Thursday, October 27, 2011

Even God Had To Let Go

Christian theology uses the Greek word kenosis as a very sacred metaphor for letting go. As the generations just after Jesus tried to wrap their heads around God's incarnation in Jesus, they first figured that Jesus must have been God from the beginning. But then they had to figure out how God could be born human. You know, if he was just pretending to be human, that would be meaningless, cheating even.

Ah. He would have had to empty himself of God-ness in order to be truly human.

Next, reasonably enough, our Christian forefathers and mothers imagined that it would have been a real pain in the butt for God to let go of divinity, complete wisdom, perfect peace and to start over again and grow up as a completely ordinary person. Kenosis is God letting go.

For a good cause.

It works the other way too. For Jesus to then incarnate God, he had to let go, just like us, of all the stuff that distracts, misdirects, confuses, bullies, and poisons our human minds, bodies and souls. Just like us.


Kenosis works in both directions. A profound Emptying, for a good cause.

So...what's the good cause? Why did God let go? Why would we?