Already There

The starting point of discipleship is understanding that I am “already there” (Richard Rohr). Either Jesus meant that our full salvation was accomplished in the It-Is-Finished moment on the cross, or that it is “almost” finished. Either we are blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, or just some. Either he accomplished the work his Father gave him to do, or just some of it.

So, instead of looking at prayer, Bible reading, serving, and church-going as ways to finish something that is already finished, the Christian disciplines are completely redefined to be grateful responses to the finished work of God in Christ. God’s prior love. Repentance and faith in Christ do not bring us into God’s love, they are responses to his love.

This breathes life into the sometimes-dusty spiritual disciplines. We do them now from a heart that has been changed by God’s love. We pray and read the Bible, not to get us someplace where we are not, but to grow more deeply into who we are.

It means that John 6:56 (eat my flesh and drink my blood) is not specifically about Holy Communion where we go to meet Christ. But, both John 6 and the sacrament are about the most profound mystery of the universe, that we have (past tense) been put into Christ and Christ in us. Jesus in you, the hope of glory!

My prayer for us as we approach Holy Week and Easter at Christ Church is that we will know more deeply the profound mystery of the already there-ness in the gift of God’s only Son.

In his love,
Chuck