Exile, Incarnation, Mystery
I held him last night. Charles Andrew Davis IV.
Amazing.
Christmas day he will be 6 weeks old. He has grown so much. And yet he has so much more growing to do. Everything that he will need is already there in his tiny body.
Over 23 feet of intestines. Over 60,000 miles of blood vessels. Eyes waiting to add color distinction. Taste buds waiting to try bacon. And muscles waiting to be flexed.
A brain filled with grey matter that has the working storage capacity of 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). Or by the estimate of another scientist, 256 exabytes – the equivalent of 1.2 billion average PC hard drives. I thought my Apple computer was amazing.
And how do we begin to estimate the operation systems of soul and spirit. In the tradition of Jeremiah the prophet, known, consecrated, and appointed by God,while still in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5). The capacity of the inner person cannot be measured in petabytes or exabytes. And the greatest of these is love!
All of this is raw and not yet developed in Charles IV. It will just need to be nurtured and cared for. He has loving parents keeping watch. He has loving grandparents keeping prayer vigil. He has loving aunts and uncles keeping cheer.
He has a community, a village, a tribe, which will hopefully call out all the best of his undeveloped personhood. I am grateful that it is a faith community that realizes all of our efforts would be naught without God’s face shining on him.
And so, as I come to these last few days of Advent I cannot help think of the mystery of incarnation.
God, the Word, the Son, “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
Eternal – subjected to time.
Without cosmic borders – subjected to a baby’s body and a yet-to-be developed soul and spirit.
Independent, All-Sufficient – entrusted to parents and a supportive 1stcentury community.
The GREATEST EXILE ever.
In the words of Karl Barth, “the journey of the Son of God to the far country.”
How much of the echo of eternity stayed with him each day of his ordinary human life?
God learned Aramaic. God skinned his knees. God walked through the valley of the shadow of puberty. God lived socially as Jewish son of the Torah. God lived counter culturally as a Jewish man of celibacy.
Like Charles IV, the Son in the far country would be subjected to the same developmental pilgrimage. Luke the gospel writer notes, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).
Thirty years of anonymity for the King of kings.
Citizen and alien.
Born into world that he made – yet the world did not know him (John 1:10).
The birth of any baby is awe-inspiring in itself. Imago deiso pure. Original sin is there but still not completely unleashed by societal modeling.
When Charles IV’s aunt Linnea saw him for the first time tears flowed. When Charles III (pop-pops) sees another photo alert of the IVth in shared messages he beams with (grand)fatherly pleasure. And I cannot wait to see the faces of Baba and Deda (Russian grandparents) light up with joy when they see Charles IV in person for the first time.
But the birth of God is on another level. Mystery of mysteries. Mind-boggling. Worship inspiring.
Why would he do it?
Sacrificial love.
To borrow words from Tim Keller, “God went to infinite lengths to get close to you and me.”
The gap between Spirit and flesh was already wide. Then sin made the canyon wider. The Christmas carol O Holy Night captures it well with one quick phrase:
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
But God. And the carol continues.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new glorious morn
Fall on your knees
In the words of the Nicene Creed:
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages. . . .
For us humans and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and was made human.
He did it for us. For our salvation. Cute baby. Crucified Lord. Resurrected and Ascended Victor. Soon to return Conquering King.
So here in is my Christmas blessing to you; one exile to another exile, in the tradition of the Great Exile.
May you hold a baby this Christmas season!
May that baby open your heart in new ways to the mystery of incarnation!
May you fall on your knees, if not literally, in you heart, in worship!
May hope fill every desperate and broken space in the waiting for the second Advent!
On exile with you in a long tradition of exiles.
