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IN A BOOK BEVIS: THE STORY OF A BOY, RACHARD' JEFFERIES BRINGS TO

THE SURFACE A MISUNDERSTANDING THAT HAS PLAGUED omnia FOR CENTURIES

AND JN MANY WAYS STILL DOES. HE SAYS OF THE BOY——"'THE cURCLNLEION HURT HIS
FEELINGS VERY MUCH: THE CRUEL NAILS: THE UNFEELING SPEAR: HE LOOKED AT THE PICTURE
FOR A LONG TIME AND THEN TURNED THE PAGE SAYING, IF Gop lao BEEN THERE, HE WOULD

NOT HAVE [kT THEM DO IT."

iF GOD HAD BEEN THERE! IN THIS STATEMENT THE BOY REFERS TO AND COM-
PLETELY MISSES THE GLORY AND THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION. BY S8YING IF Gb
HAD BEEN THERE THE BOY STRIPS CHRISTIANITY OF ITS CUTTING BDGE--BECAUSE INDEHD GOD

WAS THERE.

WHEN WE EMBRACE CHRISTTANITY AS OUR WAY OF TRUTH, WHEN Wii CALL OURSELVES
CHRISTIANS, WHEN WE COME HERE ON SUNDAYS TO WORSHEP, WE ARE MAKING THE Host
RADICAL CLAIM EVER EXPERTENCED IN THE HISTORY OF mania, BY TAKING THE NAME
CHRISTIANS WE ARE AFFIRMING QUR BELIEF THAT THE canpENtse FROM NAZARETH WAS
SOMEHOW ONE AND THE SAME WITH] GOD. THES IS NO ORDINARY sramamin AS YOU CAN
READ TY SEE. WHAT IF INDIA WOULD SUDDENLY PROCLAIM THAT caNDZ WAS DIVINE, THAT
HH WAS ULTEMATE DIVINITY WALKING AMONG MEN IN THE 20th ca TURY. NO DOUBT SOME OF

YOU WOULD THINK IT IRREVERENT AND BLASPHEMOUS, OTHERS WOULD CASUALLY LAUGH IT OFF,

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AND YET, AS CHRISTIANS YOU ARE AFFIRMING JUST THIS sin THING ABOUT A MAN CALLED JESUS.
FOR SOME REASON THE ABSOLUTELY MIRACULOUS sence OF THE INCARNATION SHEMS
TO Be DULLED IN OUR LITURGY, AND OUR CONVERSATION, ora FACETS OF OUR FAITH SEEM
TO OVERSHADOW IT WHEN WE DO CONSIDER AND DISCUSS IT. WITH THIS IN MEND I HAVE
DECIDED TO APPROACH THE SUBJECT OF THR INCARNATION vias MORNING? IN HOPES THAT MORE
EMPHASIS ON ITS IMPORTANCE WILL REESTABLISH IT AS THE WaRY CGiNERSTONE OF OUR FAITH.
I THINK PERHAPS THE INEVITABLE HAS OCCURED aN OUR THINKING ABOUT THE
INCARNATION—WE ARE SO FAMILIAR WiTH THE CONCEPT AS Wi nua iT VOICED THAT WE

HAVE LONG NEGLECTED TO DIG MENTALLY INTO ITS DEPTHS, SHARCH FOR THE MEANING AND

TEVELATION THAT ARE TO BE FOUND THER®. I AM A LITTLE DuUBIFUL WHETHER CONGREGATIONS
ARE STERRED TO THE QUICK WHEN THSY MAKE CREEDAL AIRE ON OF INCRRNATION, I
THINK THE INCRRNATION, ALONG WITH MUCH ELSE THT IS esSvTEAL TO CHRISTIANITY
HAS BECOME THE VICTIM OF SPIRITUAL, MENTAL AND INTELLECTUAL APATHY--MY PURPOSE
HERE, HOWEVER IS NOf TO DELIVER A PEP TALK BUT TO RAISE AN ISSUE, HOPING M¥
THOUGHTS WILL PROMPT YOU TO COME TO GRIPS WITH If rouRsIEWES
BESIDES THES APATHY WITH WHICH THE INCARNATI oN HAS HAD TO CONTEND THERE
HAVE BEEN OUTRIGHT SUBTLE AND SOME NOT SO SUBTLE STANDS AGAINST IT. PROBABLY THE

MOST FAMILIAR ONE IS THAT OF THE MODERNIST, LIBERAL OR HUMANIST. THIS GROUP, OR

3.

