Encamped in human skin

On the heart of the Apostles' Creed

In previous posts on the Prayer Book catechism, we have considered what it is to be called by name, our vows against the Dragon, and the first clause of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in God the Father.”

We turn now to the heart of the Creed: "And in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary." For it is through this Son that we become sons and daughters of God, and in His Body that we take our place among the angelic hosts in the battle against the dragon and his demons.

The Eternal Word and Wisdom

In the beginning, the Father sang all things into being through His Word, inbreathing life with His Spirit. And in the beginning, the Word who was with God, was God. In the life of the Holy Trinity, the Divine Word is both the workman or craftsman, and also, the eternally begotten Son whose gaze holds the Father's in the delight of mutual and eternal adoration.

In that gaze, the Son mirrors the Father, perfectly reflecting His image. As St Paul writes to the faithful in Corinth:

"He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him."

As bearer of God's image, Christ the Word is also rightly called the Wisdom of God, in Greek, Sophia. The book of Wisdom depicts this Wisdom as "a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness." This connection between the image and the mirror returns in St Paul's famous passage about seeing in a "glass darkly." The glass in question is a looking-glass, or mirror, and the reason the mirror in our hearts is dark is that it is so polluted by sin and death. The Divine Word, Jesus Christ, as the most fully human possible, possesses that mirror intact and radiant.

He has possessed it since the Beginning. Although He was born into human history at a certain point in time, there is no time when the Divine Word was not one with the Father. In the beginning — bereshit, en archē — which is to say, at the very source of creation, beyond time, is and ever has been the Word and Wisdom who bears the perfect image of the Father, and by whose reflection all things in heaven and on earth are crafted into being.

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary

The Word appeared to patriarchs and prophets in the form of flame and cloud and angel, making God's mind known. His glory encamped in Moses' desert Tabernacle of animal skins. But only once did He encamp among us in human skin, when He assumed the flesh of the Christ. The meaning of St John’s word, translated as “dwelt” among us, is in fact “set up camp,” or “tabernacled.” That is, the God who once camped beneath hides of goats and sheep comes to us now in a tent of human skin, ready to mount the decisive part of His campaign.

When God revealed Himself to Moses, he concealed Himself in fire and cloud and in the Ark of the Covenant. On Christmas Day, the Divine Word has lain hidden for nine months in a maiden's belly. The Blessed Virgin has become the Temple of God's presence, ark of a new Covenant. The Word is born a baby, a Jewish baby in an occupied land, threatened with death by a puppet king. A manger serves as the suckling God's throne.

Born in David's city of Bethlehem, which means "the House of Bread," the new King reigns from the feeding place of beasts, and will become our daily bread. The beasts are dumb, yet they are among the first to greet the newborn Word. Their song of wordless braying joins the song of angels praying.

A great light guides the wise from afar, who know the Law of God only by its dim echo in the spheres. Yet they find in blood and straw a light stronger still, a light to lighten the gentiles. They anoint the Godchild with holy oil, with gold, burn incense before Him, mingling the animal odours with the sweet smell of sacrifice. The goldclad infant flickers in the scented cloud.

Amid the darkness of Herod’s immanent infanticide, the darkness of the beasts' lair, the darkness of a makeshift temple – a glistening. Light incomprehensible, for those with eyes to see through the flesh. The song of hosts of angels, for those with ears to hear through labour pains and animal cries.

This night, all changes. The darkness is as light. The arms that will embrace the world cling to Mary's hand with tiny fingers. The eyes of such compassion as to save sinners from stoning are crusted round with yellow sleep. The crown that will wear thorns wears soft infant down. The body that will free the dead and lift all flesh to heaven is caked with a mother's blood.

This is how God is with us. This is how the hidden Wisdom manifests in flesh.

The New Tabernacle Among Us

What the ancient prophets could only glimpse in shadow, the Incarnation reveals in blazing reality. The Angel of the Presence who spoke to Moses in the burning bush, who guided Israel through the wilderness, who filled the Temple with glory, has now pitched His tabernacle not in wood and stone but in human flesh and blood. The Word through whom the Father created the angelic hosts has taken on the nature He created the angels to serve.

This is why the demons tremble at His Holy Name. This is why Herod sought to destroy Him in infancy, and why the Dragon marshals all his forces against the Church that is Christ's Body. For in the Incarnation, humanity has been raised to a dignity higher than the angels themselves. We who were made "a little lower than the angels" have been elevated through union with Christ to sit with Him at the Father's right hand.

When we confess "Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord," we declare our allegiance not merely to a great teacher or moral example, but to the Commander-in-Chief of the angelic armies, the Word by whom all principalities and powers were created and before whom every knee must bow. In our baptism, we have been incorporated into His Body, made members of His cosmic campaign against the forces of darkness.

The baby in the manger is the same eternal Word who will return in glory to establish His kingdom fully upon the earth. Until that day, we who bear His name continue His mission, carrying His light into the darkness, extending His mercy to the lost, and standing firm against the ancient serpent who knows his time is short.

This is what it means to believe "in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord." Not mere intellectual assent to theological propositions, but enlistment in the service of the King of Kings, participation in His divine nature, and commitment to His victory over sin, death, and the devil.

The Light that shone in the darkness at Bethlehem now reflects from the mirrors of our souls, cleansed and polished by Baptism, into a world which desperately needs to see that the darkness has not overcome it.