Christmas is when Christians celebrate the Mystery of the Incarnation, of God becoming flesh and living
in our midst. In the last few months many people have been reading Praise Be!
The Pope’s encyclical On Care of our Common Home. At the end of the book there
are two prayers. I am especially drawn to the words in the Christian Prayer in
Unity with Creation where it says:
Son of God, Jesus, …
You were formed in the womb of Mary our Mother,
you became part of this earth,
and you gazed upon this world with human eyes.
To say that
'Jesus became part of this earth' changes the perspective and leads to ways of
understanding that might not occur when 'Jesus became man' or
even that Jesus became human' is used. Jesus became part of this Earth. In light of what
Pope Francis and Theologians are writing today, I am thinking that it might be
possible that Christianity has at last begun the great turning away from the
human centered worldview that has plagued it for some time now.
For the past
2000 years more or less, the followers of Jesus have sought to more perfectly
understand the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Millions of
words have been written attempting to explain the mystery of the Word of God
becoming flesh and living among us. And yet, in light of today’s scientific and
theological breakthroughs, it seems we have only been scratching at the surface
of the Mystery of the Incarnation.
Using human
perspective as the starting point, theologians in their efforts to understand
the meaning of Jesus, inadvertently managed to lift humanity up very high over
the rest of creation. After all, Jesus became human which must bring honor to
humans at least a little.
But believing
that the Incarnation honored humans, also led, or perhaps misled, theologians
and philosophers to believe that in the Divine plan for Salvation, only humans
mattered. Human life, human suffering, and human sin were believed to be the
only reason for God to become one with us.
And for
hundreds of years we have been able to read scripture without even noticing the
many signs that indicate that that might not be true; Paul says all creation is
groaning; the Book of Job has God confront human aggrandizement by asking:
“Where were
you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” And Psalm 104 tells us the “The
young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun
rises, they withdraw and lie down in their dens. People go out to their work
and to their labor until the evening. O God, how manifold are your works. In wisdom
you have made them all: the earth is full of your creatures.” Humans are one
species among many.
Humans are precious to God, but they are not
the only precious ones. In her book Ask the Beasts:Darwin and the God of Love, (London: Bloomsbury 2014.) Elizabeth Johnson
cites verses from both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament that testify
to the care that God has for all of Creation without at any time elevating
humans over the rest of creation. In fact, scripture overall, paints an
incredible picture of community. In Johnson’s words:
"We
(humans) are situated within, not over, the magnificent circle of life, whose
center and encompassing horizon is the generous God of life. This is a kinship
group of hugely diverse members whose mutual relationships are enormously rich
and complex. This is a kinship group of hugely diverse members whose mutual
relationships are enormously rich and complex. In varied interactions each
member gives and receives, being significant for one another in different ways
but all grounded in absolute, universal reliance on the living God for the very
breath of life. Within this guild of life the distinctive capacities of human
beings are part of the picture and can be exercised without lifting our species
out of creation, “as though we were demi-gods set over it.”
(Page
268-269)
When God
became flesh and dwelt among us, God became one with all that is; all that God
created. What I am speaking about here is what Christology is now calling Deep Incarnation.
I guess it
should not be a surprise that we have only been able to scratch the surface of
the meaning of Incarnation, since until recent time we have not been able to
grasp how deeply embedded in creation humans are. Even though we have told
creation stories that remind us that we came from the earth, and science has affirmed
that we evolved from the earth, we have had a terrible time coming to terms
with what it means to be of this earth.
We share DNA
with all carbon life forms. Most of us have heard how closely related our DNA
is to Chimpanzees or Orangutans – a little more than 98% -- but did you know
that we share 25% of our genes with Rice. Sharing genes means we have a common
ancestor. Scientists tell us that all plants animals and fungi on Earth have a
common ancestor that lived about 1.6 billion years ago. We have evolved in
exceedingly different ways but we are still related.
Most people,
I think, prefer to think of themselves as somewhat above the rest of the muddle
of creation, with all of its bacteria, plants, fish, bugs, and the rather uncouth
other primates and so on. But this preference has blinded us to the Divine
Reality which is really pretty amazing.
Johnson
writes this:
“Born of a
woman and the Hebrew gene pool,” the Word of God’s embodied self, became a
creature of Earth, a complex unit of minerals and fluids, an item in the
carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen cycles, a moment in the biological evolution of
this planet. Like all human beings, Jesus carried within himself “the signature
of the supernovas and the geology and life history of the Earth.” The atoms
comprising his body were once part of other creatures. (Just as our own atoms
come from others). The genetic structures of the cells in his body were kin to
the flowers, the fish, and the whole community of life that descended from
common ancestors in the ancient seas. “Deep incarnation” understands The Word
became Flesh (John 1.14) to be saying that the flesh (sarx) which the Word of
God became not only unites Jesus to other human beings in the species; it also
reaches beyond us to join him to the whole biological world of living creatures
and the cosmic dust of which they are composed. The incarnation is a cosmic
event." (ibid page 196)
Deep
Incarnation as it is used in Christology, signifies a radical divine reach
through human flesh all the way down into the very tissue of biological
existence with its growth and decay, joined with the wider processes of
evolving nature that beget and sustain life.(ibid)
Creation is
marvelously and wondrously made with humans and plants and animals all
interdependent yet unique. It is not possible to separate any one creature out
from the whole community of life. No creatures can exist that way – only God. Our
bodies cannot function without the many microbes and bacteria that exist-in community- inside our own bodies.
Scientists have recently let it be known that the microbes of our gut are
responsible for many of our human emotions. In taking care of our bodies we
take care of all of the bits of life dependent and interdependent with us. So to
say that in Jesus God became one with us is to affirm not only human beings --
but all created matter. It is in human
beings, that matter has become conscious and with consciousness, humans have been
given options. We can choose to intentionally live and work in harmony with the
rest of the community of creation. Or not… but then we and all of creation
suffers from our carelessness, our disregard for the community to which we
belong.
We are not
alone in this world. The One who set the process of
evolution, diversification and complexity into motion has always been here. Through
Jesus, Divine Presence became manifest, became flesh, and like us was born into the world –
already connected to everything that is.
Jesus became
part of this earth in the same way that we are, yet His presence in our midst
made it possible for people like us to recognize and respond to the Divine presence.
Jesus gazed
upon this world with human eyes – and his gaze encompassed the whole community
of life with love.
May we gaze upon this world with the same tender love.
May we open our hearts to all of Life and find joy in others.
And May we share the Good News of Emmanuel, "God with us",
and the Deep Incarnation that connects us to all life, by living consciously every day.
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