Amature philosophical/religious musings after the jump, for those who care for that sort of thing.
So, we were in church last night singing the old hymns of joy and wonder, when the thought crept into my mind – like it does every year around this time – “what kind of God is this?”
Even for many who acknowledge any of the several of the “proofs” of the existence of God – cosmological, teleological, and ontological as well as the anthropic, moral and transcendental arguments in favor of a divine existence – it still doesn’t necessarily explain the physical presence of the baby Jesus in that manger, wearing swaddling clothes. Needing to keep warm against the winter blasts, wearing – one intuits – diapers. Which undoubtedly, in time, needed laundering.
The OT vision of God that came down to our time is one of a distant, all-powerful being, a lawgiver and deliverer of stern retribution. He’d have to be a pretty impressive being – that thing greater than which no thing is – to have set all this in motion. Hard to visualize him in dirty diapers.
To the believer, the story of the virgin birth – a concept so challenging to materialists, and the hinge upon which many a secularist parts company with the faithful to find his own moral way (a path that often, happily, seems to track nicely with his personal preferences) – is waved away with the stock (if not necessarily satisfying) explanation that, “With God, all things are possible.”
Well, OK – but why? What’s the point?
Keeping in mind that the ultimate Paschal Sacrifice is still three decades off, the concept of a God-made-flesh walking the green for all that time even as God the Father is tending the garden everywhere else (don’t get me started on the Holy Spirit) can be a challenging one, hence the tendency for the other great monotheistic faiths either hew to what they knew or else radically simplify the whole thing.
Rather than a distant Being, impassive when not stirred to wrath, we have a mensch tradesman in a backwater patch of the Roman Empire, teaching and preaching in time, changing water into wine, confounding his critics, raising the dead and dining on a bit of bread before offering himself to suffering and death. Close in, so close you could touch him. You could even betray him, if you chose to: With a kiss. So tangibly real that those who followed him in life defied all powers secular and clerical to follow him even unto their own deaths.
Fully God and fully man.
A man whose example changed this world and whose sacrifice promised to open up another. Not a brooding figure somewhere “up there”, but a real being, even – transitionally – mortal. A man whose example still inspires 2000 years after his death, which we know of, and his resurrection, which we hope in. A man just that little bit better than we are; wiser, nobler, kinder.
That’s the challenge of that baby lying in a manger, wrapped in bands. That’s what makes it hard. The knowledge that power to be more like God, to be better than we are, lies not in His essential nature but in what we choose to do, how we freely act – or fail to – in order to be “nearer, my God, to thee.”
I think that was the point.
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Lex.
Thanks for reminding me of the reason for the season. Well said, as always and ever.
That’s the amazing part–the God who out of nothing spoke and an entire universe came into being (“Nothing that exists came into being without him”) became dependent on a mother who changed his dirty diaper, as it were.
That is why I always assert that true worship is not necessarily what kind of music, color of pews, whether in an old, stone cathedral or modern, electronic-laced “worship center”–no, true worship is anonymously changing a dirty diaper in the Name.
True worship is service (“I came not to be served, but to serve”).
Whoa, how un-PC. Wouldn’t allow anything like that on cartoon network these days…
Merry Christmas, Lex. God bless.
An excellent reminder. The wife, her sister, and I attended the candlelight service at the Academy Chapel last night, and the pastor brought up this very scene. A great service, a greater reminder. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
A very fine piece of thoughtful writing….
Would that we all were “nearer.”
I have 3 very wonderful and talented “proofs” of the existance of God. Thank you for the words Lex. Merry Christmas to you all.
Q. Why did Mary and Joseph choose a manger as Jesus’ birthplace?
A. They wanted a stable environment!
Merry Christmas Lex!
I don’t agree with the picture you have of the OT God. He as often gracious and personal. He walked with Adam in the cool of the evening. He spoke directly with Moses. He was forgiving when a person was truly repentant. And the ultimate act of His grace in the OT was the giving of the law so man would know what was sin, and have insight into his nature as a Holy God. The ceremonial law points to Christ and His sacrifice at Calvary.
