by Dr. Lani Wilson

Good Day. I pray you had a warm and refreshing Thanksgiving with your beloveds. The Holidays are here and there is so much that we can be thankful for and yet…life intersects, doesn’t it. Sorry this message is a little late today. A nagging cold virus, the San Bernardino Massacre, right after the Planned Parenthood Murders, right after the videotape release of LaQuan McDonald’s murder, right after...right after… right after… just knocked the wind out of me. All these innocents and yet…God is steadfast. God is resolute. God is forever faithful, as Rev. Jackie preached this past Sunday and yet…life intersects. We march on in prayer and fasting for our Body of Christ that sits plopped down in the rich shadow lands of “Uptown” Oakland. We pray for all life on this blue-green dot in the mega-verse. We pray.

And wouldn’t you know that the word is “blood;” it was dropped on me this past Monday. Frankly, I alternately found its choice as fascinating and terrifying: Fascinating because blood is what keeps us alive. You lose enough of the blood in your body and “you da-id.” Your heart won’t get enough liquid volume to keep pumping.

Scientists estimate the volume of blood in a human body to be approximately 7 percent of body weight. An average adult body with a weight of 150 to 180 pounds will contain approximately 4.7 to 5.5 liters(1.2 to 1.5 gallons) of blood.
wonderopolis.org

Terrifying because of all the images associated with the word: Violence, torture, agony, panic, and that rusty, metallic smell of warm blood that sits in the air. Women know that smell very well; it is the smell of life, of birth, and of death.

The Hebrews used blood as a purifying agent. When you read the Torah, you are overwhelmed by how common and how often blood is the purifying agent for whatever atonement was sought from God. The rituals for atonement were detailed and extremely specific.

Aaron’s sons brought the blood to him. He dipped his finger in the blood and smeared some of it on the horns of the Altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the Altar. He burned the fat, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver from the Absolution-Offering on the Altar, just as God had commanded Moses. He burned the meat and the skin outside the camp. Then he slaughtered the Whole-Burnt-Offering. Aaron’s sons handed him the blood and he threw it against each side of the Altar. They handed him the pieces and the head and he burned these on the Altar. He washed the entrails and the legs and burned them on top of the Whole-Burnt-Offering on the Altar.
Leviticus 9:9-14 (TMB)

The instructions for the construction of the altar in the Torah even have a specific drainage system for the blood that will be spilled daily in atonement and then burned at the altar.

Jesus the Christ was all too familiar with the rituals because as a devout Jew He participated in their observance with His family as a child and into adulthood.

Mizbeach Ha’ola, The Altar of Burnt Offerings eudoranachand.wordpress.com

There is still continued debate about whether He knew as He observed them what His role would be. It seems that there are things about Him that we will never know on this side of life. Would it have changed His decision to crawl up on that cross? Did He know that an entirely new religion would be founded on His birth and actions? After all, He said that He came not to get rid of the law but to build on it, fulfill it.

"Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures-either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working.”
Mathew 5:17-18 (TMB)

As Christians we know these words, these concepts, we hear it week-after-week, month-after-month; it’s almost like our mantra. But we forget that God’s decision to finally send The One involved blood: Blood at His birth, blood at His death. But during His life, when He actually walked the earth, His actions were to stop the flow of innocent blood out of bodies. It’s phenomenal to think that He knew that it was His blood that would give us an out, an alternative to the tradition and expectation that innocent blood is required for atonement. It is actually a revolutionary thought, a revolutionary act. Many would say that there have been millions who have died for causes, especially religious causes in the name of gods and/or God, believing that their sacrifice would make a difference. In the suffering that continues today, sometimes it is excruciatingly painful to think that their sacrifices, their innocent blood, did not.

We cannot solve those issues here, of course, but perhaps we can think about the innocent blood of The Christ and what we do with His blood. Patrick Henry Reardon makes the case that Mathew’s Gospel gives us a choice when we examine the two disciples and their re-action to Jesus’ innocence on trial by presenting us with His two trials, one before the religious elite and the other before the civil elite.

Matthew is the only Evangelist to insert, within both the trials, a story relative to one of the original twelve—a story about Simon Peter in the trial before the Sanhedrin, and an account of Judas Iscariot in the trial before Pilate.
P.H. Reardon, His Passion, Our Choices, pg. 24
Touchstone: A Journal Of Mere Christianity,
22(3), 23-26.

If we believe that The Christ performed all those miracles and had a direct line to God, we can say that He could have easily pre-empted any action that delayed the penultimate sacrifice of His physical life, physical body. But interestingly, by presenting Himself before both religious leaders and civil leaders, The Nazarene made His sacrifice complete. Mankind made the decision and claimed that their hands were clean.

