The gospel — the mystery of the ages now revealed in Christ — consists of four wondrous realities. “Gospel” literally means “joy news.”
These four wondrous realities are joyful “mysteries” in the sense that for each of them “the last word can never be said.”
The pdf devotes one column to each reality. Rows correspond to:
- an icon (could be drawn on a napkin)
- a mystery
- a scripture
- a summary
- a description
- an exploration, and
- an application to life
Start with just the first row, in which each reality is represented by an icon that could be drawn on a napkin. Then, as you wish, read the next row horizontally. Just read one row at a time across the four realities. Read slowly; there’s no need to read more than one row per sitting; save the later rows for other times. Or read any column vertically. For example, during the Advent and Christmas seasons, run your eye down the left column (as in the text below). And so with other columns for different seasons in the church year.
The Incarnation (left column)
Mystery: In this season we celebrate the first mystery, the Incarnation.
Scripture: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
Summary: Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal God the Son, who came to earth to live as fully human. In him we may know God face-to-face.
Description: The spiritual reality is that, through God the Holy Spirit, we are brought into the mystery of the Incarnation. The Incarnation is historical but not merely historical. Jesus has dates: born in the reigns of Augustus Caesar and Herod the Great, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate in the reigns of Tiberius Caesar and Herod Antipas. Yet because Jesus is also divine, the Incarnation continues as reality past, present, and future, transforming the entire universe.
Exploration: As we celebrate during the Christmas season, Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us,” not a God who is remote from us. Startlingly, the true God became truly human; not just God-like or human-like, but really God and really human.
In this baby in Bethlehem, this man from Nazareth, God is revealed in our human flesh. He has come to live among us. He is human forever; he will never set his humanity aside. He relocated from heavenly glory to take up residence within the flesh of broken, fallen, suffering humanity, so that we might know the presence of God with us in grace and glory.
Application: Love one other on the model of the Incarnation. This means taking the first step in reconciliation. Don’t recoil, don’t wait for another to make the first move. Forgive before you are asked. Relocate to where another is. Enter into another’s pain and suffering, just as Christ took upon himself our our fallen human flesh. Embrace another’s weaknesses, be with them, for them, walk beside them, take their life into yours. Remember the old song “Walk a mile in my shoes”? An Incarnational approach to life means walking not only a mile, but a lifetime, in the other’s shoes.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
I first posted this sketch in “Marriage is the Gospel Made Visible.” See that post and its accompanying pdf for additional notes.
