3 posts tagged “redemption”

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...

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)

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.

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?

At this year's annual gathering of pastors, elders, and church leaders for the Presbyterian Church in America (my denomination), I picked up a copy of Ruminate, a magazine by artists and poets for anyone who enjoys a different angle on the Christian faith.

I finished the Spring 2007 issue today and look forward to meeting with these folks the next time I visit my parents in Ft. Collins, and, when I have the money, to subscribe.

Meanwhile, here's a piece from the issue I just finished for your poetical appetite:

Profit by Joe Ricke

When the whore, his wife
Staggered back to their run-down dump of a home
And cursed him quick before collapsing
Spread-eagled on their tainted bed,
When he kissed her drunken, fevered lips
The taste of her many lovers mixed
With cheap liquor and the flesh of pork,
Hosea believed in Yahweh

(Joe Ricke teaches English at Taylor University. He mostly writes about early drama, but sometimes waxes poetic.)

I take a naturalist to be someone who deligihts in the flora and fauna of creation, and relishes the journey. He has scientific knowledge, but is more of an artist than a lab technician. Philsosophical naturalism, then, is not some new theory of the world, the universe, and everything, but describes a hiker's journey through the world which awaits His Redemption.