Mind the Gap

On my first trip to London I noticed the very helpful signs that were posted in useful places.  "Look Right" appears at crosswalks so that pedestrians check one last time for oncoming traffic.  And on train platforms the message "Mind the Gap" keeps passengers from slipping a foot into the space between the platform and the train itself.

While contemplating the ancient story of Christ's birth over the past few days, however, a very different application of the phrase, "mind the gap," came to mind.  The whole point of the Incarnation, the whole reason why God sent His Son, as it was taught to me for many years, was to reach across an unbridgeable gulf between God and humanity, and close the gap Himself.  In the same way, the purpose of the crucifixion was so that Christ could pay a debt, our debt, that we could not pay on our own.  Both of these interpretations suggest a separation between God and God's beloved human community that has never made sense to me.


I've begun to imagine an alternative interpretation to the Gospel stories, and it begins with the question, "What if there is no gap?"  In fact, what if there never was a gap to begin with, that it was all a mistake of perception on our part, and we can never be anywhere that God isn't?  It's intriguing, and for me, compelling.

For example, if God was so very distant, how do we explain passages in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) that point to God's intimate presence with God's people in every imaginable circumstance?  How could God seek out Moses in his exile from Egypt, lead him back to Pharaoh, then accompany the people all through the wilderness until they found their way home?  How could God speak directly to the hearts of the prophets, sometimes with a voice of thunder, sometimes in a whisper, encouraging them to speak truth in all circumstances?  How could the psalms capture such intimate expressions of faith and trust, as in Psalm 22:  "But Thou art He that took Me out of the womb; Thou didst make Me hope when I was upon My mother’s breast."  There are other examples, this is just a brief sample.  But it's an indication of why I am not persuaded that God has ever been all that distant from God's people.

So what does the Incarnation teach us, if not that God graciously and finally closed the gap between Himself and us?  My working theory is that over and over God chooses ways, not to close the gap, but to show us that there is no gap.  If Mary's pregnancy was a miracle from God, how is that different from every other pregnancy which, in spite of all we know about gestation and birth, seems to take a miracle to result in a healthy baby?  If Jesus was God's expression in human form, in the most humble and lowly of circumstances, in what way is that different from the thousands of God's children born into poverty and need all over the world?  (Let me hold aside the argument over what "only-begotten" means for the moment.)

I am more and more convinced that we need to mind the theological gap that we assume to be between God and ourselves and decide whether it's really there or not, and if so, what is its nature?  How did it come to be there?  Does it need to be bridged or simply dissolved?   Attempts to answer these questions will lead into the nature of sin and redemption, which I plan to take up soon.  For the moment, let me state what I actually think, at least at the present moment, about the Incarnation.

I believe that Jesus is completely human and completely divine, and that he is so as a way of alerting us that we are all in some measure both human and divine -- that God's presence has never not been intimately infused into our very being.  If we can begin to actually believe it about Jesus, then perhaps we can believe it about ourselves.  And if we can believe that about ourselves, then perhaps we can even believe it about other people.  These first steps have the potential to shift both theology and politics, and for that reason alone, I think it will  be worth pursuing.

I welcome your thoughts as I consider all that this shift will mean.  Blessed Christmas Season to all.