authentic spirituality…
Matthew 11.18-19; 13.55 “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’'; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!…’ Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?”
God wants us to be whole people, not religious people. The sheer normality of authentic spirituality has recently struck me. Jesus, the only perfect man who ever lived on this earth, was so “normal” that most of His relations, friends, and neighbors could not possibly believe that He was the Messiah. He was not “religious enough” for that! He was simply the son of the local carpenter, a perceived glutton, drunkard, and friend of sinners.
How easily we fall into the trap of thinking that the truly spiritual person has some special aura of holiness or mystique about her, which keeps her separate from the more ordinary, wholesome things of life! How urgently do we need to rediscover God as Creator and Redeemer? God is my Maker. When God created the human creature, He made us in His image, sealed it by breathing His Holy Spirit upon us, and intended us to be in a personal and devoted relationship with Him. Instead, we have maligned the image, quenched the Spirit, and forsaken the relationship. When God calls a person to follow Jesus, He makes us a new creation, fills us with the Holy Spirit, and reconciles our relationship with him. In short, His mission is to make us truly human— in the image of His Son.
It is part of the ancient and continuing Gnostic heresy that spirituality means denying or trying to escape from our humanity's bodily or natural aspects by concentrating wholly on the realm of the spirit. Gnostic influence may be perceived wherever “spiritual” is elevated above “material” or “physical;” “being” is seen as superior to its counterpart “doing;” “spirit” as the preferred alternative to “flesh,” and “mystical insight” above “knowledge/wisdom.”
Christian theology, like the Jewish theology that preceded it, is an embodied—an incarnational—theology. Authentic spirituality does not climb Jacob’s ladder toward heaven so that we can be more godlike—this is a sanctified revision of the “Garden variety sin”—eat the fruit; God knows you will be like Him.
Authentic spirituality is to follow Jesus and become wholistically human! One look at Jesus's life reveals the intense humanity of authentic spirituality. Jesus is a carpenter’s son; He eats and drinks with sinners; He laughs and weeps. He teaches, tells stories, observes the seasons, prays, worships, and experiences love, joy, strength, friendship, weakness, and sorrow. How refreshing to realize that God has created us and redeemed us to be authentically human.
Let’s endeavor to foster an authentic spirituality that is intentional and fully human.
