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.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8).

 

As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

 

It is amazing to me that I grew up hearing these 2 passages read in church, but somehow never connected either of them with my own life.  Would not you think that if someone said to you, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit," you would investigate what that meant?

 

Maybe because we were baptized as infants, we thought we had already received the Holy Spirit and that was the end of that.  And of course, we never expect to hear a voice from heaven speaking to us, even if we are baptized as adults.  And yet, if as adult Christians, we belong to Christ and we are IN CHRIST, we should expect to experience what He experienced in the flesh.  He takes on our life that we might take on His life, especially in its relationship to the Father and to the Holy Spirit.

 

John said, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit," and Luke adds, "and with fire."  If we have not yet experienced the fire, we may indeed "have" the Holy Spirit, but He does not yet "have" us.  Years ago, a someone I had met only briefly called me out of the blue.  "I don't know why I think you might have the answer to this," she said to me, "but I feel like a numb, dumb Catholic.  I go to church every Sunday, and sometimes the priest fusses about people coming in late, and I want to stand up and say, 'Father, if there were something to be here for, we'd be on time!'  Do you know what I'm missing?"

 

Actually, I did know what she was missing.  Our faith was never supposed to be "numb' and 'dumb,' in her words.  If we look at the Acts of the Apostles, we find fire, the "fire" that Jesus came to cast upon the earth.  We find the Holy Spirit at work on every page, and there was nothing boring about anyone's faith.  In fact, we get the picture of the Apostles hanging on to the Holy Spirit's coattails.  There are no organizational meetings (although there was the first Council of Jerusalem), no "planning sessions."  Rather, we find the early Christians meeting daily in the Temple area, praising God; we find numbers being added daily to the group; and we find the Apostles going about doing the works of Jesus. 

 

If we find our religion boring, non-exciting, maybe it's time to ask for the "Baptism in the Holy Spirit," the one that Jesus promised to His followers as "The Gift of the Father."  I once had a friend who said, "If God is handing out gifts, I'm standing in line!"  That should be our attitude every day:  "Whatever You're giving out today, don't leave me out!"

 

God the Father wants to bestow on us the Gift of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Spirit of His only Son, Jesus, and He wants to fill the entire world with that Gift.  If we and others do not know that we are His beloved children, in whom He is well pleased, we cannot tell others about the Gift of the Father.  If we are not filled with the Spirit of God, we cannot tell anyone about the love of the Father given to us in the Son. 

 

In two of the Gospels, Jesus tells us specifically to ASK for the Gift of the Spirit (Matthew 7 and Luke 11):  Seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened....everyone who asks receives.....  Jesus died in the flesh that we might live in His Spirit.  He wants us to know His internal life of fellowship with the Father and with the Spirit.  He wants us to enter even now into the eternal life of the Trinity. 

 

What is it that keeps us from knocking at that door, seeking the Holy Spirit, and asking the Father for the Gift He wants to bestow on us?  Is it fear that if we ask and don't receive, we will be too disappointed?  Is it a lack of faith that Jesus meant what He said?  Faith is believing and acting on what God has said.  And of all the things we are to act on, this is surely the easiest of all:  seek, knock, ask.

 

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.  "Baptize" means to immerse completely, to "dye," to "soak thoroughly."  If we have not been entirely soaked in the Holy Spirit, something still remains for us.  Let us not be afraid to ask for this baptism and to continue asking until we receive the Gift of the Father.

Does God Speak to Us Today?

The religion of the ancient Hebrews was based upon the belief that God can and does speak to man (John McKenzie, S.J. : The Two-Edged Sword, p. 22).

 

There are 400 years between the Testaments when "no prophet had arisen in Israel," when both the common people and the leaders were awaiting once again "The Word of the Lord."  Malachi was the last prophet before Jesus to speak in the Name of the Lord, and we can date that scroll to around 460 BCE, dealing with the problems of the people returning from captivity in Babylon.  Judah was still subject to Persia, even though they had been permitted to return to their own land by Cyrus.  Now they had to re-establish their government and to formulate laws to govern both civil and religious conduct.  Malachi was the last Old Testament prophet to give guidance to Israel in the Name of the Lord.

