During Sunday morning class, I offered a meditation on the meaning of Christmas (that is, the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ) and suggested that (a) the incarnation is unique in that in this One we have the God-man who (b) causes us to re-evaluate our vision of God and (c) forces us to reconsider who we are and why we do what we do. Tonight, I want to reflect more deeply on this third implication of the Christmas by looking the way the incarnation shapes the practice of ministry.
A Word on “Incarnational Ministry”
How many of you have heard the term “incarnational ministry”? Who can define it? If you google (or bing) “incarnational ministry” a variety of links will appear, most of which are blogs on the contemporary practice of ministry and missional or emergent churches. Missional/Emergent churches see themselves as a response to the negative assessment of mainstream churches in modern, western society. These loosely organized and basically urban churches look to Jesus’ practice of ministry and model it in a way reminiscent of the 1960s/70s perspective of a humble, servant Jesus who moved among the poor and disenfranchised speaking truth against wealth and power and presenting a gospel of peace. Incarnational ministry in this context emphasizes the fact of the incarnation of God in Christ to the exclusion of other modes of God’s being in order to emphasize the “high-touch” nature of God among God’s creatures. As God was with us intimately in Jesus, so the pastoral call is to also be incarnate servants to “the least of these.”
There is much I’ve read about this perspective that is compelling, but I want to work at a much more foundational level tonight and make some practical implications that resonate with many of the insights of this movement among protestant, evangelical churches with some caveats.
Three Implications
(1) Humanity is Valuable
The first word of the incarnation is that humanity in itself is valued by its Creator. We can suppose – and only suppose – that God could have exercised any means to redeem humanity or refuse to redeem humanity altogether. However, God elects to enact His reconciliation of all things (Colossians 1.20) by coming into being as a man. He comes as a unique person, being completely human and completely divine, but is nonetheless human, taking on the full range of human experience: from birth to death. In this God declares boldly that humanity is valued by the Absolute, and thus, absolutely valuable. God loves us to the degree that he not only elects to redeem us, but he does so by being human.
With this in mind, we engage ministry with the understanding that all human creatures are valuable. Regardless of who they have been, who they are or what we believe they are going to amount to – people are valued by God. This means that there is a fundamental value to human being and existence that must be honored as we seek to minister to our spouses, children, brothers and sisters, other family, friends, co-workers and others we encounter. This value goes beyond basic “respect.” We are called in our ministry to see people as God sees people: valuable and worthy of the same redemption that we have received in Christ. “Respect” tends to be a moral veneer we put out that allows us to treat people we do not believe are valuable “as if” they are for the sake of some external value. I may not like you, but I will respect you. I see in the incarnation a call for something more: valuing people as God values people. And I think that this begins with me. If I see myself as valued by God and redeemed by God, and if I know myself in my depths well enough, then I know that everyone is valued, loved and redeemable in Christ. A couple of practical implications here on two sides of the ministerial coin:
First, God doesn’t give up on people. My family is a mess. My father has three sisters whose lives embodied the lostness peculiar to the late sixties through mid-seventies. Among my cousins, three have served time in jail, one has four children by four different men, only two (I think) she married for short period of time, one was lost to drugs years ago and I’m still not sure anyone knows where he is, and on the story goes. When I stand back and look at it, I think, “God, what a mess!” My father distanced my brother and I from all of this chaos to the best of his ability, mostly because he disliked his sisters, but also, I’m convinced, because he wanted something different for us. But, this aside, the incarnation tells me that God has not and does not give up on even this mess of a situation. I was recently called into a conversation with one of my cousin’s daughters and found that the cycle was repeating itself: 19 and pregnant out of wedlock. I’ll admit I despaired a bit. Why must the cycle repeat itself (so it seems). Yet, God is not done with me, and he’s not done with the rest of my family. So, I’m in touch, trying to faithfully minister as best as I am able, trying to keep their value to God before my eyes at all times. God doesn’t give up on people.
Second, turning the camera back on us, God empowers humans to execute his ministry. God shows that he valued human being by establishing us as agents of his grace to the world. God did this with Israel as he worked with His chosen people. Even though it is clear that God through the Spirit was the one at work in most situations, He still called representatives in Israel and the entire nation to action to complete God’s work. We also see this in the Incarnate One. God acts in Jesus of Nazareth, the man, to mediate his grace in the world. Jesus’ disciples also demonstrate God’s commitment to human agency as a means for his ministry. The Spirit leads, but it is Peter the Apostle who speaks to the crowds at Pentecost and the other disciples along with him who baptize the earliest messianic converts and coordinate the earliest Christian communities and missionary movements. Through the centuries, God moving through the Spirit has continued to utilize human agents to execute his ministry. Even unto today. So, whether you are at work, at home, at Starbucks, or…wherever, God demonstrates that he values humanity by empowering you as a minister of the His grace wherever you happen to be. Because of who you are as his valued, redeemed creature, you are in His service, carrying out His service to extend his glory to the ends of the earth.
