non-metaphysical stephen

I’ve been pondering this guy the past few days. Luke’s account is interesting for the way it parallels and contrasts Zacharias and Mary: both receive a visit from an angel about a son, and both respond with a question. But the differences in the accounts raise so many questions: Why does Elizabeth not receive the visit from the angel? Why does Zacharias’ question earn him nine months of silence? Why is John the Baptist’s birth announced publicly but not Jesus’?

This passage is Zacharias’ only appearance in the Gospels, and Luke gives him an extremely prominent position in his narrative–he’s the opening figure. To get a sense of the importance this position gives him, consider the other Gospels: Mark and John both begin their narratives with John the Baptist, while Matthew begins with Joseph. Zacharias becomes a crucial figure simply by parallelism with the other narratives. But why him?

I don’t know how to answer that question right now, but I do wonder if we are like Zacharias. Very few of us will be one of the central characters in the history of the church–we will not be the Peters and Pauls, the Marys and Teresas and the Francises and Luthers. We will have a much smaller role in the narrative.

But that role is ours to play, given to us by God in love and for his glory. The role is small but it is neither unimportant nor lacking in honor. For it is a gift of God’s grace and a sign of God’s favor. And even when we fail to understand what God is doing, as Zacharias could not, God can still use us as signs to the people of his love and faithfulness.

We may have no idea how important our smallest actions may be for the kingdom of God. Zacharias was simply fulfilling his purposes as husband and as priest. He didn’t go out of his way to seek greatness, but was faithful in doing his duties. Yet by his faithfulness, he became not only the father of one of the church’s greatest figures, but a public sign of God’s promise to the entire nation.

Like Zacharias, we have no idea what God will call us to later in life. Nor can we comprehend just how much God can do with our faithfulness in our daily duties. We do not need to be the star of the show–even the supporting players must play their part fully. But if we are faithful in our calling, we might find that our small role has crucial importance in God’s amazing work of redemption.

Let us not grow weary in doing what is good. And may it be done with us according to God’s will, no matter how small the part we are called to play.

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Today is the 2nd day of Christmas. How has the arrival of the promised savior changed the way we live?

The amazing thing about the Christmas narrative is that God became an infant. We focus a lot on how Jesus willingly gave up his earthly life on the cross, but isn’t the greater miracle that the Eternal Child of God gave up eternity to become a fetus?

There is God, wrapped in blankets, lying in a feeding trough. He can’t walk, he can’t talk, he has no control over his limbs, his bowels, his sight. He is completely dependent upon his parents for everything.

This is God? This is the Creator of the Universe?

Yes.

This is God, the Creator, the Lord, the Father/Mother, the Savior, the Redeemer, the Lover of our souls.

This is God giving himself to us completely–the fullness of God, poured out in human form. God become one of us, to live with us and for us.

It is the second day of Christmas, and God has completely given himself to us. There is nothing that God has held back from us, and so we have all we need. For when God has so fully given himself to us, how can we doubt that he will be faithful to his promises to provide in every situation? How can we remain anxious about material needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs?

Isn’t God’s Grace, seen in his coming amongst us while we were still unworthy, truly sufficient for us?

It is the second day of Christmas. How does the arrival of the Christ Child change the way we live?

Today we celebrate the arrival of the promised one, the Christ child. How shall we celebrate?

The day itself is nothing special–we do not know when Jesus was born, and we assume that if his birth had coincided with a important day, we would have been told this in the scriptures. 25 December is merely a feast day, a day we have assigned to celebrate the fulfillment of a promise. It is special not because it is the actual day of Christ’s birth, but because of what the birth of Christ represents: the first-fruits of God’s new covenant with humanity.

What the birth represents. The details of the story are heavily symbolic: Jesus is born in Beth-Lehem, “House of Bread.” He is placed in a feeding trough. His name is related to the word “salvation.” He is visited both by shepherds, confirming his role as shepherd of humanity, and by the magi, whose gifts confirm his kingly role. He is thus a shepherd-king in the tradition of David.

