Incarnation…Now What?

As we end the Christmas season and the carols stop much too early, I often ponder the name of my congregation – Incarnation.  Ours is not a congregation which has a special commemoration day like Christ the King or the day of St. Mark. We certainly prepare for Jesus’ coming during Advent and celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas but we don’t talk a lot about incarnation. Perhaps we should. Perhaps we all should as the New Year begins.

Incarnation means becoming flesh, becoming human, as God did in coming to live among us as one of us. Jesus was one of us, living in flesh and blood just as we do. God entered our lives, our humanity. God lives with us on this earth and the Holy Spirit lives within us.

What does this mean for a New Year? Will the incarnation be reflected in your life in the same old way? Have you given thought to what it means to be the reflection, the living out of the incarnation during 2018? Would you rather wait for 2019? I think the time is now. God did come among us as a baby, a real human and made known to us what it means to be God’s presence on earth. It’s not always neat and tidy but it is very real. And we are called this year to be about God’s work with our human hands. As we make plans for working to end hunger in the coming year, let’s remember that God is present – at the food shelf, at the community garden, with the flock of chickens in Kenya, with the bee hives in Turkey and the fruit trees in Jamaica – wherever our lives and gifts touch.

Be part of the incarnation in the New Year.

Vernita Kennen

Incarnation Lutheran, Shoreview