A Christmas story of the Incarnation

Most religions worldwide hold that God interacts with humans on Earth. But in the Christmas story, something quite different happens. In Christian teaching, God doesn’t just visit Earth, but becomes human.

Understanding that difference, say clergy and scholars, is key to grasping the theological underpinnings of Christmas. Even Christians brought up in the belief that Jesus Christ is God’s son may not be aware that this teaching, compared with other faiths, is unique.

The Rev. Clay Schmit, a Lutheran minister and professor of preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, says Christmas is about celebrating God’s grace that came “in this unexpected contrary form -- the most powerful essence of the universe is reduced to the weakest possible human being -- the newborn infant.”

As theologian F. Dale Bruner observes, “It is the central Christian conviction that the Great Invisible God became a real human being and lived among us as the historical Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, between 6 BC and AD 30 in Palestine.”

God choosing to become human -- the doctrine known as Incarnation -- shows that God understood that the only way to reach humans was for him to come to them, Schmit said.

“The distance is so great, there is no way any human person could imagine reconciling with God,” Schmit said. “Only God could do that. That’s the very central part of God’s grace. God knows that we cannot, therefore, God must, and surprisingly, magnificently, God did.”

It’s not easy, he added, for mortals to accept the idea that God would come down to be with them because that’s so counter to their natural instinct to put God on a pedestal.

“We’re so limited to control our own circumstances, we want God to be up there and in control of everything,” he said. “The thought that God would choose to come down and be side by side with us is counter to that natural instinct.”

Yet, that’s at the heart of Christianity, Bruner said. In an e-mail, he expanded on this theme:

“Our Muslim brothers and sisters do not believe that God would so lower himself because ‘Allah Akbar,’ God is great, and would not demean himself to be an ordinary human being.

“But Christian Faith believes that precisely because God IS so great, he shows his greatness in this great Christmas act of humility and condescension . . . by becoming one of us and even going to the . . . extent of dying for us as a common criminal. Then when God raised Jesus from the dead on Easter (the other great Christian celebration), God validated and authenticated, in history, the wonder of The Incarnation -- that all this was for real.”

The term incarnation comes from the Latin incarnatio, meaning “being in flesh.”

Technically, the doctrine of the Incarnation was adopted in the 12th century, theologians say. But, they also note that the word incarnatio was used by church fathers in the 4th century.

And, the corresponding Greek sarkosis or ensarkosis was invoked by the Greek church fathers in the 3rd and 4th centuries. The Greek verb sarkousthai -- “to be made flesh”-- is contained in the Creed of Nicaea of AD 325, authorities say.

That creed was broadened decades later in the Nicene Creed, recited by Christians to this day, which affirms the unity of God, insists that Christ was “begotten from the Father before all time,” and declares that Christ is “of the same essence as the Father,” according to the New Dictionary of Theology.

Bruner, a professor emeritus of religion at Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash., and author of a critically acclaimed two-volume commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, said the “Incarnation text” in the New Testament is John 1:14 -- “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

The Rev. Robert K. Johnston, a professor of theology and culture at Fuller, says Christianity has repeated the pattern of the original Incarnation, “seeking to enflesh the divine” in current and contemporary form.

“So, the Incarnation is not only an event but a lifestyle,” Johnston said. “It’s not only once and for all, but it’s ongoing. It’s our attempt to express our faith in the vernacular to both understand it and re-express it in the common and everyday. Just as in Jesus we see the God-Man, so we are called to be godly men and women in our very physicality, in our person, in our actions, not just in our thoughts.”

This connection is embodied in the “living creches” churches often stage during the holiday season.

The Church at Rocky Peak in Chatsworth is one such church, and after tonight’s service concludes shortly before 7, congregants and visitors have an open invitation to go “Back to Bethlehem,” down a steep hill to a two-acre “village,” made to look like the little town the night that Christians believe Jesus was born more than 2,000 years ago.

They will see angels pronounce “Glory to God in the highest,” startled shepherds in the fields falling to their knees, wise men on camels coming from the East bearing gifts, and a Bethlehem full of people who have come to register in a census decreed by Caesar Augustus. Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus will be there, in a cave-like stable.

In his Advent sermon tonight and Sunday at Rocky Peak, the Rev. Mike Yearley will touch upon this theme. Quoting passages from the Hebrew Bible, he will share the “back story” -- the ancient prophesies of the Hebrew prophets about the coming of the Messiah.

They prophesied that the Messiah would be a Jew, from the tribe of Judah, in King David’s line, born in Bethlehem of a virgin, and that this child would be a mighty God, Yearley said, referring to numerous verses from Genesis, 2 Samuel, Micah and Isaiah.

“If you don’t understand the back story, you can’t really catch what Christmas is about,” he said, adding that it would be like trying to understand a book without reading the first half.

At this time of the year, when it’s so easy to get caught up in the materialism of the season, it is important to step back to reflect, theologians say.

“Regardless of our belief in Jesus as the Christ, we can all look at Christmas not so much as a time of spending and consumerism, but as a time to reflect on the vocation of Christ as bringing love to the human community,” Schmit said.

In the search for meaning and spirituality, it’s important to look for symbols, he said.

Recently, a student in his preaching class had a baby.

“It was one of the most wonderful things that happened in my class,” Schmit said. “It’s important to look for those kinds of symbols to encourage and to strengthen our faithful understanding of the season.”

connie.kang@latimes.com