Chesterton and Christmas

As I see it…
GK Chesterton once wrote a book entitled, Everlasting Man. Among other matters, he addressed the idolatrous heart of man who, has down through history, tried to “create” gods (via wild imaginative thinking) that were a mere extension of himself; these gods just had greater powers than man. Likewise, mankind has also sniveled around and generated small images of gods before which he would bow and to which he could present votive gifts or offerings. In any case, Chesterton would take idolatrous humanity to task for such feeble efforts to reach out to or comprehend “god.” Two and a half millennia before Chesterton, my friend Isaiah was likewise holding forth on man’s idolatrous tendencies. From chapters forty-three through forty-six, Isaiah uses divine sarcasm to humiliate the efforts of his peers to construct a god they could worship. Using the same log, they would: 1) start a fire by which they would warm themselves, 2) cook food to feed themselves and 3) carve an idol to worship and thank for the log which became the versatile utensil of fuel and worship. But later on, the Holy One of Israel, speaking once again through his prophet, addressed the issue of idolatry from a greater perspective, i.e. time versus eternity. Even if man could fathom a “god” or construct an idol that would serve as a comprehensive-spiritual-need-provider by which his conscious could be salved and his aching heart quieted, he is still faced with the suffocating reality that it was a “god” which man had created. This would not/could not be a “god” of any spiritual substance. In fact, to hear the Lord describe himself and his existence, we are left in utter amazement: For thus says the high and exalted One who dwells in eternity, whose name is Holy, “I live on a high and holy place… As astounding as that divine description is, the Lord offers a paradox of equal astonishment, “[I also dwell] with the lowly and contrite of heart.” And the only way to cross the chasm of eternity to modernity is via the path of the incarnation. In Christmas, the quest for God is resolved; not by man, but by the Eternal One himself!

Shabbat evening ramblings

Well, we have surrendered to the onslaught of billions of little white flakes and once again concur with the psalmist's pondering: who can stand against the cold of the Lord! We have canceled all of our services tomorrow as we endure about 16-20 inches of snow that is now very much wind blown. It's amazing what the Lord can due with a simple little low pressure system mixed with some very cold air. It's white, white, white outside and looks like it will stay that way for a few days. I believe we're headed for a white Christmas....

Grace and Christmas

As I see it…

How enormous must the gap be between the holiness of God and man's fallen sinful nature! It is a gap so large that we cannot comprehend it. Or, if we claim that we can comprehend it, it is grossly misunderstood. About a century ago, C. W. Formby wrote: They (sinful mankind) are not thinking of humanity as fallen, or in any sense as being really in serious need of redemption and an uplifting Grace…Their views are summed up in such expressions as, "What you call sin cannot be very wrong, it is quite natural after all." "I cannot see why any redemption should have been necessary. The tendency to do wrong is only a matter of being underdeveloped." Thus the fatal deficiency becomes apparent at once. The great fundamental facts of the Fall have been practically wiped out of their mental horizon. With the loss of these facts, the truth of Christianity must become unintelligible… We have become the blind leading the blind into a further state of depravity (if indeed, states of depravity exist!). The contrast is unfathomable, abiding in the highest heaven is the holy God of the universe, existing in inaccessible light. The task would appear insurmountable: How then can the Holy One of Israel be connected with the fallen crown of his creation? Redemption seems implausible. But then there is the matter of the incarnation! God accomplishes the impossible. He places the sum total of the godhead into a funneled container of humanity; has him live the perfect life in a very fallen world and grants him the title and vocation of the "Lamb of God." Christmas never looked so good to those graced by the Incarnation; it never appeared so quaint as it does to those who still make foolish statements about their natural tendency to be "underdeveloped." Indeed, what else could a hapless fallen race say at this time of the year but, "Happy Holidays"? The grandeur and grace of Christmas is but a religious fog to them. But for us who know the Savior, our resplendent greeting to each other becomes the angelic induced: "Glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace to those with whom he is pleased!" Or, simply put: Merry Christmas!

 

Staff Christmas party

Well, the fire is blazing, the house is gloriously decorated and we are just minutes away from having the CBC staff and spouses here for the evening. It's hard to imagine but Toni and I are working on 12 years at CBC; they have all been good! We have a loving and gracious congregation, great leaders and enough challenges to last a life time! We probably won't get to see our kids and their families this Christmas, so this will be as close to a group celebration as we'll get. Nonetheless, I think I'm looking forward to a quiet Christmas in a way. We were with Brian's family over Thanksgiving and that was great. But besides that, other than a few startled shepherds and celestial angels, it was probably quiet in Bethlehem a couple thousand years ago as well. Thanks to our Heavenly Father for giving us his son! Thanks to the Son for being willing to come! And thanks to the Holy Spirit for recording all the details in his love letter to us, the Word of God!

Pondering Christmas

As I see it…

Pondering the pleasantries of the season…

The angelic prompting to praise still stands: “Glory to God in the highest…” Is it possible with everything else that steals our attention during this season that somehow God has been overlooked? After all, it is his Son whose birth is being celebrated. Can our eyes be lifted above the manger, above Mary and Joseph, above the shepherd clad hillside, above the sprinkled skyline of villages and cities and raise them to the third heaven? How honored will our heavenly Father be at the birthday celebration of his Son, even among those “guests” who genuinely adore the Babe in the manger? Why has God slipped to second place at the Christmas season?

Marveling at majesties in this season…

There have not been many “mystics” in the Christian faith down through the ages. But we can be grateful for those few who have been part of our church’s history. The unknown fourteenth century author of the work, Cloud of the Unknowing, invites us to compare our sinfulness with God’s graciousness and thus improve our attempt at humility. He writes, Two things cause humility. One is the degradation, wretchedness, and weakness of man to which by sin he has fallen: he ought to be aware of this…no matter how holy he may be. The other is the superabundant love and worth of God in himself: gazing on which all of nature trembles, all scholars are fools, all saints and angels blind. An objective soul-searching of who we really are before God should cause us to be all the more grateful for the sinless Christ who has incarnated God to us. After all, our sinfulness desperately needs his graciousness. Yet another reason for believers to greet each other at this season with Merry Christmas!

Quieting our quandaries at this season…

With your soul’s query and your mind’s sanctified imagination, have you ever looked carefully at the face of the Babe in the manger? Can you see through your intense peering the reflected face of God? Is your heart able to ponder the immenseness of God’s love to us in the gift of his Son? That “superabundant love and worth of God” which has faded in its glory because we have failed to look at Christmas with eyes of faith and humility; that humility which enables us to say, “Glory to God in the highest!”

morning meditation

I'm sitting in my local lab waiting to give a blood sample so my cardiologist can tell me whether or not I've been a good boy. I figured this would be as good a time as any to start a blog. So with Palm Pre in hand I begin. I am impressed with how faithful God is by providing a sunrise each morning; especially since He never slumbers or sleeps. But then again maybe the sunrises are so neat because he doesn't sleep!