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<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
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 came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.<\/p>\n
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.<\/p>\n
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.<\/p>\n
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father\u2019s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, \u201cThis was he of whom I said, \u2018He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'\u201d) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father\u2019s heart, who has made him known.<\/p>\n
John 1:1-18<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Over the years I have had enough time to make one or two truly bad mistakes in the classroom.\u00a0 The worst was a long time ago when I was teaching undergraduates.\u00a0 The college where I worked had a series of core courses that the entire freshman class was required to take and \u2013 being a church-based institution \u2013 that course touched on the development of the church\u2019s theology.\u00a0 The faculty team that I taught with hit on the \u201cbrilliant\u201d idea of exploring the divine and human natures of Jesus, which is so clearly laid out in John\u2019s Gospel, by showing the entire freshman class the movie, \u201cThe Last Temptation of Christ\u201d, directed by Martin Scorsese and based upon the book with the same title by Nikos Katzantzakis.<\/p>\n
Now, you may not be old enough to remember this movie.\u00a0 But when it was released in 1988, it caused a firestorm of controversy.\u00a0 But we theorized that with careful preparation we could use it to help the students derive important insights into the divine and human nature of Jesus.<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t true, of course, and we managed to rekindle the controversy in our own little corner of the world.\u00a0 It was fun engaging the president and dean in such intense conversation.<\/p>\n
But, in fact, the book \u2013 in particular \u2013 and the movie \u2013 somewhat less successfully \u2013 really does impinge on the issues that prompted John to begin his Gospel with a description of the coming of Christ as the Word made flesh.\u00a0 In the first century, among those who became a part of the church, were people called Gnostics.\u00a0 They believed that the spiritual world was good and that the material world \u2013 including the human body \u2013 was evil.\u00a0 According to the Gnostics, the only way in which to achieve true spiritual heights was to recognize this fact and transcend the body.\u00a0 You did this by either denying the body everything it seems to require on the logic that it needed to be pummeled into submission or by giving it everything it wants on the logic that it didn\u2019t really matter what you do in the body.<\/p>\n
As a result, the Christian notion that Jesus was God in human flesh was a real problem for Gnostics who thought about being baptized.\u00a0 The notion that the perfect and spiritual would take on the physical and the flawed was not just counterintuitive for Gnostics.\u00a0 It an objectionable, if not repulsive notion.\u00a0 So, like some Christians down through history, they decided that they would amend the church\u2019s faith to fit their assumptions.<\/p>\n
John understood what a problem this posed.\u00a0 So, his approach to retelling the story of Jesus \u2013 while perfectly in line with the rest of the Gospels \u2013 takes the issue of Christ\u2019s divine-human nature on from the very beginning of his Gospel: \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God\u2026. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father\u2019s only son, full of grace and truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
What could be so important about the idea we call \u201cthe Incarnation\u201d?\u00a0 Let me offer some thoughts:<\/p>\n
One, the Incarnation underlines the ancient Jewish and Christian conviction that creation is God\u2019s good gift.<\/em><\/p>\nContrary to what some suggest, we do not believe that creation or the material world is evil or dispensable.\u00a0 We believe that it is God\u2019s good gift and that our responsibility as God\u2019s viceroys, is to care for creation.<\/p>\n
But creation is not just an obligation.\u00a0 It is a source of delight and wonder.\u00a0 And that delight and wonder takes many forms, from what one might call a simple, daily appreciation of the world around us, to the endless exploration of its complexity through science \u2013 or its celebration in poetry, art, and song.\u00a0 When we or our neighbors forget this truth, when we deny it, or deliberately ignore it \u2013 we always do harm to ourselves, to one another, and to creation.<\/p>\n
Two, the Incarnation lies at the heart of what we mean by \u201cthe means of salvation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nWe are not Gnostics. \u00a0Nor are we Stoics, for that matter.\u00a0 So, we don\u2019t believe that we are saved by secret insights or by discipline (as important as discipline can be).\u00a0 We believe that we are saved by God, through his Son, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
