Flesh of our flesh
what colour are you God
what's your body like
any disabilities, distinguishing characteristics would we spot you in a crowd would we stare at you for some deformity how many senses have you got five, six, eighteen, ninety four and what's your sense of touch like is your handshake firm as a vice or slippery as an eel
what do you smell of
anything in particular – the universe, for example planets, oceans, space, skies do you smell of petrol like everything else we believe your Spirit is always willing but is your flesh ever weak
and if the Word was made flesh
are you flesh of our flesh
bone of our bones
is that you there, meek and mild
all meanly wrapped in swaddling clothes
is that you Baby J, Word of the Father
now in flesh appearing
is that you screaming as you arrived
like the rest of us
screaming at the shock of the new
the shock of the cold and the old and the broken is that you Baby J
slipping clumsily out from between a Virgin's legs covered in blood and gunge and straw when moments before you had been covered in glory is that you tied to the mother of God by a fleshy cord sucking on a woman's breast for your very life what a come down still at least you had an audience cows was it, a goat or two did they look on in awe and wonder were the cattle lowing a bit or were they a right nuisance
but little Lord Jesus no crying he makes well, that's not true is it the thing about flesh is it makes you cry for better or worse, you've got to cry who is he in yonder stall at whose feet the shepherd's fall did they fall? did they recognise you up close ?
did they know that was you, God, in the flesh or were they just intrigued by the heavenly host and the funny star
and did the flesh inconvenience and annoy and anger you like it does the rest of us, your fleshy creatures did your nose run green your skin flake or bruise red did you itch your breath catch from asthma in that smelly barn your chest tighten in fear
and later on what did you do about your desires you know, the fleshly ones and, just out of interest, where on earth did you go for your private movements and are there miraculously fertile plants there today trees with roots for miles and branches into the heavens never barren, endlessly ripe...
or are those places where the divine squatted in squalor feeling quite a lot lower than the angels – wiping his bum with leaves – are they like every other place, where folks did their business with no particular supernatural horticultural memento and when you were tired, when it all was going wrong when your friends misunderstood, lost interest, wandered off did you think what did I get into this body business for swapping omnipresence for being somewhere in particular did you feel trapped in that body or didn't you know what it had been like before you became body when you were in-carnate could you know what it was like out-carnate
flesh can't be in more than one place at a time flesh is limited flesh is awkward you must have wondered at the restrictions of the corporeal did you ever notice , could you tell the difference?
and did the flesh also exhilarate you, excite you did you run and laugh and kiss did you sweat and wrestle and argue and if you longed to be more...were you grateful to have lived on earth a human in flesh to have become one of us he was little, weak and helpless tears and smiles like us he knew and he feeleth for our sadness and he shareth in our gladness how's the old body now do you wear a halo or a crown is it of gold or is it of thorns are there marks on your palms blood on the side of your shirt still ?
Jesus of the body, of the flesh, Jesus of the Spirit welcome to the body God thank you for being it putting flesh on the bones of our skeletal lives fleshing out the way life might be lived thank you Spirit of Jesus for becoming body among us thank you that veiled in flesh the Godhead we see flesh is all we have but, now you now – as well as any of us – flesh is not all we are flesh and bones
Martin Wroe
submitted by Julie