DENOMINATION AS UNITARIANS ARS FALACTOUS LY CALLED, ousmraiia DENY Tht DIVINITY OF JESUS
CHRIST, IN THETR MINDS HE WAS A GOOD MAN, A VERY GOOD Hany, TE BEST MAN THAT
EVER LIVED. HIS MORAL DEMANDS ARE STILL UNBQUALLED, As ‘SOCIAL REFORMS STILL
THE OBJECT OF BNLIGHTEVED PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. BUT HIS cnsass WITH GOD,
IN THE MENDS OF THE HUMANIST IS JUST A Hit OUTGROWTH, a EXAGGERATION TO
ATTRACT ATTENTION. FOR THESE PEOPLE CHRISTIANITY IS FOUND IN TH2 WORDS OF
JESUS, THE S RMON ON THE MT. IS THE WAY TO SALAVATION. : UNFORTUNATELY THIS VIEW
IS FASHIONABLE IN ACADEMIC CIRCL#5~—PARTICULARLY AMONG submes, THE COLLEGE
STUDENT, OR ADULT, WHO FOR THE FIRST TIME IS neato AN INTELLECTUAL SHAKEUP
INEVITABLY DRIFTS TOWARDS THIS WATERED DOWN VERSION OF CHRISTIANITY. WHEN
BELIETS ARE DOUBTED, AND AT SOME TIM IN EVERY LIFE vr MUST BE, PEOPLE L&T THIS
HGOOD MAN" TYPE OF CHRIS TLANITY BROOME DOMINANT AND pon wary THES IS THEIR CREDO
POR LI,

NEEDLESS TO SAY THIS SIMPLY IS NOT CRE maN. LESAPE LAST SUNDEL

( OBBYING ng ~ NAYS les { <
MANY MEN HAVE IED EQUALLY AS GOOD AND RIGHISOUS A LIFE AS JESUS, /HIS DEMANDS

AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE IS NOT ENOUGHT TO MAKE A MAN CHRLSTLAN . THe FACT THAT SHEDS
LLLUMINATION ON ALL HE SAID IS THE FACTTHAT HE WAS THE INCARNATION OF GOD——

GOD IN THE FLESH AND ANY HESITANCY TO ACCEPT THES IS A DENIAL OF PART AND PARCEL

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OF CHRIS TLANITY.

ON THE OTHERHAND MEN AW A/K#/S/ ARE AT TIMES so JOYFUL AT BEING ABLE
TO TAKE PaRT IN THE GHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST, ARE SO Bia TD THAT THE WORD BECAME
FLESH THAT JHEY THND TO FORGET OUR CHIEF END, THAT OF wn SHIPPING AND ADORING
GOD. PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS THAT PUT SO MUCH mirmsts ON BEING SAVED BY THE

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BLOOD OF THE Ww S EM TO IGNORE THE GOD WHO WAS IN JESUS. PRAYERS, GOSPEL
SONGS AND EVEN THE CALL TO COMB FORWARD ARE LOADED aTH THE IMPLICATION THAT
JESUS, THE SAVIOR WILL SOMEHOW INTERGEDE ON THE PART oF SINNERS BEFORE THE
FATHIR GOD. IF WE TRULY BULISVE THAT FATHER AND SUN sas ON&, THAT JESUS WAS THE

CHRSIT, GOD INCARNATS THIS TYPE OF EMPHASIS MUST BE REAGIZED AS BEXAZKE/Ox/ BORDERING ON

DISTORTION OF THE GOSPEL.

