body

Becoming Real Human Beings

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
The Nativity, ​El Greco, via Wikimedia Commons
 
You became human, really human.
While we endeavor to grow out of our humanity,
    to leave our human nature behind us,
    You became human,
    and we must recognize that You want us also to be human –
    really human.
Whereas we distinguish between the godly and the godless,
    the good and the evil, the noble and the common,
    You love real human beings without distinction. . . .
    You take the side of real human beings and the real world
        against all their accusers. . . .
 
But it’s not enough to say that You take care of human beings.
This sentence rests on something
    infinitely deeper and more impenetrable,
    namely, that in the conception and birth of Jesus Christ,
    You took on humanity in bodily fashion.
You raised your love for human beings
    above every reproach of falsehood and doubt and uncertainty
    by yourself entering into the life of human beings as a human being,
    by bodily taking upon yourself
    and bearing the nature, essence, guilt, and suffering of human beings.
 
Out of love for human beings, You became a human being.
You do not seek out the most perfect human being
    in order to unite with that person.
Rather, You take on human nature as it is.
 
after Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906 – 1945 German Lutheran theologian and martyr

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John 1:14

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
    and we have seen his glory,
    glory as of the only Son from the Father,
    full of grace and truth.
 
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How do you value your own humanity 
   in light of the reality that God chose to become a human being?

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Living puzzles and the Kingdom of God

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
 
 
All praise to you, Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
    who Spirits your church into being,
    making us members one of another.
It is a great mystery that we are your body.
But we praise you for it,
    for otherwise we would be alone – 
    condemned to live alone, to die alone.
But you have given us one another in all shapes and sizes.
 
We do not fit together all that well,
    but we pray that the puzzles of our lives 
    may please you and entertain you,
  so that in the end we add up to be your kingdom.
Help us to live with the confidence of that kingdom,
    in light of your Son’s resurrection,
  so that when all is said and done, this may be said:
“They were a strange lot, but look how they loved one another.”
Amen
 
Stanley Hauerwas, 1940- , American ethicist and theologian
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Together, we are his house, 
    built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. 
And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 
We are carefully joined together in him, 
    becoming a holy temple for the Lord.  
Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling
    where God lives by his Spirit.

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ever looking for Christ’s return

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
image, Donatas Dabravolskas, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
 
O SON OF GOD AND SON OF MAN,
You were incarnate, suffered, rose, and ascended for my sake;
Your departure was not a token separation
     but a pledge of return.
Your Word, promises, and sacraments proclaim your death
    until you come again.
That day is no horror for me,
    for your death has redeemed me,
        your Spirit fills me,
        your love animates me,
        your Word governs me.
I have trusted you and you have not betrayed my trust;
     I have waited for you, and have not waited in vain.
You will come to raise my body from the dust,
    and re-unite it to my soul,
    by a wonderful work of infinite power and love,
    greater than that which bounds the ocean’s waters,
        ebbs and flows of the tides,
        keeps the stars in their courses,
        and gives life to all creatures.
This corruptible shall put on incorruption,
    this mortal, immortality,
    this natural body, a spiritual body,
    this dishonored body, a glorious body,
    this weak body, a body of power.
I triumph now in your promises,
    as I shall when they are performed,
    for the head cannot live if the members are dead;
Beyond the grave is resurrection, judgment, acquittal, dominion.
Every event and circumstance of my life will be dealt with – 
    the sins of my youth, my secret sins,
    the sins of abusing you, of disobeying your Word,
    the sins of neglecting minister’s admonitions,
    the sins of violating my conscience – 
        all will be judged;
And after judgment, peace and rest, life and service,
    employment and enjoyment, for your elect.
O God, keep me in this faith, and ever looking for Christ’s return.
 
 
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And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 
    so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, 
    will appear a second time, not to deal with sin 
    but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

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