The main story line of Scripture is salvation. It tells us why it must be, and how the provision is made, and how the provision is appropriated in the lives of those who respond to the call and accept Christ as savior.
God does appear to be harsh, and many times, vengeful in the OT. The OT show us part of the nature of God, and intimates much else. or the believer, the OT shows us a Holy God’s attitude toward sin. The NT shows the price He is willing to pay to make a way for man to get past sin and be reconciled to Him.
That price was that little child in a manger, in a stable in Bethlehem. Immanuel, God with us, yet the perfect man, tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Here’s a story my old Rabbi once told me.
One time, a sceptic went to Rabbi Hillel, the greatest Rabbi that the Jews had. He offered to convert to Judaism if the Rebbe could teach him the bible while standing on one foot. Rabbi Hillel promptly stood on one foot and said “Do not unto others as you would have others not do unto you. The rest is just commentary. Now go and study.”
I often find myself asking questions, and in the end I come back to the good Rebbe’s advice. I try, and know that there are times when I still fall short. I resolve to do better the next time.
Now, if I could only get my mouth under control.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of clan Lex and the denizens of LexWorld. My wife and I wish nothing but good things for all of you in the coming year.
who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Phil 2:6-8
God incarnate. Humility personified.
Merry Christmas indeed.
sidenote from the youngster: A truely masterful piece of literature, were that we could remember this all year long, and spoken by the timeless and cherished Linus. My heart fills with joy everytime I see this and I remember that there is always hope.
Happy Birthday Jesus and Merry Christmas to you all, may the Lord keep the true meaning in our hearts all year long.
Thank you for your Christmas post. A very well stated summary, and Linus as well. This afternoon, ( I am a night shift Badger ), I went out into the crisp Wisconsin air, and brought in the Wisconsin State Journal. The headlines and text on the left column of the front page was 1Luke 1-20.
I am fortunate to live here in WI, a heavily Lutheran and Catholic state, where a newspaper can still print such a front page. Alas, WI is also the home of Annie Laurie Gaylor, of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. If she were to see your picture of the CV, she would have a stroke.
Thanks again for your Christmas post, and for your blog, which is required daily reading here in the Badger’s Burrow. But I would like to know, are the Sailors who are spelling out the message on the deck standing on a dashed center line, or does the message, in fact , read MERBY CHRISTMAS?
RPL, interesting that Rabbi Hillel phrased that in the negative: do not unto others… vice: do unto others… Is that correct, or was that perhaps a misremembering of the story? Just wondering.
Zane:
That’s the way my Rabbi told it to me, so I always thought that’s how it went. Either way, I understand the concept. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
I got to spend some time at the temple near our house during the Bar Mitzvah circuit a few years back. The Rabbi (no Hillel), would summarize the Torah thus: “Do not unto others that which is hateful to you. All the rest is commentary, although we read it.”
Made sense to me.
Happy Hanukkah to you and yours, RPL.
After reading your post, I can’t imagine anyone denigrating your ability to author a book that wouldn’t sell. Your AOM’s musta been kinda fun when it was your time to preach/instruct/elucidate. Write on.
It all comes down to having faith. Along with all your other blessings you have faith Lex and absolutely nothing else is more valuable.
Could you even imagine being as pitiful as those who would celebrate “Festivus”?
Didn’t think so.
Though I’m late, a belated Merry Christmas Lex, Hobbit, Chilun’ and assorted clansmen located hereandabout. Sentinent, intelligent and well meaning folks all (even the Snake). God bless our troops.
b2
Merry Christmas, CAPT..
As we visit the grandkids in the cold midwest, Midnight Mass, open presents, movie today, big family dinner this weekend with the relatives, our thoughts are with you..
Appreciate all you do for us..
In light of the subject of the season, I’d recommend “The Shack” by Young. It’s a thinker and cause you to seriously look at our relationship with the Trinity.
Doing it a chapter a week in a men’s group. Almost to the end. It’s a thinker.
Once more, Merry Christmas to all.