
Shouldn't our faith be more authentic than to spend so much time wondering how we can live our faith? As if our faith is something outside ourselves that we can gain ground or lose ground depending on how much faith we have for the day!
Who? Who are you Christ? Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? Who is the incarnate one who yearns to be connected with humanity? Who is this one who came not as a stategy or influence to win us over...but the one who came to bind himself to the human condition and therefore humanity itself?
You see how the question of How? wrecks things. We now are completely free of knowing the divine being who we refer to as God. We can skip the Who? and return to our strategic ways of trying to impress God long before we even seriously considered him. Bonhoeffer writes, "How?...is the serpent's question while Who?...proves its asker is ready to listen."
It's the season of Advent...or soon to be. We should do ourselves a service and begin asking the right question. How?..will come later but now it is time for us to ask Who? Let's ignore the impersonal question in favor of a personal question. Let's not imprison Jesus behind theoretical questions and dialogue. It is impossible to do such a thing anyway. We must pray that God gives us the courage to ask the question of Who? For to ask it may lead us to answers that are dangerous, risky, and mysterious.
Maybe my job, among other believers, is to take a rest on the tiresome attempt of trying to influence others to follow Christ 'according to my interpretation.' Rather, allow God to give me what it takes to live an incarnational life. Not a life of influence but a life of incarnational relationships.
Jesus is alive and active in the world. Even to write it make me wonder how much I believe it. But my faith can only grow if I realize that I must keep asking the who question much more than the how question. My Christology tells me that the how should take place naturally if the incarnational life exists in me.
Take another look above at Mary in Henry O'Tanner's Annunciation. Her face conveys the right question.