Dec. 1, 2007

Christmas: The Word Becomes Flesh

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…In him was life, and that life was the light of men…the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only…full of grace and truth." –The Gospel of John 1:1-14

 

The revelation of a word, the act of naming something, and to know its function within basic life…this is what I have loved about learning a language. These new revelations of words bring new meanings and better understanding of daily life around us and even more, brings us into a deeper relationship with those around us. This is what verbal language (the gathering of words) is about: relationship with one another, knowledge about and for one another. This is the struggle too. Learning another language has been one of the most challenging things I have ever had to do or learn in my life. It is a daily struggle of pushing myself to continue to learn and grow without seeing the end, having to experience the struggle instead of retreating from it.

We are learning everyday and we have progressed significantly since we arrived; but language learning is humiliating and humbling and frustrating. Overall, we are progressing and now are beginning to understand most everything that is said; but our speaking is childlike at best. I hope that in several more months we will begin to feel comfortable with daily life conversations, being able to tell our host family that we are going to the store to buy a loaf of bread without thinking too much about it or asking for some more sarmale at lunch without having to be asked to repeat the question because of mispronunciation. This is our hope.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about this passage from John 1 in relation to learning new words, in regards to what it meant for God, the Word, to become flesh and to give a face to the Outline, the Spirit, the Unseen. Theologians have always found it interesting that this passage says that the Word became flesh. John doesn't use "the Idea became flesh" or "the Thought became flesh." He says the Word. And so this is the question: What does it mean to us for the Word to become flesh? In the struggle for an answer I am finding myself amidst a loving mystery.

I have always been one to ask a lot of questions, hard questions. These past few years of which I have been calling my "second conversion" have been full of questions, questions about God and Jesus, Jesus and life, and life and love. These are the questions I have been mostly consumed with. And because of the difficulty of bringing these questions together I have struggled … struggled to know that I am loved by God, struggled to know that God is good and active within the world, struggled to know how to practically and ethically live out the life of Christ to which we are called in a crooked world. But in this struggle I have found hope. By learning a language and thinking over this passage, God has brought hope to my wounded heart.

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." Here is where we find the answer to the mystery, the hope in the hopelessness and the purpose among all the questions. The Word, the meaning of every detail formed by love, every atom that makes up life created with care, the perfect utterance to that which was indescribable, the exact word for all that is good and perfect in the world. This is the Word and that Word has become flesh. The Word now has a face.

Later on in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul writes that in the face of Christ we learn of the knowledge of God. Among the climax of human history, Immanuel is born. God is with us. We see a face, the crying face of an infant Jesus, the gentle face of a Teacher, the stern face of a Prophet, the distorted face of a Crucified God upon a cross. In this face that was once just the Word, we find the face of God. The Word that was before inexpressible, unutterable, incomprehensible is now made flesh and has made himself known out of love for the world. And this is the love that calls us by name and by which we can say Abba Father.

And how do we know this perfect love, which gives us hope and life and vocation? We know this because God became flesh and walked among us, danced among us, cried among us, and died among us and for us. This is the new picture of the Word, a disfigured body on a cross giving himself up for all the awfulness of humankind. All for love, his eternal plan sown among the history of the world. The Word has become a face and this face means a gentle presence, a calming presence, a powerful presence, a loving presence that says, "Do not fear, for I am with you." The revelation of the perfect language made up by the perfect Word came and gave hope and is giving it still.

We do pray that this Christmas we may again be reminded of God becoming flesh, to know this love. We do pray that each one of us walks in this love, amidst the world that is crying out for it, giving it and receiving it.

Merry Christmas!
We love you and hope with you,
Joshua and Robin

Here are some little pieces of news:

·         A new baby girl is born! Ron and Audra McAvaddy (who have been here for 2 years) have just given birth to their third child, a girl, Kira McAvaddy. She and Audra are both healthy and doing well.

·         This will be our first Christmas away from our families. Please pray for us and for our families for peace and comfort trusting that this is where God has us.

·         Right now the servant team has one more month. They will leave on the 15th of December thus completing our first servant team. They have been an amazing team and we will miss them being here with us.

·         Robin has been encouraged recently with her relationship with a young mother. We praise God for providing a compassionate, generous, Christian doctor for this young family, and that one of the babies has made amazing progress in health. In two weeks we've seen a limp, lifeless 6 month-year old begin to smile, hold up her head, cry, and move her strong little arms and legs.  Praise God. Continue to pray for his mercy on our young mothers and babies.

·         We are really excited about our good friend, Kevin Wright, coming to visit us for Christmas and New Years. He will be staying for a couple of weeks, hanging out with us, meeting the community here and seeing what happens in everyday life. We are really looking forward to this time with him.

·         We have recently canned jars and jars of applesauce and applebutter out of the best apples I have ever eaten in my life.

·         Continue to pray for our dear children who come to the center and for the guys who live on the streets.  Pray for us as a community … for unity, wisdom and humility.