My inactivity for the last three months might lead one to suspect one of any number of explanations:
My computer died
I contracted swine flue
I had major surgery involving my hands
I have been on an extended vacation,
Our electricity/internet has been shut off
I've been really busy with other pursuits
I spend too much time facebooking
I just don't have anything to say
The list could go on, but let me just say most of these explanations are false. The truth is that our building project at Christ Community, and then the holidays, absorbed most of the time for blogging that I may have had. Now that Epiphany day is behind us, allow me to share some thoughts from my current pursuits.
I have been reading from the 7 Ecumenical Councils of the Church. If that sounds like exciting reading, it's not really. However, it is enlightening. I have found myself musing, "Who would have thought...hmm. That's interesting." For example, anyone not acknowledging the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary as Mother of God is to be anathema. I know some of you may be thinking to yourself, "Isn't that just a little over the top?" Let me just say it makes perfect sense when you consider what was at stake, and also, consider the effects of the modern tendency to neglect this point.
One of the issues that stands out in all the councils, especially the first 3 is a concern for clarifying the Truth surrounding the person of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Trinity. Issues that were settled once and for all, and articulated in the Nicene and Apostles creeds. These creeds remain the measuring stick for Christian Faith. The fathers were intense about these defining issues. One of the many heresies in this time period (4th/5th centuries) sought to explain the incarnation by dividing Christ into two persons: the Logos (Eternal Word/Deity) and Christ (Jesus of Nazareth). They suggested that Christ was a man just as you and I, filled with the Holy Spirit in a profound and unprecedented way. The Fathers said, no. The Word BECAME flesh. Christ and the Logos were one. No less God, and no less Man. Jesus was not inhabited by God he was/is the incarnate God, the second person of the undivided Holy Trinity. The Fathers were very clear on the point. Theotokos (Mother of God) is not as much a statement about the Blessed Virgin but a statement about Christ. To refuse to acknowledge Mary as the Mother of God is to deny Christ, pure and simple.
So what difference does it make really? Quite a lot actually. The motivation of proponents of the many different heresies in the early days of the Church, was the fundamental distrust, or denigration of the Flesh. At best the flesh was viewed as weak, at its worst intrinsically evil. This line of thinking can be traced back at least as far as Plato. It is not the same as the Christian view of the flesh as fallen, bent or marred. It is difficult for moderns and ancients alike to comprehend how God who is perfect, holy, infinite, could become flesh. Its easier to imagine Him inhabiting flesh and even that is a stretch of faith. Neglect of this point of doctrine regarding the Incarnation of God, has lead to a "spiritualization" of the Christian faith, that likewise neglects the redemption of the flesh. The result being a artificial dichotomy between flesh and Spirit, and a failure to recognize the whole person, both of Christ and human beings generally. We sometimes see it manifested as "spiritual worship," that is to say, worship unhindered by outward forms or rituals. Casual becomes acceptable because reverence is a matter of the heart. Kneeling is unimportant if our spirits are humbled and bowed. Thinking and reasoning is supplanted by feeling and emotion. The hard facts of the Scriptures are set aside for a "spiritual interpretation." In the end, the Scriptural teaching regarding the Church as the visible body of Christ, is abandoned for a notion that justifies the many divisions within the Church.
Worst of all, this "spiritualization" denies our humanity, offering to the people a truncated salvation, rather than Christian wholeness. The Word became Flesh to restore humanity, to the human race. Human beings, severed from God, degenerate into animals, ruled by their carnal appetites and instincts supposing that it is more "natural." For the first time since the Garden of Eden, we see in Christ Jesus what being human really looks like, how we were created to be. He was/is the perfect Man. Salvation and sanctification through Christ, do not separate the spirit/soul from that which is flesh, but rather restore the proper integrity between flesh and spirit. The truly "spiritual" person is not one who stands aloof from that which is material/flesh but rather, one whose outward manner of living (and dying) is a perfect expression of his inward/spiritual life. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory...and from His fullness have we all received grace upon grace.
