Paschal Spirituality - Christocentric
One of the more profound books that I've read this year is called "The Signature of Jesus" by Brennan Manning. It was quite a challenging book. He spoke about a radical discipleship with the signature of Jesus, which is the cross and sacrifice being signed over our lives. And I wanted to share some of his thoughts from Chapter 5, which was called Paschal spirituality.
Understanding Paschal Spirituality
That phrase, Paschal spirituality, basically refers to the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection, and how our daily life is death to sin, selfishness, and dishonesty, and arising to holiness and love. Manning says that our lives should be lived in a Paschal sort of way, dying to self, rising with Christ.
This Paschal spirituality has several characteristics which I'd like to share with you this week. The first is that it's Christocentric - a big word, but all it means is that Christ is central to our lives.
The Challenge of Modern Christianity
Some believe that the modern church has become so preoccupied with style that the substance of our faith has been neglected. We've lost sight of Jesus at the center. On page 93, Manning shares the Father's cry:
"You go to church every Sunday and read your Bible, but the body of My Son is broken. You memorize chapter and verse and honor your traditions, but the body of My Son is broken. You recite the Creed and defend Orthodoxy, but the body of My Son is broken. You hark back to tradition and press forward toward renewal, but the body of My Son is broken."
It's as if we're forgetting that the center of our faith is a crucified Savior, and that all the rest is basically window dressing. You see, if Christ is not formed in us, then our spirituality is wrong somehow.
Christ Formed in Us
Manning tells a powerful story. A few years ago, a white prisoner died of a heart attack in a jail in Montgomery, Alabama. While in prison, he had a profound conversion experience and entered into an authentic relationship with Jesus. The convict in the next cell, a huge black man, was a cynic. Each night the white prisoner spoke through the prison bars and told him about the love of Jesus. The black man mocked him, told him he was sick in the head and that religion was the last refuge of the insane. Nonetheless, the white prisoner passed scripture passages to him and shared his candy whenever he received a gift from a relative.
At the white man's funeral service, when the prison chaplain spoke of the Easter victory of Jesus, the burly black prisoner stood up in the middle of the sermon, pointed to the coffin and said, "That's the only Jesus I ever knew."
Now remember, Jesus wasn't black or white, but whoever we are, our goal is for Christ to be formed in us so that others get to know Christ through us. And so, is your spirituality Christocentric? Put Jesus at the center today. Be so deeply in love with Him that He begins to be formed in your heart. And who knows whose life might be changed because of that?
