Originally published in April 2012
When I was planning the recent Church Leaders Conference where the theme was partnership, I discussed with others the term perichoresis.
Perichoresis is a theological term used to describe an aspect of the relationship of the three persons of the Trinity. The word contains two Greek words: peri (around) and choresis (contain). Some wrongly think that the second Greek word is Chorus which means 'dance'. The term is used to describe how each retains separate complete identity yet are inter-related with the others. The exciting aspect (if you haven't already started to jump up and down) is that just as they share an inter-relational existence, we too are called by God into the same inter-relational existence. Here's a great illustration.
One Saturday a man named C Baxter Kruger was sitting sorting through papers when his six tear old son and a friend the man had never met before entered the room. They had been playing soldiers and were dressed up in camouflage with face paint and toy weapons. Before he knew it the man's son had jumped on him in a pretend attack, and the two of them fell to the floor in a friendly wrestling match. As they were playing around the other boy who was observing the fun decided to join in too. As the farther fooled around pretending to fight off his two young assailants, he felt that God told him that he needed to reflect on what had just happened.
His son, who had a confident relationship with his father, had involved his dad in some play. The son's friend who had never met the dad before felt drawn into this fun relationship and confidently acted as if he too were the man's son. The man then reflected on what might have happened if the other boy had walked into the room alone. This is what he later wrote.
"Within himself, that little boy had no freedom to have a relationship with me. We were strangers. He had no right to that kind of familiarity and fellowship. But my son knows me. My son knows that I love him and that I accept him and that he’s the apple of my eye. So in the knowledge of my love and affection, he did the most natural thing in the world. He dove into my lap. The miracle that happened was that my son’s knowledge of my acceptance and delight, and my son’s freedom for fellowship with me, rubbed off on that other little boy. He got to experience it. That other little boy got to taste and feel and know my son’s relationship with me. He participated in my son’s life and communion with me."
There is no relationship more wonderful than that enjoyed between the persons of the Trinity and by adoption we are drawn into this relationship. Just as Jesus said "I am in the Father and the Father is in me" so he also said "On that day [the coming of the Holy Spirit] you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." John 14:20.
While I enjoy reflecting on this wonderful act of grace I also wonder whether the quality of this relationship I enjoy is so obviously and visibly wonderful that people who know me want to join in as well, much as the son's friend did.
Barry Osborne
30 May 2015
When I was planning the recent Church Leaders Conference where the theme was partnership, I discussed with others the term perichoresis.
Perichoresis is a theological term used to describe an aspect of the relationship of the three persons of the Trinity. The word contains two Greek words: peri (around) and choresis (contain). Some wrongly think that the second Greek word is Chorus which means 'dance'. The term is used to describe how each retains separate complete identity yet are inter-related with the others. The exciting aspect (if you haven't already started to jump up and down) is that just as they share an inter-relational existence, we too are called by God into the same inter-relational existence. Here's a great illustration.
One Saturday a man named C Baxter Kruger was sitting sorting through papers when his six tear old son and a friend the man had never met before entered the room. They had been playing soldiers and were dressed up in camouflage with face paint and toy weapons. Before he knew it the man's son had jumped on him in a pretend attack, and the two of them fell to the floor in a friendly wrestling match. As they were playing around the other boy who was observing the fun decided to join in too. As the farther fooled around pretending to fight off his two young assailants, he felt that God told him that he needed to reflect on what had just happened.
His son, who had a confident relationship with his father, had involved his dad in some play. The son's friend who had never met the dad before felt drawn into this fun relationship and confidently acted as if he too were the man's son. The man then reflected on what might have happened if the other boy had walked into the room alone. This is what he later wrote.
"Within himself, that little boy had no freedom to have a relationship with me. We were strangers. He had no right to that kind of familiarity and fellowship. But my son knows me. My son knows that I love him and that I accept him and that he’s the apple of my eye. So in the knowledge of my love and affection, he did the most natural thing in the world. He dove into my lap. The miracle that happened was that my son’s knowledge of my acceptance and delight, and my son’s freedom for fellowship with me, rubbed off on that other little boy. He got to experience it. That other little boy got to taste and feel and know my son’s relationship with me. He participated in my son’s life and communion with me."
There is no relationship more wonderful than that enjoyed between the persons of the Trinity and by adoption we are drawn into this relationship. Just as Jesus said "I am in the Father and the Father is in me" so he also said "On that day [the coming of the Holy Spirit] you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." John 14:20.
While I enjoy reflecting on this wonderful act of grace I also wonder whether the quality of this relationship I enjoy is so obviously and visibly wonderful that people who know me want to join in as well, much as the son's friend did.
Barry Osborne
30 May 2015
