Making God Visible
Nobody can say “I make God visible,” but others who see us together can say “they make God visible.” Community is where humility and glory meet. – Henri Nouwen
What I tried to say last week with so many words, Nouwen achieves (as always) with a few, well-chosen and profoundly accurate.
Without the body of Christ, we are just fingers and elbows and appendixes. We need each other, not only for the value of being in community but also for the ability to be — collectively — the image of God in the world.
Participating in the community of God requires preferring the other — letting go of our need to be always right, always first, always best. But when we are working together through the power of the Holy Spirit, we not only experience God ourselves, but we also create space and opportunity for others to experience God.
This is how we can glorify God and enjoy God forever.
This is how we have been created and designed to be.
This is body theology — the community of God making God visible in the world.
Posted on September 24, 2012, in Body of CHRIST, BODY of Christ, Community, Identity, Image of God, Service, Social Justice and tagged body of Christ, Community, Henri Nouwen, Holy Spirit, Religion and Spirituality. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
Holistic Body Theology 
I enjoyed Nouwen’s book, With Open Hands. When we hold on to things too tightly we cannot open our hands to something new.
Hi Jeff. Thanks for stopping by! Yes, that’s a great book, for sure. Have you read Inner Voice of Love? It’s hard to go wrong with Nouwen. So wise.
Amen! This is so counter-cultural (at least in the context of the United States), yet so important. We need each other and we are not complete without one another.
Thanks for your comment, Matthew. I agree with you. And yet, as much as we KNOW it, DOING it (and doing it WELL) is where all the challenges of humility (and the potential for God’s glory) lie.
Agreed!