Has the Flesh Been Turned Back into Words?

etstory — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:42:43 +0000

N.T. Wright, in his book, The Crown and the Fire, tells the story of meeting a man who didn’t believe Jesus had changed the world. The man said, “If Jesus died to make it a good place, he didn’t succeed. Two thousand years is a long time to wait for things to get better.” Wright tells that he thought of various arguments to the man’s statement but realized what a wrecked world they were standing in (Jerusalem). Wright writes,

“…if there is an answer to that challenge, it won’t come simply in words. It will come in flesh and blood. The word became flesh, said St. John, and the Church has turned the flesh back into words: words of good advice, words of comfort, words of wisdom and encouragement, yes, but what changes the world is flesh, words with skin on them, words that hug you and cry with you and play with you and love you and rebuke you and build houses with you and teach your children in school.” N.T. Wright, “The New Creation,” in The Crown and the Fire

One simple question for us all to ponder today: What words do we need to make flesh today?

Incarnation: “Moving into the Neighborhood”

etstory — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:57:41 +0000

Incarnation means “In-flesh” and refers to the fact that God became flesh and “moved into the neighborhood” of this earth. Read John 1: 14- 18 in The Message translation and listen to what Eugene Peterson has to say about the Incarnation:

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.

¹⁵John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”

We all live off his generous bounty,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding—
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.”

“‘No one has ever seen God’ (verse 18) but we do see his glory,the bright splendor that marks God’s presence. We saw it at Sinai, in the tabernacle. We saw it in Jerusalem, at the Temple. But most of all, we saw it in Jesus.

So when John tells us that Jesus, the flesh and blood Jesus that everyone can see ‘moved into the neighborhood’ (verse 14), he clearly means us to understand that Jesus is the new Tabernacle and Temple of the Hebrew people. But what’s so striking is that Jesus isn’t like an architectural structure waiting for us to come to him. Instead, he comes to us.

Do you want to see God present among you? Do you want to come into the presence of God and worship him? Here he’s making himself at home among you: Jesus — pitching his tent, building his home, and moving into the neighborhood.

YOUR neighborhood!” Eugene Peterson, Conversations: The Message Bible with Its Translator

» incarnation

Has the Flesh Been Turned Back into Words?

Incarnation: “Moving into the Neighborhood”