Advent - Chain Reaction

Photo credit: moses namkung

God—the one who made all things and for whose glory all things exist—wanted many people to be his children and share his glory. So he did what he needed to do. He made perfect the one who leads those people to salvation. He made Jesus a perfect Savior through his suffering.

Jesus, the one who makes people holy, and those who are made holy are from the same family. So he is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. He says,

“God, I will tell my brothers and sisters about you.
Before all your people I will sing your praises.”

Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 2 verses 10 - 12, ERV

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You may recall that in the first essay of this series we asked what was so desperately important to God that he felt compelled to throw himself into such a drastic, audacious plan as this. And we found, mind blowing as it may seem, that we were what was so important to him. "God so loved the world..." That's us! We are the prime motivation of the Creator of Heaven and Earth.

But this still begs the question, "What is it about humans that makes God regard us as so incredibly valuable?" The answer I believe is found in today's scripture.

The whole purpose of Jesus' nativity was to set off a chain reaction of millions and millions of other nativities. God created the Earth as an incubator where we flawed blobs of mud could be invested with the never-ending life of God and grow up into his very children, at home in "glory" -- the state God lives in.  And he was not about to let any power or persuasion prevent that from taking place.

We sometimes think of our ultimate destinies as perhaps drifting along eternally in some happy paradise or becoming angels, but it is far, far greater than that. As the writer and thinker C S Lewis said, "There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.  Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours, (The Weight of Glory, page 46).

Or as St. Athanasius put it, simply,"God became man so that man might become god," (On the Incarnation, chapter 54 verse 3).

Of course, there are ways we will never be like God: We will never be eternal, for instance, since we had a beginning and God did not.  But as Jesus' emissary John pregnantly put it, "Dear friends, we are now children of God. We have not yet been shown what we will be in the future. But we know that when Christ comes again, we will be like him. We will see him just as he is," (First Letter of John, chapter 3 verse 2, ERV).

Today in church -- or anyplace, really -- take a second to look around you. You are are surrounded by dozens and dozens of people going through their own nativities, who are among the sons and daughters Jesus is leading to glory. And "he is not ashamed to call them his brother or sister."

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Prayer: Pioneer of our salvation, please continue to lead us through this incarnational journey until we are resurrected into your brilliant glory.  In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Advent - Joy and Sorrow

The 'Slaughter of the Innocents'
at Bethlehem

After the wise men left, an angel from the Lord came to Joseph in a dream. The angel said, “Get up! Take the child with his mother and escape to Egypt. Herod wants to kill the child and will soon start looking for him. Stay in Egypt until I tell you to come back.”

Herod saw that the wise men had fooled him, and he was very angry. So he gave an order to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem and the whole area around Bethlehem. Herod had learned from the wise men the time the baby was born. It was now two years from that time. So he said to kill all the boys who were two years old and younger. This gave full meaning to what God said through the prophet Jeremiah:

“A sound was heard in Ramah —
  bitter crying and great sadness.
Rachel cries for her children,
  and she cannot be comforted, because her children are gone.”

Gospel of Matthew chapter 2 verses 13, 16-18, ERV 

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On the third Sunday of Advent (which was this past Sunday, the 11th) a candle is lit that is traditionally called the Candle of Joy.  This is done to signify the "Joy To The World" that arrived when Jesus was born.  His birth was the climax of a plan to rescue humanity that God had been working since before time began.  Once the King arrived, God's beleaguered children could lift their heads at long last because nothing would ever be the same again.  A new relationship with God would be open, forgiveness would be offered to all, and the power of Evil would be broken once and forever.  There was and is every reason to be joyful, and to this very day joy is one of the hallmarks of Jesus' followers.

But we should note that the Christmas story itself is not an unremitting song of joy.  As our scripture for today tells us, the birth of the infant King, the dawning of this new age, was greeted by blood, senseless violence, and all-consuming greed. Herod the Great was not about to turn his kingdom over to any new Messiah without a fight.  The fact that he discovered this one was just a baby, and then found he would have to kill dozens of other babies to strike at him did not slow the murderous old King down in the least.

A Haunting Song

Matthew calls upon a haunting poem written by the Prophet Jeremiah hundreds of years before to convey the unutterable sadness of this tragedy. In the original prophecy, God himself comforts desolate Rachel and promises that she will see her lost children again.

Scholars commonly point out that this was such routine cruelty for Herod and the number of babies involved so small that the "Slaughter of the Innocents" doesn't show up in any ancient history other than Matthew. From the standpoint of history it was an unimportant, unfortunate event. But the Christian Prophet John, writing 100 years afterward, saw it differently. He tells us in the 12th chapter of The Revelation that this cruel episode was not as just another brutal massacre of peasant children by an insignificant middle eastern client King, but a hideous attack on a cosmic scale. Behind the scenes, he says, as the nation of Israel lay giving birth in the person of their most noble daughter, Evil itself -- mystically depicted as a huge red Dragon -- stood slathering before her, trying for a chance to devour her royal son. Bad as he was, it was not all Herod's idea.

The Advent season is a joyful time and we have every right to light that candle.  But as members of the Christian Movement we are called upon to announce a new King and a new Kingdom that supersedes all the rest. The Great Red Dragon still roams the world trying to devour us as he tried to devour our King. Not everybody appreciates our efforts. We should always keep in mind that there are still places where one can be tortured, imprisoned, and killed simply for following Jesus of Nazareth.  

Rachel still weeps for her children.

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Prayer: God of Joy, help us to remember the pain in this world and what you went through to buy us that precious gift of joy.  We pray in Jesus' name. Amen