In Christ
July 20, 2025
I am reading two interesting books, The Tears of Things by Richard Rohr for our Bible Study and IntraConnected, the Integration of Self, Identity and Belonging, by Daniel Siegal who teaches psychiatry at UCLA. He argues that our focus on solo-self, isolated from others and fiercely independent, is a significant source of our modern pandemics and ills. As I read our passages, many of the ideas in these books flooded my mind. We just heard of three strangers meeting Abraham at the oaks of Mamre and him fawning all over them with hospitality. But what you don’t know is Abraham had just been circumcised. After God told him Sarah would bear a son, circumcision sealed the covenant with God. When he should be resting and recuperating, Abraham is making ready. Now we turn to a hymn that offers a glimpse into Christ’s self and work, from creation to crucifixion. READ Colossians 1:15-23a
If I were to name this hymn, I think I would call it “In Christ.” In Christ all things were created. In Christ all things hold together. In Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. It feels like a Kumbaya song, all is good and in harmony. That is until we recognize the undercurrent of Empire. If Jesus is all these things, then Caesar is not. That’s sedition. An emperor was believed to be a “son of god” but Christ is “the firstborn of all creation.” Images of Caesar were everywhere, but Jesus is the image of the invisible God. As one commentator writes, “In a culture in which the emperor’s preeminence is legitimated and defended by socio-economic, political, and military structures, Paul has the audacity to proclaim not only that “all things in heaven and on earth were created … through him and for him … ” but specifically that all “thrones,” “dominions,” “rulers,” and “powers” are subject to his rule! Because of his resurrection, Christ is the one who will come to “have first place in everything” (Working Preacher, Brian J. Walsh).
When we watch our democracy threatened, our institutions being torn apart, and the courts giving their blessings, it is comforting to know that in Christ we have hope. “We are reminded, first and foremost, that in Jesus, God’s enigmatic self was revealed in human, accessible form. But Jesus is not simply some divine avatar or a holy Rosetta Stone. The same Jesus who came to earth, walked among us, and died on the cross is the Jesus who was at the start of creation” (Working Preacher, Kimberly Wagner). Jesus was “the firstborn of all creation” and “the first born of the dead.” Christ was integral to the creation of the world which is connected to the resurrection by Christ being the firstborn of the dead. “What this does is connect the act of creation with the promise of resurrection—in reverse. For Colossians resurrection is essentially an act of creation—not resuscitation, but re-creation, not just new life, but new creation” (Working Preacher, Karl Jacobson). My hope is our democracy will become a new creation, have a second birth after this time of destruction and chaos.
As we think about power structures and empires, I want to share a radical thought from Richard Rohr about circumcision. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham. While discussing divine love and circumcision, Rohr writes, “the male organ of symbolic force and dominance is what needs to suffer radical surgery…the Jewish rite of male circumcision…was an early, radical, physical critique of the false uses of power and domination we call patriarchy” (40). What we think of as the identifying mark of relationship with God might also be a humbling of the destructive forces of man. Circumcision was the old covenant; love forms the new.
Christ is the new covenant in love. But often we can’t get out of our win/lose thinking to experience that love. We judge, complain and worry rather than surrender to God’s love. We defend, divide and separate the world into us and them. Republican/Democrat, rich/poor, Christian/not. Dr. Siegal explained the biology of this. From a cellular level everything is either inside the cell wall or outside. Each cell is separated by the cell membrane, and replicates. When the replication goes crazy, we call that cancer. But on a cellular level, the “fundamental distinction in our lives (is) inner verses outer” (89). So as we developed over time our being is structured around us vs. them. Inner vs. Outer. This gave me comfort because I want these distinctions to go away, but biologically they won’t. But we can move towards love. The first step is embracing our humanity, all humanity. Siegal quotes, “I am human, I think nothing human alien to me” (260). That is a motto for mitigating us and them. I am human, I think nothing human alien to me.
We can also find our identity in something bigger. In Christ. No matter who we are or where we came from, we belong to Christ. Christ’s death makes us holy, blameless, forgiven. God loves us infinitely. But “Infinite love is literally too much for most of us to comprehend….we would rather stand outside of love than receive a love which we believe we are not worthy- or have not earned or cannot figure out” (Rohr, 78). That is why Paul keeps proclaiming “In Christ.” To show us God’s love, to teach us it’s not about what we do, but what Christ did on the cross. How God loves us every day, and how we experience that love in community: in the community of Christ, in the body of Christ, in the church. Paul uses “en Christo,” in Christ, more than any other phrase because that is how we have identity, belonging and love. Rohr writes, “Our whole life is ‘in Christ,’ a life of full divine participation with and in the other. Not a private moral endeavor, (no a solo self) but a full communion with reality achieved by surrender to an always present love!” (79). To be in Christ means we are surrendered to, and surrounded by, an always present love. In Christ can also be the “identity lens” we choose to focus on. So no matter what divides us, we can focus on our shared foundation in Christ. We can let our differences blur in the background and focus on what we share, who we are in Christ. Here we find belonging, identity, and community which binds us to each other and God. We can let go of “the shrunken version of belonging as a solo self” (Rohr, 232), and feast in the intraconnection of our community of faith, the body of Christ. Siegel describes this intraconnection as me +we, which I think is lovely. He uses “intra” to describe a withinness of identity and belonging (23). He is not a Christian writer, but I think that explains how our identity in Christ is within us as a defining part of each of us and Christ is the glue that creates our community and communion. In Christ is me+we. Our identity in Christ is more crucial than family, race, ethnicity, class, and nationality, all the things we use to separate us.
In Christ is the chemo to the cancer of isolation and independence.
In Christ is our identity. Beyond our social ties, family and degrees, Christ is our true identity.
In Christ we belong. As part of this church, the body of Christ, we belong to Christ.
Last night during the midsummer gathering we each came as our own “me,” our personal self, to gather at Keith’s house and become a wonderful “we” of fellowship. We broke bread together, invited Christ to be with us and marveled at God’s creation. I would say that we manifested Christ’s body, experienced Christ’s peace and placed Christ first in everything.
As you move through your week, may you hum your own In Christ song. May you celebrate Christ in your life, God’s infinite love, our intra connection as the body of Christ and the profound recreation we know in Christ’s resurrection. Amen.