We celebrate the truths of this symbolism. History records–vaguely, with great fuzziness–the existence of Jesus the man. As Christians, we celebrate Jesus the Christ, the Savior, the Shepherd-King. God-with-us (Emmanuel). Christ is the bread come from heaven; if we eat of him, we will have eternal life. He is our nourishment, our sustenance. We live and breathe and have our being in him, for he holds us together. God has loved us so much that God became one of us. We have been given everything God has, insofar as God has given us himself in Christ Jesus.

At Christmas, we celebrate the self-giving of God, and this self-giving is the grounds of our faith. Christ is God-with-us in his birth, in his life, and in his death. We have proof of God’s love, proof that can sustain us as we walk through the shadow of death.

At Christmas, we celebrate God’s overwhelming love for us. But today is only the first day of Christmas. Advent has ended, Christmas has arrived, and we have 12 days to celebrate it; the season lasts until Epiphany, when we celebrate the gifts brought by the Magi. From a liturgical perspective, it is more accurate to celebrate the holy-days as a season; brief though it may be, it is this season that can set the tone for our entire year.

Today is thus only the first day of Christmas. What is the most appropriate way to celebrate the season?

What are we that God takes notice of us? That God should take care of us?

Dust. We are as dust. To God, even the Earth is but a speck of dust in the universe. How is it that we, who are so small even on our own world, should find favor with a Creator who holds galaxies as rings on his fingers?

We have nothing to commend us to God except God’s own love and promises. We have no power except that which God gives to us. No strength except what God allows. No authority except what God grants.

The greatness of God is found in God’s attention to us, God’s creation of us, God’s love for us. We who are among the smallest creatures in the universe are near the pinnacle of creation, created in God’s own image. Our greatness lies in that image.

We are blessed by God beyond all reason, beyond all expectation or hope. But we have nothing to commend ourselves outside of God’s image.

Praises be to God, who sees us in our weakness and in our smallness and who still rejoices over us when we place our trust in him.

Amen, and amen.

At some point during my Christmas shopping frenzy, while I was standing at a register, I was reminded of St. Catherine of Genoa–particularly, her ability to be so focused on God that she could tune out the entire world until she needed to respond to someone.

I’m not always sure how I feel about that–is tuning out the world really a good thing?–but in times like this week, I sure do envy her the ability. The noise of the world is so great, especially given the season is supposed to be a time of preparation for the arrival of Jesus into the world. The true meaning of the holy-day makes the hustle and bustle even more offensive to the soul. It is as though we are supposed to focus on anything other than the arrival of Jesus.

Sigh.

How wonderful it would be to be able to participate in the Christmas season (even though the Christmas season technically does not start until Christmas Day) and still to focus so fully on God as to be unaffected by the distractions, the misdirections of the world. How wonderful to be able to remember our true purpose for purchasing gifts and so truly to honor the Savior with our Christmas spirit.

How wonderful to be immune to the seductions and idolatries of the world as it tries to subvert the holy-day.

How can we redeem the holiday? How can we demonstrate a better way to participate in the season? How can we embody the true meaning of the season–both before and after Christmas Day?

This passage has been on my mind of late, especially as I ponder my future, what God wants me to do with my life, and how I can help people grow closer to Christ’s Love for them. The lilies don’t do any work–yet I feel like I’m not doing enough. Or more accurately, I feel that I should be more fruitful and that I must not be doing enough.

Such egotism–thinking that I must be destined for greater things than this and that the responsibility lies on my shoulders. De Caussade would say that I may be fruitful even now, simply in fulfilling my duties and even if I feel I have been abandoned by God.

The lilies don’t spin their clothes–they simply abide in good soil. (more…)

Still wrestling with distractions, even though school is out for the term. Can these distractions be redeemed? Can God (or, will God) find a way to use them to further the growth of the kingdom here on earth?

