What are you doing here?

The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. (John 1:14a, MSG)

Several years ago, way back in the days of VCRs and DVDs, I went to a local video rental store to rent a movie. This is when I was pastoring in a northern suburb of Chicago and it was more likely that I’d meet a parishioner on the street, as opposed to now when the odds are longer, which is what happens when you live in a city of 2.7 million people. As I was walking out of the video rental store, I ran into a family who attended my church. We exchanged greetings and small talk, but as I was chatting with them, I couldn’t help notice that their 6-year-old just would not stop staring at me with eyes of disbelief. I finally said hello to him, too, and he blurted out, “What are you doing here?” I think seeing a pastor outside of the church threw him for a loop.

I’ve heard others talk about the same reaction they had as children when they saw their teacher in, say, the grocery store. We imagine someone in a certain context and when they’re not there, we don’t know quite what to do with it.

I love this interpretation of John 1:14 in The Message translation of the Bible: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” Sometimes our images of God or Jesus are confined to stained glass or lovely paintings or cute creche sets. I would imagine many had the same ethereal images of God 2000 years ago.

But the Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. First as a helpless child born to a homeless couple and then as a wandering teacher who popped into places that people weren’t expecting and probably muttered to themselves, “What are you/is he doing here?”

We sometimes wonder, indeed, what Jesus is doing today. But the fact that he was once flesh and blood and continues to work through flesh and blood is the reason we will celebrate next Monday. He is still doing. Thanks be to God.