Incarnation implications

"The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  

"But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." - Gospel of John 1:9-14 (ESV)

Modernity's skepticism often means that kids in church are taught that the Bible doesn't really mean a lot of the things it claims: Jesus didn't really walk on water; that's just a literary device! Blind and lame people weren't really healed; they were just re-incorporated into the community! And Jesus wasn't really raised from the dead; it was just the disciples' continuing experience of his spiritual presence!

I got quite a bit of this growing up, and I see quite a bit of it in mainline Protestant churches today. Let me make a couple of observations, the first one short and the second a bit longer (and with help from the bishop of Alexandria).

First, a Church or tradition that makes statements like those above has already lost its faith in God. Its people have already chosen another god to worship; they're just taking a little while to get Jesus out of the center of the picture.

Second, this kind of easy dismissal of Christianity's confessions often - no, usually - betrays a thoroughgoing adherence to a form of radical historical criticism that sets out first principles and then judges the witness of Scripture by them. In the year 2010, we know X to be true about the "natural world," so anything that appears to violate X must be false!

This approach results in an inevitable agnosticism (if not outright atheism). And it also shows a poor understanding of the theological ground of our faith. Here's why:

The Christian faith is rooted in the truth of the Incarnation. That is, God - the wholly transcendent Creator of the universe - deigned to take on flesh in order to redeem his people from the brokenness and alienation that had become their lot. The One who stands outside of space and time entered in, so that the creation might be fully renewed according to his gracious design.

If you believe that - if you believe that God has become incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ - then you believe that the seemingly immutable "laws of nature" are not so immutable at all. If a God who is wholly spirit and without bounds can come to inhabit the flesh of a man, then anything is possible. All of a sudden, a virgin birth, a ministry marked by proleptic miracles, and a bodily resurrection don't seem out of character for God's Messiah at all.

"In the world you will have tribulation," Jesus tells us. "But take heart; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33b; ESV).

 In his great treatise, On the Incarnation of the Word, Athanasius puts it this way:

"For as, when the likeness painted on a panel has been effaced by stains from without, he whose likeness it is must needs come once more to enable the portrait to be renewed on the same wood: for, for the sake of his picture, even the mere wood on which it is painted is not thrown away, but the outline is renewed upon it; in the same way also the most holy Son of the Father, being the Image of the Father, came to our region to renew man once made in His likeness, and find him, as one lost, by the remission of sins; as He says Himself in the Gospels: 'I came to find and to save the lost.'"

 He has come. And he is coming.

Good Friday

In On the Incarnation of the Word, St. Athanasius describes the crucifixion in a way that echoes the Scriptures:

"For the sun hid his face, and the earth quaked and the mountains were rent; all men were awed. Now these things showed that Christ on the cross was God, while all creation was his slave, and was witnessing by its fear to its master's presence."

When we celebrate Holy Communion each week, we proclaim the death that occurred for us on this day. It is a death that forgives, because in it Christ takes all the sin of creation into his own body. Thus, the death suffered by the incarnate Word is not just his own death, but ultimately ours as well. Athanasius continues,

"And so it was that two marvels came to pass at once, that the death of all was accomplished in the Lord's body, and that death and corruption were wholly done away by reason of the Word that was united with it."

May we all gather together this evening at the foot of the cross and bear witness to the crucifixion of our Lord. And may we keep the Easter vigil together.

The way of the cross leads home

Do you cross yourself?

My brother does. He's Episcopalian.

I usually do not. I'm Methodist.

I've always wondered why this is so. Did Methodists ever used to cross themselves? And if they once did, why did the practice fall out of use?

In a recent article in Christianity Today, the practice of crossing oneself was explored from an evangelical perspective. Obviously, evangelical Protestants are not widely known for making the sign of the cross as an act of piety. But the author of this article suggests that it is a practice that evangelicals should claim.

Reading the article reminded me of some passages from the 4th-century church father Athanasius. In his treatise, "On the Incarnation of the Word," he argues that making the sign of the cross conveys great spiritual power against demons. Specifically, Athanasius says that making the sign of the cross can make "demons fly, oracles cease, [and] all magic and witchcraft [can be] brought to nought." He later argues that these opponents of Christ are "put to shame by the sign of the cross."

With that degree of power, we should all re-think how and why we use the simple practice of making the sign of the cross over our chests. If such an external action can convey significant spiritual power for us and against those who would wish us ill, why don't we all do it as a matter of spiritual habit?

For the record, lately I have recently followed Athanasius' advice. I often cross myself in worship when the full Trinity is invoked ('In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit') and during the Communion liturgy ('Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord'). If nothing else, it is a reminder to me of the power of the cross for salvation - and of the power of the church when it joins together in a common witness.