 

When Ezra returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, he brought with him the "book of the law of the Lord," but he did not receive the "Word of the Lord" as had the prophets before him.  Four hundred years after the exile (587-536), during the time of the Maccabees, Judas Maccabee and his sons seem sadly aware that the age of prophecy had past.  Not knowing what to do with the stones of the altar that had been polluted, they put them away until a prophet should come to tell them what to do.

 

Many people today would maintain that the age of prophecy has past, that God no longer speaks to His people, that we have no more prophets.  The book of Hebrews tells us, though, that "in these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son....[Who] is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by His powerful word."  His words are recorded in the New Testament for us, but it still takes a "living Word" from the Holy Spirit to breathe life into the Book -- to make it come alive for us.

 

If what we do matters to God, He must still speak to us through the Holy Spirit.  In fact, Jesus promised that the Spirit, when He comes, would lead us into all truth. Surely, that means that the Spirit continues to breathe wisdom and knowledge into the Body of Christ.

 

Someone once said, "Every child has the right to know what his father expects of him."  We do not often recognize the voice of God speaking to us, for it often sounds like our own voice or the voice of our parents.  But if we cultivate the time and space we need to still our own voice, we will hear God speaking in our hearts.

 

Scripture is the starting place -- we need to eat and digest the words of Jesus, but it takes the Holy Spirit "breathing" into the words on the page to show us which Scripture is meant for us at that moment.  In the wilderness, Satan quoted Psalm 191, but Jesus countered with a word from Deuteronomy.  Even our reading of Scripture must be directed by the Holy Spirit. 

 

Jesus said, "My sheep know My Voice...."  Surely that means He is still speaking to us from within.  Open our ears, Lord, to hear Your Voice!

 



War Room

The Lord asks only this:  that we be in communion with Him and at the service of our brothers and sisters (Pope Francis: General Audience, Nov. 19th, 2014).

 

It comes down to this---only 2 things:  Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.  It is really very simple after all, but sometimes it takes a re-wording of the commandments to make us see it. 

 

What does it feel like to "be in communion with Him"?  Have we ever stopped to find out, to give it a chance, to "taste" it?  I remember when my youngest daughter was small -- she rejected cheesecake outright because of the name.  Wouldn't even take the tiniest taste.  Sounded horrible and disgusting.  Until the day she finally gave in and tasted it.  What a revelation!  "THAT'S cheesecake?!" Now it was her favorite dessert.

 

I am convinced that most of us refuse to "taste and see" the sweetness of the Lord because we think we must be doing something, that we must be in control of circumstances.  We think that "communion with God" is doing nothing because we have no idea that He will actually DO something about our circumstances. 

 

What if we decided to experiment with "communion with God" for one day?  What if we took a Sabbath Day for finding out what it feels like?  "Loving the Lord our God with our whole hearts" sounds like work, but what does "communion with God" actually feel like?  We have six days to work, but only one day to receive.  But most of us would prefer to work on the Sabbath rather than to lie down beside still waters and receive the love of God.  What if we lay down under a tree and closed our eyes and let our minds drift into the Reality that is God?  That's not "work," is it?  What if we went fishing and let the boat drift for awhile, closing our eyes -- or just gazing at the clouds? 

 

Most of us don't want to be still and KNOW that He is God.  It feels better to be in control, to be doing something, to be manipulating circumstances -- but what if we just stood still instead for awhile and let ourselves be loved by God? 

 

Sometimes it does not happen until our backs are up against the wall and we have nowhere to turn.  Then we are forced to be still and let ourselves be loved.  Yesterday, I saw the movie War Room.  It probably will not get much publicity because it is a Christian movie, but it is a very powerful experience, one that should be seen on the big screen.  It made me want to come home and pray, convinced me that the best thing we can do is to stand still and be in communion with God.  Sometimes our best strategy is to let Him do the fighting for us!