Theological Definitions
Incarnation
In Jesus, God took on flesh and came to live among humanity. The sheer wonder that God, the Creator of the world, chooses to limit God's self to live among us in human form is staggering. There is nowhere God will not go in order to be with us. In the incarnational truth of Jesus, God experienced all that humanity has to offer, the good, the bad and the ugly. This means that there is no pain or struggle outside the experience and notice of God. We are never alone. It is not merely that God says we are loved, but God shows us it is true in the life of Jesus. And after Jesus resurrection and ascension, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are empowered and invited to live incarnational lives that bear the reflection of God's love to the world.
Grace
Grace is the truth that God loves us 100% no more, no less, no matter what. This is God's choosing. In the Divine's willingness to choose us again and again, we are freed to respond to God's love not out of fear of losing it, but out of the joy of receiving it. Grace frees us from obligation and instead ushers in an invitation into the kind of freedom that only unconditional love can create. Because of grace we can take risks without the paralysis of "perfection" because we know we cannot fall out of God's love.
The Body of Christ
The term the body of Christ holds two meanings. It brings us to the communion table, as we are again invited into the intimacy of the Last Supper as Jesus proclaims, "this is my body given for you". At communion we experience the love and forgiveness of Jesus in, with and under the bread and the wine. We are reminded of who we are and whose we are. And in this moment at the table, we experience the second meaning of the term the Body of Christ. Because at that table we gather with all believers in every time and place, standing humbly with hands outstretched, all seeking a sign of God's grace. Together, we are the Body of Christ. As people of faith, we are connected to one another through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. What a gift! Because this means that as the Body of Christ, one way we get to experience Jesus walking with us is by walking with one another.
The Theology of the Cross
This is an understanding of God through the lens of the crucified Christ that God is often found in the place you least expect God to be: in the suffering, the struggle, in the shadow of the cross. Jesus came to accompany us in all of our life experiences, even in death and resurrection. Jesus is a primary example of accompaniment.
Discipleship
Disciples are people who follow their leader/teacher so closely that they seek to model the choices/thought processes/life of their leader. Jesus is our leader. Jesus is our teacher. Jesus is the one we follow. The early Christian church, prior to being called Christian or church, were called 'Followers of the Way'. Jesus lays out a blueprint for what a life lived close to the heart of God looks like. This is the Way. This is Jesus. And it is the journey we are invited to take part in.
Resurrection
God makes all things new, rather than making new things. Resurrection makes possible the transformation of death into life, hatred into love, despair into hope. After three days in the tomb, Jesus resurrection shattered the inevitability of death and rewrote the story for humanity and all creation.
Liberation Theology
Liberation Theology is a movement in Christian theology that emphasized liberation from social, political and economic oppression as anticipation of ultimate salvation. Jesus is the model of advocacy and the valuing of the marginalized of society. Jesus constantly is befriending and caring for those who are pushed to the edges of society. And he redeems them. In the healing stories, people are not only healed of their physical ailments, but in that healing they are also restored to community. The restrictions and purity codes that are placed on them are removed and they are able to return, with dignity, to the community. And the community is in turn challenged as they welcome back the one who was cast out and shunned. The promises of resurrection and liberation were not simply a distant heavenly promise, but an incarnational reality here and now.