Although Judas feels remorse at his treachery (metameletheis), Matthew avoids the vocabulary of repentance (metanoia, for instance) in his description of Judas. Indeed, this story, which follows almost immediately on the repentance of Peter (26:75), invites a contrast between these two disciples with
respect to their sins: repentance in the one case, despair in the other.
Ibid. pg. 25

We know that the gospels were rubber stamped as the only official version of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus by Athanasius in 367 CE after Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 CE. But there are other sources that can be viewed as historical backdrop to the life of The Christ. For example the codex of the Gospel of Judas, part of the Qumran discovery in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, hints that Jesus may have enlisted Judas as the one who would put into motion the ultimate shedding of Innocent Blood, the blood of the Christ.

Thirty years later the discoverer himself, Muhammad 'Alí al-Sammán; told what happened. Shortly before he and his brothers avenged their father's murder in a blood feud, they had saddled their camels and gone out to the Jabal to dig for sabakh, a soft soil they used to fertilize their crops…A few weeks later, as Muhammad 'Alí tells it, he and his brothers avenged their father's death by murdering Ahmed Isma'il. Their mother had warned her sons to keep their mattocks sharp: when they learned that their father's enemy was nearby, the brothers seized the opportunity, "hacked off his limbs . . . ripped out his heart, and devoured it among them, as the ultimate act of blood revenge."
Excerpt from The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels Vintage Books, New York: 1979. pp. xiii-xxiii
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/Pagels-Gnostic-Gospels.html

Even in the discovery of information about this Jesus, there is blood shed, even now. So what are we to make of “innocent blood?” Are we destined to continue this horrific tradition? Are we capable of doing anything else? Certainly, African-Americans and Native Americans are the archetypal victims of this in the New World. And the turning away from addressing the legacy of innocent bloodshed is what haunts American society to this very minute. Yes, it is true that all human culture has shed blood in conflict. But, as Christians, shouldn’t we be able to reassure our children of any age that there is an answer to why innocent bloodshed continues? Shouldn’t we? Is it enough to say, “Trust Jesus, that’s all. Just trust Jesus.” Does Jesus the Christ demand more of us? And finally, is there really any such thing as “innocent” blood? I mean, the perpetrator, the aggressor is not innocent, whether it is us acting against ourselves or someone else.

So even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. For when Moses had spoken every command to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to keep.” And both the tabernacle and all the utensils of worship he likewise sprinkled with blood. Indeed according to the law almost everything was purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. So it was necessary for the sketches of the things in heaven
to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves required better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands – the representation of the true sanctuary – but into heaven itself, and he appears now in God’s presence for us.
Hebrews 9:18-24 (TMB)

Success at living under the law was impossible because we could not redeem ourselves. From the beginning and for whatever reason you wish to plug in here, we require the shedding of blood for purification and justification. Spill the life force, cleanse it, and all is made well and set right. The Nazarene came to clear that illusion up.

He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all.
Hebrews 9:12 (TMB)

Renal failure results in the need for the artificial cleansing of blood by machine. Hemodialysis machines were invented in the West in the early part of the 20th century: They externally clean and recycle blood that is put back into the body.

Born in the Netherlands on 14th February, 1911, Willem J Kolff invented the first practical artificial kidney, which over many years was refined and perfected leading to the hemodialysis machines that are now in regular use world wide. His death on 11th February, 2009, just days before his 98th birthday, was widely reported around world, both in print and on the web.
kidneydialysis.org/uk

Just since the 1970’s has dialysis become a common and life-extending treatment for families like mine. My maternal grandfather died of renal failure and my mother was on dialysis for the last ten years of her life. My children grew up in dialysis units in the East Bay because we used to visit her while she was being dialyzed for two to three hours, three times a week. It isn’t an easy life or a cure but it does give extra years to those who would otherwise be dead much earlier. And most people do not realize that it is all about blood. Somehow, people think of kidneys and associate it with liquid waste. That liquid waste is the residue of the process of cleansing of one’s blood that happens every minute of everyday. Depending on how many hours and how often it is required, dialysis does not clean human blood as efficiently as the kidneys God gave most of us. People do not realize how the body experiences the trauma of dialysis. There is surgery to install a large vein (it used to be bovine, a cow vein) for access to the blood in your body. It is an open wound that must be kept sterile and free of trauma. If you are dialyzed every other day, it may take anywhere from twelve to twenty four hours to recover: Your body has literally been completely emptied of its blood, run through a machine, and recycled back into your body. So, one is usually exhausted and even though your blood is cleansed, you live on a highly restricted no-salt, no-potassium diet of virtually no liquids by mouth, less than a few ounces daily and take medicines – for the rest of your life. There are much more sophisticated modalities of dialysis now that require extremely vigilant personal hygiene and are less time-consuming. But the bottom line is that one’s life is permanently altered and tethered to a medical procedure that requires constant monitoring and proximity to sophisticated medical facilities.

maximumintegrated.com/introduction to dialysis

I used to sit and watch my mother’s blood as it cycled through the dialysis machine and marvel that her entire blood volume was leaving and re-entering her body before my eyes. How precious that time with her was, just my kids and me talking and visiting as her blood cycled in and out of a manmade machine…

Artificial purification of one’s life force is a powerful and intrepid experience.

