John Beauchamp reflects on how the incarnation of God in the dependence and limit of a newborn baby challenges our understanding of God’s presence in the world today.
As Advent begins, we once again start our journey to Bethlehem, to a stable, and to a child, a newborn baby lying in a manger. And we proclaim the truth that is at the heart of the Gospel, this child is Emmanuel, God with us. Here in a manger is the ‘Word’ that has ‘become flesh.’ The creative power of God centred in this newborn baby who lies dependent, helpless and severely limited in the arms of his startled teenage mother.
As human beings living in a time ordered physical universe, we find it hard to step out of a chronological view of all that is happening. We speak and sing of Jesus who ‘was’ born as a baby but then became a man. We think of Jesus, the one who is Emmanuel, God with us, as growing up out of this dependent, helpless and limited state into a man who seems to be the complete opposite of dependent, helpless and limited.
But, as we gaze on the infant Jesus and proclaim him to be Emmanuel, we have to accept that even here, in this dependent, helpless and limited child, the fullness of God is present and evident. There is in fact no difference between this child in a manger and the man Jesus. He is Emmanuel, God present in the full reality of our human experience.
Dependence and limit are not solely confined to babies and infants though as we know. In different ways we are all dependent and limited, but for some this is particularly real because of disability, chronic illness, mental health challenges, neurodivergence and more. Our society devalues these experiences and consequently devalues the people who live with these experiences. But the incarnation, the birth of this child, Emmanuel, the Word made flesh, born into this experience of helpless, dependent limit, says something very different. It tells us that God is as present in these experiences as God is present in the most erudite and inspiring preacher. It tells us that human dependence and limit are no barriers to the fullness of God being present and manifest. And it calls us in the church to open our imaginations to experience that fullness in and through those that society has chosen to marginalise and devalue because of their disability.
What this newborn child tells us is that God needs no words to be fully present. God needs no ability or wisdom or cognitive capacity or physical strength or ability. No, God is as present in this child as God is present in the man who speaks words of wisdom and heals the sick. God is as present in this child as God is present in the man who carries his cross and bears the weight of the entire world on his shoulders.
The challenge this brings us is to recognise this incarnational truth in all people and particularly in those who bring a level of dependence and limit that causes our society to judge us as being disabled in some way. Our God who is fully present in this child in the manger, helpless, dependent and limited, needs none of the human attributes that our society celebrates and regards as necessary to be regarded as fully able, in order to be fully present still today.
The challenge is to find large enough imaginations to accept what this moment of incarnation means, not in its time-measured historical and chronological context, but in the context of eternity. Eternity, where God is not one thing and then another but all things all of the time. Both the helpless baby and the erudite Rabbi. Both the dependent child and the worker of miracles. Both the limited infant and the risen saviour. And then to take this incarnational truth out into the world with open minds and hearts, ready to encounter our incarnate God in every person we meet, and particularly in those who bring dependence and limit that has earned them the label of disabled.
God, in God’s wisdom, became fully present in the infant Jesus. Emmanuel in the midst of helplessness, dependence and limit. God is with us, incarnate and present in every human experience. The challenge of the incarnation to the church and the world is to recognise God’s wisdom and presence today in the dependence and limit that we all experience on our human journey, and particularly in those whose embodiment challenges the worlds accepted definitions of normality and ability.
So this Christmas, ask God to expand your imagination and openness to God’s presence, that you will encounter our incarnate God in your own places of dependence and limit and in the dependence and limits of others.
For more articles like this, sign up for Disability News
