Imago.

>Transcript of Lithurgy's speech at Murder of Crows
Topic: The Image of Something

>I have been reflecting, something not entirely foreign in my speeches here of course, but I have been thinking about how our brains function. The images we are capable of creating, capable of delving into as a world of our own. How often do we squander it on something trivial?

Then it shifted. Shifted to the ideal Christ. I recalled 1 John 2:18:

"Children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour."

Perhaps, that is it. The Last Hour began when Christ concluded His earthly ministry, leaving us to journey onward in discovering who He is. Then I recalled this passage in John 7:3-4:

"So Jesus’ brothers said to Him, 'Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You are doing. For no one who wants to be known publicly acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.' "

God descending down in the form of a man enduring the full treatment of human experience, including enduring family members. Now that is quaint.

Compared to the ideal Christ's of our own lives. The American Evangelical Christ, The Catholic Christ, The Mormon Christ...on and on it goes.

It leaves one to wonder, but that is not sinful is it? For the Ethiopian Nobleman and Nicodemus asked many questions, yet were welcomed by the Christ and the Apostle Phillip (John 3, Acts 8:26-40).

Yet, the ideal Christ seems to forgo the idea of questions, finding them repulsive and threatening. Yet, the Christ of the Bible seemed to welcome any question thrown at Him either in hostility or genuine inquiry (Luke 8:9, Matthew 12:10, Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:10, Luke 17:20, Matthew 22:35, Luke 11:53).

But maybe the greatest figure of Christ is located in 1 Corinthians 1:27. "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world that He might shame the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world that He might shame the strong;"

Keeping us on our toes always. Just when we think we've figure everything out, an upheaval occurs. For example, just when the organized Church finds it fitting to maintain the veil between us lowly and the Almighty, this little verse sneaks in...

"Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, 'The LORD will utterly exclude me from His people. And let the eunuch not say, 'I am but a dry tree.' For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who choose what pleases Me and hold fast to My covenant—
I will give them, in My house and within My walls, a memorial and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off." (Isaiah 56:3-5)

Perhaps the Gospel is more than a cultural chore.

We are presumed to believe in strength of the mighty includes a brash, physical cry of triumph. Perhaps that is why figures like Mary are ascribed as an Intercessor, because the ideal Christ considers any sort of emotion a feminine weakness, right? The Organized Church seems to think it so.

Men are told not to weep, it endangers their manhood. Women are told not to exhibit strength, it endangers their womanhood.

But Christ wept. But Christ showed His strength, in ways the confounded many who expect their Savior to come with fire and consume their enemy. A literal Sword of God's Wrath in the form of a powerful individual.

But perhaps that violent sword of judgement, the one that maintains whatever one sows for themselves will reap back upon them double time (Deuteronomy 9:4-5), who describes the corruption of heads of state as wolves tearing the flesh of their flock (Ezekiel 22:27), isn't embodied entirely in the form of an armored warrior, but as Lamb bearing the roar of a Lion.

"Then one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed to open the scroll and its seven seals.' Then I saw a Lamb who appeared to have been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth." (Revelation 5:5-6)

And perhaps that is the model we are to look up to, a restoration of the heart that pours out like a river of healing to restore the injustices that plague the world.

"The one being unrighteous, let him be unrighteous still; and he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he who is righteous, let him practice righteousness still; and he who is holy, let him be holy still. Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done." (Revelation 22:11-12)
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