Take time to read the gospel passage appointed for today. Sit with it for a bit, and picture the scene in your mind. See Jesus in his home town, in the local synagogue on the Sabbath, reading from the scroll of Isaiah. Hear his words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Now let the scene expand in your imagination; see the Cosmic Christ from his throne in glory in the heart of God speaking to the whole world, unlimited by time and space. Hear him speaking to each and all regardless of nationality or culture, peace or religion: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Can you picture that scene, not just Jesus the Nazarean speaking to his Jewish friends and neighbors, but the risen, ascended Christ of glory proclaiming God’s word to all God’s children throughout the world? Hold that picture quietly in your heart.

With that picture in you mind and in your heart, consider Paul’s metaphor of the body of Christ in our epistle passage. Let that body image expand beyond the Corinthians, the Jews and Greeks of Paul’s day, to the world of today. Can you see the body of the Cosmic Christ encompassing those beyond Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Christians? Can your picture expand so that you see the body of God’s love enfolding the Jews and Muslims, the Buddhists, the Hindi, the Taoists, and on and on so that all are members of the body of the Holy One? Can your picture expand even more to include all creation—the entire cosmos? Take time to feel God’s love enfolding all.

You may want to close your meditation by praying “For the Human Family” (BCP, p.815): “O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”