{"id":4920,"date":"2009-12-03T12:25:57","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T12:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/12\/christmas-words-4-flesh.html"},"modified":"2009-12-03T12:25:57","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T12:25:57","slug":"christmas-words-4-flesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/12\/christmas-words-4-flesh.html","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Words 4: Flesh"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). The Word who is Life, the Word who is Light, has become “flesh.”<\/p>\n

The Christmas message, embodied in one word, is that the Word becomes Flesh. Real, breathing, skin-covered humanity as the Act of Redemption begins to unroll before our eyes.<\/p>\n

One word: Incarnation. God becomes human and, to quote Eugene Peterson, “moves into the neighborhood.” God becomes what we are — humans — so that we might become what he is.<\/p>\n

Here is absolute identity: God has become what we are. (God does not “appear” to be human or “get transfigured into the physical” — both of these deny absolute identity with humannness.”)<\/p>\n

Here is absolute transformation: God becomes what we are, not to show that it can be done, but to take up our case, our being, our “cracked Eikon-ness.” Here the Crackedness begins to back up, to roll back its curse and its pain and its sin.<\/p>\n

Here is absolute promise: God becomes what we are as a gift so that we, by taking in this Word-now-flesh (think eucharist as well) might become what God wants us to be: God’s children.<\/p>\n

Flesh matters. God doesn’t redeem only our spirits or our souls or our minds. He becomes fully what we are: flesh-and-blood humans. So that all of our human condition might be redeemed.<\/p>\n

Becoming Flesh is the Point of New Creation. The New Creation is the Incarnation, and all those who are in the Incarnate One are in the New Creation.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). The Word who is Life, the Word who is Light, has become “flesh.” The Christmas message, embodied in one word, is that the Word becomes Flesh. Real, breathing, skin-covered humanity as the Act of Redemption begins to unroll before our eyes. 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