Incarnational Theology

From the very beginning, God has built His Word into our hearts, our minds, and our bodies.  His "law" is written in the universe, in the stars, and in our natures.  Moses tells the Israelites before His departure:

This commandment that I lay on you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.  It is not in the heavens, that you should say, 'Who will go up to the heavens for us to fetch it and tell it to us, so that we can keep it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to fetch it and tell it to us, so that we can keep it?'  It is a thing very near to you, on your lips and in your heart ready to be kept" (Deut. 30:14).

 

Jesus is the Word Made Flesh and dwelling among us -- He is the entire Pronouncement, Plan, Promise, Provision, and Power of God  revealed to us.  But even before His incarnation, the Word of God, the Plan of God, the Promise of God, the Provision of God, and the Power of God was made flesh in the people of God -- the Fathers of Israel, the Prophets, the Judges, the women  -- God incarnated His Word in the flesh of all these before Jesus. 

 

The Bible is a book of stories:  "this is what God looks like; this is Who God is; this is how God acts."  The prophets were called not just to "say" the "Word of the Lord," but to enflesh it in their bodies, their lives.  Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern and left to die because of the Word of the Lord.  Isaiah was sawn in two because of the anger of the kings of Israel.  Hosea married a harlot and had to go after her time and again to redeem her from her "empty way of life."  Again and again, he took her back, forgiving her infidelity --- as a living sign of God's response to Israel's faithlessness.  Being a prophet in Israel was not fun at all. 

 

But we, too, are called to enflesh the Word of God in our lives.  It is not enough to know the Scriptures; they must work their way through our lives down to the cellular level -- the "law of the Lord," the instruction, the teaching, the guidance of God must fill our hearts and our minds and our mouths until it spills out of us to a world beyond us.  It is not enough to read, "Sing and make music to the Lord" unless we wake up each morning singing psalms of praise and thanksgiving. 

 

Paul called marriage "a great mystery," a great sign of Christ's love for the church.  The Book of Genesis begins with a wedding and ends with the marriage supper of the Lamb.  In between, we have the Song of Songs and the Wedding at Cana.  It was not accidental that Jesus' first 'sign' was at the Wedding at Cana:  for this cause, a man shall leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  Now, in Hebrew, the word translated into English as "one flesh" actually means "a new creation," or "an entirely new species."  Paul tells us that if anyone be in Christ Jesus, "the old has gone and the new has come; he is a new creation."

 

The marriage bond between husband and wife is the enfleshment, the concrete and living sign, of God's union with us in Christ Jesus.  We are no longer what we were -- sons of Adam-- but a "new creation," a new species, -- sons of God.  We are joined to Christ body, soul, spirit.  We have His body given to wash us with the water of the Word -- cleansing us from all imperfection.  We have the mind of Christ (I Cor. 2:14 ff.) and we have the Spirit of Jesus dwelling in us.  We are married to God, one flesh with Him.  His law in written in our hearts and in our minds and in our bodies, according to the promise given to us in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Joel. 

 

The Word has been made flesh and dwells among us -- not only in the human body of Jesus Christ, but in us who are in Him.  We live the Word of God, the union of God and man --- and marriage is the great mystery, or the great sign of that mystical union. 

 

After 45 years of marriage, my husband and I have discovered that when one thinks a thought, the other verbalizes it.  We have begun to laugh about it because it occurs on a daily basis.  Is this not yet another sign that when we are united to God in Jesus Christ, we begin to think the thoughts of God? 

The Theology of Hospitality

During my recent visit to Paris, we stayed at the beautiful and intimate hotel Le Relais Saint Germain.  It was hard to tell how many rooms the hotel had; from what I could see, I would think maybe 6 rooms altogether, if that many.  But I could be wrong.  Part of the hotel is one of the best restaurants in Paris, one where it is so difficult to get a reservation that people sometimes book a room in the hotel just to get a reservation at the restaurant. 

Breakfast in the morning is a signature event, served in the room with real silver coffeepots and teapots.  It is not a meal to be rushed through, but everything about it speaks of savoring and enjoying the experience -- real silverware, freshly laundered napkins, fresh fruit, croissants, French bread, eggs, ham, cream cheese, yogurt, butter, oatmeal, miniature jars of jams and preserves --- I cannot even remember all that was on the tray.

In the lobby was an umbrella stand with old-fashioned black umbrellas -- the kind with curved handles--- for the use of the guests.  Though we had no rain while I was there, I took one with me each day as a walking stick, to help me up the many metro stairs on our excursions. 

This small hotel had the gift of making each guest feel like a welcome part of the family.  In each room was a small book -- a gift from the owners-- which included their favorite recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  The introduction to the booklet set out their philosophy of entertaining, a philosophy which for me became theology:

Entertaining is the word that sums up the magic of my job.  I just love to receive people at home.  They always ask me questions about my vocation.  The answer?  Maybe I became a cook because my passion is to give, receive, give back.  ....Feeding people is not enough for us.  We wanted to also give them a place to sleep with sweet dreams before a good breakfast.  We are proud when our customers say that their experience was good or it was beautiful. But never more so than when they remember that they were well received. 

 

If you ask me the word that best expresses my passion, I think that the most beautiful verb is "receive."  I play with conjugating this verb in many ways:  "I received, I get, I will receive" --- and "is received, is receiving."  That which receives, receives....

 

Entertaining is inviting in friends and in greeting customers.  And when I say the word that touches me and makes me dream, I sometimes hear "re/se/see."  Entertaining is the art of receiving.

