The Incarnation
As The Good News Of God’s Reign
The
Incarnation is not just about the birth of Jesus, rather, it is a celebration
of the entire Christ Event, it is a celebration of God’s Self-communion with
the world, with all humankind. It is a
time in which I think about, not “putting Christ back in Christmas, but about
putting Christ back in Christians. It is
a time to see and rejoice in the new light coming into the world. “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.” (Collect for
Christmas 1, BCP, page 213)
The Prologue
to the Gospel of John in chapter one echoes this sense of the entire Christ
Event, Jesus’ birth, life, mission, ministry, death and resurrection as well as
the vision of light coming into the darkness.
"In the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with God. . . what came into being in him was life and the life was the light of allPeople. . .The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. . .The word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory,that of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth."
(John 1)
“And to all
who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of
God.” (John 1)
So, what
does it mean to be children of God, what does it mean to “put Christ back in
Christians?” I believe it means to work
for justice, freedom and Peace, to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, to comfort
the lonely and to fight oppression. We
see Jesus set this example for us in the fourth Chapter of the Gospel of Luke: “the
spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to
the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of
sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of
the Lord’s favor. . .today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
This is what
I believe it means to put Christ back in Christians. It is not about a “birthday party for Jesus,”
but about the light of God coming into the world to banish the darkness. And if Jesus is the light of all people, then
I believe that that means All People. If
this relationship makes us children of God, then we are called to share the
light with all people: Red and Yellow,
Black and White, Christian, Jew, Muslim and Atheist, Gay and Straight,
Conservative and Liberal.
To quote an
old song, “they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, they will
know that we are Christians by our love.”
There are, unfortunately, some Christians who are better known by their
hate and judgment and anger toward those who differ from them than they are by
their love. Rather than judge and hate,
the light of Christ calls us to engage those with whom we disagree, and to communicate
with them. Our faith demands that we
speak the truth as we know it to those with opinions and actions that we
believe are hurting some of God’s precious children. This is important whether we disagree with
President Obama or Speaker Boehner, or Phil Robertson, or even The Episcopal
Church. After all, this is exactly what
Jesus did. I hasten to add, that this
also got Jesus killed.
I believe we
must trust and speak the grace and truth of God as we find it in Jesus: even if people disagree with us? Yes.
even if the slander us? Yes. even if we lose our jobs? Yes! We
do this because we have been entrusted with the light of the world which the
darkness can never extinguish by the one who is called “wonderful Counselor, mighty
God, everlasting Father, prince of Peace.”
