Christmas Reminds Us That Christians Are Materialists

"The Word became flesh," wrote John, "and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). That is what Incarnation means. It is untheological. It is unsophisticated. It is undignified. But according to Christianity, it is the way things are.

All religions and philosophies that deny the reality or the significance of the material, the fleshly, the earthbound, are themselves denied. Moses at the burning bush was told to take off his shoes because the ground on which he stood was holy ground (Exodus 3:5), and Incarnation means that all ground is holy ground because God not only made it but walked on it, ate and slept and worked and died on it. If we are saved anywhere, we are saved here.

One of the blunders religious people are particularly fond of making is the attempt to be more spiritual than God.

--Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking