A Concern
Reading and reflecting on the Christmas story I can't help feeling that some Christians/the Church doesn't exactly know what to believe about Jesus.
It seems to me that many Christians have an inbetween Jesus, neither fully God or fully man. An anaemic, insipid, pale reflection of the Jesus of the Bible - a Jesus who would never disturb anybody let alone draw forth worship and obedience.
Flesh
It seems that we struggle with the idea of Jesus coming into this world and into this stuff called flesh, let alone frail flesh. Paul says "flesh just like ours under sin's domain." (Romans 8:3 HCSB) - we need to avoid the theological manoevering that frequently goes on here, i.e. it was only 'like' ours. If that is so we are in trouble with what Paul says in Philippians 2:7, "taking on the likeness of men." When we fall into that trap we end up building doctrines to protect him (e.g. the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception).
If this is the case it is not surprising that we fail to understand how he can sympathise with us in all of our temptations/weaknesses in such a way as to help us, and if we struggle with this how are we ever really going to cope with Jesus taking our sin and bearing it on the cross? "He made the One who did not know no sin to be sin for us." (2 Corinthians 5:21). What a staggering truth!
Divine
On the other hand we struggle with his Divinity, after all if he really was, and is, God the Son, co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, why do we struggle to take his word seriously - to live under his lordship? We cannot simply see Jesus as our Saviour, he is also our Lord. He has bought us. We are His.
A New Vision of Jesus
It seems that we need to radically reflect on just who Jesus was and is, to remove him from the stained glass windows and the niceities of western middleclass suburban Christianity. To get rid of the sentimentalised convenient Christ of the manger and of so much deadening modern religion. To get back to our Bibles and let the text speak to us in all it's plainness, and let the real Jesus come forth into our lives and into our churches.
The Challenge of Jesus
It was the challenge of Jesus himself, "Who do you say I am?" Our answer to that question will impact the type of Christian lives we live and the churches we build.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Friday, 24 December 2010
CHRISTMAS
CHRISTMAS
As I read and reread the Christmas story I have become increasingly staggered over recent years by the nature of what really took place. The problem for some of us is that we have grown up with it, and we could recite it just like that. We have become over familiar. We know the surface story, but we haven't plumbed the depths. For others it's no more than a good story - great for the kids, but hey, "I've grown up."
To appreciate a good meal, it can't be rushed, the food needs to be eaten slowly, it needs to be tasted .... So it is with the Word of God, we will never get the full benefit by casual or speed reading. Just so with the Christmas story. It needs to be dwelt on, reading the different scriptures relating to it (Prophetic, Gospels and Letters), building up the story, savouring every part, letting the Word speak for itself.
As the Early Church Father Gregory said, "The unussumed is the unredeemed," or as the writer to the Hebrews (Chapter 2) put it, Jesus "had to be made like us in every way."
In order to bring about our salvation Jesus had to enter our fractured, weak, humanity to redeem every part of it - not just our alienation from God, but what such alienation had done to us, spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, relationally, and in doing so he undid what the Fall had done, and offered it back to God as the life we should have lived but couldn't have lived (Romans 8:1-4), and so he was able to offer himself ultimately as an atoning sacrifice for all our sins.
The story of the Cross and Resurrection begins with the Incarnation. If we don't get that right, we will not get the rest right.
No wonder the hymn writer said "Hallelujah, what a Saviour!"
May the Lord bless you and yours with his peace and joy this Christmas, and the richest of his blessings in the New Year!
As I read and reread the Christmas story I have become increasingly staggered over recent years by the nature of what really took place. The problem for some of us is that we have grown up with it, and we could recite it just like that. We have become over familiar. We know the surface story, but we haven't plumbed the depths. For others it's no more than a good story - great for the kids, but hey, "I've grown up."
To appreciate a good meal, it can't be rushed, the food needs to be eaten slowly, it needs to be tasted .... So it is with the Word of God, we will never get the full benefit by casual or speed reading. Just so with the Christmas story. It needs to be dwelt on, reading the different scriptures relating to it (Prophetic, Gospels and Letters), building up the story, savouring every part, letting the Word speak for itself.
As the Early Church Father Gregory said, "The unussumed is the unredeemed," or as the writer to the Hebrews (Chapter 2) put it, Jesus "had to be made like us in every way."
In order to bring about our salvation Jesus had to enter our fractured, weak, humanity to redeem every part of it - not just our alienation from God, but what such alienation had done to us, spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, relationally, and in doing so he undid what the Fall had done, and offered it back to God as the life we should have lived but couldn't have lived (Romans 8:1-4), and so he was able to offer himself ultimately as an atoning sacrifice for all our sins.
The story of the Cross and Resurrection begins with the Incarnation. If we don't get that right, we will not get the rest right.
No wonder the hymn writer said "Hallelujah, what a Saviour!"
May the Lord bless you and yours with his peace and joy this Christmas, and the richest of his blessings in the New Year!
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
The Importance of the Incarnation
"For God loved the world in this way: He gave his One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
"(God) condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin's domain." Romans 8:3 (HCSB)
The incarnation is as important to our salvation as the death and resurrection of Jesus. As Gregory Nazianzen (one of the old church fathers) put it, "The unassumed is the unredeemed." Jesus therefore had to enter our very real, fractured humanity, in order to redeem it and heal every part of it, and offer it back to God.
Glorious mystery, wonderful Saviour, so great a salvation!
"(God) condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin's domain." Romans 8:3 (HCSB)
The incarnation is as important to our salvation as the death and resurrection of Jesus. As Gregory Nazianzen (one of the old church fathers) put it, "The unassumed is the unredeemed." Jesus therefore had to enter our very real, fractured humanity, in order to redeem it and heal every part of it, and offer it back to God.
Glorious mystery, wonderful Saviour, so great a salvation!
Monday, 15 November 2010
Friday, 5 November 2010
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
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