Advent: God as Us

Image: When a Child is Born, He Qi. 

It’s a big call to claim ‘God as Us’. For some this statement would be viewed as being a grossly over inflated opinion of one’s role as a witness to God, preferring to use the old adage, ‘…it’s not about me, it’s all about Jesus…’

But this thinking runs counter to the meaning and reason for the Incarnation of God. That God stepped (perhaps squeezed is a better description) into the same physical frame that we humans inhabit reveals something of the mystery of our makeup, the divine and human colliding in one mortal coil. If it’s good enough for Jesus who was called the image of the invisible God, then surely it’s good enough for us who were called image bearers.

It’s harder to emulate a transcendent God. As long as God remains at a distance we formulate ideologies and doctrines ‘about’ God. We enforce rules and become focused on behaviour modification. But immanence, made possible through the incarnation invites an embodied experience, one where talking about God is replaced by active participation, a lived experience where we become ‘as’ God in the World that we live in. We are embodied beings.

We are in fact the bodies and the Body of God on Earth, representing the Divine Trinitarian community. Awareness of this gives meaning to the Māori concept of Whanaungatanga, a relationship of kinship where the interconnectedness between God and us, each other and creation brings forth a true representation of who we are called to be, ‘as God in the World’

In the words of God to Bruce in the movie ‘Bruce Almighty’, ‘People want me to do everything for them. But what they don’t realise is that ‘they’ have the power. You want to see a miracle? Be the miracle.

May we all come to discover the fullness of ‘Christ in us which is our hope of Glory’ and may this empower us to ‘live fully, because this is the glory of God. 

Linda