A New Vision part 3

A New Vision

a)      Believing, b) Behaving, c)Belonging

Diana Butler-Bass offers a new vision in her book which includes

three key areas of awareness of who God is. These are believing, behaving and belonging. This reflection will focus on the third- belonging.

c)      Belonging

Belonging is an issue of identity and related to being. Belonging often brings the sense of Who am I? And from where do I come?

Spiritual Question 1: Where am I?

Through time people have move around the planet and in leaving one place, establishing rots in another there is a the question of where am I now and where am I going? This is not new because of immigration patterns through the 1800-1900’s but because of man challenges and changes to churches, people are grieving their losses and searching from where do I come? Where is my history?

Moving is a part of the Biblical story—Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Noah, Jesus… In the midst of all ths movement the flow of history, the spiritual journeys retold in the Bible- what grounds them all is God. I AM (Exodus 3:14)  All the wanderings lead to find our self—Who am I?—and eventually lead to the One who is named I Am.

Spiritual Question 2: Whose am I?

Who am I in God? We often read the Gospels as focusing on Jesus but if we shift the focus, what if we look at the other people in the story how do Jesus’ friends and acquaintances change or gain new insights when they find themselves in Jesus’ company?  The woman at the well (John 4) certainly came to realize who she was—I am loved by God. So the question that needs to be asked is “Who am I in God?” and Who is God in me? How do we answer this in faith? Do we really belong to God?

Prepositional Faith—where the spiritual vocabulary of prepositions invites all to reflect on God and the self and this relationship

PRAY and reflect on these words from  St. Patrick’s Breastplate:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me.

Christ in me, Christ beneath, me, Christ above me.

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

THOUGHTS TO CONSIDER:

How do these ‘prepositions’ indicate or help define how you belong to God and God belongs to you? The spiritual community a living a renewed church begins with being in Christ, the first and primary relationship of a vibrant faith life. But the church must all be communion where a set of relationships make up a mode of being.

Bonhoeffer writing in his prison cell in 1944 …. Who am I” This or the other?..

Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!

Take time to pray and reflect on this idea of belonging—to others and to God and how others belong to you. Ask God to clarify any questions and wonder—for you are His!

Diana Butler-Bass Christianity after Religion: the end of church and the birth of a new spiritual awakening. .New York Harper2012 (chapter6)