LOVE COMES DOWN AT CHRISTMAS

Dear Friends in Christ,

“By far the most significant event in the whole course of human history will be celebrated, with or without understanding, at the end of this season, Advent. What we are in fact celebrating is the awe-inspiring humility of God, and no amount of familiarity with the trappings of Christmas should ever blind us to it. God’s intervening into human history came about with an almost frightening quietness and self-effacement, and as millions will testify, he will come once again with the same silence and the same devastating humility into any heart ready to receive him.”  J. B. Phillips

I want to be guided by these words of the English biblical scholar as I prepare for the celebration of the Lord’s Nativity. In the din of the world’s frantic commercialism, I want to remember that what we will celebrate at Christmas is, “the awe-inspiring humility of God.” Several years ago a young parishioner asked me if Jesus is really God, the One who created all that is, all that was, and all that will ever be. As hard as it is for me to understand it, my answer is “Yes.” God chose to take human flesh, with all its frailties and limitations, chose to become one of us.

Anglican theology has, for reasons that I don’t really understand, emphasized the Incarnation more than other doctrines. While Roman Catholic theology has focused on the Jesus’ Passion, we have tended to focus more on Jesus’ Nativity. We do not deny the importance of Christ’s death, but I, for one, see that death as the almost inevitable result of God’s choosing of Incarnation, of God’s decision to become human. It is in that decision, that choosing, that God chooses also to die upon Calvary’s cross. And it is that decision, with all its consequences, that is, for me, the clearest expression of God’s love for us.

There is one other truth about Incarnation that challenges me. It is perhaps most clearly expressed in a prayer that I often pray: “O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ.” 

Your brother and priest,
Daniel