RISK

    We are ambivalent about risk, aren’t we. It threatens danger and unwelcome loss while tempting us with the possibility of reward. It entails exposure to concealed consequences and requires faith that future conclusions, in the words of Julian of Norwich, will be well and that all manner of thing will work out well. Risk makes us vulnerable to the unknown while demanding our agency to respond to that which is unknown. Risk is also the spiritual disciple of taking the next right step without the assurance of favorable outcomes, but the belief that it will lead to the next right step after that. Risk is a necessary part of becoming fully human, chancing the integration of our whole body, mind, and soul in order to flourish in our own messy lives.

    The incarnation is G-d’s embodied self-revelation to us through the local vernacular that we can comprehend - flesh. Quite risqué, it is G-d with skin-on. Relationally, the incarnation is G-d putting some skin in our unpredictable game of life, making an investment in us that is worth the inherent gamble. “The word did not just become flesh and dwell among us,” Ronald Rolheiser explains, “it became flesh and continues to dwell among us. In the body of believers and in the Eucharist, God still has physical skin and can still be physically present seen, touched, smelled, heard, and tasted.”(1)
    The mystery of the incarnation then, and the embodiment of Christ through believers now, serves as G-d’s ultimate conveyance and connection in action. It is G-d’s loving desire to be in intimate, authentic relationships with us regardless of the risk. Through a neo-orthodox theological lens (2), this is the greatest act of love. “[T]he very humanity of God is seen through the outpouring of God’s love, which,” Kelly Brown Douglas points out, “is God’s reaching out to be in particular relationship with humanity.”(3) This act of loving presence on the part of G-d is a natural overflowing of G-d’s love for G-dself in community.(4) Taking on the flesh of humanity, enrobing himself in our corporal nature, Jesus the Christ exhibited for us the paramount paradigm of humanity, integrating flesh and spirit as a model for our existence. The incarnate Christ demonstrates the perfected process of becoming fully human as the embodiment of exemplary right relationship with the Divine and the goodness of creation.  Therefore, as imitators of Christ, our becoming fully human compels us to emulate G-d’s embodied, loving presence in relationship with the created order. Like Christ, to be in loving relationship with the Holy One is to also be in loving relationship with others, just as we are in our enfleshed humanity. Also like Christ, this is the greatest manifestation of love made real, but it is also our greatest manifestation of real risk. 
G-d in Community is more than sufficient for G-dself, whole and complete - by definition, perfect -lacking nothing in perfect union. Creation is a cosmic consequence of Divine love overflowing and breaching the banks of the boundless borders of G-dself. There is no inherent risk in G-d’s divine loving of G-d’s-self, only absolute authenticity and mutuality in intimate appreciation and desire. Creation, as a blessed byproduct of such sacred erotic adoration, is not inherently risk-filled either. Contrary to Elizabeth M. Edman’s argument, in order to create us, G-d did not take a risk.(5) The risk came in choosing to love G-d’s creation. The incarnation of the Word, Christ enfleshed dwelling with us, is love embodied and risk revealed. Edman’s words, though, cannot be more true, “God put God’s heart on the line for us.”(6)
    Kelly Brown Douglas responds that although the incarnation is evidence that “women and men are loved by God, it is not inevitable that they will share in the love…To do so requires that individuals freely choose to share the love of God as God freely chose to love them.”(7) Therein lies the risk. It is risky to authentically love the other who is gifted with the freewill of choosing whether to accept or deny that saving love.(8) Freewill is gifted to all humankind, even Jesus of Nazareth. By taking on our humanity and perfectly embodying the integration of the Divine and the flesh, Jesus the Christ, the Word of the Triune G-d, takes on all the complexities of humankind, both risk and reward. 
G-d’s love is more than enough to take on the risk of loving us in our embodied humanity, with no guarantee that we will chose to love G-d in return. Revealing G-dself through the incarnation enfleshes G-d’s love for us, but “revealing oneself authentically carries potential risk.”(9) The risk of authenticity is necessary if the incarnate Christ is to model for us embodied human flourishing. “In order to find a deep, intimate connection,” as Edman says, “[to] love and be loved deeply, intimately - we have to reveal ourselves.”(10)

In the incarnation, G-d demonstrates that love is worth the risk of revealing ourselves authentically for intimate “communication and communion.”(11) G-d embodied this risk through the incarnation, taking on our human form - even in the precarious weakness of a migrant, houseless infant; even in the precarious weakness of an oppressed minority; even in the precarious weakness of a body battered and sacrifice for the other - all to love us enough to risk connecting with us. G-d risks loving us because G-d has faith in us - that we are worthy of G-d’s love. Isn’t that the miracle of the incarnation? That G-d is willing to Relinquish Indelible Sacred Knowledge (RISK) that creation will choose to love G-d in return requires G-d to give humanity agency in how we respond to G-d’s love. We know love, because G-d loves us first. We risk love because G-d risks love first. For us, that means we must Realize our Incomplete Sapience of Kenosis (RISK) and have faith in G-d. Ultimately, the Reward for our Inability to Substantiate Karmic-consequences (RISK) is to believe not only that G-d has faith in us, but that G-d has faith in G-dself - that G-d is worthy of our risky love, too. 

1.Ronald Rolheiser, Holy Longing: The Search for Christian Spirituality (New York:Image, 2014), 80.

2.Carrie Allport, “A Spirituality of Crisis” (GTS AT 399: Independent Study: Crisis & Kairos, 2021), 2.

3.Kelly Brown Douglas, Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1999), 113.

4.Belden C. Lane, “Christ’s Descent into Hell, Hadewijch, and the Fierceness of Love: A Spirituality of Holy Saturday,” in Spiritus 23, no.1 (Spring 2023), 146-154.

5. Elizabeth M. Edman, “Risk,” in Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and How It Can Revitalize Christianity (Boston: Beacon Press, 2016), 43-64.

6. Edman, Queer Virtue, 44.

7. Brown Douglas, Sexuality and the Black Church, 114.

8. Frederick Buechner, “The Road to Emmaus,” in The Magnificent Defeat, (HarperSan Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1966),  82-89.

9. Edman, Queer Virtue, 45.

10. Edman, Queer Virtue, 46.

11. James B. Nelson, Embodiment: An Approach to Sexuality and Christian Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 1978), 18.