Incarnation versus imitation

I’ve struggled to write this week’s Pass the Salt – I’ve penned a lot of words, but nothing seemed to come close to what I felt I was to write.

I’ve had the heading ‘Incarnation versus imitation’ since the beginning but struggled with the rest.

The longer it has taken to write the more frustrated I have become. There was even a fleeting temptation to just put any old thing down. We all have off days, right?

And it came to me that this struggle was a great example of incarnation versus imitation. Let me explain.

You see, for me there’s the temptation to appear wise and all-knowing; to drop the profound golden thought and just let the credits roll in. But Jesus isn’t interested in making me profound so I can gain credit. He doesn’t want me to replace him, the all-wise. He wants me to let go of that burden and learn instead to just say as best I can what I think he is saying – nothing more, nothing less.

And this is the difference between incarnation and imitation. Imitation is me trying to be Christ in the sense of replacing him or taking his place in his absence. It’s the temptation to imitation that leads to questions like, ‘what would Jesus do?’

Incarnation is the belief that Jesus is still present and active right here and now. We don’t have to second-guess him. We get to ask, ‘what are you doing Jesus?’ and as we recognise his works we also see the invitation to join him.

This is a good ground for Nucleus Groups to explore: helping each other see where Jesus is present and active in our lives now and working with that...nothing more, nothing less.

From my perspective, he’s been penning this letter with me today. I’ve had plenty of false starts and re-dos but not one of them has been a failure. Instead they were all good examples of me trying to imitate Christ instead of listening to and working with Christ.

This final effort I hope is much closer to what Jesus stirred me to pass on. If so, then I am satisfied with letting God be God and learning to hear and obey.

I hope this makes sense. If not, talk to Jesus – he made me do it.