Advent Week 4
Advent Reflection Week 4: Fr. Lee Taylor
Sunday 24 December 2023
“And the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.”
John 1:14
This is a strange day! For most of today we will still be in the fourth Sunday of Advent, still expectantly awaiting the promise. But by this evening we will be holders of the promise again, as we celebrate the birth of the Christ-child among us.
We have journeyed these last few weeks with the idea of embodiment, introduced by Luke in our first reflection. Lauren reminded us of the “fleshiness” of the incarnation in the margins, and Dawn brought our gaze back to the cosmic reality of the Word made flesh, even as the Word is the Wisdom of God, the Sophia of God. John of course ties all these up. As Lauren reminded us of the creation narrative so John reminds us that in the beginning was the Word, the agent of creation. As all of the physical creation comes through the pre-incarnate Word, so now the creator becomes physical creature. The cosmic becomes local, a specific man, in a specific place, at a specific time. The Word became flesh.
We have a fleshly faith. And whilst later followers struggled with this and tried to dampen that emphasis, we cannot get away from the fleshiness of the incarnation. We are drawn today, to the baby, who as Luci Shaw puts it “is so new.” At every celebration of Holy Communion we are drawn to, and receive, the body and blood of Christ, the fleshy reality of the incarnate one, God with us.
For John, the glory that the Word has pre-incarnation, now fills creation. That includes you and me, and it includes us precisely because we too are fleshy, we are embodied. The Incarnation graces the whole of physical, material creation with the glory of God.
The Word takes on our flesh, redeeming our flesh, never again do we have to be ashamed of our embodiment, of our bodies. But not only does Christ become us, he lives as us, he pitches his tent among us. Who can resist a pun on “camp” when the word tent is served to us! And this is camp, this is queer, this is the upending of all the laws of normativity, the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us. He camped it up with us.
As we await the great mystery of faith, God with us as us, so we are brought back to the glory of the Word made flesh, the glory of our fleshly faith, the glory of our embodiment. As we wait for the promise, so too we wait for the glory we have been promised. We wait for the glory of the Christ child, we wait for the glory of all creation, we wait for our glory. Get ready to be glorious, for you are glorious!
Over the next week you might want to take some time away from all the festivities and remind yourself how glorious you are. A body prayer, like the one below, can be useful in doing this.
A body prayer:
Begin by sitting in a relaxed position, maybe with your back straight, feet side by side on the floor, and your hands resting on your lap.
Concentrate for a moment on becoming aware of the feel of your feet as they press against the floor. Notice the feel of the ground beneath them, any constriction of your footwear, the feel of each toe (you might need to wiggle to feel them!).
Now let that point of awareness travel up into your lower legs. Flex the muscles and be aware of how this part of your body feels. Let any tension you find there relax and flow away.
Let the point of awareness move up and around your body. Don’t skip any parts out of embarrassment, embrace your whole body. Notice the feeling in each place, and let any tension ebb away before moving on. Be aware of your body, aware of this is how you have been created.
When your point of awareness has reached you face and head and spent some time there let it gradually return to your feet. Slowly make the same journey again, noting new areas of tension overlooked in the first part.
When it feels like you are reaching a natural conclusion, allow your point of awareness to come to rest somewhere in your centre. Let it remain there quietly, maybe as you meditate on “the Word became flesh (like you) and pitched his tent next to yours.”
