In these weeks of Christmas we are studying together the doctrine of incarnation and it's implications on how we live and how we see life. I can't emphasize strongly enough how important it is for us to nail this. It is important for us to have it clearly in our hearts and as parents to get this right with our kids. In the face of so much cultural pressure to secularize the holiday, it is left to us, the church and parents, to bring to bear the most important elements of the season. We could look at it as some do as a big negative and rail about the "santaizing" of Jesus' birth. But I choose to see it as a positive and a fantastic opportunity. But we have to get it right.So for the Sundays of advent we will be all over this doctrine. This coming Sunday I will deal with the aspect of the incarnation that has to do with the assault of Jesus on a world that finds it hard to receive Him. Jesus birth was surrounded in controversy and trouble. I think this is emblematic of how Christianity comes into the world. C.S. Lewis has said that the one thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important. People did not have a casual view of Jesus. They either ran from Him, wanted to kill Him or bowed down before Him. People who truly knew who He was did not think of Him in a casual way. This was true of His birth and it is just as true of those who honestly analyze their views of Him. In other words, the fact of His incarnation will inevitably evoke a passionate response. People who think of this doctrine in a casual, cavalier way just flat out don't get it.
The word "incarnation" means "embodied in the flesh". It is the teaching that Jesus is the embodiment of God Himself. This is one of the most controversial, hardest to swallow teachings in the Christian faith. It is also one of the most crucial to embrace. It is why the most important image our children should get at Christmas is not Rudolf or Santa but that the tiny baby in the manger is God Himself. God in the flesh.
I remember years ago a lively discussion I had with an Imam in a Middle Eastern village over this very issue. For him this was the most important stumbling block for Christianity- the belief that God Himself could become a man. I asked him the question, "Do you believe God can do anything? That God is all powerful and nothing is beyond His ability?" Of course his answer was yes. I said "That's exactly what we Christians believe and therefore we believe that not only could God do this, but that it is the most important truth of our existence and the central fact of scripture."
I was struck not just by his disagreement with this but how he was insulted by it. It was another reminder to me that when we truly embrace the doctrines, they are not just subtle truths we live with as we go on our merry way, they are truths that evoke controversy and resistance and inevitably radically impact the meaning of our lives. They are not moderately important- they are of ultimate importance!