The simplicity of Christianity is its difficulty. The world is not evil. Humanity is the pinnacle of creation. Our abilities to know and to create are part of being in the image of God, and they are part of our calling as Christians. There are so many things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent and worthy of praise (Phil. 4.8). There are so many things in our culture that are worth examining, pondering, even (gasp) enjoying.

Can these distractions be healthy? Can they become healthy? Can they find use in service to the Love of God and neighbor? Can I learn from them how the world operates, what its problems are, what people need? So much loss, so much desperation, so much fear–this I learn from TV, from movies, from surfing the web. So much vanity, so much extravagance, so much chasing after wind. This too I learn.

Focus one eye on God, and the other on the world. See God moving in the world. See people moving apart from God. See and trust and love.

Quote for the day, from Jacques Ellul–I posted this over on GCN as well:

“If God, who has chosen to be totally and uniquely love, is no longer loved, if his love is rejected, then indeed nothing of God is any longer perceptible to us. At that moment God, in fact, is no longer anything. But it is for us that he is no longer anything.”

(Jacques Ellul, Hope in Time of Abandonment)

Why is it so difficult to focus on Christ during the Christmas season? Advent is a penitential season, a season of examination and expectation, a season of quiet, hopeful waiting. Yet it seems impossible to live this season outside of a monastery. Traffic, noise, busyness, adornamentation, wish-lists (argh! to do away with the evil of the wish-list for Christmas! Christ has given himself completely to us; how dare we think we need or even desire anything more?), spend and buy and eat and drink and be merry and be busy and don’t slow down or you’ll be behind.

I continue to say, Save Christ from Christmas! Bad music, bad clothing, bad decorations. Teaching children all the wrong lessons, instilling them with the worst expectations. Was it for this that Jesus became the bread of the world?

How have we gotten so far away? Kierkegaard and Ellul were right: Christendom is the exact opposite of gospel Christianity. American Christendom even more so (more the opposite? is such a thing possible?). The true god of the season is greed/luxury. Celebrate the economy. Celebrate the capitalist virtues. Celebrate Jesus for one day when we ignore him all year.

The Christmas season does not start the day after Thanksgiving. It starts on Christmas Day and runs for 12 days. We have it completely backward. But do we care?

Christ be honored and glorified in spite of it all. May our hearts and minds return again to the bread of the world, born in the House of Bread (Beth-Lehem) and lying in the feeding trough. Eat of him and live eternally. Glory to God, Peace to mankind. O come, o come….

Unworthiness. Always to remember that I am a creature–created. My life is not mine; I do not own it, much less did I create myself. I am not a pre-existent being, but a creation, crafted in love and gifted with life. For it is a gift, not something I deserve but something I have been freely given from the One who loves humanity.

I must keep in mind that this life is not mine to control, but a privilege and a responsibility. I must keep my eye on God and maintain my focus on God’s purposes for my life–I must decrease that Christ might increase. If I am to be great in the Kingdom, I must be least in the world. What does God want of me? How am I to spend my days in ways that serve God’s love? Discipline, self-control: remember God’s presence and do not be sidetracked by the noise of the world. Like athletes in training–tune out the distractions.

God loves us, but how poorly we repay God for the gifts. How easily we shirk our calling. How weakly we pursue God’s purposes. How selfishly we hog God’s love for ourselves. How half-hearted. How easily frustrated. How lazy. How unworthy.

How much we need God’s grace.

The site instructs me to write a first blog entry that will impress. I hope I never fall into that trap. Isn’t that exactly the problem with Christianity today? We think we need to impress. But that’s not how the kingdom of God operates. That’s how the world operates, and we’ve bought into the world’s methods–again. God’s kingdom works slowly and in the most mundane ways. Impressing isn’t godly. But perhaps meditation is. Reflection. Self-examination. Deliberation.

Anyway, I hope I don’t impress, per se. But I do hope that some of the thoughts rattling around in my head will help someone somewhere draw closer to the Source of all Life. That would be impressive, wouldn’t it?