Adoration of the Child by Gherrit van Honthorst
The incarnation focuses on the Son, but obviously the whole Trinity is immanent in it, the Father purposing it from the beginning, revealed at the time of the Fall - to the devil: ...he will crush your head..., the miraculous conceiving of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. The whole heavenly host joined in the celebration!
The shepherds were 'sore afraid' as 'the glory of the Lord shone around them'
The true wonder is not really the virgin birth but the fact that the transcendent God should become one of us – homo imago-dei! That's a better classification of our race - not the sapien, self-sufficient thinker, but the one chosen to bear God's Image.
The Chosen
The nativity is an incredible story, but if you think about it, it's the only way it could have happened. The drama series The Chosen paints a picture of Jesus' life in the first century based on historical accounts. Their first piece, done as an experiment, is of the nativity and it reflects so much of what made the subsequent series feel spiritually authentic and thought-provoking. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVt14Ug-GOs ▶
It's also helpful in broadening our imaginations and getting us to think about what it was like to be with him, a craftsman, a Northerner, not especially noticeable in his first 30 years, yet now gaining widespread respect (and opposition). What did they see in him, how did he respond to all the ordinary activities of life? How did he work his tools? How did he respond to tiredness, hunger, questioners of all sorts - the honest enquirer, the trickster? How did he respond to the soldiers demanding to have equipment carried a mile? In the complicated and turbulent politics of the time how did he respond to the various players?
These are practical questions as we all need to be 'imitators of Christ' to get over the idea that he is distant, remote, china-like. Also to get over the idea that his walk is beyond our reach so we don't have to bother. Jesus seems to quite often take off by himself to pray - was he super-spiritual? No – just enjoying time with his Father - we can do that. We also recognise the pain of rejection, target of spite, loss of friends & followers, death-threats, the sense of constraint on him. Some days few smiles: could you not watch with me one hour? We can learn to recognise him when it's happening to us and then more easily walk his path.
Sonship Under attack
We need this as our understanding of Jesus is always under attack. This year we remembered the Nicean Creed being first formulated back in 325, 1700 years ago. The main issue was the status of the Son – was he equal with the Father or subordinate in some way, as claimed by Arius from Alexandria. This was no small issue as many favoured this approach as it fitted with cultural expectations. Not long before, Christians were being persecuted by an Emperor to whom allegiance required "Caesar is Lord!" and burning incense as a sign of his singular deity. The public were used to this autocratic spiritual regime and even though Constantine had adopted Christianity he favoured this approach too, as it fitted the civic power realities. The gathered Christian leaders from around the empire resisted Constantine and the revisionists. Fidelity with God and his word was maintained.
If there was an almost irresistible pressure to fit in with the culture then – it is also true now. We have all been bought up to be good secular-humanists, we're indoctrinated in it, and its effective programming goes on. Secular-humanism believes that we are essentially good - the 'noble savage' myth. There is not a shred of evidence for this, even in the balmy South Seas, but it has to be believed because we assert there is no God, so this must be it. Therefore actual evil, the proof-positive of humanist failure, must be hidden, toned down. We're so absorbed in this world that we don't talk about:
- abortion - even up to birth
- chemical castration of children
- killing dependents with euthanasia
- extreme gender politics
- mass rape-gangs condoned
- family dissolution
- evolution myth enforced
- climate-change confusion
- Islamism's special rights
- judicial rights denied
- excessive taxation (is theft)
- economic (communal wealth) mismanagement
- electoral fraud...
The devil's greatest trick was to convince us he does not exist.
In Christians the effect of this has also been to diminish the reality and effect of evil, despite the fact that Jesus's whole ministry was steeped in conflict with it, and His death the final defeat of it. We continue to refuse to speak about the deep and catastrophic advances of evil in our previously more redeemed culture - the Man of Lawlessness as Paul talks about in 2 Thessalonians.
Meanwhile are we too comfortable with secular accommodation: talks that don't touch-down, no call for repentance, no talk about atonement - so what is the point of Jesus, Yeshua, the Saviour - just a friendly figure? But actually he is not diminished so we had better realise quick that we've got the whole thing the wrong way round! It should be more like:
The gospel that the apostles preached and that the Christian church has preached for most of history is a world-transforming culture-renewing Satan-destroying demon-busting and cosmic gospel of the rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ that applies to every single area of life. Joe Boot ▶
History is never old!
Untruths, heresies, reappear in different guises. We need a new Nicea when the church once again, against the grain of the World, speaks truth (why did we ever think following the world was good idea?). We can draw strength and hope from Jesus' example, realise that he experienced earthly life as we do. This was not an aberration – it was how it's supposed to be. We need to live like Him in joy, persistence, courage, fortitude, truth, hope.
Instead of soothing therapeutic songs, the roarers of psalms and 'He who would valiant be' are at hand, maybe more than we think, and if the official church will not speak grace and truth, The Word will find someone who will.
For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
Five things
Some immediate actions for your church:
* application - in sermons - more reference to God's work in today's world. Not just what's there but what it's there-for.
* prayer - for the nation - more focussed prayer for national institutions/issues at Prayer Meetings - eg a section at each.
* history - more reference to local Christian history - what God has done here and we look to Him doing again.
* practical theology – more organised, topic-based on key themes, a similar role to catechisms - knowing what you believe, 'Bravo briefings'.
* information - more encouragement to learn about how we handle the many vexing issues we encounter, at work, with friends, online etc (eg on https://knowingthetimes.org.uk and elsewhere).
