In these images then we see not only Jesus embedded in his concerns for the imminent and earthly kingdom of God but also the cosmic Christ of faith who emerged in the Christian communities that followed him. This image of the Cosmic Christ that we see here became a major religious art form in early Christianity and was further developed in Orthodox Christianity. The cosmic Christ appears in diverse forms in the New Testament. This cosmic Christ indicates the powerful presence of the divine in all reality. The incarnation that of Jesus is manifest not only in the historical Jesus but also in the cosmos itself namely divine presence as a luminous reality, as a unified body and as an inner ordering principle of the cosmos. These three expressions provide insights into ways in which Christian communities and theologians formulated this religious cosmology. First let's consider in Matthew's Gospel. There is the expression of the ongoing presence of Christ as the living God. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus asks Peter, "Who do men say The Son of Man is?" Peter responds spontaneously, "You are the Christ the Son of the living God". Immediately Jesus acknowledges the divine source of Peter's revelation and marks him as the rock upon which he will found his church. This expression then of the response to the question and the establishment of governance in the church is a remarkable moment. It presents in this passage one of the oldest images of the Christ of faith namely the living presence of the divine and Peter as the rock, the foundation of the institutional church. The Cosmic Christ is a religious cosmology then presenting Christ as a force within the whole universe as well as an intimate presence that nurtures life, human and more than human. This striking phrase describing Jesus as the Christ the Son of the living God occurs at a time when Jesus's ministry was expanding. In this statement Christ acknowledges an understanding that he will live on beyond his death. This sense of a vibrant dynamic presence endures in the community and in the universe itself. This inside is also transmitted in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This sense of the Cosmic Christ is so evident in this altar piece with its luminous presentation of both a crucified and resurrected Christ so the sense of the Cosmic Christ is transmitted so palpably in this image and it corresponds so closely to this statement in the Epistle to the Hebrews which says, "He is the radiant light of God's glory and the perfect copy of his nature, sustaining the universe by his powerful command." It's similar to the Epistle to the Colossians, which reads, "There is only one Christ. He is everything and he is in everything. A second expression of the Cosmic Christ is based on the image of the body. This is found in many of the epistles of Paul. Paul is a Jew trained as a Pharisee, who led prosecutions against followers of Christ. On the road to Damascus pictured here, he had a dramatic conversion experience and he became an apostle to the Gentiles. Jewish Christian leadership in Jerusalem reacted to Paul's work with a sense that Gentiles had to follow the covenantal code but Paul responded to this obligation in a negative way. A Jewish Christian leadership in Jerusalem then proposed that Gentiles who converted should not be obligated to follow Jewish covenantal laws. His first letter to Corinth addresses confusion and descent in this community regarding the relationship of different spiritual powers and talents such as wisdom, faith, knowledge, healing, miracles, prophecy, and speaking in tongues. Paul's effort is to both affirm these gifts as well as to provide an overarching image of the Cosmic Christ as a unifying presence. Paul directly associates Christ with spirit that is his continuing presence among his followers. Paul writes, "For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many, are one body so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit." Paul is drawing on Hellenic philosophy, which is infused with cosmological imagery of the body following Plato's use of the metaphor in his Timaeus. However, Paul's usage brings that cosmological symbol into relationship with the Christ of faith. Thus just as all parts of the human body are inter-dependent, no body part can claim a higher status than any other so also all parts of a community cohere to form one body. Again Paul writes, "For the body does not consist of one member but many. If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them as he chose. If all we're single organ, where would the body be? As it is there are many parts, yet one body. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." This body imagery of the Christ of faith finds a culminating expression in the Epistle to the Colossians. They're the body image with Christ as its head is developed into a more robust religious cosmology. Here Paul writes, "He, Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation, for in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities." These are references to celestial presences in the mythic understanding of that time. Paul continues, "All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together." Speaking again of the cosmic Christ, "He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." This body imagery brought the Christ of faith and the Jesus of history into consonants with a religious ecology that affirmed the particularity of all creation. Moreover a cosmic understanding of Christ validated that religious ecology embodied in the churches. Through these teachings, Christianity embraced a fuller union of an Hebraic sense of creative transcendence with and Hellenic sense of pervasive order in the cosmos. A third expression of the Cosmic Christ appears at the opening of John's Gospel, which is the pictured page here, a lovely illuminated manuscript. In John's Gospel, we find this powerful opening, in the beginning was the Word namely logos. Significantly this turn towards the cosmic Christ as the Word echoes the very creative act of breath in the Genesis creation story. Embedded in all creation this Word for Christians became flesh in Jesus. Moreover the community of John's gospel believed that the encounter with this presence was fostered in the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist. This continues to the present especially in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. No other gospel explores the mystery of the person of Jesus in such a cosmological context as John's Gospel. Jesus as Christ is likened to the logos or word concept in Hellenic thought, namely the principle of order or pattern in the universe. This Gospel presents the person of Jesus Christ as pre-existent with the divine creator. The gospel then opens as we've said, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. This creative turn in Christianity reflects a conjunction of religious ecology and religious cosmology. Just as all creation flows from the Christ word and is in that sense deeply related throughout so also the coherence of the cosmos is presented as a Christ logos reality. What's fascinating to note is that the Cosmic Christ opening does not remain abstract in the gospel but is embedded in this gospel stories of a loving healing personality namely Jesus. What gives John's Gospel it's special force, is that the stories of Jesus told there increasingly bring the community into a deep affection for the abiding presence of the logos word through the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist. Especially in John chapter 6 and 9, we find the image of Jesus feeding the hungry and giving sight to the blind. All of these miraculous deeds are presented as signs of a heavenly reality and they're marked in the gospel sometimes by the voice of the divine. They signal the religious understanding of sacraments as ordinary material, which ritually transmits a spiritual connection. John draws on such familiar Christian imagery as the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. This combination then of sacramental and sacrificial imagery accords with the religious cosmology of the opening verses and with the core wisdom teachings of love at the heart of John's gospel. As this gospel expresses that love, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. In these ways, early Christianity was shaped by theological concepts and teachings that acknowledged the diverse regional churches. The appreciation for creation evident in rich images of nature was affirmed preserving a key connection with the Hebrew Bible. At the same time the incarnational and sacramental dynamics of Christianity made manifest cosmic dimensions of the Christ figure.
