I’m looking again at the fact of texts in writing and thinking about some comments by those who wrote them. If someone hadn’t written down these things, there’s a lot we wouldn’t know! The same is true in our lives. Stories are passed down verbally from one generation to another. However, I know more about my great grandparents and great great grandparents from written accounts.
those precious written documents
My parents gave me many details, but what they told me isn’t as comprehensive as the narratives, genealogical charts, and volumes of family history they left behind. This too—I wasn’t always as interested as I should have been in what they were saying. Later, when I began asking everything I could think of, I missed all sorts of information I either didn’t think to ask about or didn’t understand, details I would later piece together, having missed the significance of what I heard earlier. Now I wonder, what were my parents’ homes like on Christmas morning? How did they celebrate Easter? How were spiritual truths passed along? As a Norwegian Lutheran (my dad) and as an Edgefield First Baptist person (my mother), they grew up in very different households! I miss the personal contact, and I’ve come to treasure what I have in writing, those precious written documents.
the gravitas
Both Paul and John talk about writing. John ends his third letter, “I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face” (3 John, vv. 13-14 a). Paul speaks of writing and adds a word about tone: “Your perfecting is what we pray for. For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to deal sharply using the authority Lord has given me for building and not tearing down” (2 Cor 13: 9 b-10). Both John and Paul note the difference between conversations in person and communications by letter. Verbal interchanges are more personal, more immediate, unlike the gravitas of a piece of writing. John looks forward to talking to his correspondent but makes use of writing as the next best thing. Paul acknowledges the greater impact of a person-to-person, but now in this letter mentions the benefit of a less direct exhortation that would be “sharp” if spoken directly. Written communications have other advantages besides preserving the past for us.
in the flesh
Yet both John and Paul seem to acknowledge the superiority of in-person encounters. Christians in the churches Paul planted wanted to be with him. At one point, fearful about his safety, they follow him to the ship he will take, begging him not to persist in his plan to go to Jerusalem: “And there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, most of all grieved by the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again” (Acts 20: 37-38a). People flocked to Jesus and not just for healing, I’m sure. They wanted to be in his presence, to hear the sound of his voice, to see his mannerisms, to note the color of his hair and eyes, to drink in the way he interacted with people. His physical presence created a precious moment, and they cherished it as did the Christians who followed Paul to his ship. These incontestable facts bring us to a basic of Christian doctrine: The promised one came in the flesh. As John writes in the prologue to his gospel, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1: 14).
God with us
The Incarnation is an essential of Christian teaching—i.e., Christ’s coming in the flesh. Taking on our mortal flesh to defeat death and save us from it, the Almighty has come to us in the person of God the Son. That is central to all Christian testimony. Looking forward, Isaiah announces Immanuel, “God with us” (Isa 7:14). Ezekiel’s prophecy ends with Jerusalem’s new name, Adonai Shammah, “God is there” (Ezek 48:35). John says: “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God” (I John 4: 2-3 a).
in the meantime
We walk by faith, not by sight, and while we wait to see the Lord face to face, we live in the written Word. We long for that in-person encounter, but in the meantime, what would we do without the Bible?
from The Edgefield Advertiser, oldest newspaper in South Carolina
April 29, 2021
with thanks for the great image: tim-wildsmith-B92vUB0rFuY-unsplash.png
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