actions, but not every one of them can have a spiritual/physical/emotional union with God in which they are joined with another person and made one, as was intended in the covenant love God ordained for us to have with him and between spouses.

Whatever we do with the human body, then, must be evaluated within the context of our union with Christ, thus making any sexual encounter other than covenant union between spouses an extreme violation of that union. This is especially horrifically true in cases of objectifying women and children in pornography, or violating another human being through rape or molestation. Even though all is forgiven and reconciled in Christ, certain things were never meant to be and so they have painful, difficult, and even deadly consequences—they are not God’s best for us and cause great suffering for ourselves and for others. And we see and experience these consequences throughout our lives, whether they are due to our own choices or the choices of others.

Awakening to a realization of who Jesus is for us as our Lord and Savior enables us to begin to enjoy all the benefits of God’s indwelling presence by his Spirit. We begin to hear Jesus’ own “Abba, Father” in our souls, and we experience a closeness to God as part of our everyday lives. Our ability to experience this oneness with God through Jesus in the Spirit grows as we come to a deeper epiphany of the indwelling presence of God, and begin to participate in the union of Father, Son, and Spirit by offering our bodies up to be temples of the Spirit they are meant to be, all for God’s glory. And together, as members of the body of Christ, the Church, we become a more beautiful temple of the Spirit, joined together in the sacred oneness we were always meant to be a part of since before time began.

Father, Son, Spirit, thank you for valuing our human bodies so much that you would go to such extremes to heal, restore, renew them, and unite our flesh with your own in Jesus. Grant us the grace to offer our bodies up to you again as the sacred spaces they were meant to be, through Jesus and by your Spirit. Amen.

“All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, ‘The two shall become one flesh.’ But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”     1 Corinthians 6:12–20 NASB

[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/olitthe-sacred-oneness.pdf ]

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Alert to the Spirit’s Work

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By Linda Rex

Lately I’ve been reading a book my regional pastor gave me called “Deep Mentoring”. This is a great book about engaging others in deep meaningful relationships in which both people are able to grow and develop. Wherever we are in life, there are areas in which we are given the task or responsibility to lead others, and we need to grow in our ability not only to lead ourselves, but also to help others grow as leaders.

An important part of this mentoring process is learning to pay attention—to see where people are on their journey, where they are headed, and what God is doing in their lives to bring them to that place. When you prayerfully pay attention, then you begin to join with them in those places and bring God’s grace and truth with you there.

So now I’ve been more and more conscious of the need to pay attention—especially with regards to what God is doing in a particular person’s life during a certain circumstance. I’ve never realized before how little I pay attention to what the Spirit is doing. I’m too busy either trying to work it out myself, or I’m distracted by other things which are going on at the same time.

On that night so long ago, Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8 NASB) Jesus pointed out the reality, we cannot see what the Spirit of God is doing, but we can see and experience the results of it. The problem is not with our ability to see the Spirit. It’s more we aren’t paying attention to what he is doing and has done, and what he is wanting to do in a person’s life, because we’re paying attention to the wrong things.

It would be like seeing someone standing in a field staring up at the clear blue sky. Around both of you, the leafy branches of the trees are waving back and forth, and the green and brown grasses are bending and straightening as the wind plays with them. But the other person remarks about how still and quiet the day is: “This is so boring. Nothing’s happening.”

We can share their blindness and agree with them, or we can notice what the wind is doing, and point out all the things which are happening because the breeze is blowing over the meadow. It all depends on what we are paying attention to, what we choose to notice, and how we respond to what we see.

It’s easy to be blind to what the Spirit is doing with and in our children since we are so close to them and see them most every day. We may forget to pay attention to their efforts to be kind and to serve others because what we tend to pay attention to may be their annoying habits and disobedient behavior.

We may never have considered their unique learning style or creative nature which drives the way they think, act and interact with others, is part of the way they image the God who made them. It is so easy to go through our days never recognizing and affirming the ways in which our children reflect God and are growing in Christlikeness, though we may give them plenty of kudos for getting good grades, cleaning their room, and practicing piano.

Sometimes because of the everydayness of our life with our spouse, we lose sight of those things which make them unique and special people. We stop seeing what God is doing in their lives, and what he has done through them in our lives. It’s possible to over time allow the hurts between two people to bring them to the place the hurts are the only things which can be seen, rather than seeing how the couple is bound together in the oneness of Jesus Christ through the Spirit.

It’s easy with the people we are closest to, to come to the place we stop noticing. We stop paying attention to what is God is doing in their lives and how he wants us to be a part of that. We can fail to realize one of our purposes in being in their life is to be the image of God to them—to reflect God’s grace and truth, his love to them, and to notice all the things Spirit is doing in their life and to point them out.

We may think we are supposed to be the leader in a relationship, but sometimes the reality is we need to be following rather than leading. We all have times in which we are blind to what’s really going on. We need that person who we think is a follower, or who we think should be the “submissive one”, to step up and speak the truth in love to us. But can we receive the truth of God’s image in Jesus Christ being reflected back to us when the Spirit moves this person to speak?

