In Spirit and In Truth

Worship Notes from your Worship Pastor, Chris Hughes 

 

Actual and Virtual Reality...Incarnation/Resurrection and Ascension

 

Pierre Levy, professor in the Department of Hypermedia at the University of Paris, in his book, Becoming Virtual, helped me appreciate the promise of understanding and embracing four modes of being that include the virtual and the actual, the possible and the real. This isn't too much of a stretch for folks weaned on Trinitarian theology that embraces God in at least three realities, and in all three tenses.

 

 

For our purposes, we'll focus on the dynamic relationship of the virtual and the actual. "Virtual" reality has gotten a bad name in some people's minds. According to Levy, "virtual" does not mean false or illusory, imaginary, artificial, or unreal. Virtualization is movement from the "here and now" - the "actual" - to the "why" of the situation or action. We tend to focus on the actual, the present physical reality. But the process of virtualization releases the actual from the bounds of time and space, and back to its greatest potential and fullest reality.

 

 

For example, The Incarnation, God in the flesh in Jesus, is an actualization of God's virtual being. The Resurrection is a virtualization of God's actual being. Both are realities of God's being. One is a particularization, an actualization in time and space. A quantum experience of God. A "packet" of God's wave nature perceived as a particle. When Jesus says, "Tear this temple down and I will rebuild it in three days," he is describing an act, or loop, of virtualization and re-actualization. In the resurrection, followed by his ascension, he escapes the limits of time and space to be virtually everywhere!

 

 

When we "break the bread" we are engaging in a virtualization of the Body of Christ, breaking it and sending it outward, from the host to those who partake. It is the mystery (virtualization) that becomes impetus to embody Christ (actualization in our lives and in the collective life of the church). When we gather for worship we engage in an actualization of the Body of Christ. When we are sent forth and disperse, we are engaging in a virtualization of the Body of Christ. Clergy who "push out" the "ministry of all Christians" to the laity are engaging in the virtualization of Christ's ministry and the proliferation of new actualizations.

 

 

Manifestations of "church" in time and space are actualizations of God's body in the world. We dare not cling to any particular actualization, but always stand ready to "let go" or to virtualize the church. To cling to any particular actualization is to do two things: one, we commit idolatry, trusting in our own constructions and not in the continuing dynamic revelations of God. And two, we deny Christ's promise of resurrection, clinging to what we know rather than following him into what we do not. Virtualization gets us back in a "walking by faith" mode whereas actualization can degenerate into a "walking by sight" mode.