As the writers of Luke and Matthew project back to the birth beginning of the person they know as Jesus God’s Anointed One (aka Christ), it’s clear that the vast majority of the world of the time did not see through the disguise. No way would God be present in a newborn to an unmarried peasant family. No way born, in Luke’s account, in the downstairs area where the animals are kept and in last minute temporary lodgings. No way a family, in Matthew’s account, who become undocumented refugees on the run in Egypt.
God incognito, recognised by a very few, and all of them on the fringes. Not the movers and shakers of nation or society.
But those who see, do as Mum Mary does – they treasure it in their hearts. They have hope, hope that the future is God’s future, and there will be peace and justice, because they know “God with skin on” is alive among them.
Oh that we could have that kind of hope here and now!
The adult Jesus that we read about in these gospels is clearly God with skin on. How he acted, how he related to others – the values, resolve, unconditional love; the pursuit of justice, the deep peace within, and the vision of kingdom ways becoming fully the world’s way – these show the “Godness” of his being and doing. More people managed to recognise this when they met him as an adult. Unsurprising though, lots of people didn’t, notably those for whom the economic and political status quo was either obviously to their advantage or they simply couldn’t risk letting go of what they did have.
In so far as we know the stories – the adult ones and the birth ones – God is not incognito in Jesus for us. We celebrate, particularly at Christmas, the “incarnation” (Latin for God with skin on), singing carols with words and music that keep hope alive that our world’s future can and will be God’s future. Our challenge is at another level. Do we recognise Christ with skin on in our world here and now? Or is Christ incognito to us, just as God was back at the beginning with Jesus?
Is our Christ locked into the stories we read and the songs we sing, just as God in Jesus’ time was locked in their scriptures and traditions?
Now we recognise the “Godness” of Jesus from the way he lived the kingdom values. Can we use this as a model for recognising Christ-presence even in our messed-up world and society, with so much that is contrary to kingdom values?
For example, when we see right relationships, truthfulness, trust, kindness, caring, helping, peace-making, people striving for justice, we surely see the presence of Christ. So let’s celebrate it and name these actions for what they are.
Think too of words that are used – kingdom words like respect, inclusion, welcome, gift, neighbour, and our Advent standards of hope, peace, joy, and love. These are all Jesus words – God words. And, as Presbyterian Moderator Rose Luxford wrote in her Christmas message, “Rather than seeing these … as soft and sentimental, we see them as strong and purposeful.” The more they are spoken, the more they are embedded in people, in attitude and expectations. We can use them to do something Ollie Yeoman mentioned in his letter in the 21 November CO News – to reimagine. We see the world in all its harsh realities, including the tipping point of earth’s capacity to supply human demands, and yet with prophetic imagination see the future through different eyes – God’s eyes.
“Do not be afraid” could be the most important words we hear again this year in the Christmas story. If we are not afraid, we can be part of imagining and creating the future as God would have it be. Following the Way of Jesus.
Robyn McPhail