A friend of mine engages in what she calls “positive self-talk,” and has accused me good-naturedly of sometimes being a “Negative Ned.” I admit that almost two years of pandemic have made me a bit depressed and that even beforehand I had been discouraged by the state of our nation and the direction of my denomination (United Methodist). Perhaps we could all use some good news amidst the gloom and doom of our most recent history.
John Krasinksi, known for his role in The Office, has hosted an in-home broadcast called “Some Good News,” to lift our spirits during these COVID times. The stories are real, heart-warming, humorous, and an elixir for our current troubles.
In other good news we find ourselves in the Christmas season. Perhaps the birth of Jesus can serve as a spiritual elixir to help lift us up from the downward spiral in which we find ourselves. The big theological word to define the heart of Christmas is Incarnation, as in Emmanuel - God. With. Us. There is something enlivening about the divine becoming human - good news, indeed.
What makes the concept of Incarnation good? Where do I begin?
Incarnation affirms that the material world - flesh and blood, vegetable and mineral, earth, wind, fire and water - is good (Genesis 1:31). Contrary to the fringe element of Christians who wish to evacuate the wicked world through some fantastical “rapture,” the Bible actually affirms that the earth is good, deserving of our attention, and worth saving. After all, at the end of all things God is going to “come down” from heaven and dwell with us here (Revelation 21:3), in a renewal of creation.
Another big theological word affirms the goodness of Incarnation, and that is the word Resurrection. One of our Christian creeds says that we believe in the “resurrection of the body,” which suggests once again that our bodies - flesh and blood - are good, deserving of our attention and worth saving. There is a mystery regarding the exact form of this resurrected body which apparently is imperishable (1 Peter 1:4), and yet imminently recognizable as a “body.” Jesus, resurrected, was known to his disciples. He ate breakfast on the beach with them and invited Thomas to place has hand in his scars. The good news of Incarnation suggests that even after death we will not be disembodied spirits floating about in the ether but we will know and be known by others - the blessed and beloved community that we were created to be will continue to exist - good news.
The early church struggled with this notion of divinity/humanity. Some early theologians questioned how the divine could possibly still be divine if taking on human flesh, suffering on a cross, and dying. They supposed it was all an illusion, a trick played on us, that the Godhead didn’t really go through all that. But what became orthodoxy (the consensus of “right teaching”) is that while it remains an ineffable mystery, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” fully human and yet fully divine.
The good news of Christmas leads logically to wonder, if God was in Christ Jesus, is it then possible that God could live in us, as the hymn writer suggests - “be born in us today”? Is there a spark of divinity in humans? Are we capable of goodness?
Here’s a statistic: As of today 62% of people in the U.S., 12 years of age and above, have been fully vaccinated. That means the majority of people have made the decision for the greater good. While surely some have been vaccinated out of a desire for self-preservation, I would argue that the many have done so out of a sense of public responsibility. To be vaccinated assumes that we protect not only ourselves but also those around us, our families, certainly, but also our friends and neighbors. In fact, by being vaccinated we protect even those who refuse vaccination. To be vaccinated assumes that what we do with our bodies matters, and that we believe the bodies of others also matter. This is an affirmation of Incarnation. Good news.
During the Christmas break our church, in cooperation with our school district, sponsors a food program - cooking and delivering meals to children who qualify for free lunch at our public schools. During the holidays this ministry insures that no child will go hungry just because school cafeterias are closed. This is incarnational ministry which honors the bodies of children, which puts flesh on spiritual teaching - that we are to care for the poor, give water to the thirsty, and feed the hungry. Good news.
Christmas teaches us about Incarnation. It is Good News, indeed.
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