Incarnation

We go this First Sunday after Christmas Day to the preamble of John’s Gospel, where John gets to the heart of Christmas with the doctrine of the incarnation. There John reminds us that Christmas is more than a birth narrative. It is the central focus of Jesus coming among us, the middle piece of the good news.

To do that John invokes images of the first piece of the good news, the creation story. Genesis, you will recall, starts off, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It goes on to remind us we were created in God’s image and likeness.

John calls that to mind with his preamble. “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 nothing was made that was made.”

John’s language is fascinating. In Hebrew thought word refers to something dynamic and effective. It begins as thought in the inner being, an image of what could be. At some point it rises up from within and is spoken with creative force, and the result is that something happens.

In Hebrew thought a word is always moving, developing, and growing from inner thought through conceptualization to spoken thought to physical reality. It is full of meaning, fruitfulness, and accomplishment. It has future and hope, and it is sure. Conversely, a “lying word” is one that is spoken but winds up accomplishing nothing. It is to be abhored. Prophets with ineffective words were stoned. People with pointless words were branded hypocrites, actors with false faces and no true identity.

John tells us the word was present at creation and actively involved, the word that spoke the worlds and their physical properties into existence. The author of Hebrews concurs: “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by things which are invisible.”

Here’s the incarnation part. On down the page John declares, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Of course we understand him to be referring to Jesus, the promised Emmanuel, the God-with-us.

Incarnation is the center piece of our faith yet it is difficult to understand and describe. It is a mystery. Webster described incarnation as “the act of clothing with flesh. The act of assuming the flesh, or of taking a human body and the nature of man.”

So the mystery of incarnation is simply God taking on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.

The church has struggled with this mystery for years. You can see a progressive understanding developing through the Scriptures.

The disciples, not really knowing how to take Jesus, first thought of him as a gifted prophet. Their perceptions changed as they traveled with him to the point that they saw him as the promised prophet, the Messiah. Peter’s understanding was more mature when he preached to the congregation at Pentecost, “let all the house if Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

Paul refers to Jesus as God’s “son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of God with power, according to spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

He also writes God “has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.” He goes on to say that the ministry of reconciliation was given to Paul, making him an ambassador of Christ. The incarnation is implicit in our mission as the embassy of God.

The author of Hebrews refers to God speaking to people in old times through the prophets, but “in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things.” He goes on to describe Jesus as “being the brightness of [God’s] glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins.”

Paul writes, “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist.”

I think the point for us is the matter of focus. The Christmas observed by American culture focuses on Santa and gifts and holiday trees. It throws in a nativity scene here or there, and has some emphasis on helping the poor. But all this misses the point.

Christmas, the mystery of incarnation, reminds us that the God who spoke the worlds into existence came to live among us to purge our sins and enable us to regain his image and likeness in the world. And that is good news of great joy to all people.

Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP)

1 Christmas A 2013