Stained Glass: The Incarnate | KALEO PHX
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JULY 25, 2021
A flourishing church is a highly incarnational church. For us to truly see racial reconciliation, we must give an account of every racial injustice that has happened in our country. Which is messy...difficult...hard...but it must be done if we are to build multi-ethnic communities of healing.
I spoke at Kaleo Phx on Sunday, July 25, 2021 and this is a recording from that gathering. Below is a transcript of my message notes.
STAINED GLASS
“The Incarnate”
IN it but not OF it.
The incarnate.
In the world but not of it.
But what does that mean?
If you observe the stained glass on your left - you see all the symbols that represent the incarnation.
Jesus coming to earth born of the Virgin Mary.
One of eight stained glass windows at Grace Lutheran Church where Kaleo Phoenix meets in downtown Phoenix, AZ.
"The Incarnate”
The Cross & Crown – which represents that the King born to die
Jesus represented in the Root of Jesse
Star of David – Jesus is the "Son of David"
Roman helmet and coins – represent the time period in culture that Jesus was born -- "In the days of Caesar …"
Camel & Pyramid – the journey and Flight to Egypt
Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh -- Wise men coming to greet Jesus with gifts
Let’s take a look at the passage of the Incarnation which is:
MATTHEW 1:18-25
18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.
19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:
23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”
24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.
25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
WHAT DOES THE STORY MEAN?
This story of Jesus coming to earth shows us how to be incarnate.
To come DOWN and live AMONG.
Jesus lived AMONG us.
Understood us.
Didn’t do anything for 30 years but listened and lived among the people.
Understood the culture.
Not that He didn’t already understand all things…
But He lived long enough to establish credibility with the people He was living among…
Long enough for the people to believe that He truly indeed understood their lived experience.
Can you imagine that for 30 years...Jesus just...listened….watched...and lived among?
If we were to correlate it to Jesus living among us today...would be as if He understood the system of the FDA. How the food is designed to keep people sick and the medicines are too expensive to keep people well...because He lived among them.
A system built on money...those with power creating the need...and also the solution for capital gain’s sake.
Jesus understood how the sick tried to survive day to day...because He lived among them.
He understood the system of patriarchy how the women were seen as second-class citizens…names erased from the work...credit not given…the most vulnerable in the presence of powerful men...because He lived among them.
He understood the economic system...how the poor were looked down upon by the people who made them poor and upheld systems designed to keep them poor...because He lived among them.
He listened to how the oppressed were choking under the power of the Roman empire...because He lived among them.
Jesus was highly incarnational.
He saw it for Himself. Jesus gained an understanding of who they were THEN He began His ministry.
HOW DOES THE STORY RELATE TO US?
On Friday afternoon Kendall and I were invited by our friends at Roosevelt Community Church to have lunch with Robert Gurrerro from Washington Heights, NY. He was in town doing a training for Spanish-speaking churches and taught on the blueprint for a Flourishing Church.
He said that a flourishing church is a church that is highly incarnational.
The goal of a flourishing church is Shalom (peace) in The City. For THAT God with us.
The goal of a flourishing church is to end the systemic problems that keep peace from being among us. For THAT is God with us.
The goal of a flourishing church is to speak truth to power. For THAT is God with us.
To be Incarnate is to be IN something, AMONG something, and then because of your PRESENCE, you BRING PEACE, JUSTICE TO something.
To be Incarnate means to address the entirety of the system.
HOW DID JESUS PRACTICE INCARNATION?
Jesus’s miracles spoke to the entirety of the systems He was in and among.
In MARK 5:5-17
5 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.
2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.
3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.
4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him.
5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him.
7 He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!”
8 For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”
9 Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside.
12 The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.”
13 He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened.
15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.
16 Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well.
17 Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
Robert Gurrerro asked us this question:
Who was the demonic in this story?
Was it the man who was oppressed by the demon...or the ones who were upholding systems that allowed the demon to manifest?
Who was the demonic in this story?
Was it the man who was overcome, yelling, and cutting himself...or the ones who told Jesus to leave and get out…after He had cast out the demon?
Was it the one who had the demon cast out of him or the normal people who cared more about the economy than human life?
To be Incarnate -- a present church, a flourishing church -- means to address the entirety of the system.
For THAT is what Jesus did.
Let’s be LIKE Jesus.
Let’s not just deliver the man who is demon-possessed…but let’s ask ourselves what environments are we creating that’s causing him to be demon-possessed?
