The Ache
LETTER BY BRIAN MORYKON
Within each and all of us reside several great aches.
The ache for acceptance.
The ache for belonging.
The ache for significance.
There is also another ache. Sensitive souls feel it more acutely, but all feel it to some degree. It is an ache so deep we blush and stammer in talking of it.
This is the ache for intimacy, the ache for union, the transcendent longing that nothing on earth quite satisfies, but some things hint at: intense eye contact, making love, the covenant of marriage.
Following Jesus is practical, as practical as the sleeping, waking, eating, working bodies we inhabit. Which is what makes “Body of Christ” a good metaphor for the church.
Following Jesus is also mystical, as mystical as love between a woman and a man. Sometimes people leave Christianity in search of an otherworldly religion that satisfies that ancient ache for divine intimacy. And yet there’s nothing stranger and more mysterious than Christians being called the Bride of Christ.
It’s one thing for Christ to be our Lord, another for the infinite God to be our Father, but Jesus our Bridegroom and us his bride? It’s almost too close for comfort.
What is the practical outworking of this mystical metaphor? How does knowing that we are the Bride of Christ change the way we change diapers or draft school board policy?
I don’t know. That’s probably a very modern thing to do — demand that things always be tied back to practicality.
All I can tell you is that meditating on Christ as Bridegroom and us as Bride may awaken an awareness of our great worth to him. In turn, that may fuel our intentions to put on the garments that cost him a fortune to buy for us — compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience — so that when the Day comes we’re lovely down the aisle on the king’s arm.
One thing’s for sure: the bride metaphor validates and satisfies and stokes that ache for intimacy and union. That’s enough for me.
“A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Eph 5).
Brian Morykon
Director of Communications
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LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY JULIA L. ROLLER
This week’s list is curated by Julia Roller, an author, longtime Renovaré collaborator, and current Renovaré Institute student.
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1.
In this audio excerpt, C.S. Lewis reads a section from his book The Four Loves that explores the idea of eros in Christian marriage and the Church as Bride.
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2.
My essay for Renovare’s new Body, Bride, Boat booklet explores some of the historical, modern, and biblical characteristics of the Bride metaphor.
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3.
In the short devotion “Good Things Run Wild” from The Eternal Journey, Jonathan Bailey explores what union with God really looks like: freedom.
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4.
In this excerpt from Devotional Classics, taken from Four Degrees of Love, Bernard of Clairvaux expands on the heart of the Bride and Bridegroom imagery: love.
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5.
For the Church to fulfill the promise of the Bride, we individuals must achieve a level of unity. In “Authority in the Context of Mutual Submission,” Dallas Willard offers a vision for the mutual submission necessary for the unity of the Church.
Julia L. Roller
WORTH QUOTING
“The Bridegroom’s love, or rather the love which is the Bridegroom, asks in return nothing but faithful love.”
– Bernard of Clairvaux (source)
TO CONTEMPLATE
The Ghent Altarpiece (Adoration of the Mystic Lamb)
Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck 1432
(source)
Originally, this scene inside the Ghent Altarpiece was hidden behind panels that were only opened on special feast days — Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas, for example. It depicts a heavenly scene of saints gathered in worship and celebration, like the scene John encounters in Revelation when he “heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready’…” (Rev. 19). How do celebrations in the life of the Church help you to adore Christ and fall deeper in love with him?
TO PONDER
C. S. Lewis writes, “For the Church has no beauty but what the Bridegroom gives her…” When have you seen something beautiful reflected in the Church? What beauty and goodness do you think Christ wants us to receive from him?