The heart of the matterThe heart of the matter: the reality of God

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Dec 21, 2008

As part of a conscious effort to devote some time each day to my religious faith, I've been reading "A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer," a collection gathered from his letters, writings and sermons.

Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran minister and theologian who died at the hands of the Nazis during World War II.

Bonhoeffer makes a point of emphasizing the importance of one of the central mysteries of Christianity, the Incarnation.

As we approach Christmas, it seems appropriate to me to take the time to consider more fully the implications of this act, especially as it regards humanity and the connection between God and the world in general.

As Bonhoeffer writes, "Christ is not a principal according to which the whole world must be formed. ... Christ does not teach an abstract ethic that must be carried out, cost what it may. Christ was not essentially a teacher, a lawgiver, but a human being, a real human being like us."

I think of these words as I look around at various nativity scenes and other depictions of Christmas.

Bonhoeffer's words ring true to me because what we see in the manger is not a "principal" or an "abstract ethic."

Instead we see an infant surrounded by his parents and by others who have come to pay reverence to this child, this very human infant.

Bonhoeffer goes on to note, "God did not become an idea, a principle, a program, a universally valid belief, or a law; God became human."

How simple and how true this statement is. The Incarnation isn't about theology or ethics. At its root, it's about God becoming human, a human like the rest of us.

My point isn't to claim that because Jesus was a human that we are all like Jesus.

From what we know of Jesus' life, primarily through the Christian gospels, he did live a most extraordinary and exemplary life.

Jesus, as Flannery O'Connor once wrote, threw "everything off balance." However, he accomplished this feat by living a relatively normal life. He didn't live as a king or a god; he lived as a man, a Jewish man.

For me, part of the challenge of Jesus is that in his teachings and actions he continually urged his disciples to find what unites us as humans and engage in the radical act of treating everyone with respect and love.

In seeing their full humanity, Jesus believed we could see we are all God's children. Christians must fully live in this world in order to find glimpses of the world beyond.

As Bonhoeffer concludes, "What matters is participating in the reality of God and the world in Jesus Christ today, and doing so in such a way that I never experience the reality of God without the reality of the world, nor the reality of the world without the reality of God."

May you experience the reality of God this Christmas season.

Nicolas Shump is a doctoral

student in American studies

at The University of Kansas.

He can be reached at Nico1225@sunflower.com.