The Word Became Flesh

Hi Church Family

Last Sunday as Vukile preached about the person of Jesus and the Word becoming flesh it made me appreciate that we get to “do” church in person. Thinking of those strange COVID Days. That time of watching church online in our pyjamas, sitting with the laptop on our beds, trying to sing and listen and make coffee and eat breakfast and scroll and all the other things we were doing while watching church online.

Now I know there were benefits to doing church online when meeting any other way was not possible.

But church online did feel a bit thin. Worshiping on your own is not quite like worshipping with the community. It just isn’t the same when you don’t hear other voices being raised to the king. There is something about getting your coffee and chatting with Vukile while he makes it. Something about Nokubonga’s “Good Morning Jamie!”. There is something about seeing Landa, Sihe, Maka and the kids running around. Something about the physical presence of people that makes going to church something different to just watching it online.

SPIRITUAL?

We have this thing about our need to be spiritual. We long for these transcendent spiritual experiences. Not just christians of course. People. Spirituality is popular at the moment. We know life is hard. We go through challenges. The idea of being able to escape our bodies for a moment, being able to hit a bit of transcendent bliss seems glorious. Our bodies can be such a problem at times. They ache and pain. They need feeding and sleep and attention. We sometimes feel lethargic and depressed in these bodies. The bodies have limits.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (John 1:1;14)

Jesus surprises us all the time but one area that he is really surprising in is His incarnation. I mean who leaves the riches, the comfort, the glory of heaven to be born in a stable, to an unwed teenage mother, in a difficult moment in human history. Who leaves omnipresence and omnipotence to come frailty and need and dependence and limits. Jesus is surprising because while we all hope to escape our reality in some way Jesus is entering it. The Word became flesh.

EMBODIMENT

Christianity is not a form of escapism its embodiment. We don’t see God inviting us to leave our bodies behind, to escape our troubles, to get out of reality into a different kind of life and experience. He takes on Human Flesh. Takes on human reality. Takes on the pain and the suffering. And yet he lives the flourishing life we aspire to live.

Christianity is an embodied faith. It is not a faith of ideas and out of body spiritual experiences. John mentions that we cant just say that we love God and have no love for people. For how can someone love God whom they cannot see and hate their brother who they can. No it’s not just the idea of love that matters it is the living it out. It is love being made flesh. Worked out into real words and actions and interactions toward real people. Faith making its way into real life.

The body matters. Presence matters. Action matters. How we live and use these bodies of ours matters. There is this wonderful promise that we are given. Where two or three gather in my name I am with them. We present together, present with God. Gods presence meeting us in our realities.

The challenge of COVID or church online is that it is church without the bodies. Church without presence. The gathering is an embodied act. Presence matters. Being together with all our quirks, our strengths, our difficulties and our limitations. Together and vulnerable. But together with God!

Much Love Jamie