ChristLight
I started reading Bishop Spong when I too could no longer conceive of God as a being up there and out there who occasionally dabbled in human events. ChristPower is a collection of poems based on his sermons. One sermon is his traditional Christmas sermon. What follows is my understanding of ChristPower—Christ incarnate among us and in the cosmos today.
ChristPower, ChristLife, ChristLove, ChristLight—
Meager attempts to describe the indescribable—
The Living God defies all description and definition.
Yet, ChristPower, ChristLife, ChristLove, ChristLight
Is the driving energy pulse of the cosmos
As the Living One flares forth in the stardust
That evolved over time into conscious life.
John says the ChristPower, ChristLife, ChristLove, ChristLight
Existed from the very beginning as the Word—
The Word spoken by the Holy One,
The Word dancing in delight at the dawn of creation.
The Spirit hovered over the bubbling, frothing void
And carbon-based life forms slowly evolved
From the stardust of the Black Holes and Supernovas.
One day, long, long ago, one creature awoke
Awoke to conscious reflective life—
“I am in Who Am!”
Then more and more creatures awoke.
Consciousness became a reality for the human species.
Hunters and gathers survived
Under the tutelage of their tribal gods
Until they discovered agriculture
With its boundaries, violence and warfare for resources.
And then industry revolution created more stuff
To fill the void in our deepest longing for
ChristPower, ChristLife, ChristLove, ChristLight.
Technology promised new life and new hope
As it entangled us in its greedy grasp.
Stuff under dead ornamented trees replaced
The ChristPower, ChristLife, ChristLove, ChristLight.
Anon, consciousness was discovering a fundamental unity
And the Living God of all welcomed all to the table—
ChristPower, ChristLife, ChristLove, ChristLight,
Justice and peace in the Kin-dom.
The ChristPower, ChristLife, ChristLove, ChristLight
Was once embodied, enfleshed, incarnated in a baby—
Emmanuel, the Living God with us and in us,
Born of Mary and Joseph in Nazareth of Galilee—
A backwater town in an occupied country.
Jesus of Nazareth grew in wisdom, age and grace—
ChristPower, ChristLife, ChristLove, ChristLight in its fullness.
Jesus preached the Kin-dom—a new world order
Based on justice, love, compassion, and nonviolence—
ChristPower, ChristLife, ChristLove, ChristLight.
He healed the exploited and downtrodden
Drove out the demons that oppress
He opened the eyes of the blind,
He set captives free,
He liberated the oppressed
He declared a Year of Jubilee debt relief.
The empire saw the threat and acted swiftly
Crucifying him like a common criminal.
His closest followers, fearing the same fate, fled.
Three days later his disciples declared
That he was risen and at the right hand of God—
The ChristPower, ChristLife, ChristLove, ChristLight
Once “adored” by lowly shepherds from the hills
And mighty rulers from afar is now
The ChristPower, ChristLife, ChristLove, ChristLight
That lives in our hearts
That permeates our deepest being
And the very being of the evolving cosmos.
Come let us adore him—
ChristPower,
ChristLife,
ChristLove,
ChristLight—
The Word made flesh in our hearts.