Let’s not just serve the poor and homeless…but let’s ask ourselves what policies are we voting for that are causing them to continue to be poor and homeless.
Let’s not just say that Black Lives Matter…let’s ask ourselves what ideologies and theologies have we been listening to that have discipled us into believing that they don’t matter.
Let’s not just address that BIPOC are marginalized…
let’s ask ourselves what are the systems at play that make them marginalized.
For to address the SYSTEM is to bring SHALOM -- true PEACE to a city, to a people, to a community.
Jesus was highly incarnational.
I had a call with Adam Thomason recently about our creative justice documentary project, Dipped In Bleach.
He asked me why I used the word racial reconciliation in my pitch deck and in my email when it doesn’t necessarily seem like a phrase I’d use. I told him I used it because I knew some of the people and churches I’d be pitching to, and although some of them have made mistakes when it comes to BIPOC, I know that they desire to be on the right side of history and seeking “racial reconciliation” is what most Christians will claim is important to them.
He understood and we talked more about the project before hanging up.
A couple of weeks later I was scrolling on Instagram and saw that Adam went to the Equal Justice Initiative memorial and filmed in real-time his reaction to seeing the nation’s first comprehensive memorial dedicated to thousands of African American Victims of Racial Terror Lynchings....which opened in April 2018.
While walking through the memorial he began to reflect on the word “reconciliation” and he said the word “reconciliation” is an accounting word. For in order for something to be reconciled you have to give a FULL ACCOUNT of what was done.
Everything must be accounted for.
So for us to truly see racial reconciliation, we must give an account of every racial injustice that has happened in our country.
Which is messy...difficult...hard...but it must be done if we are to build multi-ethnic communities of healing.
A flourishing church. A highly incarnational church.
If you take a look at the pictures on the screen you’ll see the EJI memorial of African American Victims of Racial Terror Lynchings has over 800 steel pillars. Each pillar represents counties in the United States were lynchings of African American bodies were done. These pillars contain over 4,400 names engraved on them...that’s over 4,400 African American people murdered in the United States for being Black.
What makes this memorial interesting is that not only do they have over 800 steel pillars hanging for people to actively see but next to it, they’ve created duplicates of these pillars so that counties in the US can claim the pillars and set up a memorial in their county for the African American lives that were taken — an initiative they’ve created to see reconciliation and restorative justice.
BUT...there are still hundreds and hundreds of pillars that are unclaimed.
When I saw the duplicates (the unclaimed pillars) I said to myself...this is the state of America.
There are those of us to who are willing to give an account but there are many among us who aren’t.
AND we cannot SEE the healing that we SEEK until we are willing to give a full account.
What we feel in this country is THAT tension.
We feel it in an attempt to erase history.
We feel it in the refusal to acknowledge history.
We feel it in the banning of Critical Race Theory.
We feel it in the refusal to accept the idea that maybe we don’t have it all figured out.
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?
Jesus was highly incarnational. Jesus did it at the cross.
The only reason we have been fully reconciled to God is because all our sins have been accounted for.
Jesus’s death on the cross paid the price for the sins that have been accounted for.
What makes forgiveness so powerful is that it is given...AFTER...we have given an account.
What makes mercy so powerful is that it is bestowed...AFTER...we have given an account.
That’s what makes love so powerful...is that it doesn’t overlook sin.
It doesn’t overlook injustice…
Is that it seeks justice and then chooses to love in spite of it.
Love seeks justice.
Jesus was highly incarnational...and we are...the incarnate — the expression of JEsus on the earth.
As the band comes up would you take a moment to be silent in the presence of Jesus.
My Challenge to you tonight is to ask ourselves...
PRAYER MOVEMENT
If we’ve been living amongst our neighbors for a year...but still don’t know what the overall systemic problems are…
Are we really listening?
Are we really living among?
Are we really living in it but not of?
Living in the world but not of it doesn’t mean that we turn a blind eye and become ignorant of the systemic problems in the world.
Living in the world but not of it means that we are fully aware of the systemic problems...and because we know what they are, we bring SHALOM -- peace, justice, and equality in the spaces and places we occupy.
Give us the ability to hold space for stories, names, wrongs, injustices and sufferings that have happened.
For to be in the world...and not of it...is to be INCARNATE.
Born of something different.
Lord Jesus, help us to bring peace to our city.
For that is what you did.
We hold space to follow your ways...practice your ways...and to live like YOU.
BENEDICTION
Until we see you again… may the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. See you next time.