Thinking About the Incarnation

Just in time for Christmas Eve, I want to pull together a few resources on how we might better think about the mystery of the Incarnation in the face of a society that has over-sentimentalized and commercialized the season where we celebrate the greatest miracle in the universe: God the Creator becoming a man, our Redeemer. Those in Invert youth Sunday School will recognize some of these as the basis of my talking points for our lesson on the Incarnation.

First up, Russel Moore's blog post about the "holly jollyness" of much of our Christmas music and how it betrays the stark reality of God's purposes in Christmas. We should be careful not to overstate the point - I think it is absolutely appropriate to celebrate holidays with lots of festive cheer, and I love listening to Christmas music on repeat all of December (just ask my wife!).

In a time of obvious tragedy, the unbearable lightness of Christmas seems absurd to the watching world. But, even in the best of times, we all know that we live in a groaning universe, a world of divorce courts and cancer cells and concentration camps. Just as we sing with joy about the coming of the Promised One, we ought also to sing with groaning that he is not back yet (Rom. 8:23), sometimes with groanings too deep for lyrics.
http://www.russellmoore.com/2012/12/18/crucify-your-holly-jolly-christmas/

Next, the historical-theological masterpiece of Athanasius, On the Incarnation. Athanasius, who battled Arius over the deity of Christ at a pivotal stage in church history, can wax a little philosophical in his writings, but I think students of most ages can get through at least a chapter or two and benefit a lot from his reflections. The whole thing can be read in a few hours. Just reading C.S. Lewis' introduction to this translation is worth the time to click through:

 His epitaph is Athanasius contra mundum, "Athanasius against the world." We are proud that our own country has more than once stood against the world. Athanasius did the same. He stood for the Trinitarian doctrine, "whole and undefiled," when it looked as if all the civilised world was slipping back from Christianity into the religion of Arius—into one of those "sensible" synthetic religions which are so strongly recommended today and which, then as now, included among their devotees many highly cultivated clergymen. It is his glory that he did not move with the times; it is his reward that he now remains when those times, as all times do, have moved away.
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm

It's a little late to really dive into and savor a good Advent devotional, but this one by John Piper is certainly good enough to read at any time and any pace (you could read the whole thing in the next 2 days and finish while the rest of your family is napping on Christmas evening!). http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/books/good-news-of-great-joy

Finally, a couple contemporary Christmas songs that melodically make the point that Christmas is much more than decorations and singing carols, both from my favorite Canadian Christian band, downhere. The first is "Christmas in Our Hearts."

The second is perhaps my favorite Christmas song written in the last 100 years, "How Many Kings."

I hope you enjoy this Christmas and take time to reflect on how Christ came into this world not just to give us a squishy feeling, but that all of God's eternal and divine purposes came together in this event: God became Man.

The Persistence of God in Making His Name Great in All Nations

Deuteronomy 4:27-31
    And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice. For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

Jeremiah 24:5-7
    Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

Ezekiel 36:20-27
    But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
    “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Acts 1:8
    But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

1 Thessalonians 1:6-8
    And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.

2 Corinthians 2:12-3:3
    When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
    But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
    Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

 Isn't it comforting to know the great desire of God to put his Spirit into people from all nations in order to make his name great, a desire that persists through suffering, through exile, through the darkest disobedience of his own people who forsake him, through the ignorance and fear of Christ's most intimate disciples... The plan of God is clear and unfailing! So what are we waiting for? He will bring us to the nations with or without our approval. 

Matthew 28:18-20
    And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”