Incarnation

"Pro corpore eius quod est ecclesia"

His body...which is the church. Latin is great because it makes you slow down and think about the words.

Incarnation.

I've been reading Ryken's Christian Imagination, and, in conjunction with Ben's marginal notes, it's about incarnation too; about the literary incarnation or bodying-forth of ideas and words in the concretes of this character doing that in such a place and time.

The Bible talks about individuals imitating Jesus, but it sounds to me like it's also a church-wide thing. "God may always be here, but I want someone with skin on," said the little boy. That's exactly what the church ought to be doing: being Jesus with skin on.

The church, too, is made of particular people in a certain place and time. Lewis talked about that in Screwtape Letters. The trouble with humans is that we think of The Church and have a terrible time connecting that grand and glorious Body with our pew-mate who never can sing on key. It's got to be a renewing of the heart and mind, and vision, to see each other as we've been told we really are--and to see myself that way, too. Don't know about y'all, but I don't feel like much but the skin these days.

Jars of Clay's new song "Dead Man" relates too. "I'm just a dead man/lyin' on the carpet/can't find a heartbeat/Make me breathe/I wanna be a new man/tired of the old one/out with the old plan..."

How high is the stature of the fullness of Christ!