Incarnection

Incarnection.

It’s not a word and I’m not proposing that it become one, but I do want to explore the intersection of connection and incarnation in light of the Church’s ministry during and post-Covid. I confess to you now that there are more questions below than answers, but perhaps their proposition will be work enough for today.

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To “connect” can mean such a variety of things these days.

You know them well: We have WiFi connections, airport connections, and if we have a lot of contacts in our phone, we’re well-connected. It’s also an electrical term, meaning that if something is plugged in or two nodes are actually touching, they are “connected.”

As I fumbled with setting up a live stream scenario for our church to send out a service each week early during the pandemic, I found out pretty quickly that the WiFi connection in the chapel, while strong, was not nearly as strong as running a hard-wired RJ45 cable from the modem in the basement up two floors to the sanctuary. It turns out that this connection was better when touching from end-to-end, rather than over the air.

(If the fire marshall ever saw the state of our building, with cables and wires running all over the place, she might have shut us down. Good thing no one was in the building except me!)

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Over the years, various ecclesial authorities have required certain metrics of local church leaders. A form of assessment, the question was inherent: Are we connecting with the people? Are they in worship on Sunday morning (in the building, of course)? Are they coming to catechism and Sunday School? Are they giving? Are they participating in acts of service and compassion? How many? Fior how long?

Questions around the incredibility of these metrics were already growing prior to Covid. The pandemic has only further exacerbated their worth.

What is it now to connect with people, whether as the Church or elsehow? How do we assess the fruit of the Church’s labor?

The biblical story narrates a God who firstly connected with humanity through creative means: dust and dirt infilled by the breathy Spirit of God. But soon enough, a distance between God and humanity played out through intermediaries, mainly the prophets. God spoke mostly from a distance, over the air.

But when Jesus entered the world, something rather different came into play (‘In these last days…”). God met humanity in a way not known before, this time in proximity and not by proxy. The ministry of God fleshed out through touch-y ways: a healing hand to the eyes, eyes giving looks and gazes of love, shared meals at the same table (and Table). There is mystery to be acknowledged in the Incarnation, but the fleshy proximity is pretty clear. Even when the Spirit descended some time later, something significant of proximity is understood to be happening.

Questions of presence abound. What is it to be present together? Can presence be known across wires (and no wires!). We all know that we can even be physically proximate and yet not truly present. And real conversations can indeed be had across the mediums of Zoom and FaceTime. Are there deeper connections inherently present with physical proximity that cannot be replicated virtually? …and just how important are those to the work of the Church? When is technology a servant and when is it a master?

(Yes, I’ve heard of Paul and it’s true: the Apostle wrote letters and used state of the art technology to connect with the churches he planted. But just how often in those letters did he say he longed to be present with them? Perhaps his greatest image illustrating the best nature of Christ’s people is the Bodily one. What is a hand if not connected to the wrist or a foot if not connected to the ankle?)

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Of course, virtual connection is a connection. A text is a communication. A live-streamed time of worship is worship.

…just as much as God’s message through Moses’ to the Israelites was indeed the Word of God.

But in Christ, God seems to be working a deeper connection in which proximity plays a central role. What does “in these last days” look like in light of these last two years?

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