People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: The Cosmic Christ ~ 7th Sunday in the Season of Creation '22 Yr C

For Sunday, November 20, 2022, Final Sunday in the Season of Creation*

Readings: Colossians 1:15-20, Psalm 24, Matthew Fox**, John 1:29-34

Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation…in him all things hold together…in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. [Colossians 1:15a, 17b, 19]

They shall receive a blessing from the Lord and a just reward from the God of their salvation. [Psalm 24:5]

Come Children, drink of my waters…Drink of my wisdom from your own unique well…Create harmony and healing together…Celebrate, praise, and thank together. [Matthew Fox: The Coming of the Cosmic Christ]

John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” [John 1:29]

*The Season of Creation originated in the Anglican Church of South Africa and was formalized in 2008. It is designed for us to explore our faith from a Creation perspective. For more information see: https://prayersofthepeople.blogspot.com/2018/10/prayers-of-people-in-beginning-1st.html We use Biblical and other readings that pertain to the specific theme of each of the 7 weeks of the Season. Alternate readings used are posted with asterisks.

Week VII's Theme is: The Cosmic Christ

We have arrived at the final Sunday in the Season of Creation (SoC) and it is also the Last Sunday after Pentecost in the Lectionary season, both of which celebrate Christ the King. Coming next week we begin the Season of Advent, a new “Church Year,” a time of heart and soul preparation for the birth of the Child in whom the fullness of God is pleased to dwell [Colossians 15:19].

All of the readings chosen for this last Sunday of SoC have a mystical quality to me. The Letter to the Colossians lays out clearly the various names, titles, and roles of Jesus the Risen Christ, not easily understood in our “modern” times as they also were not in their own time. I think we can understand firstborn of all creation and head of the body, the church, and also he is the beginning. How do you understand firstborn of the dead? Looking at various translations, I found it expressed as of the dead, from the dead, from among the dead, etc. For me, the most relatable is in a translation from “J.B. Phillips New Testament” which says: Life from nothing began through him, and life from the dead began through him, and he is, therefore, justly called the Lord of all. Check any translation(s) you have on hand or online and discover what speaks to you. An online source I use often is www.biblegateway.com as it contains quite a large variety of translations and paraphrases that are useful and interesting.

Psalm 24, was likely sung or recited as an entrance processional. Verse 1 opens with a declaration that the earth and all that is in it belongs to the Lord and follows by saying that the world and all who dwell therein is also God’s, referencing the first part in what is called a parallelism, that is, the wording parallels or repeats the first; synonymous. Every one of the 150 psalms contains at least one parallelism. Verse 2 also proclaims God as Creator. From there the psalm describes how humans enter God’s domain in verses 3-6 and in the final verses, we learn how God enters our human space and it is by way of Lift up your heads, that is by lifting up our heads to acknowledge one greater than ourselves, as we are our own gatekeepers opening or closing to allow God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit to enter, or not.

The Gospel of John is one of the most mystical of all. In this passage, the anonymous author of John’s Gospel is referring to John the Baptist naming Jesus as The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. While some of these words and phrases may be somewhat familiar to anyone who regularly reads the Christian/New Testament and/or hears them read in a church setting, they may, as said above, also seem irrelevant in the scheme of daily living in today’s world. Yet we, who would be counted as faithful Christians might take heed and examine more closely. It is in this daily life in this, our time that we may easily lose track of our allegiances and settle in more with the temporary earthly powers than with the everlasting divine Kingship of Christ.

In his book, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, author, developer, and teacher of Creation Spirituality, Dr. Matthew Fox, writes: Listen to the Cosmic Christ, to Cosmic Wisdom calling all the children of God together: “Come children, drink of my waters which are all common waters. They are free and available to all my children. Drink of my wisdom from your own unique well.”

Although Jesus has told us that his kingdom is not from here [John 18:36], it is here, in this time and place, where we encounter him, if we seek him, and if we choose to follow.

**A Reading From the Writings of Matthew Fox: “Listen to the Cosmic Christ, to Cosmic Wisdom calling all the children of God together: “Come children, drink of my waters which are all common waters. They are free and available to all my children. Drink of my wisdom from your own unique well. Let the Taoists drink and the Muslims drink; let the Jews drink and the Buddhists drink; let the Christians drink and let the native peoples drink. And then tell me: What have you drunk? How deeply have you imbibed my refreshment? What wet and running wisdom drips from inside you to the outside? What have you to share with others of my wisdom and harmonious living, of the dripping of the oils of compassion and the lubricants of your common anointings as my images, my other “Christs,” my co-creators of wisdom on earth? I am tired of your religious wars, your sectarian divisions, your crusading spirits that arise from disharmony. I long for harmony. If there must be competition, let it take place at the level of shared gifts and bountiful outpouring of wisdom. Pray together. Create harmony and healing together. Celebrate, praise, and thank together. Cease using religion to divide. Use it for its purpose, to reconnect to Mother Earth, to blessings, to the underground river that I am and that you all share. And cease scandalizing the young by your indifference to these awesome blessings, by your competition, and your boredom. Praise one another. Praise the earth. In doing so, you praise me.” ~ Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1988.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ Lord God Almighty, in our fleeting mortality turn us always to Christ in whose Kingdom, now and forever, we are forgiven and saved by Your Holy Lamb, for in Him all things hold together.