Thoughts from Culhwch

So, I’ve been thinking. When we talk about Christ, I think too often we focus on Christ’s sacrifice for “us.” I’m not saying it’s wrong to understand what Christ has done for us, but I think we also need to think about the process of reconciliation at work in our brothers and sisters in Christ. Christ died for them too.

Perhaps it might be illustrative if I explain a parallel thought first. In the time of my recovery from being beaten and mugged, I had a profound understanding of Christ’s suffering on the cross. You see, up until that point I had understood Christ’s dying for our sins as Christ dying for the sins that I had committed. And I could in some way jump from that point to a basic sense of Christ having died for the sins that everyone else had committed as well. But it was not until I had understood what it means to have someone sin against me, that I began to understand that Christ not only died for the sins I had committed against others, but also for the sins that they had committed against me. In fact, I think Christ was somehow present during the very night when this took place absorbing the sin that was perpetrated against me.

Now, this thought may actually help us come together as a community. We often see the imperfections in others when we live together. And often we see the imperfections in the human relationships around us. But just as Christ died to set me free from sin, he also died to set everyone else free from sin. At the same time, God is at work within me to bring me into conformity with Christ, so too God is at work to bring my brothers and sisters into conformity. So, I think we may also be able to say that when brothers and sisters in Christ are in community with one another, that same pattern should help us to live together.

Finally, (and this is odd, since I didn’t even connect all this together when I started writing) Christ died for the sins against me, even those committed by my brothers. Doesn’t this also mean that Christ died to heal those relationships, to make us whole as a community, to bring us together?

I wonder if all this means that though our present experience of the relationships we have with our brothers and sisters may be imperfect, and full of sins and struggles, through Christ they are made perfect. Which is to say, because Christ is at work in each of us, and between each of us, defeating the sins that break us apart, we actually have access to a perfect relationship (through Christ – with one another). – Not that we are perfect, or our attempts at living together are perfect, but that through Christ we are united perfectly according to the will of Father, and through Christ, our selves, our family and our familial bonds are being perfected, and should provide us with a momentary glance forward to life in Glory.

Should we then search for a perfect relationship? Yes and No. For we begin the search only with Christ and having already found Christ we realize that we have already what we were looking for.

Thoughts?