This morning a young boy was trying out his new scooter for the first time. At first hesitant. Unsure of balance. Within five minutes joyfully pushing along the sidewalk at speed.
Christmas gift. Joyous.
An early (the first) theory about spiritual life applying to Jesus explained the complete difference between spiritual and physical life. Everything physical (called the flesh in Biblical translations) is bad, dirty, evil. Everything spiritual is pure, light, good.
And never the twain shall meet.
A substantial chunk of the first writing about Jesus emphasized his physical side. He gestated within a woman. Was born, a baby, had to be fed and cleaned, and rocked to quiet. He had to learn to walk and speak the language (most likely more than one). No story of him in ministry even suggests that he was something other than a male human being.
Ah, but another chunk of writing tries to explain how Jesus was so uniquely filled spiritually. Writers have great difficulty trying to explain spiritual things. But several letters and other writings took great pain to try to explain how Jesus was so completely filled with the spirit of God.
(Later a bunch of smart theologian types came up with the theory of the Trinity to try to explain spiritual things in human terms. It remains a hard concept to understand for many people. I understand that difficulty and sympathize.)
These writers carefully and logically disputed the Gnostic view of life. (I’ve simplified so that I don’t have to write an essay.)
After Christmas we have a life of a real man. And he taught and showed how we can each have a part of that. He wanted everyone, not just the chosen few, to have a better life. Paul tried to define that life as the fruit of the spirit—found in chapter 5 of the Epistle to the Galatians: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
We will all shortly be considering how to live in 2024. Rather than some list of “resolutions” that we’ll never follow, we could say “I want to be the kind of person who lives that life.”
Faith Venture 
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