Christmas Day 2008
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity
The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”

If you have been fortunate enough in your life to have made the trek to London, you of course will have had the experience of making use of London’s fine public transportation subway system affectionately known as “The tube”. You’ll remember riding the tube that as trains begin to make their way into a tube station and you are invited to embark or disembark from a train you’ll hear a lovely accented voice telling you to “mind the gap please”. The voice is there of course as a voice of safety and hospitality bringing you into an awareness of the gap that exists between the train itself and the platform of the station. “Mind the Gap” means, pay attention to it, become aware of it and in this case, try to avoid it!

Christmas day, this day, we celebrate the feast of the Incarnation! And on this day as we greet the words of John’s Gospel, “The word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth”. On this day I suggest that we might “mind the gap”, become aware of it, pay attention to it, and unlike the intent for which is repeated on the tube in London, I suggest that instead of avoiding it we are to open our eyes to living in it and discovering there a companion whose name is Jesus. I believe John’s poetic summary of God’s action in the birth, life, and death of Jesus of Nazareth, is precisely God jumping into the gap with us! The Gap of course is life, its struggles and its possibilities, real life, real lives. For Christian folk, this intersection of God’s presence in our lives is where the rubber hits the road, for we believe, in fact we stake our belief on the truth that God is present with us in our daily lives and that God’s presence took on flesh in the person of Jesus, in a time in history, who acted in salvivic ways and gave birth to a community of faith that celebrates this presence even now in our own day!

Parker Palmer in his recently updated introduction to his original work of thirty years ago entitled “The promise of Paradox” suggests that it is exactly in the Gap that we come to know the fullness of God’s promise for us and to the possibility of that promise taking flesh. To stand in the gap he suggests challenges us to avoid the alternatives of standing too firmly on one side or the other of life. On one side of life we may be too rooted in the harsh and hard realities of it, overwhelmed by its struggles and given to the darkness of cynicism. On the other side of life we may be seduced by the thought of too much possibility defined by irrelevant and unrealistic idealisms more accurately described as utopianism.

Dr. Palmer writes, ““The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” I believe this poetry describing God’s action in Jesus names what we are called to do, that is wrapping our whole selves around the truth given to us and live it out in our embodied lives.” The first century reader of John’s gospel understood the challenges of life on either side of the Gap. The hearers of this word would easily have been challenged by the dim and corrosive realities of life. Certainly not all, but many of the hearer’s of John’s word knew disease and famine, unemployment and disempowerment, sickness and death, poverty and injustice, not for all of course but for many. Equally available would be the false promise of sanctuary and safety, security offered in a Roman occupier whose image depicted on coinage suggested that all that was needed would suffice in the person and protection of Caesar, “Son of God”. Still other factions promised restoration of majesty and dominion, independence, and self-rule by the promised restoration of a monarchy in Israel. Still other communities of faith promised fullness of life by living apart in the dessert, removed from the challenges of everyday living in first century Palestine, and praying for a new day of Yahweh’s reign.

Overwhelmed by life or hoping for an idealized promised society, into this Gap the word becomes flesh, born of an unassuming virgin peasant girl. Into this Gap the embodiment of God’s word in the person of Jesus, a Nazarene, and he would live, breathe, love, bleed, cry, laugh, celebrate, proclaim, preach, heal, march in civil disobedience, and give his life in pain and sacrifice so that those residing in the Gap with him might do the same and bring new life in real people’s lives, living in real communities as a people of faith! This “word becoming flesh” would physically tap those who would listen and invite them to follow and him and become a new community that would stand for love, forgiveness, justice and compassion! This new community would bear witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and their witness would spread throughout the world! Here we are today as a result, real people, living into the Gap with real struggles, real hopes, and living real lives dwelling in God’s presence.

Dr. Palmer asks of us, Can we wrap ourselves, our whole selves around the truth given to us and live it out in our embodied lives? Can we stand in the Gap with the Word that dwells with us choosing not to let darkness and cynicism have its way, and not getting lost in a utopian ideal that robs us from investing our selves, our souls, and our bodies in action to God’s hope for the world?

If one is fighting for their life with cancer, Mind the Gap. Know that God dwells with you and with every tear, every struggle, every pain, every treatment, every fear, God is fighting with you!

If one is fighting for life afflicted with an addiction, Mind the Gap. Know that God dwells with you, with every craving, cramping, impulse and compulsion, God knows and is in your struggle and dares to birth with you something new.

If you are fighting for the justice of individuals or group in our communities, our country and this world, mind the Gap. We must know that God dwells there with you, knows the fears that might hold one back from marching or speaking up, knows the pain of being judged or rejected by the standards of others,

If one’s gifts and abilities are called to build, to feed, or to show compassion to the “least of these”, Mind the Gap. We must know that God dwells with us as our hands put flesh on God’s grace for those as nails are driven to build shelter, meals are prepared for hungry stomachs and hearts, and the lonely are lifted by a smile, a word, and dignity respected.

Finally, if we find our own lives lost too far on one side of the Gap or the other, overcome by the difficulties of life, or removed and lost in a false sense of utopia, MIND the GAP! We have to believe that God knows the pain of despair, and the distance created by promises of magic that cost us nothing. God joins us in the Gap and knows the way bring life out of the darkness and distance.

Bill Llewellis, the diocesan communications officer recently shared a parable told on an episode of the popular television program “West Wing” a few years ago. The program entitled Noel depicts a member of the president's staff who is told he has post traumatic stress disorder. He worries that he will lose his job. Leo, the chief of staff, an alcoholic in recovery, tells Josh this story.

This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out.
A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, "Hey you. Can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it in the hole and moves on.

Then a priest comes along. "Father, I'm down in this hole. Can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer, throws it in the hole and moves on.

Then a friend walks by. "Hey, Joe. It's me. Can you help me out?" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are you stupid? Now we're both down her."
The friend says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out."

Such is the gift and scandal of the Word becoming Flesh! Mind the Gap!