02.18.08

bread of heaven

Posted in formation, missional order, prayer at 6:00 am by len

In the sixth chapter of the gospel of John Jesus speaks as if his body and blood are the most basic elements of life: bread and water. Using this analogy implies that without Him, there is no sustainable life for humankind.

He makes the astonishing statement in this chapter that, “He who believes in me, out of their innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”

It’s transferable, this life and source. The well that He is will come to exist in each of us who follow Him.

I’ve noticed over the years, this isn’t automatic nor is it constant. We don’t give our lives to Christ and then for the next fifty years we experience this flow.

How do we get there?

At one level it is laid out for us. Believe in me. Dwell in me. Follow me. Walk with me. Abide in me. But how do we accomplish these things?

One way to get to know our Father is to spend time where he spends time. When my kids were younger they loved to just be around me. If I was working on a project, fixing a computer or changing the oil, they would want to be there and find small ways to help. I remember the same experience with my own father. Often no words would pass between us, but being in the presence of someone I trusted and who loved me was somehow food for my soul. It was as if invisible threads would wind their way between us, and would carry something vital. A deposit was always left with me after these hours.

I believe that time spent in the presence of God.. whether on our own or with brothers and sisters.. supplies the same kind of food. It is nourishing, sustaining, refreshing and vital. Our souls become sponges, absorbing vital nutrients. In His light we see light. Perhaps one of the best analogies is the early experiments with radium. While that source was eventually deadly for the early researchers, it was also a source of great amazement to the early scientists. They saw through their microscopes that the fire of that source permeated those who were in regular contact with it. Their flesh absorbed the source. The fire spread from the source and transformed the very bones of those who were in contact with it.

We have a picture much like this in 2 Cor. 3. Paul reminds us of Moses, and then makes a stunning comparison.
Having such a hope, we use great boldness in speech,
and are not as Moses, who used to put a veil over his face
so that the sons of Israel might not look intently at the glory that was fading away.. v12-13

The glory that Moses had faded. He had seen the face of God, and spent many days in his presence. Yet the glory faded. The experience Moses had was once in a lifetime and not sustainable.

But we have an opportunity Moses did not have. We can come into God’s presence wherever and whenever we choose. And the disciplines of spending that time with God become a sacrament of the larger lives we live, and a training in immersion. And then, “we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
And so the most basic formative practices are just that – formative. When we spend time in the word, time in prayer and contemplation, time in worship, and time in service, our bodies become full of light. We gave on his face.. but without the veil Moses had to use! but directly, by the power of the Spirit that dwells within us. What an invitation!

For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the ligth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ…” (2 Cor. 4:6)

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