• We can’t do it to ourselves; it requires other people.
• Extraordinary life changes have to happen for it to continue to keep you alive.
• Surgical intervention is required to install the proper pathway into your body and often requires replacement.
• Your intake and outtake of bodily fluids is vigilantly monitored.
• Side effects of the process vary but in general they can be cumbersome, uncomfortable, and painful.
• Your life’s activities will probably change, depending on your age and general overall health.
• It puts an extraordinary strain on all the organs in one’s body that is cumulative, long lasting, and usually permanent.

It ain’t nobody’s idea of a party.

www.kidneydiseasetreatment.space

The other two alternatives are clear and simple: Kidney transplant(s) or death, end of conversation.

If we extrapolate from the miraculous, medical purification process of one’s life giving body fluid to our spirits, what could be the analogies?

• We could say that spiritual dialysis was what God kept doing every time S/He sent another remedy for our continual “messing up;” i.e., the way we treated each other.
• We could also say that there was a cumulative effect on God’s patience as we regularly required some version of rebalance, dedication, and purification after we, at worst, disrespected God and, at least, ignored Him.
• We might say that the application of God-devised, human treatments kept falling short of the goal of a healthy relationship with God.
• We could also observe that even punishment and the spiritiual corpus delecti did not deter us from ignoring God.

In one final act of love and healing, God chose the only remedy available before the finality of corpus death: A transplant.

And he did not enter to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the sanctuary year after year with blood that is not his own, for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the consummation of the ages to put away sin by his sacrifice. And just as people are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment, so also, after Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many, to those who eagerly await him he will appear a second time, not to bear sin but to bring salvation. Hebrews 9:25-28 (TMB)

The Nazarene is our transplant. We don’t need external cleansing agents or artificial membranes. The Christ cleaned it up once and for all. All we have to do is trust ad submit to the transplant team. Who’s on the team, you might ask? Clergy, deacons, church members, Sunday School teachers, ushers, the choir, the musicians, the media team, the Women’s mission, the Men’s ministry, and on and on and on…got it? Any and everyone who has been transformed by the implantation of The Christ is on the team because we are all part of that one Body.

On the contrary, those members that seem to be weaker are essential, and those members we consider less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our unpresentable members are clothed with dignity, but our presentable members do not need this. Instead, God has blended together the body, giving greater honor to the lesser member, so that there may be no division in the body, but the members may have mutual concern for one another. If one member suffers, everyone suffers with it. If a member is honored, all rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body, and each of you is a member of it.
I Corinthians 12:22-27 (NET)

The Message Bible says it this way:

As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way-the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair? The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ’s body-that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything.
Ibid. (TMB)

From the Message translation above, “The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t” and “You are Christ’s body-that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your ‘part’ mean anything.” It cannot be any clearer than that: We are dependent upon one another. We all know that after any organ transplant there are new requirements and behaviors that must be maintained in order for the body to not reject it. We actually NEED each other in order to survive. Just as people need help, attention, and new information, they also eventually must feel needed. If not, they leave; just as when an organ in the body is not necessary, it withers and eventually disappears. And running throughout all the time, every minute of everyday is the Blood. Do we know anyone in the Body of The Nazarene who is not feeling that life force? Why? What are they not getting?

Contrary to that oft-cited adage, “blood is thicker than water,” I have always believed that only the Blood of The Christ is thicker.

No Blood, no body.
No Blood, no life.
No Blood, nobody.
No Body, no church.

Lord Jesus, we know that Your Blood is the difference. We know that Your Transfiguration was our transplant. We know that You are still removing deadened souls and replacing them with Yourself and for that we are ecstatic and grateful. Help us support each other in that ecstasy. Keep us fixed on those new behaviors and that Balm Who will keep us healthy for Your purposes. We are unable to do it for ourselves. Only You can purify us with Your Blood, the Blood that transforms, transfigures, transplants…

The blood that Jesus shed for me
Way back on Calvary
The blood that gives me strength
From day to day
Will nev-ver lose its pow’r.

It reaches from the highest mountain.
And it flows to the lowest valley
The blood that gives me strength
From day to day
It will nev-er lose its pow’r.
The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power
Andraé Crouch, 1966

I know it was the blood
I know it was the blood
I know it was the blood for me.

One day when I was lost
He died up-on the cross.
I know it was the blood for me.
I Know It Was The Blood
African-American Traditional

I know it was the Blood for me.

Amen.