Pastor's Weekly Word

God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:27-28)

The Jesus paradox is a phrase Franciscan Priest Richard Rohr used to title his recent blog. In it, Rohr talks about how Western Christianity tends to only think in dualisms and how that is slowly starting to change. He goes on to mention how mystics have historically recognized the power of Christ to overcome “dualisms, dichotomies, and divisions.”

On Sunday, we began a brief series for Advent titled “The Messiah We Get.” In it we are lifting up the paradoxical nature of Christ and how he embodies a reality that does not seem possible, being both God and human at once. As Rohr puts it, there is a “dynamic unity between seeming opposites” that gets lost on us in our dualistic thinking.

As we anticipate a birth yet again this Advent, may our faith open us up to the much larger reality of a Christ who is human and divine, heavenly and earthly, all at one time. If there is anything that can pull us out of thinking that opposites simply cannot co-exist and that things must be one way or another, it is Jesus Christ. This is the Messiah we get.