Places of God's Revelation 1

Places of God’s Revelation

In Jesus Christ

Introduction to a Blog Series

Written by Dan McDonald

 

            Many years ago I learned of a theology which emphasized that God’s revelation in Christ was especially revealed through three means, or loci (locations) of revelation. In this perspective Christ is known through the Scriptures, in the Sacraments, and in connection with Christ’s body, the Church. A few days ago I began to imagine writing concerning the importance of these three loci of revelation.

Holy Scriptures as a place of revelation

 

Sacrament as a place of revelation, downloaded from Shutterstock.com

 

Church congregation in worship; San Lazaro Catholic Church; El Rincon Cuba copyright American Spirit, downloaded from Shutterstock.com

  

            I was in the process of considering writing on this subject, without any definite decision to do so, when I entered a conversation that ended up making me rethink how I would write about these three places of revelation. The conversation did not start in any way like something which would reshape my writing goals.

            One of the people I follow on Twitter expressed a list of authors she had to confess she had not read much. She confessed to not reading very much of C.S. Lewis. I admitted that I had not read a lot either. In that context I described that Lewis’ book The Four Loves was one of the more influential books in my life. When I read The Four Loves I was left thinking or perhaps praying, “This Christian life is about our learning to be human, isn’t it?” It is so easy to make Christian redemption about being above the normal limitations of human sinfulness. We begin to try to strive to live more and more above ordinary human difficulties. But God became man in the person of Jesus Christ not to enable us to live above ordinary humanity, but to become fully human through Christ’s redemption. That was an extremely important change of perspective that continues to shape and reshape my life.

            Another person responding to the original person’s confession of not reading much of C.S. Lewis described how she has been disappointed by Lewis’ work Surprised by Joy which so many of her “dude friends” found so rich. Rather than write her off for dismissing Lewis’ greatness I sought to find out what she found lacking in her viewpoint concerning Lewis’ writing. She expressed that she found that Lewis spoke a lot about yearning to know Christ later and spoke little of knowing him in the here and now. It has been a very long time since I read Surprised by Joy so I will not try to evaluate her evaluation. More important to me was the validity of her concern. I see many Christian writings focused on the means of grace that we believe will lead us to knowing Christ, but the focus becomes more on our refining the processes of seeking rather than upon our finding of Christ. It is like chefs who come together to cook meals, but are so enamored with the different mixes of ingredients and cooking methods that they endlessly consider the how of cooking but never get around to eating the food they are cooking. Her focal point spoke to me about what my goal would be, if I did this series. It must be as much about finding Christ as discussing the methods of looking for him. I consider that conversation an important contribution in reshaping this blog series.

            We often have nebulous concepts about what it means to know Christ. For example, in the circles in which I have lived out my Christian life, there has been a strong emphasis on studying the Scriptures prepared by a consistent devotional life. Ministry to others was thought to be something which came as a result of your seeking Christ in prayer and reading Scriptures. I would not deny that there is truth in understanding Scripture and prayer as essential for strengthening us within ourselves to prepares us for dealing with those around us. But Jesus' teaching would also remind us that we discover Christ in one another. He described in his speaking about the separating of the sheep and the goats how he would bless those who had fed him when he was hungry, clothed him when naked, and visited him when in prison. In Jesus' teaching the righteous being rewarded would be puzzled over when they saw Jesus naked, hungry, or in prison. He describes then how they saw him when they saw the least among them in those circumstances. So we often think that we meet Christ when a passage of Holy Scripture excites us with a new thought about God, his mercies, or some teaching that becomes important to us. Yes many of those experiences are our meeting of Christ in the Holy Scriptures. But we also meet Christ as he is hidden in the experiences of the suffering, the poor, those undergoing trouble and temptation, and the oppressed. If we allow ourselves to be guided by our Lord's teaching we may well discover that we have been seeing Christ manifest to us both openly and hidden among those for whom he has come to bring redemption.