The First Week of Advent
"By far the most important and significant event in the whole course of human history will be celebrated, with or without understanding, at the end of this season, Advent. The towering miracle of God's visit to this planet on which we live will be glossed over, brushed aside or rendered by over-familiarity.
What we are in fact celebrating is the awe-inspiring humility of God, and no trappings of Christmas should ever blind us to its quiet but explosive significance. For Christians believe that so great is God's love and concern for humanity that he himself became a man.
God's insertion of himself into human history was achieved with an almost frightening quietness and humility. There was no advertisement, no publicity, no special privilege; in fact the entry of God into his own world was almost heartbreakingly humble. In sober fact there is little romance or beauty in the thought of a young woman looking desperately for a place where she could give birth to her first baby. I do not think for a moment Mary complained, but it is a bitter commentary upon the world that no one would give up a bed for the pregnant woman--and that the Son of God must be born in a stable.
Behind all our fun and games at Christmastime, we should not try to escape a sense of awe, almost a sense of fright, at what God has done. We must never allow anything to blind us to the true significance of what happened at Bethlehem so long ago. Nothing can alter the fact that we live on a visited planet.
We shall be celebrating no beautiful myth, no lovely piece of traditional folklore, but a solemn fact. God has been here once historically, but...he will come again with the same silence and the same devastating humility into any human heart ready to receive him."
---J.B. Phillips (1906-1982) from Good News: Thoughts on God and Man
What we are in fact celebrating is the awe-inspiring humility of God, and no trappings of Christmas should ever blind us to its quiet but explosive significance. For Christians believe that so great is God's love and concern for humanity that he himself became a man.
God's insertion of himself into human history was achieved with an almost frightening quietness and humility. There was no advertisement, no publicity, no special privilege; in fact the entry of God into his own world was almost heartbreakingly humble. In sober fact there is little romance or beauty in the thought of a young woman looking desperately for a place where she could give birth to her first baby. I do not think for a moment Mary complained, but it is a bitter commentary upon the world that no one would give up a bed for the pregnant woman--and that the Son of God must be born in a stable.
Behind all our fun and games at Christmastime, we should not try to escape a sense of awe, almost a sense of fright, at what God has done. We must never allow anything to blind us to the true significance of what happened at Bethlehem so long ago. Nothing can alter the fact that we live on a visited planet.
We shall be celebrating no beautiful myth, no lovely piece of traditional folklore, but a solemn fact. God has been here once historically, but...he will come again with the same silence and the same devastating humility into any human heart ready to receive him."
---J.B. Phillips (1906-1982) from Good News: Thoughts on God and Man
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posted by Karen Marsh at 6:28 AM
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