Sitting with the Sacred

For me, last week’s theme was the wonder of a world that reflects a God who is relationship, the wonder of a world in which the grandest features reflect God, and yet God” delight[s] [in] human beings]” (Prov. 8:31).

For me, there is an element of distance involved in wonder. Wonder is amazing, like a view of a mountain range or a canyon When I picture a God of wonder, I picture a God who “delight[s] in human beings” but doesn’t feel accessible. I picture a God who watches from above and smiles but is, nonetheless, watching from above.

But this week’s readings don’t speak to me about a God who is content to watch me from above. He doesn’t even stop at sharing my human nature and walking beside me. He feeds me, and not just by inviting me over to dinner like another friend might. He becomes one with me by feeding me with himself — and not just with his spirit — but with everything that made him a living, touchable human being — his body and blood, in addition to his Divine Life. Everything. He holds nothing back from me. In fact, he wants me not only to share in his Holy Spirit and his humanity, but in other gifts of nature — offered in what the senses perceive as bread and wine. He provides for me in so many ways in the hope that the blessings of these gifts will spread from me outward.

Paul reminds the Christian community of Corinth:

“[O]n the night [Jesus] was handed over [he] took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said. ‘This is my body that is for you… In the same way also [he took] the cup… saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood [Italics mine]

1 Corinthians 11:23-26.

The New Oxford American Dictionary on my Kindle defines a covenant, in the theological sense, as, “an agreement that brings about a relationship of commitment between God and his people.” (Loc. 188613-188614).

“A relationship of commitment” — like a marriage — one in which the groom offers all of himself — even to the point of offering his body and shedding his blood.

This groom is the Trinitarian God, one of our pastors reminded us this weekend. This is the God of relationship that I wrote about last week. And yes, this God is the God of wonder. But this same God is also the God of the utmost intimacy.

Works cited

The Bible. The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.

The New Oxford American Dictionary, Kindle edition, Oxford UP, 2008.