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Posted on 12/24/2015 10:43:04 AM PST by Steelfish
Biblical Birth Narratives Are Weird And Incredible. We Can Stop Sanitizing Them.
By W. David O. Taylor W. David O. Taylor is assistant professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. December 24
Infertility, divorce, shame, mass murder, astrologers, injustice and doubt: these are a few of the topics that appear in the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, but it is unlikely that they will feature in many of the sermons or pageants at our churches during this season of the year.
One would scarcely know how bizarre these narratives are, in fact, by the activities of artists and advertisers, along with plenty of churches, during the Christmas holidays.
Artists will extract portions of the story, tidy them up, set them to pop or hip hop or classical music, then allow radio stations to play it to death. Grocery stores will play it to a second death. Gas stations will complete the cycle by turning the songs into dismissible clichés.
Flight into Egypt (by Jim Janknegt) Flight into Egypt (by Jim Janknegt) Sermons, for their part, will rehash the stock details of the gospels, with the hope that parishioners will feel the “magic†or “mystery†of Christ’s birth.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
MSM “Bah Humbug!”
Obama’s Birth Narrative Is Weird And Incredible. We Can Stop Sanitizing It. :)
Please, not with the refugee stuff again.
Might we experience a transformative encounter with the God of Jesus Christ?
Well Mr Taylor is obviously not a Trinitarian.
More like a Fuller Brush man.
Always trying to sell you something.
“Fuller Theological Seminary” - fully liberal theology. Redemption through Social Justice.
From their statement of faith:
IX. The Church is summoned by Christ to offer acceptable worship to God and to serve him by preaching the gospel and making disciples of all nations, by tending the flock through the ministry of the word and sacraments and through daily pastoral care, by striving for social justice, and by relieving human distress and need.
In response, I offer this past Sunday’s message from our pastor, AT Hargrave, re: Herod’s slaughter of the innocents and it’s place in a non-sentimental evaluation of the Christmas story.
For my own edification, I had to look up two words to make sure I was comprehending what he was teaching-
Politic: Showing good judgement especially in dealing with other people.
Political: Of or relating to government, or the conduct of government (Isaiah 9:6).
http://www.crestwoodvineyard.org/sermons-library/family-christmas
This is not quite patent from the quote.
This phase is found on the lips of Jesus Himself:
"I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."
Gee I don’t remember the part about Mary or Joseph strapping on a suicide vest walking into a market and blowing themselves up. /sarc
Excellent!
Infertility, divorce, shame, mass murder, astrologers, injustice and doubt: these are a few of the topics that appear in the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, but it is unlikely that they will feature in many of the sermons or pageants at our churches during this season of the year.
Well. Our pastor has spent December preaching through the birth narrative in Matthew. The genealogy, next the coming of the Magi, then the flight to Egypt.
I find this refreshing. Usually at Christmastime you tend to hear Luke.
I think it is, given the context. Mr. Taylor is asking about having a transformative encounter with God. The way the question is stated seems to make a significant difference between God and Jesus even though Jesus said "I and the Father are one. The encounter he wants can only come through Jesus.
We can start by strictly observing the commands of the disciples that were meticulously recorded in the gospels with respect to how later Christians should observe the birth of Our Lord. We should add to nor take away from these details.
What if this person did something meaningful with his life, outside of pontificating how he is all-knowing.
A mind is truly a terrible thing to waste.
If that ain't Trinitarian, I don't know what is.
Merry Christmas, tbpiper!
O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver.
the hope of the nations and their Savior:
Come and save us, O Lord our God
Isaiah had prophesied:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the virgin is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel. Isaiah 7:14
Meanwhile, Philippians 2:9-11 will NEVER be broken. Atheism is a temporary condition. They WILL bow the knee to Christ eventually.
Thank you and merry Christmas to you, too.
Christ Also says that He and His followers must also be one with him, that does not make His followers God. If the Trinity is a mystery we shouldn’t get upset if people have different ideas of what it is. There are plenty of scriptures in the New Testament to give a person a good reason for having a “different” view of what the Trinity is, whether it was Stephen seeing Jesus at the right hand of God or the voice of God recognizing Christ as His Son at His Baptism by John or even Christ praying to His Father to have the Cup removed but instead agreed to do His Fathers will or perhaps admitting that He didn’t know when the end would be that only His Father knew that.
What is important is that Jesus Christ The Son of God condescended to come to the earth to be punished and die a miserable death so that we could all rise if we follow Him.
This is the season that we celebrate the gift that The Father gave to the world of His son via the Holy ghost. I don’t think I particularly care about the nuances of the Holy Trinity and certainly I am not going to give someone else a hard way to go about their understanding of it. The important thing is to follow Christ Jesus, then we will have perhaps and eternity to understand the Trinity.
Are you suggesting the Trinity is Jesus, Mary and the Holy Spirit?
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