Word Made Flesh [cross-post]

Word Made Flesh

by William H. Willimon

It’s a story so strange we could not have dreamed it up by ourselves, this story of how God was incarnate in Jesus the Christ. An embarrassing pregnancy, a poor peasant couple forced to become undocumented immigrants in Egypt soon after the birth of their baby, King Herod’s slaughter of the Jewish boy babies in a vain attempt to put an end to this new “King,” From the beginning the story of Jesus is the strangest story of all. A Messiah who avoids the powerful and the prestigious and goes to the poor and dispossessed? A Savior who is rejected by many of those whom he sought to save? A King who reigns from a bloody cross? Can this one with us be God?

And yet Christians believe that this story, for all its strangeness, is true. Here we have a truthful account of how our God read us back into the story of God. This is a truthful depiction not only of who God really is but also of how we who were lost got found, redeemed, restored, and saved by a God who refused to let our rejection and rebellion (our notorious “God problem”) be the final word in the story.

Jesus the Christ (“Christ” means “Messiah,” “The Anointed One”) was a human being, a man who was born in a human family, attended parties (he was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard by his critics), moved constantly around the area of Galilee, ran afoul of the governmental and religious authorities, taught through short, pithy stories (“parables”), did a number of surprising and utterly inexplicable “signs and wonders,” and eventually was tortured to death in a horribly cruel form of capital punishment which the Romans used against troublesome Jews and rebellious trouble makers. A few days later Jesus’ astonished followers proclaimed to the world that Jesus had been raised from the dead and had returned to them, commissioning them to continue his work. (This aspect of the story has always been somewhat of a reach for those who prefer their gods to be aloof, ethereal, and at some distance from the grubby particularities of this world.)

While these are roughly the historical facts of Jesus from Nazareth, as is so often the case, the raw facts don’t tell the whole story. From the first many knew that Jesus was not only a perceptive, challenging teacher (“rabbi,” teacher, was a favorite designation for Jesus) but was also uniquely God present (“Emmanuel,” means “God with us”). In a very short time Paul (whose letters are the earliest writings in the New Testament) could acclaim crucified and resurrected Jesus as the long awaited Messiah, the Christ, the one who was the full revelation of God. Jesus was not only a loving and wise teacher; Jesus was God Almighty doing something decisive about the problems between us creatures and the Creator.

This is the story we Christians name as “Incarnation.” It is a strange, inexplicable story that we happen to believe is true, the story that explains everything, the key to what’s going on between us and God. It is the story that we encounter each year at Advent, that season of reflection and penitence before Christmas.

It’s Advent. The church gives us the grace of four Sundays to get ourselves prepared for the jolt of once again being encountered by the Word made flesh, God with us.

Happy Advent.
William Willimon

"Open and Affirming Because of the Bible" [cross-post]

Open and Affirming Because of the Bible

by Hugh Hollowell

I want to start by saying that any time there are two people with opposing views concerning a third group of people, the resulting conversation will involve much audacity, hubris and privilege. That I am given a platform to speak here is a sign of that privilege, and I hope to be a good steward of it. For all the ways I will screw that up, I want to apologize to my LGBT sisters and brothers in advance.
It’s against my nature to spend a lot of time in arguments – they seldom do anything to convince the other and serve to fuel the fires of the already converted. So, this post, while written as a result of the previous post on gay marriage, should not be seen as an argument with the author of that post.

Rather, what I hope to do is present an alternative view of how, to use that author’s term, Biblical Christianity can be used to shape a worldview that is not only open but affirming.


Our differing views, I think, come down to how one views scripture: Is the Bible a book where we seek precedents or a book where we find principles?

You can make a much stronger textual case against woman preaching or divorce or in favor of slavery or women being submissive than you can against same gender relationships. Each time we have faced one of these issues, we have thought it prudent to disregard Biblical precedent in favor of Biblical principle.

Today, we cisgender Christians face a similar question to the one faced by the Apostle Paul – How do we act toward the follower of Christ who is outside our own category?

For Paul, the question involved circumcision – could a male with a foreskin be a faithful and fully included member of the body? The Jewish leadership of the church said no, but Paul argued for a “circumcision of the heart” – that it was the intent and inner actions of the believer that made a person a follower of the Christ and not a matter of their belonging to a given category.

To Paul, their identity as a follower of the Christ trumped all other categories. Paul believed this revelation to be at the heart of the good news of the Christ – that we no longer regard anyone from a human point of view, but that God, through Christ, has reconciled the world unto God.

Paul said that anything less than full inclusion of all Christians was wrong. He argued this in Jerusalem to the 12, and he again in several of his letters, most famously in Galatians. In Christ, he said, there is no longer slave or free, Jew or Greek, male or female, we are all one in Christ Jesus. If, as he says in Romans, there is nothing that can come between us and the love of God, would Paul limit himself with only those categories? What categories are stronger than the love of God?

My understanding of Biblical Christianity leads me to believe that all Christians are my brother and my sister – whether black or white, gay or straight, transgendered or cisgendered. ALL are one in Christ Jesus.

