The Mutual Admiration Society

Even as a newcomer to the world of blogs and blogging I am becoming increasingly aware of the tendency for this venue to become something of a mutual admiration society for the marginalized, semi-marginalized and disenfranchised.  

Like Internet marketing, it has to some degree "leveled the playing field" and has provided anyone who yearns a  platform from which to be heard, admired and to otherwise bask in the limelight of their own self-aggrandizement and to engage in reciprocation of the same.  I regret the degree to which this awareness is autobiographical and applaud all who have avoided this pitfall.  The blogs I subscribe to are exemplary in their avoidance of this and I stand grateful, humbled and even sometimes think it's reason enough not to even have a blog myself.

Yet the snare of the mutual admiration society can be avoided and in fact become a great tool for reflection and an ontological change of perspective.

In so doing, we take our station as observers in the mighty narrative and can then maybe, finally turn away from self and begin to cast our adulation like relentless waves of memorial tribute to the One who rightfully inhabits that center - Jesus Christ and Him alone. In so doing we share perspective with the most enlightened creatures of all.

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”  And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.  Revelation 5:13-14

Yes we have a part to play in the eternal narrative, and so in one sense we're not mere spectators.   But our part is to love, to pour ourselves out as He showed us the way and to cease hankering for admiration from any other.

"even as i have loved you..." John 13:34

Logos-Dimensional Versus Three-Dimensional

Living in a three dimensional universe, (or four-dimensional if you consider spacetime), something transfixing occurred at what the Bible calls, "the fullness of time."  Galatians 4:4.

Jesus stepped in and defined all things according to Himself.  

The "fullness of time" concept is then used by the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 1:10) to describe that point in time when all things in reality are to be concluded, again according to and in reference to Jesus, the eternal "I Am" of all things definable and indefinable.

Thus He Himself assumes the term "Alpha and Omega", (Revelation 1:8 cf. 22:13).  Prior to this point in redemptive history, that designation was reserved for God (Jehovah) alone, (Isaiah 41:4).  

In Jesus we have progress as well as the center point and hub of the human experience.  In Him is the beginning and end of all things and the nucleus of definition, an eternal reference point.  

That's why He called Himself "Cornerstone" (Luke 20:17) and was referred to as such by Peter (Acts 4:11) and  by Paul (Ephesians 2:20).    

In the ancient world, cornerstones were employed in constructing a building according to the designs of the architect.  From the cornerstone, everything else in the structure took its place and position.  

So Jesus stepped from eternity into human existence, and provided the three dimensional world a reference point for building and for understanding the cosmos - Himself.    He was in fact, both architect and builder.

Post-modern culture has its cornerstone - whatever the media defines as relevant and trendy.  Science has its cornerstone - human reason.   The Christian has his cornerstone - Jesus Christ.

But in "the fullness of time", the curtains of cosmic consciousness will be pulled back unveiling this eternal reality: there can only be one center, one hub, one defining point, 

At that sacred place is Jesus Christ.   He alone defines that and everything else.    

"...the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."