We are the Body of Christ: Pentecost Monday
Welcome to the Pentecost Daybook series for these 8 days of celebrating (today through Trinity Sunday). May you know the power of the risen and reigning Christ resting on you and working through you today, tomorrow, and always!
Look: Benyamin (Indonesian), Pentecost, 1992. Source: Many Faces of Christian Art in Indonesia (Jakarta: Persekutuan Gereja-Gereja di Indonesia, 1993) H/T: Victoria Emily Jones at Art & Theology
Listen: We Are the Body, The Church at Brook Hills - Lyrics | Spotify | YouTube
I made us a new playlist for Pentecost! You can listen to it here: Pentecost 2021: Holy Spirit Rain Down
Read: Psalm 25; Psalm 9, 15; Deuteronomy 4:9-14; 2 Corinthians 1:1-11; Luke 14:25-35
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful,
and enkindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created,
and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Amen.
Do: Throughout the week I'll be sharing excerpts from spiritual teacher Henri Nouwen as well as my own brief reflections about the way the Holy Spirit empowers us to live in peace, freedom, and power. Read, reflect, journal, and share your own responses with the rest of us in the comment section below.
Joint Heirs With Christ
"We continue to put ourselves down as less than Christ. Thus, we avoid the full honor as well as the full pain of the Christian life. But the Spirit that guided Jesus guides us. Paul says: "The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God. And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:16-17).
When we start living according to this truth, our lives will be radically transformed. We will not only come to know the full freedom of the children of God but also the full rejection of the world. It is understandable that we hesitate to claim the honor so as to avoid the pain. But, provided we are willing to share in Christ's suffering, we also will share in his glory (see Romans 8:17)."
- The Selfless Way of Christ, Henri Nouwen
I am a daughter of God and share that honor with my brother Jesus. Unbelievable!
What a long, arduous journey it's been for me to unravel all the layers of false self-reference and identity to discover the Tamara that our Creator always imagined. Even now, just over fifty years old, I feel like I only recognize my truest, Christ-redeemed self in tiny glimpses. It's the power of the Holy Spirit that unveils my eyes and empowers me to take each step toward freedom to live fully as myself.
Still, I feel a jot of unbelief when I read words like those above from Nouwen: "We continue to put ourselves down as less than Christ". There's a nuance in this understanding, of course. Jesus is my brother and he is also my King. There's a completely true place for myself to live bowed at the feet of Jesus. There's also a spacious, celebratory place for myself to live linked arm-in-arm with our good Brother. Somewhere in the middle of this place - hidden in Christ and also completely alive in His presence is where I'm able to find my truest self.
In the years of unraveling all the things I thought were true, but didn't bear up under the weight of living as myself in this world, I've narrowed down the list of things I'm reasonably comfortable saying I know for sure:
Recognizing and living into my Christ-oriented self does not come through the lens of self-deprecation, self-flagellation, self-hatred, self-protection, self-absorption, or any other self-oriented perspective.
Recognizing and living into my Christ-oriented self does not bypass the work of confession, forgiveness, inner healing, and reconciliation, but instead emerges through both suffering and celebration.
Recognizing and living into my Christ-oriented self happens most often amidst the often unremarkable moments of my "everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life". (Rom. 12:1, MSG)
Recognizing and living into my Christ-oriented self is impossible to do on my own without a community of friends and guides helping me bear witness to the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.
Recognizing and living into my Christ-oriented self allows me to indiscriminately love God, people, and myself with abandon.
This week we'll talk a bit about some specific ways the Holy Spirit empowers us to live into our truest identity as daughters and sons of the most high God. The same power that resurrected Christ lives within us and empowers us to pray, listen, speak, heal, give, and receive love as our truest God-created selves. The same power that communicated all God's purposes and direction for Jesus' life on earth, is speaking in us and through us.
I hope you'll walk with me this week with a sense of anticipation that God's heart toward you is steadfast and good.