3 posts tagged “incarnation”
James Martin's article in Slate yesterday (Happy Crossmas? Why Easter Stubbornly Refuses Commercialization) offers an insightful look into the troubling nature of contemporary Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus.
He also asks: why is it that Easter hasn't gone that same route? His answer is the Easter message doesn't sell:
Despite the awesome theological implications (Christians believe that the infant lying in the manger is the son of God), the Christmas story is easily reduced to pablum. How pleasant it is in mid-December to open a Christmas card with a pretty picture of Mary and Joseph gazing beatifically at their son, with the shepherds and the angels beaming in delight. The Christmas story, with its friendly resonances of marriage, family, babies, animals, angels, and—thanks to the wise men—gifts, is eminently market
able to popular culture. It's a Thomas Kinkade painting come to life.
On the other hand, a card bearing the image of a near-naked man being stripped, beaten, tortured, and nailed through his hands and feet onto a wooden crucifix is a markedly less pleasant piece of mail.
Martin suggests that it isn't only the cross, though, that defies crass commercialization; it is the resurrection story of Easter that won't easily budge:
Even agnostics and atheists who don't accept Christ's divinity can accept the general outlines of the Christmas story with little danger to their worldview. But Easter demands a response. It's hard for a non-Christian believer to say, "Yes, I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, died, was buried, and rose from the dead." That's not something you can believe without some serious ramifications...
Seems to me that some good, old-fashioned temple cleansing is in order.
From a recent issue of Food for the Hungry's quarterly magazine:
Everyone has a story. Our stories tell of our triumphs and struggles, our mountain-top experiences and seasons in the valleys that have shaped who we are....
But far from the fairy-tale like stories of the rich and famous, the stories you hear in the seedy villages of Africa don't start with "Once Upon a Time..."
On the contrary, they open with nightmarish scenes: "I was repeatedly raped during the genocide"; "I got AIDS from my unfaithful husband. Now my kids are infected and we are left to die"; "I am a widow and am terrified to think of what will happen to my children when I am gone."
These are some of the story lines we heard during our five-week tour of East Africa. We went to listen, to be present. We found that there is nothing more human than entering someone's story with them.
To welcome December and the Advent Season, a meditation on the Incarnation seems apt. This one is provided for us by C. S. Lewis, who, musing on the nature of God says...
If in fact the Creator-Creature distinction is what Scripture says it is, then the value in Lewis's observation and hypothetical question is simply this: more than revelation, the Incarnation shows us redemption.All three persons of the Trinity are declared ‘incomprehensible.’ God is pronounced ‘inexpressible, unthinkable, invisible to all created beings.’ The Second Person is not only bodiless but so unlike man that if self-revelation had been His sole purpose He would not have chosen to be incarnate in a human form. (C. S. Lewis, Miracles, chapter 10, “Horrid Red Things,” page 77)
Now think about the implications of this truth for our lives. Those who claim to follow Jesus should perhaps remember the saying, "You are the only Jesus some people will ever see." Try turning the incarnation from a noun (something to see) to a verb (something to do). God's Incarnation redeems. As we incarnate God to others, they are, by God's grace, redeemed.
Merry Christmas world!
How can you bring the good news of the Incarnation to others this season?
