Incarnation is a pretty big seminary word we like to throw around at Fuller. But what the crap does it really mean? The idea comes from God coming down in human form, Jesus, to come to us, to meet us on our turf, to share with us the gospel. What does that mean to us? Maybe we need to stop inviting people to church and instead be the church to them, be Jesus to them, on their terms, on their time, on their grounds. Because some people, no matter how hard you coerce them, will never go to church. Those are the people who need Jesus the most.

If we are to truly embrace a theology of the incarnation, we must go where we are uncomfortable.

From the fiery tongue of Luther:

“The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared?” (emphasis mine)
-Martin Luther

And some other encouraging quotes:

“[...] reaching people far from God is messy.  They cuss…they have serious issues…they smell…they drink…they live lifestyles that are at times really repulsive.  Reaching people far God also means going to places that church folks have been taught not to go.  People FAR from God do not hang out in Starbucks or Junior League meetings…they hang out in bars, porn shops, downtown streets, bowling allies, courtrooms, emergency rooms and R-rated movies.  It’s not easy…it’s not pleasant…it’s not always rewarding.  However, reaching people far from God with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what the Father called us to do.” (emphasis mine)
Chris Elrod, from his blog post, You Gotta Love That Sh*t

“If you’re uncomfortable, then you’re doing a good job!”
-Johnny May on contact work

I hope that you find God wherever you are, because He surely finds us wherever we go. He has entered into our reality, with real flesh and bone, to experience our highest joys and our lowest pains. May you know that God does not hide in church attics, but chases after the prostitutes on the street corners. May you trust that He cares more about you running into His arms than about you cleaning up your act. And may you see that God’s healing belongs to the broken and that His kingdom is in the @#$%.

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10:24 am – About to leave for Verdugo Hills. Nervous, like usual, but a bit more than I have been, maybe because last week there was no school because of Thanksgiving, or maybe because I plan on bringing in some food from Taco Bell (hence the free tacos). I’m not sure how they’ll respond, and I’m not sure I care, but it still makes me nervous.

10:53 am – In line at the drive-thru for Taco Bell. Ordering 20 tacos. All three kinds of sauce.

11:00 am – On campus. Run into Tamar, her brother, and Amanda (three Believer’s Club leaders). Head up to the library for a second to say “Hi” before the bell rings.

11:06 am – Bell rings and lunch begins! I head down out into the common area where everyone eats lunch and found where the kids I’ve been hanging out with lately were at. I start handing out a few tacos and they are thrilled to have some free food.

I hand out tacos to all of the kids I know by name and have a bunch of kids I do not know come up and ask for some. I meet a few new kids and try to have some conversations with them.

At one point this one kid, whose name I cannot remember, came over and asked for a couple of tacos for his friends, a couple girls who were too nervous to come down and ask for one themselves (I later found out he was just lying for a couple of tacos). But not satisfied with his request, I ask who the girls were and shouted out one of their names and toss a taco up to her. She had no idea I why I was throwing a taco at her, but the shot was bad and I hit another kid nearby (another kid I luckily knew already) and the taco exploded all over the place. It lands on the ground and another kid runs by and picks it up.

I tried to convince one of the kids, Arin, to eat nothing but the hot sauce. I even said I’d give him a dollar. So he went for it, but he didn’t get very far, and almost started to throw up! It was pretty gross. Another kid, CJ, though ate the hottest sauce and didn’t even flinch. I gave him the dollar.

I could tell most of the kids there were at least beginning to get comfortable around me because they kind of began to circle around me and all I did was sit there. With that in mind, it feels a lot easier to meet new kids, sometimes they join the circle and I make a point to find out their name, or I sit next to them and just chat for a little bit. I offered one kid a taco and make some light conversation with him. His name was Paul and I found out his dad lives in Chicago. The dollar I gave CJ was actually his, so I owe him money now! I never thought I’d be so happy to know I owe this kid a dollar. He had obvious seen me around because he asked me if I came every Friday to lunch–even though I didn’t recognize him before.

11:36 am – The bell rings to end lunch and I head over to the coach’s office to talk to Coach Mojica about helping out with track. The meets are usually on Friday, which works great for me. Practices are every other day, with the hard days being Tuesday and Wednesday. I think what I’ll do is go for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, and try to work in my 20 hours the rest of the week so that I can still hang out at lunch on Fridays.

12:03 pm - I head over to Olde Town Cafe on Commerce in Tujunga with Chris from Chapel of the Hills to talk about Life Hurts. God Heals., a program designed like Celebrate Recovery for students. We talk about possibly doing a program like this together for our kids and some of the kids in the community, for those who might need such a program to help them deal with the problem they are going through. We also get into a conversation about sharing leadership resources and even doing some “training” together. “Why reinvent the wheel?” He asks. We talk a bit about Phyllis Tickle’s analysis of the church today, and how churches can accomplish so much more for a community by working together instead of working against each other, even inadvertently. It was a good conversation.

Now I’m back home working on a final paper for a class!

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