identity - "in Christ"?

Well, will I live "in Christ", the true human?
In 30 years he learned & he obeyed
the Dad & Mum (whom God had chosen him),
& cared for fatherless (& widows), made

when men were killed by leaders who had pow'r
(as Herod did before at Jesus' birth,
& Rome did at Sephoris since that hour)
- Yeshua paid the price & showed their worth,

because already, he had seen himself
a living "son" within his Father's world
[the God who made us (from his Earth) - his wealth],
we are his treasure, children of him curled

in this womb-world, we're meant to "go out" from,
and into bigger worlds much less constrained.
To live "in Christ" - to view all God's kingdom
beginning with this realm, under his reign,

& keep oneself from being corrupted
with this ol' world's idolatry & ways
(which make one's walk with God interrupted),
determined to make peace - & see his face.

If so his circumcision & baptism
were shared with me somehow vicariously:
I too am pruned, unscared of right schism,
& cleaned of sin within his cleansing sea.

Then too his Father's words can reach my heart
& on his word then I can learn to feed.
Then in his cross of death I take full part -
I think he took up "his", 'coz of my need.




God, to creatively process & to help me recall what you helped me to see starting from those few “throw-away lines” in Ben’s story a day ago – Jesus’ word to his parents at 12yrs. old about the way he was living his life “Did you not know that I must be about my father’s business?”- then he went and was obedient to them. [It was the thought of a life lived where someone walked about in his father’s business/creative handiwork, looking on, helping here, helping there – not a little kid touching things he shouldn’t, but a young man (about to do, or) having done (the equivalent of) his Bar-mitzvah - wherever he was allowed to join in. Seeing what his father was doing, and asking if he could have a go at that, or join in and help. If he was not, then remaining simply lost in wonder and looking and learning closely. No impatience. Obedience. If he was allowed to join in, or do something, joining in with all he had. If he was not (i.e. not yet allowed to join in, or do some particular thing), taking that as from someone who loved him, and knew more, & had his good at heart, so humbly learning. I put that together in my mind with God’s word to his son when he was “about thirty”: “You are my son, whom I love – with you I am well pleased”; and James’ throw-away line of the religion “that pleases God our father” being to help the fatherless and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the world” [also put together with the Roman put-down of a Jewish insurgence (on which they had had a tip-off) in Galilee a few years later, somewhere near the capital – Sephoris, (which as about 9km from Nazareth) when 2000 Jewish males from that area were taken & crucified on either side of the highway up to Jerusalem]; which was in turn put together in my mind with the apostle Paul’s often repeated phrase throughout his letters (and John’s record of Jesus) calling us to live our lives “in him”, that is “in Christ”, which also seemed synonymous with “Christ in you” – the hope of glory: