Incarnation, A New Understanding

It's fun when we discover that things we think and are considering are also thought by others. I discovered Hans Frei this morning. He converted from Judaism and became an Episcopal priest and professor of theology at Yale. Karen Armstrong shared this about him:

Frei argued, the person of Jesus should establish the norm by which Christians judge the world and current events. He was certainly a historical figure, yet he did not have religious value simply because he had existed once upon a time; he became factual only when incarnated in our daily lives.

I wanted to shout "YES" when I read this. So many things danced in my mind at once. Paul's Christ within, his life now the life of Christ; Eckhart's assertion that Christ born from Mary is insignificant if not born in us; on and on ideas I've read flooded in. Then my own experiences validating and validated.

Yet religion today in many ways is not this. It is often shallow, prosperity gospel for example, or Jesus is my buddy. Or it is meanspirited, such as gleefully watching those with a different understanding tortured in the rapture. Or it is violent, terrorism sanctioned. How can we, is it possible, to shift to sincere inquiry and into a life lived spiritually?

The path of actual spiritual awakening is not easy. It requires ernest self inquiry and emptying, kenosis. It requires turning to the right brain, to the heart. It requires compassionate seeing and hearing and speaking and doing. It requires transformation which involves personal cosmic union and the birthing and nurturing of the Presence that was known and seen in Jesus who became The Christ.

It seems to me that people, at least some people, have grown weary from seeking in empty places and yearn for more. Perhaps this time is ripe for awakening the seed of God in us and stepping into the path of incarnation.