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 âmagicâ or âmysteryâ of Christâs birth.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Well said, thank you. What a grand mystery it is! It’s like we are two dimensional creatures trying to understand a cube. Merry Christmas JAKraig.
What the???
discussion on the incarnation, which involved Jesus being born of Blessed Mary, a human person (NOT a Divine Person).
She is not Divine, repeat, not member of the Trinity.
Any other questions?
He is going to the wrong church.
Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Visitation (infertility of Elizabeth), the feast of the Holy Innocents (mass murder), shame and divorce The feast of St Joseph...Astrologers/pagans (Epiphany). As for doubt, we have the feast of St Thomas the Apostle.
Just going off of what you bolded and underlined in your post.
I meant that here's the Trinity (Father-Son-HolySpirit), and (since we're talking precisely about the Incarnation) here's also Mary, not some kind of quasi-goddess but a human person, a person redeemed by Christ her Savior, a/k/a/ the handmaid of the Lord, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, mother of the Incarnate Word --- isn't that about as Trinitarian as you can get?
Merry Christmas+1, 5thGenTexan!
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