                                                                         ---Claudine and Yves Camdeborde

                                                                          Hotel Le Relais Saint-Germain

 

Everything about this small hotel matches the expressed philosophy/theology of its owners.  And their expressed philosophy so well matches Biblical theology.  In the Book of Ephesians, Paul tells us that before we could think to do anything, we received everything from the beneficence of the Creator:  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will -- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 

 

We were received by God as his sons even before we opened our eyes for the first time  --- and because of his pleasure and good will, we received from Him countless blessings and grace.  Because of what we have received from Him, graciously and without merit on our part, we are told in Chapter 4 of Ephesians to receive one another with the same graciousness we ourselves have experienced.  Paul lays out in detail what it means to be gracious towards others.

 

Watchman Nee has written a little book called Sit, Walk, and Stand, which outlines the Book of Ephesians in terms of the normal Christian life --- first, we "sit;" that is, we receive from God.  Then, we "walk" according to the multiple grace we have received from him, and finally, when we have done all we can do, we "stand," putting on the armor of God, against the powers of evil and darkness.  Though I read this book over 40 years ago, I still remember being profoundly moved and enlightened by Watchman Nee, who spent the last 25 years of his life in a Communist China prison for preaching the Gospel.  If anyone is worthy of being listened to, it is certainly Watchman Nee -- and those like Claudine and Yves Camdeborde who have so much to teach us about graciousness and hospitality because we ourselves have received so much from God.

Seeing Through the Eyes of God

Teaching a Confirmation class of high school juniors for many years has caused me to see the parables of Jesus with fresh eyes.  I now see the yearning, the hunger, and the pain of God reflected in the stories Jesus told.  In the parables of the wheat and the weeds, and in the parable of the sower, and in the parable of the king giving a banquet, I see my own students and I grieve.

I know that each one of us must "live" the experience of not having and then finding the "hidden treasure" of the kingdom of God.  But I yearn to spare them the grief and anxiety that accompanies having to learn by experience.  Jesus has so much to give to each one of us---"The Gift of the Father"---and yet, we are still blind, deaf, and dumb before we can see and hear what He is offering to us. 

As I meet my class each Wednesday evening, after praying for each of them all week, I see some who might be hungry for the Gift of God, but it is difficult to satisfy their hunger, for having to fight my way through those who are bored, who are distracted, who have other things on their minds.  In a class of 15, there are maybe 4 or 5 who "tune in," but they are quickly distracted by the foolishness of the 10 who have no desire yet for the kingdom of God.  For them, it is "foolishness," as Paul said of the Greeks.  Some indeed receive the seed that is sown, but quickly forget about it in the pressures of school and relationships. 

I can readily see now what Jesus meant when He said, The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.  Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.  Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ( It seems that the word translated "has" can also mean "holds."  )

Though seeing, they do not see;

though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving. 

For this people's heart has become calloused;

they hardly hear with their ears,

and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.

 



My students are all very good kids; they are working hard in school and honestly trying to meet the multiple demands on their time and energy.  They are respectful and for the most part do not create problems in the classroom.  But they also suffer from the common stresses of mankind:  fear, anxiety, lack of trust that God is "there" for them, a feeling that they must do it all on their own or suffer failure -- in other words, the human condition.  And because I have grown to love them intensely, I want them to know the peace, the joy, the comfort offered to them by Jesus in the Holy Spirit. 

 

With Jesus, I cry out to the Father with "inexpressible moans" for them.  I see the seed, the Good News, fall on rocky places (indifference) and being taken from them by the cares of this world, and I want them to know what God has in store for them.  I know that each one of us must seek and find God out of a poverty of spirit, a pain that can be healed only by Him.  I would spare them the experience of grief, but cannot do so.  I would give them the joy of the Holy Spirit, but that Gift belongs to the Father to give. 

 

I just wonder if it is possible for me learn to teach in parables. 



Preparing the Way of the Lord

  "The voice of one crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'  Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low." [Luke, quoting Isaiah]

I used to wonder why we wanted to fill in the valley and lower the mountains and hills until I discovered the Roman custom of preparing the way of conquering generals and heroes.  When men went off to war, to conquer new lands for the kingdom of Rome, they took captives as slaves, bringing them back to Rome with great ceremony and fanfare.  Before the triumphant procession into the city could occur, however, slaves were sent out to "prepare the way" for the conquering hero. 

Rough roads were  filled in and made smooth for the wheels of the chariot; it would not do to have the new hero topple out of an overturned chariot.  Any obstacle in the road would be removed.  The hero was to ride in on a wave of triumph and cheers -- the procession could not be stopped to remove roadblocks, stones, animals, etc. 

In the case of the coming of the Lord, we are dealing in spiritual realities.  The "low places" and the roadblocks are much more serious and more difficult to smooth out and/or remove.  There are things in our lives which block the arrival of Jesus Christ in our hearts -- "valleys" of despair or of darkness, and "roadblocks" of coveted sin that are more precious to us than the light.

John puts it this way:  He came into His own, but his own did not receive Him....The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

In preparing for Christmas, we see a world within and without that is so full of darkness, it is about to disintegrate.  Our own lives have places that have not yet been conquered by Jesus Christ, because we are holding on so tightly to sin.  And the world in general begins now to frighten even very small children.  The darkness seems to be advancing rapidly, overtaking every land and culture.

Preparing the way of the Lord this year means removing whatever obstacles prevent His coming more fully into our hearts and lives.  As for the world at large, we can only pray for conversion.