More and more I am realizing God’s whole purpose in “condemnation” and “judgment’ is not to punish and destroy evildoers, but to eliminate all of the evil which they embrace and are beset by so they are able to be fully who God created and redeemed them to be as his beloved children. God means all this for our good—he’s not out to get revenge for all the badness—he’s just wanting to remove the blindness and badness so the true reality of the goodness and love of Christ in each of us can shine unhindered.

As we grow in our relationship with God and our relationships with others, we participate in God’s work of transformation of ourselves and those others. We go through struggles and difficulties, and God uses them to grow us up in Christlikeness when we turn to Christ in faith and respond to the Spirit’s work. We walk alongside others, and go deeper with them, sharing with them the positive and negative parts of our walk of faith. And we create space for the Spirit to go to work in them and in us, to grow us up into greater Christlikeness, so we can more accurately reflect the image of the God who made us and redeemed us.

One of the best things we can do then, is to obey Jesus’ command to be alert. God is coming and is present at every moment by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is at work in us and in each person we encounter throughout the day. Ask God to make you aware of what Jesus is doing by his Spirit. He wants us to notice, and to participate in what he is doing through prayer, speaking the truth in love, and ministering the love of God in Christ to each person in whatever way the Spirit directs us to. When we learn to pay attention, we may be surprised by all the things we discover Jesus is up to!

Thank you, Abba, you are always at work doing things in this world we never even notice. Make us aware more and more of what you are doing through Jesus and by your Spirit, and enable us by your grace to respond appropriately. Help us to notice more and more what you are doing in the lives of those around us, and enable us to share in healthy and loving ways the truth of what you are doing and wish to do by your Spirit. May you complete your perfect work in each and every one of us through Jesus our Lord and by your Spirit. Amen.

“Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:34–36 NASB

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Clinging to Life

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Colorful pumpkins and mums--fall's here!
Colorful pumpkins and mums–fall’s here!

By Linda Rex

On top of the two wardrobes opposite my mom’s bed are a group of family pictures. Periodically my mom will lie quietly and gaze at the portraits of the people who are dearest to her. After a while she may remark on how well my dad looked that day in his dark gray suit. And she will ask again whether I have everything ready for when she goes.

All the complications of life have been sifted through and brought down into the simplicity of breathing in and breathing out, of eating and sleeping. There isn’t much to say or do any more that hasn’t already been considered and tossed out as being unimportant or unnecessary to her present existence.

Through her eyes I can see that when it comes down to it, there isn’t anything that really is of earth-shattering importance now when life is down to the basics.

With the little energy that she has left, my mother struggles to make another phone call. Calling her sister to say some last words to her is of paramount importance. She tries to talk to the few people she has left in her life. And cherishes the last moments she has with her family members.

Isn’t it interesting that what matters most to her now is her relationships? It made me think about how often in our lives we give ourselves over to pursuing some dream while our important relationships end up in shambles. We take our spouses for granted and neglect our children because we are caught up in the daily grind of working out the plan of our lives. We forget how transient these opportunities to share God’s love are until one day they are taken from us.

It is good to cling to life, but I’m beginning to ask myself, what is the life I’m clinging to? And what am I doing to seek out that life?

When Jesus prayed to his Father that last night before his death, he said that eternal life was intricately bound up in our knowing of God and of his Son Jesus Christ. He had earlier told his disciples that life comes through our partaking of the body and blood of Christ. There is something very central in Jesus Christ that is integral to our finding and living out true, lasting life.

It’s in the midst of our union with God in Christ that we find life that is meaningful and lasting. In sending his Spirit to us, Christ shared with us his very life and being. We are reminded of this reality when we share with one another during communion in our Eucharistic thanksgiving as we eat the bread and drink the fruit of the vine.

In Christ we are brought near to God and near to one another. There is a connection that goes deeper than even our connections by blood or by community or organization. This union is something than can never be severed, however much we may ignore, deny or neglect it.

It is worthwhile, I am seeing, to pause in the midst of our daily experiences to reflect on how all of us are joined together with God and one another in Christ and by the Holy Spirit. When we make the effort to do this, we may begin to see that some things just don’t really matter in the long run. And we may begin to value the people God has placed in our lives in new ways.

The apostle Paul stressed the importance of setting our minds and hearts on things above rather than on things on the earth. We can focus on temporary belongings and activities that in the end will come to nothing. We can value importance, power, money, and a million other things that will not follow us beyond death. Preoccupied with all this, we can miss the very things that give life its depth and meaning, and that will last on into eternity.

As another day draws to a close, I am comforted by the thought that even though there are a lot of things in my life I would like to have and don’t, I have a lot of the things that really matter. And for that reason, I find that my best response is simply gratitude. And that’s enough.

We thank and praise you God for life, breath and our human existence, but most especially for all the relationships you have placed in our lives in which we share your love with one another. Grant us the grace to appreciate and cherish them while we can, through Jesus and by your Spirit. Amen.

“Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:1–3 NASB

“So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.’” John 6:53–54 NASB

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