If the incarnation story continues in the church then surely it follows that there will be indicators that can be seen within the life of the church.
Snyder (19) proposes ‘While the Incarnation is a mystery, it provides the essential model for the believer and especially for the church’s corporate life and mission in the world.’
I have never particularly enjoyed looking at my own reflection in the mirror. I like it even less now because the passage of time brings me greater distress. The recurring thought that springs to my mind is that I look like my father more than my father’s son. I am not saying there is anything wrong with this, should he read these words; it continually reminds me that I am connected to my parents. I recall one day waking up from one of those mid-day naps that seem to be the comfort of middle age, looking down at my hand in that half asleep half-awake state and thinking that my dad was in the room.
In a similar way, if we care to look, the whole of creation bears the impression of the thumbprint of God: every galaxy, star, planet, flower, animal and sunset, every human being reflecting God. Both in terms of physiology and history all created matter and therefore human life images our creator.
In the incarnation the logos or the Word, the second person of the Trinity, embraced the physicality and emotionality of this ‘creative’ fingerprint personally and thus reflected the creative act in both physique and purpose.
As we look at the life of Christ we can see the mind of a purposeful God. Every aspect of the life of Christ has the thumbprint of God upon it: from conception, through death, to resurrection. At conception we see the will of God unfold in a manner that although spoken of by the ‘prophets of old’ was, in many ways, unimaginable to the human mind.
His birth, so ordained to fulfil the prophetic utterances of the people of Israel, brought together divinity and humanity. His growth as a child: expressing his willingness to be self-confined within the human condition. His ministry: breaking into the mundane of human frailty, yet always with a mind upon the ultimate goal of the cross. The passion of the self-sacrifice of the creator God as a seed falling to the ground in order to produce much fruit. The stunning glory of the resurrection: with all its mystery and wonder. These are things that surely no human mind could have conceived. God, the author and finisher, has been at work.
As I have already stated, what can be said of Christ, the Head, should be said of his body, the church. The incarnation continues and thus, the marks of incarnation, the very thumbprint of God, should be visible in the church. Locally we should touch our communities with these marks. Globally, we should shape and guide our world towards the creator.
Having said this, I do believe that we have so misrepresented our mission by the use of symbols of notoriety that we are in danger of misunderstanding the role of the incarnation in shaping the church.
It seems to me that the context of the incarnation has significance. In Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8 we see Jesus describe as being the same ‘yesterday, today and forever’. At first glance it seems that change is out of the question. Yet we also know that change took place. The Word ‘became’ flesh.
The unchanging nature of Jesus is to be seen in his essential character. His goodness, his truth and his faithfulness are all undiminished by the passage of time. In fact, he is completely unaffected by the constraints of time other than in his own choice to be self-limited. The kenosis, or emptying of himself, is the expression of this absolute commitment to his mission. The act of ‘becoming’ is the important factor for us here. We are being shown in graphic and eternal terms how we, the church, are to ‘become’. The eternal, creative Word has become flesh in order to fulfil the will of God. We, the church, are to follow a similar path.
Compare this with the picture we often find of a church fixed in its position fighting against the tide of change. Churches with a more conservative history, and I would include my own group here, have a tendency towards becoming entrenched in positions that they believe are essential parts of the gospel or mission, only to reassess these in later years to find that some of the things that they considered fundamental are culturally invested rather than theologically absolute.
It is easy to see how groups become revisionist in their view of history; often creating fantasies of a former time when people where more holy, more aware of God, and perhaps more Christian. Of course this doesn't just happen in church. An older generation's mythological idea that 'when I was a lad you could leave your doors open and no one would steal from you' falls apart when you consider the size of the black market in England during World War Two and the fact that very few people owned things that were worth stealing.
These over sentimentalised views very rarely stand up to scrutiny. It might be true that fewer people attend church today than in previous generations, but there has not been a golden era when full communities were church goers. Even where you find pockets of almost full attendance you don't always find behaviour that is fully in keeping with the basic tenets of Christianity (20).
Still, groups that feel under siege tend to demonise the other and create safe enclaves, metaphorically if not physically, for the practice of their religion. Even the more dynamic movements that have a headline narrative declaring that they will 'take this land for Jesus' still have a subtext that suggest taking the land is somehow the same as Christianising parts of culture that have seemed off limits to previous generations. This, of course, has all the appearance of development; it looks to all intents and purposes like the church is changing. Yet the creating of enclaves is still happening. The demonising of the other still takes place; in fact it is far easier to keep people attending church if you paint the other in a more negative light. Statements like 'not in church, not in the will of God. Simple!' by the Pentecostal church leader Derek Smith (21) add to the idea that the church, and your place in it, are synonymous with being in the will of God.
In light of this what does change mean for the church if it is to use the incarnation as a model? I really don't have all the answers to that question: I just know that we need to be willing to change.
In the gospels Jesus is shown to learn, grow, hunger, cry and feel fatigue: it seems he was acquainted with the full range of human experience. This means that the incarnation was not merely some singular event but a pilgrimage.
Evangelicals in general tend towards a gospel that calls for people to move from being 'lost' to becoming 'found'. I do recognise that this is the experience of many within evangelicalism. I have often explained my own journey in similar terms.
This over statement about there being definitive states that one might move 'from' and 'to', however, continues to suggest that the main role of the church is to offer a safe alternative place to the 'other' but only when the 'other' becomes like 'us'.
I will cover more of this later but I want to point out that I am not suggesting that regeneration is not important or that people are unable to know that they have been 'saved' in the way that we suggest in our churches. Here I am suggesting that the model of church that makes such moments the primary goal, is not reflecting the fuller sense of what the incarnation brings to us.
At this point I simply want to affirm that, in the incarnational model, pilgrimage is essential. We expect it of our natural children when we encourage them to explore ideas and learn about themselves and the world around them. Parents and teachers consider the appropriate lessons that need to be considered at each stage of the growing process. So it is with those of us who come to faith and begin a journey within the community of the church.
Richter and Francis (22) speak of the importance of journey in their writings dealing with those who leave the church. ‘The church that is best at retaining its members is one that presupposes that individuals grow in faith, in their own time and in their own way.’ This is often a difficulty for evangelically minded churches. As with other revival movements a great deal of emphasis is laid upon the crisis of conversion. Even where there is talk and consideration given to discipleship it is often done in very narrow terms with the emphasis placed heavily upon conformity of belief. People find acceptance when they jump through a series of evangelical hoops and so even where doubt exists, there is a pressure to conform.
Pilgrimage, however, is a life giving experience. It is possible to both hold to the idea of a cross encounter whilst encouraging an Emmaus road journey.
Our pilgrimage is mainly set on the Emmaus road with occasional moments on the road to Damascus
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