The Beauty of Truth

This Advent season has found my mind flickering back to the idea of the Incarnation any time it is unoccupied by some other train of thought. At first I suspected it was part of my need to understand everything, completely. That if I understood the Incarnation I would have gained control over one of the great Mysteries of God and that would make be better than thousands of scholars who had wrestled this very issue, only to raise their hands and say "I'll never understand".

I learned years ago that pride and the need to control are the twin sisters that cry for my reverence. More recently I have learned that I am incapable of besting them, not for lack of trying, but by meeting with utter failure every time. My struggles taught me that an iron will bent against itself only sharpens both edges, allowing them to cut more deeply. But what does this have to do with the Incarnation?

It explains why this one thought circles through my mind. It is in the mystery of Incarnation that the cure to pride and control has been revealed. It is precisely because I do not, most likely will never, understand the Incarnation that I recognize the form of my personal redemption. The Incarnation is about Christ fully recognizing his own greatness, and willing choosing to lay it aside for the benefit of others who would not understand, and some outright reject, him. Yet he chose to do it any way. He chose to lower himself to our level so that he could raise us to his level.

In this lies the key of freedom. Long have I stared at the beasts of pride and control that have feasted on my soul, content at the stalemate that had been reached. Now instead a way to victory has been revealed. By focusing on Christ, first in the act of Incarnation, then later in Atonement, Resurrection, and Ascension, the beasts will be starved. Instead of staring down pride I will gaze with adoration upon Humility himself. It is a well known fact that we become whatever we spend our time looking at the most.

It is a great truth of Scripture, that sin cannot be won in open combat, or refusing to acknowledge it. Instead our focus must be consumed in that which is the total opposite. Lust will not be conquered by self-control and abstinence, it will only be conquered by the power of True Love, pride by Absolute Humility, and so on for each vice there is a Most Holy Virtue, embodied in the Savior's life, and example for all who are willing to die, that they may live.

My prayer this Advent season, as the day of Incarnation draws ever closer, is that Christ would truly live among us, that each heart would welcome the Spirit that transforms our wickedness into worship.

The Parable of the Brothers...

more commonly known as the Prodigal Son. Found in Luke 15:11-32.

This is a text that most who have attended church at some point in their life are well acquainted with. The plot is that there is a man who has two sons, the younger one wants to go and try his luck in the world while the older one is content to stay home and work the land with Dad. The younger son takes his half of the inheritance and blows it on the luxuries and pleasure of the world. He ends up doing manual labor at minimum wage before he realizes that the people that work for his father have plenty because his father is generous. He doesn't even hope to come back to the status of "son", he is content just to work for his father like the other servants. He's on the road home, rehearsing his apology, when his father greets him, welcoming him back from the grave. The father cleans the son, dresses him well, and throws a big party. The older brother sulks outside the house because he'd "done everything right, and I never got a party, why are you spoiling this child who wasted everything you gave him?" The beauty is that the father sought out both his sons, in different ways.

Most of the time when I read this parable I find myself siding with the older brother. I'm about as straight-laced as they come. I've never had my "wild, rebellious days". I started Seminary at 21....what "normal" college student does that? But this past month has had me more on the side of the younger brother. And I've seen the Father in a brighter light.

The younger son didn't run-away from home, he asked his father to give him money and permission to leave. The thing I've never realized before is that the Father graciously allowed his son to leave his presence. Now it's obvious that the Father knew what was going to happen to his son in the world, so it wasn't with joy that the Father allowed him to walk away. It is equally powerful that the Father knew he would never have his son's love if he kept him locked up at home. It's staggering to realize that God our Father, has also allowed each of us to walk away from our relationship with him, to take the things he has blessed us with and waste them on the world. In this parable we are not strange children who are adopted into the family, instead we are beloved children, allowed to leave, to grow up, to encounter the harsh world, and ultimately we are allowed the choice to return home.

Notice carefully what it is that draws the younger son home. It is the generous character of the Father, a generosity that extends even to his servants. God's generosity is what allows each of us to even hope to return to our Father's house. What the younger son didn't understand was the depths of his Father's grace. He had seen it toward others, but until he returned home he had not experienced it for himself. The same is true for Christians, God's grace toward other people is intriguing, but once we have humbled ourselves (or been humbled) enough to receive it for ourselves, we find that it is overwhelming.

It is important for those of us who are like the older brother to realize we can walk away from our Father without ever taking a step, but the grace of the Father compels him to come after us and ask us to come in and celebrate.

During Advent we hope for the gift of grace that makes our homecoming possible. God has allowed us to walk away from him, and in his grace he prepared the way home for us. This way is through Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The Incarnation

Advent is about the Incarnation. It is about the God of the universe becoming one of us, with all that entails. He became a flesh and blood baby, that cried and cooed, that nursed and had dirty diapers. He literally entered into the messiness that is human life. I still don't understand it. It's something so beyond our finite minds.

Why would God do something so radical? Why subject himself to the pain and suffering of life for over 30 years? Why would he willingly choose to have his existence completely dependent upon the merciful love of his teenage mother?

Part of the reason is so that when God whispers to each of our hearts, "I know how you feel, I've been there myself" it is literally the Gospel Truth. He knows first hand how scary, overwhelming and hurtful this world is. He knows the pain of stubbed toes, thumbs smashed by slipping hammers, of splinters, growing pains, and a voice that cracks during puberty. He knows the sorrow of grief when he lost loved ones, and the pain that comes from seeing people he loves hurting, be it sickness or sin.

It's also his way of reminding us we don't live this life alone. He says, "I've done this once before, perfectly, I'll help you through your turn".

The Incarnation is about love. It is about the God that has come to live among His people. It is what separates Christianity from every other religion. We were created in the image of God, and then our God took our image upon himself in order to restore us to that original perfection.

"May the Incarnate God dwell in your hearts both now and forever."

Happy New Year!

No, I'm not a month early. I'm just using a different calendar. I'm using the Christian calendar, which begins on the 1st Sunday of Advent, which was yesterday. It is amazing how the Christian year starts off so differently from the regular new year on January first. The Christian year is Christ focused (surprisingly enough), we begin our year by focusing completely on Someone else. Instead of making personal resolutions, "this year I will do x,y, and z" we ponder both what God has done by the Incarnation and what he will do in the Eschaton. It's a radically different orientation to the ego-centric world most of us live in.

It's also arranged to increase expectation. Instead of looking back over the past year, our focus is pulled ever forward, first to Christmas, then the Epiphany, then Lent, Passion Week, hitting the high point at Easter, then Pentecost, then Ordinary time (from Pentecost till the 1st Sunday of Advent is 5-6 months depending on when Easter falls). It's a progression and an incorporation into the Gospel story. Every year the Christians using this calendar cycle through the life of Christ, in an ever deepening spiral year after year. Advent is always the same, but each Advent we are different because of what has transpired in the previous year. The Christian calendar gives believers places to stop and reflect periodically.

So may this new year be filled with the richest blessings of Christ, may you journey with him from birth, through death, and into life eternal; growing in wisdom, knowledge, grace, truth, love, beauty, holiness, ever-reflecting more of Jesus Christ. I pray this in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.