OUR CRBEDS, THROUGH THELR WORDING AND BY NO weason THE INTENTION OF
THEIR AUTHORS SHEM TO IMPLY TWO COMPLETELY INDIVIDUAL BRINGS. WHEN WE SAY JESUS
ROSE FROM THE DEAD, ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, AND SITTETH a TH HEGHT HAND OF THE
FATHER, THE NATMRAL IMPRESSION IS THAT OF TwO BEINGS, sasvs ON THE RIGHT~-NOT
THE VERY DEEP AND UNIQUE ONENESS THAT WAS THE INTENT OF oH WRI TERS.

OUR BOPULAR TITLE FOR JESUS AS DN OF GoD sons TO THE CONRWISION OF THE

ALREADY ABORTED INCARNATION CONCEPT, WHEN THE PHRASE SON OF GOD WAS COINED IN ‘THR

De

FIRST? CENTURY IT HAD COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MEANING THAN a7 DOES NOW. BLOOD
LINES, FAMILY LINEAGE WERE STRESSED HEAVILY, A SON WAS auiars LIKE HIS FATHER,
JEXEMIAH, IN DENYING HES CALLING BEFORE A GROUP OF TORRES CRIED, "I AM
NOT A PROPHET, O8 THE SON OF A PROPHET." ‘THE POINT IS onan WHEN EARLY CHRISTIANS
CALLED JESUS THE SON OG GOD THEY MAANT THAT SOMEHOW nv WAS-~OF THE FATH it
IN HIM, AS THE CARPENTERS SON HAS SOME CF THE CARP TENDS IN HIM. BUT THROUGH THE YEARS,
FOR SOCIAL AND ROONOMIC REAONS THIS CONCEPT HAS BEEN Los AND I'M AFRADH THAT WHEN
WE CALL JESUS THE SON OF GOD WE SOMEWHAT MISS THE pont,

CHURCH HISTORY CLEARLY SHQWS THAT THE THOARHATION HAS BEEN A STUMBLING
BLOCK FOR CHRISTIANS, NOT ONLY RECEKILY BUT FOR ones. IN THE DAYS WHEN
MEN BELIEVED THAT SPIRITS GOOD AND EVIL ROAMED THE ARTE THE FACT THAT A SPIRITUAL
BED NG HAD BECOME HUMAN WAS HARD TO SWALLOW. JUST AS HRD HEADED, REALISTIC MODERN
AMERICANS FIN. JESUS DIVINITY HARD TO SELTSVE SO THESE wa OF A MYSTICAL
GENERATION FOUND HIS HUMANITY AN EQUALLY FORTIDABLE oBSTACLE. A SPIRIT COULD
INVADE A BODY BUT SURELY NOT BECOME ONE wlTH A BODY, 1 THE CASE OF JHSUS, TH&SE
CHRIS TIAR MYSTICS OR SKEPTICS, THOUGHT THE SPIRIT OF gon HAD INVADED A SOMEWHAT

UNRHAL BODY AND HAD TAKEN ON SOMBWHAT UNREAL PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. THE REAL

6,

part of Jesus was THE SPIRITUAL SIDE, THE CHRIST. ONE PARTICULAR GROUP OF
THESE MEN CALLEO ARIANS AFT: THERE FOUNDER ARIRES, A 1 CENTURY BISHOP,
PICTURED THE CHRIST, THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OBJEC VELY oBsimVING THE CRUCIFIXION
AND AGONY OF THE MAN JESUS FROM A NEARBY HILL. (004/664 /668/OOOLL/ EN OHO
AS YOU CAN SER JESUS HUMANITY WAS NOT OC GRUCIAL IN THAR, BRAND OF CHRISTIANITY.
OUR FIRST AFFISMATION IN THIS CONTEXT IS AT JESUS CHRIST WAS A MAN.
HE WAS BORN, GREW AS ANY NORMAL CHILD WOULD, HE ATE, DRAM, HUNGERED, THIRSTAD,
BECAME ANGRY, WEPT AND UNDERWENT THE SAMS TEMPTATIONS. | PERHAPS OUR MOST
PRECIOUS SCHIPTURAL TESTIMONY TO HIS HUMANITY IS FOUND MATT. 11:19 WHERE wa

an accusation of :
IS v0? BD AS? ACCUSATION 7G HIS BEING A DRUNKHARD aND A GLUTTON. SURELY HE WAS

