Here's one more piece on Nicodemus, in the section of "Let the Bones Dance" called 'In-forming Mystery.'
Nicodemus's last words to this story are: "How can these things be?" Jesus Was moving between heaven and earth; he was clearing a space for a new intimacy with God, for new proximity, a new horizon of being in God's presence. The Incarnation was and is an invitation for us to come closer, to listen and feel and see and receive, and to be there in God's presence. We are invited into palpable proximity, a space where our words and ideas and categories run out of steam, a space where the filing systems in our brains cannot find a place to put what is happening. Intimacy with God challenges us to "be there" even as we grope for words to describe, understand, and express divine mystery.
We are the way it happens. Through us - in,with, and under us - God is making for new life even when we think we are it already. To our surprise, we are not all there is and we are not all there was meant to be. Life keeps unfolding and it take shape around in ways that we cannot get our head around completely. A brilliant aspect of incarnation is the simple story line that calls us away from everything that attempts to restrict us and box us in - even when we want to be restricted and boxed in! There is a sense of wonder that is a part of the Incarnation. May that is what the shepherds saw and heard. They were given a sensory advance on how closely God was coming and would remain. They stepped down out of the field to catch a glimpse of that which they could not comprehend. And yet, those guys make it into the story we love to savor.
Connection: God in the flesh is all about presence - real presence. It is about you and me and Nicodemus and how we all see and live as though we see the Spirit's never-ending attempt to bind us all together as one.
Though you seem to be so far off, O God, you come among us and come so close - you become us. To that we can only give thanks and praise. Amen.
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