God Born In Jesus – and In Us

December 12, 2021 • 3rd Sunday of Advent
Scripture Readings: John 1:1-5 (The Inclusive Bible)
Pastor Jeff Wells

Today, I bring you good news of great joy for all people. I am not referring to Jesus’ birthday – we’re not quite there yet. Give it a couple weeks to gestate. I am going to talk about something that was equally crucial in the life of Jesus – the incarnation. Now, I can almost see those little bubbles popping up above some of your heads, like in the comics. The text says, “Wait - what?” Over there, it says, “Really? You’re doing another one of those theological sermons?” Oh, and there’s one that says, “You think you can handle the incarnation?” That’s a really good question. Many a preacher has tried to grapple with Christ and the incarnation…and failed miserably. I can’t help it. I like wrestling with the hard theological issues and the incarnation is a big challenge. Also, I felt lured by God – so I answered the call. 

I admit that I struggled. Everything I say about the incarnation is speculative. But then, I think that what all of the biblical writers and theologians since Jesus have had to say about the incarnation was also speculative. That doesn’t mean they just made things up. They based their understanding on their experience of God, on the stories and teachings handed down to them, and on their own creative visions and imaginings. I follow that model. But the incarnation is a mystery that may always be beyond our ability to pin down. It is intriguing and unnerving.

The word “incarnate” literally means “in the flesh” or embodied. As it has been interpreted in the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke, incarnation signifies God being embodied in the life of Jesus or, sometimes, simply “God becoming human.” 

Christians have attempted many ways to understand the incarnation. I want to share with you how I understand it. Or, to be more accurate – how I understand it now – because I have had different views about the incarnation in the past and I suspect my understanding will keep evolving. 

First, what does the Gospel of John mean by “the Word of God”? The author claims “the Word” was around from the beginning and not only was the Word “in God’s presence,” but “the Word was God.” Moreover, “through the Word all things came into being.” I believe “The Word” is another name for the relational power of God, who accesses all of the creative possibilities that exist and tries to lure us and the whole universe toward goodness, truth, beauty, and love. 

I believe Jesus embodied the Word in an exceptional way. It’s not surprising that very early on, his followers began to refer to him as the “Messiah” or “Christ,” which both mean “one who is anointed.” 

In Jewish spirituality at the time of Jesus and earlier, to be anointed meant to be called by God to a particular task, mission, or function. “Messiah” was used to describe kings and prophets. It was also attributed to persons important in the history of the Jewish people, like Cyrus the Great of Persia, who reportedly liberated the Jews from captivity in Babylon and helped rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. 

So, calling someone an “anointed one” did not necessarily mean they were God. But certainly by the time the Gospel of John was written, many Christians believed Jesus was “God in the flesh.” 

It’s not quite right to say God was born in Jesus – as I did in my playful title. God is eternal – but I do believe that the “Word” or the divine presence was powerfully present in Jesus from birth, although he was not conscious of it. As with any human, in order to experience the God in us, we have to mature, grow, learn, pray, gain confidence, and take risks. Jesus was extraordinarily gifted and exceptionally open to God who dwelled “in his flesh,” that is, in his whole being – body, mind, spirit, and relationships. Jesus was so capable of reflecting divine love and light that later Christians came to call him, “the light of the world.”

But is God incarnate only in Jesus? I believe God is in all of us – “in the flesh,” in our being. But most humans do not learn how to show forth the divine presence in the powerful ways Jesus did. Instead, we call ourselves followers of Jesus because we desire to emulate him.  

To me, the “Word” in the Gospel of John and the “Christ” or “divine presence” described by the apostle Paul or writers like Richard Rohr, align well with the description in process theology of how God works in us.  These are different names for the same phenomenon. The bottom line is that God is in us and in everything. 

God invites each of us to participate actively in the divine incarnation. Of course, we don’t always respond to the invitation and the lure in the ways God desires, but that does not diminish the truth of the incarnation. When we interact with one another, you may not always clearly see God in me or I in you. Nevertheless, God is there. 

The Word, the cosmic “Christ,” the lure of God was born in Jesus, was embodied by Jesus, and was lovingly shared by him with others. People experienced the divine in him very richly and powerfully. They experienced his love, his forgiveness, his grace, his self-giving, his wisdom, his creativity, his inner peace and beauty. In spite of the fact that his public ministry was quite short, he has reached and continues to reach billions of people. 

God is embodied in you and in me, too. God is right here, in us – not just with us. God invests God’s loving, luring self in our very being, in our relationships, in our communities. God accompanies us and suffers with us. And through the stories of Jesus and the experience of Jesus as an expression of the eternal Word, we are able to experience God working in us. As the text of today’s Candle lighting ritual says, “The key to divinity lies within our humanity.” God invites us, “along with Jesus, to find divinity in the core of our humanity.” I find that vision of divine embodiment incredibly beautiful, loving, and powerful.

And God is not only in human flesh. How powerful and beautiful to look into the face of my dog, Sadie, and see the divine presence there. Think how much difference it might make if all humans could look at trees, bees, butterflies, and bears and see God in them. We could make so much more headway toward ecological civilization if we had eyes and spirits to see this way!

As followers of Jesus, in community with one another, our collective call or invitation is to strive to respond to God who is in us in the full and loving and gracious ways Jesus did. Our journey is about learning to be as open as possible to God in us. The more we feel the divine presence in us, the deeper will be our experience of ourselves in God, moment to moment – and the richer will be our experience of life.  

Recommended Reading:

Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe (Crown Publishing Group, Kindle Edition, 2021).

(c) 2021 Jeffry Wells
All rights reserved.

Recommended Readings

Books:
John B. Cobb Jr., Salvation: Jesus’ Mission and Ours (Claremont, California: Process Century Press, 2020).

Catherine Keller, Cloud of the Impossible: Negative Theology and Planetary Entanglement (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014).