Incarnational MiNISTRY
Jesus at the Center
Jesus, God Incarnate, has meaning beyond just the birth of Jesus. It means God is active in His Creation, not only giving sustenance for its continuation, but interacting with it and us in love and generosity. Thus, "if God is truly generous, would we not expect to find him at work everywhere and in such a way that all human beings could not only respond to him, however implicitly, but also develop insights from which even Christians could learn"* God is active in both the material and spiritual world, yet He transcends both. The Incarnation is God coming and being together with His Creation, remaining wholly other, and somehow, incomprehensibly taking on our createdness, being with us, all in order that we and His Creation might be fully related to Him. This truth necessitates that it is central to our lives and the ministry of the Church. Through the advent of Christ coming and dying on a cross for our sin, then being resurrected, conquering death, the door for our salvation is opened, and our redemption is made complete, redeeming our lives such that we and creation are brought back into intimacy with our creator. Our world is filled with points of contact with God, demonstrated most prominently with the Incarnation of Jesus. His time on earth and the work he did opened the door for us to be invited to participate in relationship with God. To be human is to live in the context of both the material and spiritual. This means our lives and especially the ministry of the church become incarnational in the sense that at every point, Jesus is touching us in both worlds, reconciling it and advancing the Kingdom of God. We find our lives residing in His Kingdom. The Kingdom of God brings life and restoration, because in Christ, there is life. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4 ESV). This living in the Kingdom means we seek to be aware of God's purposes, His love, and that which He is doing around us and in us. It means we allow Christ to be at the center of each of our relationships and all of our activities. We find ourselves participating in the Kingdom of God, being where Jesus is and walking alongside Him doing the things He is doing as He leads.
*David Brown, "God and Enchantment of Place: Reclaiming Human Experience."
Oxford: England. Oxford University Press, 2004.
St. Martin's Anglican Church Las Vegas, Nevada