Christ Isn't Jesus' Last Name

"Christ" is the name for God's plan to materialize his formless Spirit. - Richard Rohr

I've been thinking a lot lately about where Jesus can be found in the world around me, and I have some questions. 

It's odd, I know.  It's just one of those things that you do when you're a pastor and a writer, and spend most of your time reading and thinking about that kind of thing for a living. 

And there's this...  

Sometimes I find myself wondering about Jesus' presence---because things seem to be a bit messed up in the world at the moment, which leads me to believe that whatever Jesus is up to is way beyond my understanding. 

I have come to grasp something really profound, though.  

"Christ" isn't Jesus' last name.  Jesus is the Christ, which means "Messiah," or "Anointed One," which in the Gospel of John is interpreted as the "Logos," or the "Blueprint," or The Creative Expressive Word of God.  (that last one was my interpretation)

The Apostle Paul had some really interesting ideas about how Christ is present in everything.  He believed that the presence of Christ is in every aspect of Creation, including human beings. 

For Paul, the world is soaked with Christ.  And because of this, all of us can be one.  All divisions can be broken down... all prejudices dispensed with... all enmities and bitterness erased... 

If we have eyes to see, we can look out into the world and see Jesus everywhere and in everyone. 

11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. - Colossians 3:11

28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:28

I know this sounds a bit out there.  It is.  

C.S. Lewis himself acknowledged how challenging it is to embrace this notion, albeit with different language: 

[Christ] is just that point in history at which something absolutely unimaginable from outside shows through into our own world.   

But if we are able to begin to see the world this way (with Christ in all and as all), it could change everything about how we view the world and one another.  And perhaps change the world as a result.  

May you begin to open your eyes and see Jesus all around you today and every day forward. And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.