The
Word became flesh
I asked Bert Douglas, our Director of Family Ministry, to reflect on what it means to be a "connecting" community. Here's what he said...As our second banner proclaims, St. Andrew’s is a “connecting” church. In fact, connecting is vital to what it means to be the church.
But what is this connecting? What does it look like? How do we live it out?
As I write this, it is midway through December: Christmas
time; the time when we remember the birth of Jesus; Emmanuel, which means “God
with us.” As Christians, Christmas reminds us that God did not come to us in a
pamphlet, or on a computer screen. He came in the flesh.
God cared enough to relate to us, to connect with us
face-to-face through Christ, and heart-to-heart through his Spirit. In the famous Christmas carol, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Charles
Wesley puts it like this :
Veiled in flesh the
Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate
Deity!
Please as man with us to
dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Christmas tells the story of the incarnation. That’s a big word, but it simply means “in the flesh.”
Incarnation is the very method of God’s “connecting” with us. It is not our
deep inner feelings, profound as they may be, that should set the agenda for
our thoughts on Christian life and community. It is not what makes sense
or seems right to our natural minds that should guide our theologizing. The guide for authentic Christian thinking
about God and community is implicit in the being and presence of Jesus Christ
as the incarnate Son of God.
In Jesus, we see the ultimate way that God chose to connect
with us. And when his time with us was finished, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to
maintain and build the connection. God’s connecting is incarnational, which
means it is personal, active, and messy. God’s connecting Spirit moves towards
and enters our messes, creating redemption and unity, which is the ultimate end
of God’s mission (Ephesians 1.7-10).
We (the church) are called to enter God’s mission. In John 20.21
Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And so, our
connecting, within the Christian community and with our neighbours, must be like
God’s, i.e. lived out, personal, active and messy. It is about unity not
uniformity, about hospitality not fear.
As we think and pray about connecting with
others, here are three incarnational questions we might want to ask ourselves:
1. How can I see
Jesus in you?
2. How can I serve
Jesus through you?
3. How can I show
Jesus to you?
Blessings,
Bert