(2) Vulnerability is the Mode of Christian Ministry
God does not assume our humanity in a position of social power or authority. If we were God, we would likely assume humanity from a position with the power to make some genuine changes in the world when we came on the scene. Maybe we would force a regime change in Rome and come into being as Roman emperor. Or, possibly, incarnate further East in Indo-China and set the world straight from that power center. But God shocks us, coming among us as a defenseless, needy, helpless babe in very unstable economic circumstances: miles away from home, outside of the secure confines of a domicile, born to a young maiden who was newly married and pregnant prior to her engagement/wedding. Nothing about the Incarnate One’s situation gives us the feeling of strength, confidence or power when we think about it. God is vulnerable in Jesus Christ at birth and through the course of his life. So vulnerable, in fact, that he will eventually allow himself without complaint to be wrongly crucified by the visible powers of that day.
God’s vulnerability seen the incarnation is the mode for Christian ministry. Who are you? What standing or status or power do you have in the world? Given where we are geo-politically, we all have some basic power to leverage. Even today, traveling with an American passport can help you avoid many issues that others from other countries face. Do you hold some office? Are you a CEO, President, Manager? All of these labels denote powers that we posses that we can use in the service of Christ. However, many times we use them as means to protect that very status or to protect ourselves, whether we are conscious of it or not. For example, I work directly with a VP at Baylor University. One of my responsibilities is to oversee the campus sustainability efforts. It used to be that she ran this effort and there was great involvement and buy in from across the University. Now that she has stepped away a bit, the commitment and involvement has lessened. Yet, when she is going to attend a meeting, those who were uninvolved are once again engaged. I’m not trying to say that my VP uses her power to force people to attend meetings (although it is helpful), but use this example to illustrate the real power of organizational offices. When we look through the lens of the incarnation, we see God’s relinquishing of all socio-political power or office in the mediation of His grace. He comes not as an emperor, not as a CEO, but as a baby. When we are on the front lines of ministry, how do communicate the gospel? From a position of power over the people we encounter? Do we use our social standing as a guard against getting genuinely close to people? The implication of the incarnation for ministry from this vantage point seems to be that we do not engage in ministry from a position of power, but in humility and weakness, understanding the genuine risk involved. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul speaks about a “thorn given me in the flesh” that he understood as God’s grace to him, forcing him to manifest his physical weakness in ministry rather than a position of personal wholeness or strength. I tend to think that if others can see what a great example I am, they will be overwhelmed by my personal fervor and moral goodness and inquire about Christ. This could possibly occur, but would make more of a disciple of me than a disciple of Christ. Our ministry is more powerful when others encounter the rough edges of our existence and our uncertainties in the midst of enjoying God’s grace rather then in our displays or use of power and strength. In the context of shared vulnerably, the incarnation in ministry finds its power since it is in our mutual vulnerability that we are able to see the power, wisdom and grace of God at work among us. And, frankly, people will be more honest about themselves if we are honest about ourselves so that all can see the power of God in the midst of our weakness. Vulnerability – being honest and forthright about ourselves before God and others – is the proper mode of Christian ministry.
(3) Christian Ministry is Scandalous
Finally, in the incarnation we are confronted with the scandal – or the stumbling block – of God. As I talked about on Sunday, the incarnation scrambles our understanding of God. God scandalizes himself by assuming humanity and by assuming humanity the way that he does. As Jesus grows, he scandalizes the Temple leaders with his depth of insight into Torah when he is only 12 years old. This trend continues into adulthood as he constantly causes Bible scholars of the day and temple leaders to re-think the way they see things. As God scandalizes the world in the incarnation, so our ministry in the world will be scandalous. Everything about the incarnation and all that follows cuts against convention – then and now. If we find our ministry calling people to conformity with general or regional social mores, we need to be confronted once again by the babe in the manger. If we find that we are not completely taken aback by God now and again; that God’s transcendence and grandeur produces a nod or a yawn, we need to return to the manger. Calling people to follow the Incarnate One will create tension within families and with aspects of contemporary culture. As a result, you may be persecuted because of sticking your neck out, so to speak, as a minister of God’s grace. In Christian ministry, we should not seek persecution or use it as a measure of our faithfulness. But we should anticipate the genuine possibility that as we expose the world to the scandal of the incarnation of God in Christ it may respond in the same way it did 2,000 years ago. The scandal of the gospel is natural to the gospel and does not need any help from our idiosyncrasies. So, in the practice of Christian ministry carried out in the light of Christmas, be surprised by joy and merriment, but anticipate scandal and, sometimes, suffering in the likeness of Christ.
Summary & Conclusion
In the wake of Christmas there remains a manger with a babe who is God enfleshed. Considering God through the lens of the manger transforms our vision of God, us and the way we see ministry. I pray that as we approach 2010 as a congregation that we will hold the manger before our eyes and let it help us move through the implications of God’s assumption of humanity in Jesus Christ so that we may be transformed more into his image.
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