The Word became flesh and blood,and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes,the one–of–a–kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. John 1:14 | MSG
Conductor, and inspirational speaker, Benjamin Zander recounts the following story.
One of my most vivid childhood memories is of my father, dressed in a three piece suit, leaving on the overnight train to Glasgow. I asked my mother how long he would be gone, and she assured me I would see him the next evening. “Your father has some things he wants to discuss with a gentleman in Glasgow. They will have breakfast in the Glasgow Railway Station, and then he will take the next train back to London.” “Is this a special friend of his?” young Ben asked. Mother responded, that the gentleman was no one that he would know, and someone with whom his father only had a brief acquaintance. Zander admits that this answer puzzled him. He was only eight or nine years old at the time. “Later I asked (my father) why he had not simply used the telephone.” With raised eyebrows, shining eyes, and an index finger pointed back at me, my father answered:
“Certain things in life are better done in person.”
In person……In “flesh and blood.” The theological word for this is “incarnate”.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul notes that Christ came not only in person, but on time. “In the fullness of time – God sent his Son…” (4:4)
This Advent we celebrate the gift of “God with us,” a God who always comes in person…..at just the right time. The challenge for us all is to be ready. As Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us:
He comes when (we) least expect him – because he knows how badly (we) need to be broken into, and how hard (we) will resist…Jesus will come back like a thief in the night; so that we do not have time to lock him out. As long as we are successful at that, we will never know what a peculiar thief this really is, who comes not to take – but to give… (God’s Beloved Thief)
After all… some things are better done in person.
How Sweet The Sound,
Jon (the Methodist)