"For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth." ~ Deuteronomy14:2
Sunday, December 14, 2008
The Mystery of the Incarnation: God Became Small
"26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. " ~ Luke 1:26-38
God Became Small
J.B. Philips wrote a book many years ago entitled; Your God Is Too Small. The major premise was that people do not have a wide enough, broad enough, large enough view of who God is. He was of course right. I dare say that everyone’s view of God is too small, how could it be otherwise, given the infinite nature of God? We can never totally comprehend the nature of God. Perhaps this is why God became small, coming in a little tiny baby, born to an insignificant peasant girl, in an obscure part of the world, to a powerless people whose only claim to fame was that they believed in One God, Creator of Heaven and earth. God became small so that we might catch a glimpse of God’s infinite being. If you go into the sanctuary of St. George Orthodox Church in Wichita, Kansas you will be struck by all the beautiful murals that line the walls and ceilings. They tell the story of Jesus and Christ’s church. In the most prominent spot in the church, right above the altar from which the body and blood of Christ is served is the largest of all the murals. It is not a depiction of God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit. It is not a picture of one of the disciples or of the saints. They are depicted elsewhere. No, the largest picture in the church is that of Mary.
I am told that Orthodox Christians call Mary the “theotokos,” God bearer. The Orthodox have a saying about Mary, they say her womb “is more spacious than the heavens.” This is one way that they express the amazing mystery of the incarnation. Imagine, God somehow being contained with Mary’s womb! How could God become so small? Or perhaps we could also ask, “How could Mary’s womb become so large?” As William Willimon observes, “The God whose womb bore the world now is born of Mary’s womb to bear the good news of peace on earth.” Indeed, Orthodox say of Mary’s womb that it was “more spacious than the heavens!” In the face of such a mystery all we can do is join in Mary’s response to the angel’s announcement “Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you.” Mary’s response we are told is one of “perplexity.” Again, to the announcement that she shall conceive a child in her womb who will be “the Son of the Most High,” Mary responds “How can this be?” Good question!
Perhaps the best way to approach the mystery of the incarnation is to think small. This is not easy for us to do. When we think about God we quite rightly tend to think big, really big, bigger than anything in our world or cosmos. It ends up becoming a case of not being able to see the trees for the forest, to reverse an old saying. When looking for God we tend to think of big miracles: parting of the Red Sea kinds of miracles; walking on water kind of miracles; healing the blind and lame kind of miracles, rising from the dead kind of miracles. When we do not experience such grand miracles we may become disappointed or disillusioned. We might even question the existence of God. Perhaps the answer lies in not looking for God in grand, over blown miracles. True, God can be seen in the beauty of a starlit night, in which the Milky Way is stretched before our eyes, but God can also be seen as the poet says, in a grain of sand. Let’s face it; grains of sand are far more accessible to us than the Milky Way!
Henri Nouwen, Catholic priest and theologian, wrote about the powerlessness of the Christ child in this way, "Jesus is God- with- us, Emmanuel. The great mystery of God becoming human is God’s desire to be loved by us. By becoming a vulnerable child, completely dependent on human care, God wants to take away all distance between the human and the divine. Who can be afraid of a little child who needs to be fed, to be cared for, to be taught, to be guided? We usually talk about God as the all powerful, almighty God on whom we depend completely. But God wanted to become the all-powerless, all-vulnerable God who completely depends on us. How can we be afraid of a God who wants to be ‘God -with -us’ and wants us to become ‘us-with-God.”
Merry Christmas...
The hope that He brings...
This night we pray our lives will show this dream He had each child still knows. We are waiting. We have not forgotten. On this night, on this night, on this very Christmas night.
Loving Father, Help us remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and worship of the wise men. Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world. Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting. Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings, and teach us to be merry with clear hearts. May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children, and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake. Amen. ~ A Christmas Prayer by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Word Is Alive... Breathing Life Into All Who Believe
Defying Gravity, John Elefante
2012 - Precious, Pleasant Stones, We Being Refined to be His Jewels
“And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.” ~ Isaiah 54:12
"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." ~ Isaiah 61:10
In youth, we were all used to handling stones or kicking at them with our feet. Who hasn't picked up a stone and flung it through the air once or twice. At the time, it probably never occurred to us that something so common as a rock or a stone might have any value to it. Maybe today you feel common and ordinary, but as a child of God you are unique and precious in His sight! Our heavenly Father keeps a rock collection made up of people just like you and me. God sees value even in a lost soul, and through the blood of Christ, He brings the truth to the world - the realization that rocks can change!! Have you ever tried to change the shape of a rock with your own hands? It's impossible! Only the hand of the Lord can change us, but change IS possible!!
