Becoming Fully Human
On this third day of Christmas, I continue contemplating the many layers of God with us in Jesus. The entire message is the Divine choosing to be born into the heartache and heartbreak of this messy world.
Christmas subverts what many consider to be the essence of being spiritual. If someone were to say to you that their goal for the new year is to become more spiritual, what do you think that would entail or look like? Now, consider the Christmas story and answer the question again. Ok, I’ll tell you where my head and heart are in the questioning. God with us, in Jesus, centers on becoming more human, on becoming fully human, which I would argue is quite the opposite of how many would describe becoming more spiritual.
Becoming more spiritual is to be more connected to the mess and milieu of humanity. Let me probe further. If you were asked to describe your understanding of heaven, would the description be more esoteric or more embodied? Through his presence with humanity, Jesus announces the kingdom of heaven is near, among them, and even within them. Heaven is not described as being somewhere else… at some other time… mainly after death.
Heaven seems to begin when we stare into the eyes of the Son of Man (which simply means the human one) and embrace the depth of being fully human. Before jumping ship because you have questions about being reunited with Aunt Margaret and your childhood cat Tootsie, ask whether Jesus was trying to send people somewhere else as his goal. Jesus didn’t come to send people somewhere else at some other time, or tell people how to go to a place called heaven after they die. Jesus didn’t tell people how to escape this life, rather he invited humanity into redemption, restoration, and reconciliation within this life. What exactly that means or looks like after death lies in the realm of speculation. I do not find it all that interesting or a good use of my energy to dwell on such speculation.
Whatever will be is rooted in who we are becoming today, in this very moment. So whatever becoming more spiritual is, I would argue it looks more human, not less. I find this truth in the Incarnation, or most commonly called… Christmas. God with us, in Jesus, is the affirmation of creation, and humanity being created in the image of the Divine.
Christmas is a summons to follow Jesus into what it means to become fully human. God does not ask us to escape humanity. Instead, the Divine enters into humanity, as “the human one;” to teach us what it means to become fully human.
I would argue this is what it means to become more spiritual; to follow Jesus is to uncover or rediscover what it means to be fully human.
