God enters into the lower story

'In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?'--Paul in the letter to the Ephesians chapter 4 verse 9.

When I say God descended into the lower story in the form of Jesus I am not saying anything unorthodox or particularly new. I am hearing the testimony of Paul. What the people of his day would have taken in so easily during his time has been buried so deeply as to not even show up on our contemporary radar. When Paul said he descended into the lower regions--the earth--he meant just that.

To believe in resurrection demands we believe in a God who comes down. Who enters in. We say it glibly without realizing the sanctity of the moment, the courage of incarnation. After a long silence between the testaments God 'enters the scene' to become the herald of the morn, the confronter of darkness, the messanger of a 'new creation'. And the message when it is heard rightly is; 'I died so that you might have life. Now go and do the same for your brother'.

That Jesus died is not so powerful as what he says in the manner in which He dies. Most powerful God said 'lay the rifle down'. When James Taylor laments (in his beautiful haunting song Belfast to Boston') he speaks as a prophet to us.

'Missing brothers, martyred fellows, silent children in the ground
Could we but hear them could they not tell us
"Time to lay God's rifle down"

Who will say this far no further,'

But we have truncated the gospel, taken it hostage, made it about our own 'personal Jesus'. We have taken what was meant to be freedom for the captive right now and made it about something that we hope happens some day. We need to be reminded that salvation is not about tomorrow as much as it is about today. We have squandered that message, packaged it, and effectively castrated it of its power in the world.

Watershed is about boundaries, insulation and isolation, and a new emerging paradigm that turns on the light bulb. It is about a moment when we say 'I get it'.

And when we turn around (the meaning of the word repentance), when we intentionally bend down the bars that separate, when we purposefully, thoughtfully erase the doctrines and ideologies that justify our isolation and insulation and keep us a safe distance from our brothers, when we stop asking 'so who is my brother, my neighbor?' so we can measure how much to care; when we stop saying stupid things like 'am I my brothers' keeper?' hiding behind ignorance with our bloody hands behind our backs, when we stop hearing the gospel just the way we want it, when we turn around and go back to make amends for what we've done along the way...it is then and only then that we will reflect the one who came down and laid down... rights, power, and fear... to embrace a new day. It is then that we can be called Christian.

Less than this is a convenient apparition.