"And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible." ~ Mark 10:27
As in the case of the rock tumbler, a coarse grit is used on the first cycle, then a progressively finer grit. It may seem at present that the Lord's tumblings in your life are too abrasive, but it won't always be so. The smoother you become, the less abrasive He'll have to be. Yield to the process of perfection, for the end results are worth it! According to the directions for a rock tumbler, once the tumbling begins, it must continue till the cycle is finished. If the contents of the barrel are left standing for an extended period of time, the mixture will harden and become one solid cement-like cake. It's that way in our lives too. We need continual tumbling to keep our hearts from hardening again and the Lord knows it better than we do! Don't lose hope, don't give up - just patiently wait on God to bring about your beauty.
"As for God, his way is perfect" ~ Psalm 18:30
"He hath made every thing beautiful in his time" ~ Eccles. 3:11
Yes, through the various elements of nature such as wind, water, heat and pressure, over time this change is brought about in rocks. You know what's interesting about rocks? Each one is different. Some are larger or smaller. Some types are softer or harder. All this affects the tumbling process. The rocks that remain roughest after the first cycle must be taken out of the barrel, removed from the smoother ones so that they can continue to become smoother yet in the second cycle... Would you be one of those rocks that hindered the refining of another?? For good tumbling, it is instructed not to mix different types of material together in the barrel. For example, agates and amethysts when tumbled and polished together will not give the best results because the agates will chip the amethysts and neither will take a good polish. The bags of stones provided are wisely selected so that each individual bag can be tumbled and polished in one batch. God knows what He is doing in all our lives. Trust His tumblings! He knows precisely what people to put together in particular circumstances or trials of life because it is best for those selected, in order that each might take a good polish.
Yes, different rocks go through different changes, but if they change enough, they finally end up looking very much alike!! That should be our goal, ladies! Each one of us will experience some tumblings in life as we go through various forms of pressure at different times and for various lengths of time. However, the end result should be the same - we should all come out to be more like the image and likeness of Jesus Christ! Our lives as Christians should be bordered or outlined with pleasant stones. This is the reason for the pressure God's designing hand places upon us individually as He carves and polishes out the image of His precious Son in us. He brings out that which would otherwise never be seen by the world!
”He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots. He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious thing. He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light” ~ Job 28:9-11
"And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head." ~ Ezekiel 16:12
"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in...
About Raising the Standard Series and the Renaissance Concept of the Two Books
UPDATE: 12/2011 - Completed Raising the Standard study. Character Sketches Volumes 1-3 are in the blog archives. New direction for 2012.
The seed of this topic and of the following topics in the "Raising the Standard" series was found in two wonderful volumes I received several years ago as a gift from a friend, Character Sketches, From the Pages of Scripture, Illustrated in the World of Nature, Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts Inc. 1983. For anyone who is not familiar with this publication, it is a wonderful "two books" approach to youth ministry... not only giving Scriptural lessons, but also giving examples in nature and educating youth both with the observable facts and stories of animal behaviors, and profiling Biblical characters who best exemplify each godly character topic key point. Highly recommended for all, but most particularly a very cohesive bible study for young people. It is a beautifully illustrated and informative set.
What's the two books approach?
Today’s theologians should seek a coherent way to integrate what we are learning about the natural world through the best science with what the Holy Scriptures tell us about the God of creation and redemption. Perhaps we could revive the Renaissance concept of the Two Books. According to the concept of the Two Books, nature is a book of revelation. Nature reveals to us something about the mind of God the creator. St. Paul alludes to the book of nature.
“Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.” ~ Romans 1:20
The second book, of course, is the Bible. In this book we learn of God the redeemer. Nature gives us general revelation, whereas the Bible gives us special revelation. The two books together provide the resources for understanding reality in relationship to God, the creator and redeemer.
"But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee: and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell the: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee." ~ Job 12:7-8
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