Fact & Significance of the Incarnation

This week, Simon continued with an interactive discussion on the incarnation. We discussed some analogies of the incarnation:

1) The children's sermon at the TCBC retreat a few years back illustrated the incarnation visually: people were coins on an overhead projector showing as circles on the screen. God was a cylinder placed flat showing as a dark bar. When the cylinder was placed on end, God became Jesus and shows on the screen as a circle as well.

2) Computer avatars are representations of our full selves. (Coincidentally the root of "avatar" is "the incarnation of a Hindu diety".)

Thanks to all those who asked questions and participated in the class discussion. Next week's class is an informal lunch in the church basement. Please RSVP to Sam. Class is cancelled Christmas Sunday.

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The fact and significant of the Incarnation – second Sunday of Advent 2007

Primary text: Jn 1:1-18

What is incarnation?

What does incarnation means? From what you know can you find an analogy for it?

“In probing into the development structure of mediation as it took shape within the frame of Israel’s distinctive worship of God and its priestly mission to mankind, we find a divine intention persistently at work which has to do both with revelation and reconciliation.” T.F. Torrance in “The Mediation of Christ”

Incarnation as revelation:

“the reason became the reality”
“the spoken word became the living word”
“the medium is the message”

“A two-way movement was involved: an adaptation of divine revelation to the human mind and an adaptation of articulate forms of human understanding and language to divine revelation.” T.F. Torrance in “The Mediation of Christ”

If Christ incarnated is indeed the revelation, then did he “adapt” to the human mind? In other word did he in becoming human “lowered” his divine form?

Independent of the answer to the last question, if Christ incarnated is indeed the revelation, what if any of human understanding was “adapted” to divine revelation?

“Becoming Flesh is the Point of New Creation. The New Creation is the Incarnation, and all those who are in the Incarnate One are in the New Creation.” Scott McKnight

Incarnation as commission

The great commission text:: Mt 28:19-20, Mk 16:15-18, Lk 24:45-49, Acts 1:8, Jn 17:18, Jn 20:21

“He did not touch down like a visitor from outer space, or arrive like an alien bringing his own alien culture with him. He took to himself our humanity, our flesh and blood, our culture. He actually became one of us and experienced our frailty, our suffering and our temptations. He even bore our sin and died our death. And now he sends us ‘into the world’, to identify with others as he identified with us (though without losing our Christian identity), to become vulnerable as he did.” Stott, John R. W, “Christian Mission in the Modern World”

Incarnation as illumination

Many words were used in Jn 1:1-18 to describe the logos, such as life, light, flesh and glory. If we just follow the very obvious connection with the creation account in Genesis and just follow the idea of “light” as “order” in Genesis 1, we see at least one very concrete idea of light into darkness: order out of chaos.

We need to instill order in our life as a reminder of the luminous presences even in the apparent darkness. Sometimes we lost the sense of luminous transcendence, so when we are in the world everyday, we look up and there were no stars, so we return to our own light and ended up continuing in the chaos. But if we see the stars may be we look up long enough to allow Christ some space to come in and transform chaos into order just a little bit.

(Dale Allison interview on CBC radio program Tapestry January 14, 2007)