I want ask one more question

June 9, 2020,

Good afternoon,

"   For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."  Second Corinthians 8:9

Jesus was born on this earth, in Bethlehem, and lived as a human being for over thirty years. So, as our theology says, he was in heaven before he came to this earth, so he was a divine/holy experience. I do not want to give him a body, so what was he ( I need to use a pronoun ) in heaven ? A gas, a being,  a spirit,  exactly what was/is Jesus ? Maybe it is like quantum theory, where things, very small things, are in two places at one time. That is impossible in my mind, but in Jesus, we have both a divine and human experience.

So, Jesus arrives here on earth. He could have used his divine power to bring about God's purposes in any way possible. But Jesus ( and God and the Spirit ) decided to lose the power of richness and become as poor as us. Why is being human about being in poverty ? And in that poverty of Jesus, using his humanity, we can become rich in everything in this world. And what power of the divine did Jesus actually give up while living in Palestine ?

God is God, and we try to discern God's ways. Why did God choose to do it this way, by becoming a human being ? It is a question that I have had for most of my life as a Christian believer. Why is being human so important in the biblical Christian story ? I think we find salvation in Jesus, by him being like one of us. I am not sure how it all works, but God's grace is somehow embedded in him being human.

Jesus is not human like me. I sin. I post things on Facebook or Twitter that cause some people to question my ethics. I use up too many resources in my earthy footprint. I do not call into question things I know are sins. Jesus was sinless, so how is he human like me ? I cannot answer that one. Is it temptations that make us human ?  And is it grace that makes us divine ?

Dear God,

Thank you for listening to my questions,

like you listened to Job, and Mary

and Hannah, and Eve,

and Paul and John.

I will never discover all there is to

know about faith

and life,

and sin, and grace.

and,

Thank you for your divine patience

with all of our journeys.

You are not done

with any of us, today or tomorrow.

Come, Lord, Jesus                          AMEN .

Fred

Tread on bold new paths !

Fireflies flash the direction

Hope springs eternal           Monica Pieper Landoni 2020

Fred Redekop

Pastor

Poole Mennonite Church