He is the one who creates the bridge between God and ourselves.\u00a0 Entering into our lives and restoring that balance which the book of Genesis calls the image of God \u2013 where we live into the fullness of the lives that God intends for us, marked by a love of God, a knowledge of God\u2019s will for us, and a love for one another that transcends human standards.<\/p>\n
It is that truth that we share with the world.\u00a0 That is why the Nicene Creed appears at the heart of our worship every Sunday, reminding us of that truth.<\/p>\n
Three, the Incarnation lies at the heart of God\u2019s identification with you and me.<\/em><\/p>\nIt is interesting that \u2013 in reducing the teaching of Jesus into a body of ideas, rather than a divine-human body, the Gnostics \u2013 and everyone since then \u2013 have made the Gospel about themselves.\u00a0 It is no accident that they believed that our bodies required personal mastery or that we could do anything we want to do.<\/p>\n
Salvation won through personal mastery is based upon the logic that there is a God and I am it or that there is no God and it\u2019s all up to me.\u00a0 A spirituality that claims it doesn\u2019t matter what we do in the body is based upon the same logic.\u00a0 There is a God, but the path to God is all about what I think or there is no God, and it doesn\u2019t matter what I do.\u00a0 Both approaches sever our relationship with the creation around us and our own created nature, leaving us all free to be our own gods.<\/p>\n
John reminds us that in Christ\u2019s identification with us, Jesus has entered into our lives and the lives of those around us.\u00a0 And that identification signals clearly that there is a God and we are not.\u00a0 But by making that state of affairs real \u2013 in a specific body \u2013 in a specific time \u2013 in a specific place \u2013 God also also reminds us of the sanctity of our lives and that of those around us.<\/p>\n
And this realization should remind \u2013 us on a daily basis \u2013 that the Incarnation is also important, because it lies at the heart of the conviction that wherever we find ourselves in life\u2019s journey, Christ is Immanuel \u2013 God with us, in it, all the way.<\/em><\/p>\nThe twin paths of discipline and indulgence that the Gnostics of the past and the present offer as a means of giving life meaning will inevitably fail us.\u00a0 \u00a0Illness, loss, and death \u2013 if nothing else \u2013 will remind us of our limitations and frailty.\u00a0 But \u2013 to return to the theme of movies \u2013 John was aware that it is not enough to claim that Jesus \u201chas seen the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
To claim, \u201cI know how you feel, without entering into human pain, is a shallow reassurance.\u201d\u00a0 To claim, \u201cI know what it is like fail, is an empty claim if you wield irresistible power.\u00a0 To claim, \u201cI know that it is like to be tempted, without facing the ability to give in,\u201d is far too easy to be of any comfort.<\/p>\n
But John also knows that for Jesus to claim, \u201cI\u2019m just like you\u201d is a counsel of despair \u2013 because a Savior who is just like you \u2013 or me \u2013 is no Savior at all.\u00a0 And that is why, on a daily basis, in times of sorrow and struggle, it matters to know that Jesus is both divine and human.<\/p>\n
Now God says to us<\/p>\n
What He has already said to the earth as a whole<\/p>\n
Through His grace-filled birth:<\/p>\n
I am there. I am with you.<\/p>\n
I am your life. I am your time.<\/p>\n
I am the gloom of your daily routine. Why will you not hear it?<\/p>\n
I weep your tears \u2013 pour yours out to me.<\/p>\n
I am your joy.<\/p>\n
Do not be afraid to be happy; ever since I wept, joy is the standard of living<\/p>\n
That is really more suitable than the anxiety and grief of those who have no hope.<\/p>\n
I am the blind alley of all your paths,<\/p>\n
For when you no longer know how to go any farther,<\/p>\n
Then you have reached me,<\/p>\n
Though you are not aware of it.<\/p>\n
I am in your anxiety, for I have shared it.<\/p>\n
I am in the prison of your finiteness,<\/p>\n
For my love has made me your prisoner.<\/p>\n
I am in your death,<\/p>\n
For today I began to die with you, because I was born,<\/p>\n
And I have not let myself be spared any real part of this experience.<\/p>\n
I am present in your needs;<\/p>\n
I have suffered them and they are now transformed.<\/p>\n
I am there.<\/p>\n
I no longer go away from this world.<\/p>\n
Even if you do not see me now, I am there.<\/p>\n
My love is unconquerable.<\/p>\n
I am there.<\/p>\n
It is Christmas.<\/p>\n
Light the Candles! They have more right to exist then all the darkness.<\/p>\n
It is Christmas,<\/p>\n
Christmas that lasts forever.*<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
*Karl Rahner<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo by Greyson Joralemon<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 \u00a0 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 came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3687,3686,10,2408,3332,3678,3690,3683,3677,3675,3680],"tags":[3669,3672,3663,3666],"class_list":["post-3944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god-with-us","category-immanuel","category-incarnation","category-jesus","category-jesus-christ","category-johnb-11-18","category-karl-rahner","category-lvation","category-martin-scorcese","category-the-last-temptation","category-the-means-of-salvation","tag-immanuel","tag-karl-rahner","tag-means-of-salvation","tag-salvation"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n