What Makes Us A New Creation?

Sometimes we read the Scripture and don’t really pay attention to the words. But the words are carefully chosen to convey the truths of our Faith.

I’ll admit that I did not pay much attention to the words which form the basis of this sermon. Deacon Michael saw what I did not see, and he ran with it. And I am so glad he did. He not only opened up the words and brought them into the parlance of today, but he opened up a new way of understanding what God intended when the Only Son became incarnate.

Written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael

IF YOU LIKE, READ ALONG AS YOU LISTEN:

There are times when Jesus comes up with parables and I just kinda go, "Huh?"

I have to admit, in my family, I don't do the sewing, so I can't image what would happen if you put a patch on something. I know it would look different. I remember when I was a kid I had those patches you put on the knees because it would take us a day to ruin our knees. My mother would iron-on patches and stuff like that.

And a far as putting wine in wine skins... new wine, old wine, bursting.... I haven't a clue.

One of the things that is very interesting to us is we have the talking about "the new".

Now, we are made in the image of God. That's in Genesis. And we have Jesus becoming wholly human, wholly divine.

Yet, when we look at St. Paul he says something that is very interesting. "Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God." We go, "Okay..."

He's wholly human, wholly divine so He's in the image of God. We are in the image of God. But Jesus is in the image of the invisible God.

We have in this gospel reading Jesus, who is wholly human, talking to other humans and talking about what is new. You look at Jesus, you go, "You're human. What's new there? You're tell us wonderful prophesies, okay, those are new."

But what is there that is really new?

And it occurs to me. One of the things that is really new is: God is invisible. What would you call that? If God... if we are made in the image of God, Jesus in made in the image of God, and Jesus is made in the image of the invisible God, what is the distinction. What is there about God that Jesus partakes and brings to us that we didn't have before?

There are probably a lot of names for it, but one of the crucial names is spirituality. Frankly, it drives me crazy. I hear it from parents. Well, my daughter isn't religious, but she's spiritual.

She goes around... and they don't say this, I just imagine it myself... going, "Ommmmm!" Or going, "Oh wow! Look at that flower!" Now I'm a child of the sixties, so, you know, "flower power" and all that.

“I'm spiritual but I'm not religious.” What does that mean, besides the fact that you like to get up on Sunday and play golf? Or you like to watch football games and Sunday and not go to church? Or, it's Sunday and it's a day of rest; I'm going to stay in bed and not have to get up early.

What does it mean?

Beyond that, what does spirituality mean? If spirituality doesn't really exist independent of religion, and if Jesus is bringing to us both the ability to make ourselves more sacred through His sacrifice, His human sacrifice on the cross, what is it that He is bringing to us from the invisible God? It has to be spirituality.

And what is the spirituality? The spirituality to communicate with God. The spirituality to be at one with God through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross.

And where do we see this? We are praying. Most of us probably do it every day, if not multiple times every day. We go, "Our Father." Are we communicating with God in whose image we are made? Or are we communicating with God in His spirituality, in His invisible God, His presence in the universe?

And how is that signified? That we, as Christians, remember that word, that we as Christians can communicate on a spiritual level with God? How does that happen? What is it that Jesus brought to the earth to give us, everyone, ultimately everyone, the ability to commune with God on a spiritual level? What is the ultimate definition?

Bob is sitting right there. How do we know he is Christian? Betty, she is Catholic in fact, but in name, she's Protestant. How do we know that she's Christian? What is the defining characteristic of a Christian? Baptism: to be baptized in the water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to become a new creation in Christ.

What new creation in Christ can we possibly be? We're human... slap, slap, slap. We're made in the image of God. We have a physical being. It has to be that we are partaking in the invisible God. We are being given the grace to participate in a sacrament that brings upon us, not the... knock, knock, knock... physicality, but the spirituality.

And similarly, the sacraments of the Catholic Church. We know, or we assume the Bob has gone through all of the sacraments that you are eligible for, at this point of your life. We assume that. Does he look any different? Hmmm... possibly. We don't know. But we know that there is a transformation that occurred. He has been sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Nope, that greasy spot that you got on your forehead at Confirmation has finally worn off. You don't have to worry about it any more. It's gone. The water we got on us at baptism: dried up. It's gone. More likely our mother wiped it off us. It's gone.

But it is there. It is present. The invisible sign of God is still there on us. And that invisible sign that makes us like God in not just the physical aspect, but in the spiritual aspect. That gives us the strength and the means to become something different. To become something different so that when we die we have transformed ourselves sufficiently. Through our physical sense? Combined with our spiritual sense, yes. In the way that we live our lives? Yes. We give through Christ.

But ultimately the transformation comes from the spirituality. The spiritually of the invisible God of which we are allowed to participate through Christ, and ultimately through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. And he is the new wine that doesn't go into old wine skins. He is the transformative effect of the entire world in the physical sense. Not that when Jesus came to the earth everybody had three legs, but in the sense that when he came to the earth everybody had the ability to be baptized and to participate and be in the image of the invisible God through a spirituality that we can communicate with Him not just on a physical level, but as our Father. Our Father in the spirituality of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And that very essential way is why when someone says "I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious" it makes absolutely no sense.

We are spiritual because we are children of God. We are made in the image of God. And God gave us His only-begotten Son so we can spend all eternity with Him in Heaven.

August 30, 2019 2