A Song of the Incarnation

A Song of the Incarnation

In darkness, sudden incandescent glory,

Confined to a single candle flame

That flickers, but does not go out.

“Confined” in a single flame?

No, “held” – it’s light shines out to all infinity,                     

Yet I can hold it in my hands.

No, not a flame held in my hands, but another hand.

The helpless, innocent hand of an infant.

I cannot help but take it when he holds it out.

He won me through his vulnerability,

Over-powered me with weakness.

To another, I am all bravado,

But I knelt to see him better.

Even to myself, I show just a façade,

But I could not help but smile when I looked on him.

I let down my defences, and he slipped inside.

Yet all powers of the universe cry, “Foul!”

You have cheated!

Power speaks to power and we were primed to defeat you,

But this play of weakness has wrong-footed us.

All authority shouts, “Desecration!”

You smear your majesty in mud,

You cover it with blood,

You demean it with woman,

You betray yourself with flesh.

Purity condemns your lack of judgement.

Committing yourself to them was bad enough,

But now you identify with them.

No, I have not said it right:

You are one with them.

No, I have still not said it right:

You are one of them.

You have compromised yourself with their weakness.

What you have done is impossible.

It breaks all the rules.

No, far beyond that, what you have done cannot be done,

Yet heaven shouts, “Glory! It is accomplished!”

If I was God, I would condemn you for this gross mistake,

But you answer to no-one, and that was the only way it could be done.

The universe should crack at the absurdity,

The mind implode at the incomprehensibility,

The Spirit rebel at being conjoined with this creature.

You have betrayed yourself, and they will repay the favour by betraying you.

And you know it, and you still do it!

And still I have not begun to say what cannot be said.

I cannot even think it.

But you thought it – and it was so.

Let’s gather our wits and put it into words.

As you have deigned to put the Word into flesh,

What shall we say about you?

That God became human.

The infinite expressed in the individual.

The eternal in a mortal man, doomed to die.

Omnipotence limited, but still entire.

The creator contained in just one place and time.

You, who see everything, seeing through just one person’s eyes.

Omniscience needing to grow in understanding,

And not knowing everything, yet knowing all that counts.

And all love held in one person’s heart and expressed in thought and word and deed,

Perfectly.