And the Word was made flesh

Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν… 

I don’t have many Bible passages memorized in Greek—but this one has lodged in my memory. It’s from the first chapter of John’s gospel and it’s been translated in many ways. What I memorized as a child was from the King James: "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us…” 

It is a luminously evocative statement that evolves into the doctrine of the Incarnation. Humans have often prayed that God would magically deliver us from the ills and mistakes of our own and others’ making that mar the winsome goodness of existence. Instead, God joins us in our beautiful, broken, fleshly lives. God doesn’t snap the divine fingers and fix it; God joins it.

And this proclamation of the Word becoming flesh always felt a bit difficult to understand—particularly when we read Paul’s use of the binary of “spirit” and “flesh” in Roman’s 8 and elsewhere. The reality of this binary does help describe many of the internal conflicts of being human the Paul writes about in the seventh chapter of Romans: "I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” But the Word becoming Flesh also seems to, in the end, transcend this binary. Indeed, Paul uses the metaphor of the body to describe the community of faith. After the ascension, the church is the body of Christ. And it’s a metaphor but it’s also more than metaphor. We are the Body of Christ—the hands and feet and eyes and ears of Jesus in the world; God’s Word made flesh.

Now if we’re the body of Christ, we’re a broken body for sure. In these days, many in our own nation are seeking use God’s Word made flesh in pursuit of the bitter end of a triumphalist nationalism. (Coopting the good news of Jesus for one’s own ends is as old as the church in Corinth and found its first apotheosis in Emperor Constantine.) But, broken as we are, the Holy Spirit has formed us into the body of Christ, and we meant to be the ongoing reality of the Word becoming flesh spoken of in John’s gospel.

This Christmas is about recalling the entry of God into the world the the baby body of Jesus. It is also about you—and all those the Spirit births—being the ongoing enfleshment of the divine in this time and place. And this means something concrete.

One way we, as Presbyterian Christians, can be this incarnation of God is by showing up bodily for our immigrant neighbors that are being illegally target and terrorized by ICE in their “Operation Metro Surge." We can’t simply vote and hope that grace and reason will prevail, as if by magic. We, like Jesus, need to join our neighbors bodily in their peril. It will be inconvenient, painful, annoying, cold, and boring. But it will be divine. And you will be the embodiment of God’s mission.

If your congregation is not already involved being Christ’s body in this way several congregations in our Presbytery are doing so by taking part in Isaiah MN’s “Palm Sunday Path.” You can register for trainings in January here:

1. East Metro Palm Sunday Path Lay Leader Training—Saturday January 17th, 12:30pm - 5:30pm, Location TBD: 

   
   

   https://secure.ngpvan.com/KEJk4trF20yPQjr5aLTw8A2 

2. West Metro Palm Sunday Path Lay Leader Training—Saturday January 17th, 12:30pm - 5:30pm, Location TBD: 

   
   

   https://secure.ngpvan.com/PpXF6C09LEmSOgoDHdP5DQ2 

3. Southern MN Palm Sunday Path Lay Leader Training—Saturday January 17, 12:30 - 5:30pm, Location TBD: 

   
   

   https://secure.ngpvan.com/Xn4p8mifaE-WrbfT0_7dEw2

This is just one way we can work together as the Body of Christ. But, one way or the other, we must be the Body of Christ for our neighbors at such a time as this.

—Zach Wilson