HUMAN. SDTGRIED UNDSET HAS WORDED IT IN & BITING oe THINK OF JESUS AS
A FRAIL AND KINDLY WIESSICWIRY WITH NO KNOWLEDGE OF Ta NATURE 4S IT REALLY
IS: OR AS AN AMTABLE YOUNG PHEACHER WiTH A SPECIAL riba FOR TOUCHING THE
HEARS OF WOMEN'S UNIONS IS 1 BE SUPREMELY SENTIMENTAL em HE, THE GREAT LOVER
OF THE RACH, WAS AS HARD AS NATLS"--HE WAS NOP THE FAR crF MYSTIC FROM THE GALILEAN

HILLS, BUT A PEASANT CARPENTER, WHOSE AHANDS WERE CALLOUSED AND BACK MUSCLED

FROM RIGOROUS MANUAL LABOR, HE DID NOT COME OF AGE IN A CONVENT BUT IN THE

4.
WORLD, AMONG PEOPLE, TALKING To THEM, LIVING AMONG 1EK--BH NG ONE OF THEM AND HE DIED
JUST AS THEY DID.
BUT AT THIS POINT WE INSERT OUR RADICAL AND Loatoauiy ABSURD CLAIM--—
ALL THIS IS TRUE ENOUGH ABOUT HIS BEING HUMAN BUT YET mn HIM MEN HAVE BEEN

GOD, IN HIM THE WORD, THs TRUTH, REALITY-~-HAVE BECOME FLESH.

IN DISCUSSING THE NATURE OF CUR BELIEFS apour JESUS IWOULD LEAVE
MANY ENDS UNTIED IF IDID NOT MENTION HIS RELATIONSHIP 1 AND PART IN THE TRINITY.
THE HOLY TRINITY IS THE CHURCHES ARTICULATI ON OF ITS BELLIES ABOUT GOD. THE
MEMBERS OF THE TRINITY HAVE BeEN REFERRED TO AS PERSONS, PHASES OF G@, MODES,
ETG., AND THEY ARE ALL IN A SENSE CORRECT. WHEN WE SPUNK OF THE TRINITY WE ARE
DESCRI BING THE THREE ASPECTS (I PREFER ASPECTS) OF GOD as WE KNOW HIM. FIRST
GOD THE FATHER, THE VERY CENTER, THE ORIGINATOR OF ALL rit Is, THE AUTHOR
OF ALL NATURE AND BRAATHER OF ALL LIFE+“THE BEGINNING a THE END AND THE CENTER
OF THE TRINITY, SECONDLY THE HOLY SPIRIT REPRESENTS ou RELIEF IN A REVEALING
GOD, ONE THAT CONTINUOUSLY REVHALS HIMSELF IN NATURG, nn THE PROGRESS OF HISTORY,
IN INDIVIOUAL HUMAN LIVES. WHEN WE SPEAK OF THE HOLY sriat Wie DON'T MEAN THAT

GREEN GAS THAT STEALTHILY CREPT THROUGH THE STREETS OF EGYPT IN THE MOVIE THE

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TEN COMMANDMENTS--WE MEAN THAT ASPECT OF GOD, THAT cuactmnaszI0 OF GOD THAT CAN
BE DESCRIBED AS REVEALING, WE MSAN OUR CONFIDENCE IN is EVER PRESENT, ETHENAL
ReVELATION. FINALLY THE RELATIONSHIP OF JESUS TO THE sherry I8 THAT ASPIOT
OF GOD THAT WAS REVEALED IN AN ACT~-~AN ACT IN THE CONFI NBs OF HISTORY. IN
THE JESUS OF NAZARETH GOD TOOK THe INITIATIVE AND BRIDGED THE INSEPARABLE
GAP BETWEEN THE SACRED AND PROFANE BETWEEN THE DIVINE an THE HUMAN AND IN HIM
APPROACHED MAN, PLEADING TO MAN 10 ONLY BELIEVE, TO ACCEPT HIM AS THE ONLY AND ONE
GOD.

