Knowing God is Christ

Knowing God in Christ

I grew up in the Episcopal Church. My parents met in the Episcopal Church. In my home parish, in the Chicago area, I was an acolyte; youth group president, and choir member. When I returned to the church, after drifting away as in college, I taught a teen Sunday school class and was a youth group advisor.

I had come to know Jesus Christ present in the community of the parish – the worship, the sacraments, the fellowship, and outreach. That is what made Jesus real to me. Jesus was real in those relationships and the Body of Christ.

When I was in high school I attended a non-denominational youth group because lots of my friends attended. I enjoyed the fellowship and the learning in that group. My senior year I attended a spring break trip the group sponsored to Bermuda. Parts of it were lots of fun. But the leaders spoke to us many times in groups and individually. I felt pressure to see Jesus in a way different than I had known growing up in the Episcopal Church. The pressure I felt, was as we hear now, “to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior”. I believed I already knew Jesus, knew he loved me, and that was made real to me every time I went to my church – in the sacraments, learning, and fellowship

I think of this because the Gospel reading from the Revised Common Lectionary for the 2^nd Sunday of Easter is from John 20:19 – 31. It is about when the Resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples in the house they were all staying in Jerusalem. The disciple, Thomas, was not with them when that happened. When he was told what the others had seen and experienced he said he would not believe until he saw the Resurrected Lord for himself. A week later in the same place he got to have that encounter with the Risen Christ.

Now you might say that he got to know Jesus as his “personal Lord and Savior” in that event. I think more importantly it says something more. Jesus was known to Thomas in a way he could accept. It was not someone else’s experience or formula. It was true to who he was. I do not think that God wants is cookie – cutter experiences of the Divine as revealed in Jesus. If we believe that God created each of us then it makes sense God will reveal God’s presence to us in a way we each can understand. For me that revelation was and continues to be known in the Community of the Church, also known as the Body of Christ. I have had individual encounters with the Risen Christ, but I continue to understand him most frequently present in the context his Church.

Yes, I have a personal relationship with God, but it is made known to me through Christ’s Church. I think the fullest way we know Jesus Christ is not just alone but in community. It is there he takes on flesh and blood in the people who gather in his name, and try to make him known.

Fr. Patrick+