This has been a year for discovering God. Many in our congregation have been participating in the 2010: A Bible Odyssey, Journey Through the Bible in a Year. In that Journey we have had the opportunity to encounter the Written Word of God, God's self revelation to His people through the inspired words of the Old and New Testaments. When we talk about "Revelation" as Presbyterian and reformed Christians we are not talking just about the book at the back of the Bible before "Maps". We are talking about our faith that God is personal and can be known by us. We believe that God revealed himself in General Revelation, through creation in such a way as asserted in Romans 2:20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. " We also believe God chose to reveal Himself through "Specific Revelation" to certain people, His covenant people, Israel first then the Church which included the Gentiles, through His Word. That Word, is the Word written, the Bible;The Word Incarnate, Jesus Christ; and the Word Preached, when it rightly explains the first two.
We have encountered the Word Written in reading the Bible together this year, and heard the Word preached when we gather on Sundays and other occasions for worship. Now. here at the end of the year, we celebrate the Word incarnate. The Word "made flesh".
John 1:14 says " The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." This is what we celebrate at Christmas, this em-body-ment of God who otherwise "is Spirit and does not have a body like we do" as some of us may have learned as kids learning the Westminster Catechisms. Yet the miracle of Christmas is that this Holy God, took on a body like ours, ordinary and subject to all that we suffer and enjoy about being embodied people. A friend, Pastor Laura Strauss of Clinton UP Church, shared this quote recently on facebook:
"If we knew what the Incarnation meant, we'd be so preoccupied with awe
that we wouldn't notice all the shopping." -Lauren F. Winner
Certainly, that is Christmas. That is the sum of what we celebrate when we talk about the Word made flesh.
It is so unfathomable to us, who tend to see a body as something so far beneath God as to be preposterous and amazing at the same time, that He would take on flesh like ours. But it is exactly what he did.
While we treat bodies like something worthy of contempt yet God gives honor to bodies. They are a part of His intention for creation. We are born with bodies and when we die we do not lose our bodies, but have them replaced with a perfected "Resurrection body." We bury bodies with dignity because they are important. We also cover our bodies with modesty, or at least ought to because they are important to us and to God. Recently I was having to correct a youth at the ROCK for making comments about another's body. I want to thank our own Henry Yoder because as I was I remembered a line from his book "Longing for Eden" as I was explaining our value of modesty and our duty to care for one another and respect our bodies. Explaining Leviticus 18:6-13, Henry writes, "The reason the nakedness is not to be uncovered is because the responsibility for covering is the responsibility of someone else...Never uncover nakedness for which you cannot properly assume the responsibility to cover." Now, I did not quote this to the kid, but instead explained that we are responsible to keep each other covered just like God covered Adam and Eve's nakedness after they sinned. Whether with words or actions we are to protect the dignity of the bodies we are given.
This too highlights the awe-inspiring reality of the incarnation and of God's self revelation. From Genesis to Revelation God is protecting what we damage and misuse and is restoring us. The miracle of the incarnation is that the word of God became flesh, took on a body to do this.
Merry Christmas!
In Christ and on the Shepherd's Path.
Mark
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Rev Mark R. Simonds
Pastor, Oakdale UP Church
"Declaring Teaching and Living God's Word of Grace"
President, West Allegheny Ministerial Association
"Worshiping and Serving One Triune God Together"
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