Incarnational Theology

I need to respond to “incarnational!”

By definition Christianity is incarnational, consequently Christian theology is incarnational! Our central Christian hermeneutic is that our transcendent God of glory and majesty lived on this earth and died on a tree of shame as one of us, in the course of ordinary linear human history; in Jesus we discover the mighty God of all creation most fully and wholly self-revealed in those who are the weakest, the most defenseless, most insignificant and least consequential in their relationships to reputable society and to the economic and political establishments; Jesus showed us and told us the presence of the Holy One of Being is most abundantly and completely found in the “least of these,” hidden yet apparent in the manger, in the everyday words and actions of Jesus of Nazareth, the “Human One”; apparent and hidden in the human Jesus dying defenseless on the cross of death which for us becomes the instrument of our new life: in Jesus God “shared our common lot,” as the UCC Statement of Faith concisely says of God’s incarnation, God’s “enfleshment” in Jesus.

And Jesus tells us whenever we serve one of the “least of these” in essence we serve him and therefore we serve the Holy and Living One, the God beyond Time and beyond Space, since we confess Jesus as the definitive demonstration and expression of God’s glory and majesty – and power.

Mother Teresa really “got it” – to Mother Teresa her people were the Christ and to her people she was the Christ! But more than Mother Teresa personally “getting it” herself, the Spirit of God and of the Christ – the Spirit each of us received in baptism – indwelt Mother Teresa and worked through her life and ministry.

God and Law and Order

Do you think God stands in opposition to law & order? Is God an anarchist?

Well, – as at least some evidence of God’s point of view regarding "law and order," we can consider the "P" Pentateuch source – and then there’s always Paul’s Spirit-filled and Spirit-led admonition to the Corinthians to do their prophesying and speaking in tongues "decently and in order." In terms of anarchy, God’s definitely an anarchist concerning the established, comfortable (uncomfortable?), top-down-authority arrangement of human power and clout, with a scandalous preference for "the lost, the least, the little and the last" to quote Robert Farrar Capon’s succinct summary.

There’s lots more, but I wanted to respond to your question!

God and Power

In this Sunday’s Genesis 9 pericope, God sets his bow – his weapon – in the clouds as a sign of the covenant; God lays down his bow – his weapon; in passion for relationship with creation – with us – our God disarms!! God’s bow in the cloud becomes a physical, visible, sensible sign of God’s covenant of grace with Noah and with every living creature; a foretaste of God’s ultimate covenant of grace as Jesus the Christ dies completely defenseless and weaponless, without revenge or retribution.

Genesis 9:12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my bow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth…”