THE CONCEPT OF THE TRINITY IS CLEVERLY rwsMaATED IN AN INCIDENT
THAT OCCURED TO A PROFESSOR OF MINE. FILLING A PUBPIT Ny A SWEDISH LUTHERAN
CHURCH THE MAN CONCLUDED HIS SERVICE AND WAS SURPRISED 10 SEE THE CONGREGATION
REMATNENG SEATED, THEN HE REMEMBERED THATIPIS A custOM IN THE SWEDISH CHURCH
FOR THE CONGREGATION TO STAY AFTSR CHUACH TO REVIEW THE consort BEING UNFAMILAIR
WITH THE PEOPLE HE STARTED WITH AN EASY QUESTION—HOW rue GOD'S ARE THERE? A WOMAN
QUICKLY RETORTED--FOUR PASTOR--WOULD YOU NAMS THEM? cop THE #ATHER, GOD THE SON,
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. BUT THAT IS ONLY THREE, wHo Is ong FOURTH, OH YOU KNOW

PASTOR, THE @0OD OLD GOD. IN HER IGNORANCE OF ALL THEOLOGY THIS OLD WOMAN HAD

9.

SOMEHOW GRASPED AN ESSENTIAL TRUTH THAT RINITY OR NO ony, NO MATTER
HGY YOU SAY THERE IS BUT ONE GOD, ONE ULTIMATE BEING 0 we SéfA/ WORSHIP.
CHRISTIANITY'S PRIMARY AND FIRST ASSERTION is THAT OF THE EXISTENCE
OF ONE GORD GOD ALMIGHTY. THIS AFFIRMAT. ON HAS ITS Roms IN THE ANCIENT
HEBREW CULTUREG AND RITUAISWHEN IT WAS THE MOST CNUs OF ALL OFFENSES
TO WORSHIP ANY DEITY BUT GOD, A GEIME PUNISHABLE BY pean. THIS IDEA WAS THE
BOMINANT ETHOS IN WHICH J#SUS BECAME A MAN, AND TODAY x IS A ULTIMATE CONCERN,
THROUGH THE GLASS OF UNCOMPRISING MONOTHELSM HST WE 100K AT JESUS--FOR HE Is
THE CONCRETE MANIFESTATION OF DIVINITY. IN HIM THE ONE cop HAS MADE HIMSELF
KNOWN TO MEN FOREVER.
IN RECENT YEARS BIBLICAL SCHOLARS HAVE BEEN vou IN A SEARCH FOR
THE ‘HISTORICAL JESUS" USING ALL THE MEANS AT THBIR prsPosa TO RECOVER THE
ACTUAL BEHAVIOR, REACTION AND EMOTIONS OF THE MAN IN nstToRy, JESUS OF NAZARETH.
WHY? BECAUSE WE ARE REALIZING THAT WHAT THIS MANZ DID is JUST AS IMPORTANT
AS WHAT HE SAID, HIS VERY OCCURENCE IN HISTORY FAR oun HIS MOWAL IMPsRA*
TIONS FOR HERE WAS GOD. NOT ONLY WAS GOD PRESENT AT canny HE WAS PaRSONALLY

INVOLVED.

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MeN DIO TO JWSUS OF NAZSRET BUT THE SPORYOF WHIT §OD-HAS DONE-FOR-MAN.

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Cok Voc dor Ves Wen
DEAR LORD GOD, DESCEND UPON US WE PRAY. OPEN OUR HEARTS AND MINDS TO THEE, 4 ND
GIVE US UNDERSTANDING OF THY MYSTERIOUS AND WONDROUS WORKS. HELP US FIND

MEANING IN THE LIE OF Je#SUS CHRIST, HELP US THROUGH Hil TO UNDERSTAND THEE.

AMEN,

BENEDICTEON - THE GRACE OF THE LORD J&aUS CHRIST AND THE LOVE OF GOD, ANDO THE

FoLLOWSHEP OF THE HOLY SPLRIT BE WITH You ALL. AEN,