Posted on 12/12/2006 4:47:03 PM PST by sionnsar
God loved us so much that he came to dwell among us, to tent among us in human flesh... There is a wonderful echo there of God's presence in the tent while Israel wandered in the wilderness. The gift of the Incarnation says that God is willing to take on the human tent of flesh and be one with and among us.
That frail tent of flesh proves capable of holding divinity, but also capable of yielding up its spirit. Irenaeus and Athanasius insisted that the gift of Incarnation was that "God became human, that we might become divine." You and I are bearers of the image of God, and you and I share in Incarnation, for Jesus has walked this way before us. God is born in us as well.
The vulnerability of being born in obscurity, to a peasant refugee couple, in an out of the way place, says to us that God is with us in the smallest parts of life -- perhaps a reminder that we, too, may discover God in those humble and unexpected places if we are willing to go in search.
Matthew's story of the wise ones from the east who come searching for this new thing, this remarkable child, is equally a reminder that God's love extends to all, that God comes among us in human form for all humanity, not just for our co-religionists, not just for those who expect God's appearing in the same way we do, and not just in predictable ways at the altar.
Recently I watched and listened to a woman on a bus as she engaged in conversation with a three-year-old boy. The woman asked the child what happens at Christmas, but the boy, though highly verbal, wasn't able to say much. With his parents' apparent agreement, she asked him about Santa Claus, and began to tell him all about waking up on Christmas Day and finding presents. She didn't talk about St. Nicholas on his feast day, or about Jesus and his birth, but she did convey a sense of the wonder and love connected to Christmas.
That is an opening for those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus. It is the kind of invitation heard by the wise ones from the east. Even Santa Claus –- far removed though today's version of the story may be from the holy faithfulness of St. Nicholas -- can be another kind of star leading others to the humble stable where God comes among us. God continues to come among us in humility, God continues to be birthed in fragile opportunities that will need to be nourished and tended by others. The little boy on the bus has had his mind and heart opened to hear the bigger story about Christmas. Now, who will tell the old, old story of God's love to those so ready and eager to hear?
-- The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori is Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. "Now, who will tell the old, old story of God's love to those so ready and eager to hear?"
Why, YOU will of course, Ms. Schiori, right after you've told the kid about Adam and Steve.
Uncensored version: "God became man, so that man might become God!"
The New World Order feminazi heretic Katharine Jefferts-Schori has only the barest inkling of what that patristic teaching really means! And, since she teaches that there are "many paths to God", she doesn't really believe it in her heart at all!!!!
She should stick to Santa Claus, who is most compatible with the "many paths" pont of view!
That's a little slap at traditionalists.
Having just watched the movie "The Nativity Story" this strikes home -- with the possible exception of the definition used for "refugee".
read later
Joseph was a businessman and Holy tradition teaches he was an older man.
Maybe there was no room for them, not becuase they were poor, but because Caesar's taxes/census have overcrowded the town. All the "Davids" were in Bethlehem.
Caesar's decree had the effect of causing all those of royal blood left in Judea to crowd together in Bethlehem. Just in time for the birth of the King of Kings.
Part of my intended post dropped - I meant to say that maybe Mary and Joseph weren't really "peasants" at all.
She conveniently dropped the ending of the verse "full of grace and truth".
But I reluctantly give her half a point for properly using a masculine pronoun for God...half a point for half a Gospel; leaving out why "God in flesh made manifest" was necessary and the how this One and no other could effect redemption.
On that most serious omission she and ELCA PBp Hanson are of one mind: keep death and resurrection out of Christmas.
Yes, we can give her credit for not being overtly heretical in this message, but for a message from a PB, it's a rather "lite" and meager offering.
.......And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the City of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the City of David which is called Bethlehem, for he was of the house and lineage of David.......
From the line of Kings, to the City of Kings.
This "thing" masquerading as a Presiding Bishop is a pathetic, self-centered reprobate.
If no death on the Cross, no Resurrection, and no Ascension, there can be no divinization (i.e., the patristic teaching that she quoted with the feminazi language changes)! That is also the real reason why Christ is the ONLY path to God!!
Lightman, do you have any examples of how Hanson is keeping "death and resurrection out of Christmas"?
I know for a fact that liberal protestants (including those in TEC/ECUSA and the ELCA), and especially pastors and pseudo-bishops, have a sort of "poverty chic". This fits right into that ideology!!!
"Poverty chic" distorts liberal protestant leaders' relationships with actual poor people, as well as to the vast majority of their flocks, who are or who are deemed to be non-poor.
It also distorts their reading and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. The social class of Jesus and the Apostles is not completely clear from the biblical record, and may have been higher than the "poverty chic" advocates believe. For example, there is evidence that Peter owned several boats, and he and perhaps Jesus were homeowners. There is also evidence that both Jesus and Peter were trilingual (Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek).
Archeology reveals that Nazareth was not an isolated village, but a suburb of the Greco-Roman city of Sephoris. Carpenters of Nazareth in Joseph's day may well have been engaged in building Sephoris. They thus were no peasants, and needed to know at least a bit of Greek.
As for the Holy Family being refugees, that happened AFTER the visit of the Magi, when they had to flee to Egypt. Before that, they were neither homeless nor refugees. They were, however, members of a subject people whom the Romans pushed around, for example making them crowd into Bethlehem for the tax census.
Unfortunately, yes:
http://www.elca.org/news/Releases.asp?a=3492
"The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory..." (John 1:14).
We live in a visited world. On that holy night twenty centuries ago, God visited the world in the miracle of Bethlehem. Held in Mary’s arms that night was the revelation of steadfast, unbounded love for all humanity. The birth of Jesus disclosed God’s saving will and eternal desire for reconciliation and peace.
In this season of Christmas, we encounter again Jesus, sent from God for our salvation. As the Word is proclaimed in both simple buildings and cathedrals of grandeur, we receive the good news of God’s love in Christ Jesus for the whole earth. We witness the mystery of rebirth in the waters of Baptism and rejoice as new ones are embraced by the community of faith. As bread is broken and wine poured in the Eucharist, we give thanks for the real presence of Christ in our midst.
We gather with the whole Church for the celebration of our Lord’s Nativity.
Nice, gushy, touch-feely...but a classic example of Neibuhrs' critique of liberal Protestantism for teaching "a God without wrath who brings humans without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a Christ without a cross."
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