The great transaction

I read the Guardian. No, not in a sandal wearing, wooly jumper, fairtrade-nettle-tea-only-shopping-in-Oxfam kind of way. Nor in an i-phone slinging, break beat listening, wannabe art student kind of way.

I just read it because I like it. I like it for many reasons, none of which are important here and should I choose to tell you would only serve to make me out as a nerd. Well one reason might be important, and that is I like reading the Guardian because it sometimes makes me cross. Actually not quite, because cross is what I get with my 2 year old when she pulls the leads out the wireless router while I am working. Angry would be a better word, in a kind of “how on earth can you possibly say that?” way.

My anger session usually begins on page 37, not every week I must add, just now and again in a regular nearly weekly kind of way. Nestled underneath the readers letters and e-mails section at the bottom right-hand side of the page is the Face to Faith column. This week I got extra especially angry, I may have even gone beetroot purple (thats pretty high on the vegetable based anger colour chart). In talking about engaging with other faiths and religions the writer says this.

“Something far more radical and painfully sacrificial is needed if we are to ever engage meaningfully. We need to bring about a world of mutual, outward-going respect, a warmth that far surpasses mere tolerance. And I think here of kenosis, or self-emptying.

Traditionally the term has been used to denote the process whereby God empties himself of his divinity in order to experience the reality of our humanity.  But in eastern orthodoxy and the writing of the mystics it refers more to a fresh spiritual beginning, a cleansing of our negative thought patterns so that we slough off all resentment, mistrust, prejudice and exclusivity, leaving the soul free for divine love to pour in.”

God didn’t empty himself of his divinity so He could experience the reality of humanity. He sent his one and only Son, Jesus, who willingly laid aside all the rights that his divinity afforded him (except for his power to forgive sins). But in laying aside his rights he didn’t lose his divinity in any way. He was truly and fully the God Man. Both divine and human in every way.

The Trinity were not sitting around on a cloud in heaven listening to angels strumming harps when the Holy Spirit decides to drop one into the conversation. “Hey Jesus ever wondered what it would be like to be human?” And then God says “Yeh what do you reckon Jesus, you fancy it?” And then Jesus thinks “Wow that would be really cool. I might just do that, leave my Father’s side, put on a skin suit and head down to earth. After all this total perfection and glorious heavenly vibe is getting a bit boring, I need a challenge.”

Kenosis happened because it was the only way. Kenosis happened because it was the plan set in place before the beginning of time. Kenosis happened because there simply was no other way. It wasn’t just so Jesus could ‘experience our humanity’, it was because He had to and He chose to. There simply was no other way that we could be reconciled back to God other than Jesus living the perfect life that we should have lived and dying the perfect death that we could never have died.

People can talk for as long as they want about reconciling religions and faiths, which is surely an entirely pointless discussion as the mark of most world religions is alleged exclusivity. The discussion is not how can I go and high-five my Buddhist mate while singing Hari Krishna, worshipping a cow and hugging a tree? The question is how can a fallen man be reconciled with his perfect creator?  Cleansing our negative thought patterns so that we can slough off all resentment, mistrust and prejudice so our souls are free to receive divine love, in a Jesus is my girlfriend kind of way isn’t going to do anything, except maybe make us feel better about ourselves which defeats the point. We are very bad, Jesus is very good.

I dont need £300 per hour anger therapy, I get mine for £1.70 a week.

Comments

There are no comments for this article yet.

Write Your Comment