Greetings!
I sneaked out to Panera's again -- with a full battery...
Some words for our reflection…
2 Corinthians 6.2: “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation…”
Galatians 4.4-5: “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption as his children…”
John 1.1, 14: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth…”
Luke 2.7: “And Mary gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him cloths and placed him in a manger…”
John 20.21: “As the Father has sent me, so I now send you…”
Henri Nouwen: “God became a little baby. Who can be afraid of a little baby? A tiny little baby is completely dependent on its parents, nurses and caregivers. Yes, God wanted to become so powerless as to be unable to eat or drink, walk or talk, play or work without many people’s help. Yes, God became dependent on human beings to grow up and live among us and proclaim the good news. Yes, God chose to become so powerless that the realization of God’s own mission among us became completely dependent on us. How can we fear a baby we rock in our arms? How can we be envious of a tender baby? That’s the mystery of the incarnation. God became human, in no way different from other human beings, to break through the walls of power in total weakness. That’s the story of Jesus…”
Henri Nouwen: “I think that we have hardly thought through the immense implications of the mystery of the incarnation. Where is God? God is where we are weak, vulnerable, small and dependent. God is where the poor are, the hungry, the handicapped, the mentally ill, the elderly, the powerless. How can we come to know God when our focus is elsewhere, on success, influence, and power? I increasingly believe that our faithfulness will depend on our willingness to go where there is brokenness, loneliness, and human need.”
“If the church has a future it is a future with the poor in whatever form. Each one of us is seriously searching to live and grow in this belief, and by friendship we can support each other. I realize that the only way for us to stay well in the midst of the many ‘worlds’ is to stay close to the small, vulnerable child that lives in our hearts and in every other human being. Often we do not know that the Christ child is within us. When we discover him we can truly rejoice.”
Richard Rohr: “In Jesus, God achieved the perfect synthesis of divine and human…the incarnation of Jesus demonstrates that God meets us where we are. It assures us that we do not have to leave the world or relinquish our humanity in order to know God, but simply that we must turn from evil. In the birth of the God-man, we have been ‘consecrated in truth’, so we are sent into the world to continue the saving pattern of embodiment…”
“We tend to fear incarnation precisely because it makes religion so real, so particular, so worldly. We prefer to keep religion on the level of word, yet the Jesus pattern is word-becoming-flesh. The great lie is that redemption can happen apart from incarnation…For the Christian, power is always hidden in powerlessness, just as God was hidden in a poor baby…”
”We may want the spiritual without the fleshly; we may want the cosmic without the concrete. But if the Word is ever to be loved and shared, we must risk embodiment, which is always concrete and ordinary. There God is both perfectly hidden and perfectly revealed…”
Christmas 2009…
The time has come…
The fullness of time…
Our waiting is over…
The promised Messiah has come…
But, what did we get?
A surprise…
A baby…
Weak, fragile, helpless, dependent, powerless…
[Yet infinite, divine, efficacious…]
Not what we were looking for…
So, what will we do with this gift?
This disarming gift?
This surprising gift?
This shocking gift?
Salvation wrapped in human flesh – the flesh of an infant…
Salvation revealed in weakness and powerlessness…
Salvation so troubling that it forms a stumbling block…
The Incarnation…
God came to us in our need…
God continues to come to us in our need…
Right where we are…
In our helplessness…
In our hopelessness…
In our stubbornness, pride and independence…
How will we respond TODAY to salvation?
Will we receive the gift?
Will we embrace the promise?
Will we seize the moment?
What will today mean for tomorrow…
For 2010…
And beyond…
Will we choose to live out the incarnation in our lives?
As the Father sent Jesus…
To the poor…
To the broken…
To the weak…
To the sick…
To the dying…
To the outcasts…
As the Father sent Jesus, Jesus now sends us…
Will we go?
Will we live the missional life?
Will we embrace the suffering?
Christmas is a day to say YES!
YES to the time!
YES to the gift!
YES to salvation!
YES to purpose!
YES to peace!
YES! YES! YES!
Merry Christmas…
guy
BLESSINGS TO ALL!!!
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