Response

Let me try responding to one of the Saturday morning comments:

"Christ is about getting us re-connected to our physical as well as spiritual nature!"

In a single word, again – YES!!!!! Once again I'll say it's all about the outrage of a Holy God who condescends to live and die as one of us, living and dying in the total pain and vulnerability of human flesh! It's about a Transcendent, Holy Other revealed and revealed again in water, bread and wine. Revealed and revealed again and again in the common, ordinary everyday 'stuff' of creation and of our common, ordinary everyday lives; nothing is too ordinary nor is anything too transitory to remind us of God's love and faithfulness, to remind us of God's nearness and ever-presence! Revealed at the 9th hour, the hour of Jesus' death, when the Temple veil was torn and heaven on earth no longer was the province of a select few only at a select time of every year, but heaven came to earth and became possible for all of us.

Our Scripture's answer to the pain and perplexity of human existence, to our sorrow, grief – and to our joys – is our Free and Sovereign God of mercy, grace and love who indwells creation, indwells us, and who sorrows, grieves and rejoices with every breath we take! Our God is present whenever and wherever we break bread and share a cup – not only in the church sanctuary or during the regularly scheduled Sunday liturgy! But everyplace everywhere and every time becomes holy and sanctified, because wherever God and the People of God meet is holy, sacred sanctified ground and holy time – 'qodesh.'

It's all so tremendously physical – remember, when the Bible was canonized, they threw out everything that possibly remotely could've made Jesus less than fully and totally human! It's not about the possibility of our living with God someday; rather it's about the reality of God's living with us right here, right now. Just as at the 9th hour, the hour of Jesus' death, when the Temple veil was torn and heaven came to earth and became possible for all of us. [OK, some shorthand there: I need to backtrack to the Incarnation and fast-forward to Easter Dawn, but this'll have to do for now.]