So, I can hear the author of the previous post ask, where is our sexual ethic to be found? In Biblical principle, not precedent. Jesus tells us to love our neighbor and to do to others what we want done to us. Is cheating on my partner wrong? Yes, because it is not how I would wish to be treated, and it is not loving toward my partner. It has nothing to do with my or my potential bedmate’s genitals.

Is having sex with a child wrong? Yes, because the child cannot consent, and thus it is an occasion of of power and coercion, neither of which is loving or how we would wish to be treated. Are two people (of any gender or orientation) having mutually consenting sex as an expression of their love and commitment wrong? It is loving and how I want my sexual relationships to work, so no, it is not.

I know this will not satisfy those who want to pick the Bible apart for rules and regulations, but that’s nothing new – Jesus talked about those who strained gnats and swallowed camels, who focused on letters instead of spirit and intent.

In short, I feel, as a result of Biblical principle and conscience, that to be less than fully inclusive is to participate in less than the fullness of the Gospel. In my reading of scripture, to actively oppose the full inclusion of LGBT Christians is an act that is less than Christian. In fact, I would argue that when we erect categories that preclude people from fully participating in the life of the church (and marriage is part of the life of the church) we are working against the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God on earth and we deny the very testimony of the resurrection of Christ.

Now, I am the first to admit that this might not convince you. I understand. But if so, ask yourself a few questions: Would you rather be on the side of love or on the side of power? If you have to face your God over this question, is God really going to condemn you for privileging love? If you are married, and I told you the only way you could be fully right with and love God was to leave your partner and be celibate forever, would you see that as Good News?

Neither do they.


—-
Hugh Hollowell is an activist, a speaker and a Mennonite minister. He’s the founder and director of Love Wins 
Ministries where he pastors a congregation made up largely of people who are homeless.

God is Starting to Show [cross-post from Christian Century]

CENTURY BLOGS

God is starting to show

Nov 29, 2011 by Donna Schaper

God is starting to show.

Usually an upcoming birth doesn't start to show till the end of the first trimester. Before that, the life in us is so small that it creates no bulges. Many women can wear their regular clothes and get their regular sleep, give or take a few gastrointestinal disturbances.

Then comes the bulge, the ballooning, the sense of no longer being one's own person, the sense that something important is happening within us. We find people staring at our bellies. The bulge has locked into place; it is attaching itself firmly to us.

Advent is the season of the showing, and God is starting to show. We light one candle to indicate the coming of a new kind of light. We see the bulge in our hearts, and we know things are different. Sometimes we even say, "This year will be different," not knowing exactly what we mean besides the sure knowledge of growth in us.

We want God's spirit to firmly attach to us, and we know it will have to move slowly--otherwise we will be much too scared. One candle each week is about the right pace to comprehend the matter.

At the core of our Christian faith is the Holy Spirit having mysterious relations with a girl. This core mystery results in a child who is understood to be the salvation of the world. Advent is the time when we get on the path of understanding what Mary wonders: "How can these things be?" How come God comes down? How come God gets small? How come God, the eternal, becomes the temporal?

How can God be so dependent on us for care? What if we do something wrong?

In our story, power is vulnerability, heavenly is earthly, flesh involves spirit and divinity caresses the ordinary. Our God is is very hard to fathom in a world of tacky Christmas ornaments and deep concerns about Christmas-season retail performance. Our story has a quarrel with the world as we know it. It sings its song in a different key, the key of incarnation, of spirit becoming flesh and dwelling among us.

Not above us, but among us. Not outside us, but in us. Not robed in kingly crimson but in swaddling clothes in the manger next door. Not quick, but slow, slow enough not to scare us and to fully attach to us inside.

From the UCC Network: 11/30/2011 "Magic Tricks"

Magic Tricks

Mark 3:22

"The religion scholars from Jerusalem came down spreading rumors that he was working magic, using devil tricks to impress them with spiritual power."

Reflection by Lillian Daniel 

Recently I attended a clergy conference where a remarkably talented presenter from Cambridge University was not only talking about theology and music, but would periodically sit down in the middle of his lecture at a grand piano and actually play the piece in question, from memory, with the skill of a Carnegie Hall star. On top of that, he had a cool British accent. It felt like he was cheating. Of course, I was jealous of his gifts. Spare this Anglican priest who's good at everything.

God is so not a Communist when it comes to apportioning talent. And I think our denomination needs to pass a resolution correcting God on that, because that's how we roll.

I was already feeling insecure that day because we had these Christian magicians coming to my church for a Wednesday night program, and they're not only magicians but also ordained Methodist clergy. And I could just hear my members saying, "Ok, Lillian, what special thing can you do? "

And I had to say "Look, I'm sorry, but there are just way more requirements to becoming a Methodist minister."

I mean, Rachmaninoff - playing Anglicans, Bible-based Methodist magicians — it all just makes you feel inadequate. And when that happens, it's easy to get accusatory.

That's what happened with Jesus. He was doing good things in the world, he was healing and teaching, but the people accused him of doing magic tricks and working with the devil.

Prayer

Dear God, help me to see your Holy Spirit at work in the gifts and talents of others, and keep those demons of petty jealousy at bay. Amen.

About the Author Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church, UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She is the author, with Martin Copenhaver, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.