Category: Christmas
My Favourite Christmas Image – Happy Christmas
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Happy Christmas!
The Little LORD Jesus
Just did a crib service meditating on the littleness of the little LORD Jesus. Most of the congregation were not regular church goers. And so as I spoke there was another voice in my head.
It was the voice of a hundred other Christmas sermons I've heard. You know the part where you're meant to challenge the saccharine sweet domestication of Jesus with an embarassed: "But of course the baby in the manger grew up. We mustn't leave Jesus in the crib! He's a full grown man now you know! Don't look down on Jesus."
Familiar?
It's the attempt to wake people up from their preconceptions and show them something surprising. But you know the way to really shock people. Dwell on the manger. Make a determined effort to look down on Jesus. And proclaim that here - right here - is the true and living God. That'll wake em up from their preconceptions.
Being in Very Nature God – He Humbled Himself
A Repost
6 Christ Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:6-11)
Divine humility. Sounds contradictory? You don't understand Christmas.
Jesus Christ, existing in the form of God, made a judgement. That's right. Before Christmas morning, Jesus took a decision. (btw, v6 is proof that it's ok to call the pre-incarnate Son 'Jesus' - but that's for another time...)
Now you didn't decide to get born. I'm guessing if you had been offered the chance to get born, you'd have taken it. But Jesus had to choose to get born. And I promise you, if you were in His shoes, you'd never have chosen what He chose. If you were in very nature God, surrounded by the worship of heaven, able to do whatever you pleased, you would not have chosen what Jesus chose. Because this is how Jesus considered things: Being in very nature God, He chose not to grasp at His power or to exploit it. Instead He chose total self-emptying. He chose servanthood. He chose to humble Himself. He chose obedience. He chose death. He even chose the death of the cross - lifted up as an accursed thing. That was Jesus' consideration - being the God that He was.
Question: Would you have chosen that?
Answer: No. Every day I fail to give up even the smallest of comforts. Let alone to give up my very life! Let alone to suffer godforsaken hell - and that for enemies! Would I have chosen this path? No!
Question: Well if Jesus did make this choice, did that stop Him from being in very nature God?
Answer: By no means! He is ongoingly, continually 'in very nature God'.
Question: Well then, is Jesus' self-emptying a major detour from His glory in the form of God?
Answer: No this is what equality with God actually looks like! This is the very expression of the Father's glory - not exploiting but emptying.
Since He is in the form of God so He took to Himself the form of a slave! And in this self-emptying He shows what true equality with God looks like. It looks like the crib and the cross!
Christmas morning and Good Friday are not detours from the glory of God. They show us that divine glory at full strength. In eternity Jesus made this consideration. He chose His history as the incarnate Servant to be that which truly expresses His equality with God. And the Father affirms this choice - hyper-exalting He who hyper-humbled Himself. And into all eternity we will gladly serve the Servant. (And don't forget, He will serve us! Luke 12:37!)
Implication: The baby in the manger, the victim on the cross - this is what it means to be in very nature God.
What is God's nature? Don't simply look to the crown. Look to the crib and to the cross. God's nature is disclosed as one of utter self-giving. Divine humility.
Glorious!
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A sermon by Darrell Johnson on this passage (one of my favourite sermons ever!)
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See other Christmas posts here.
And of course the ultimate Christmas sermon:
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZQcbjTRsA0"]
Revelation and Faith according to The Nativity
I've only caught snatches of the BBCs Nativity, but two scenes interested me.
When Gabriel appears to Mary he doesn't tell her the news. There are no words from on high here. No, no, that would be oppressive and authoritarian. Instead he invites Mary to look within to the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit gives her an experience of the truth. A very modern (or should that be 'post-modern') take on revelation.
And faith? Well the Magi (from a very brief viewing) seem pretty much in the dark about the whole thing. Only one of them has any kind of certainty about what they are seeking. And even he keeps his cards close to his chest. They seem a lot more sure about the astronomy than about the Child. And what really matters is the journey.
Now, back to preparing our own nativity...
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Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1Q_O1e_rLM
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becamest poor.Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love’s sake becamest man;
Stooping so low, but sinners raising
Heavenward by thine eternal plan.
Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love’s sake becamest man.Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Saviour and King, we worship thee.
Emmanuel, within us dwelling,
Make us what thou wouldst have us be.
Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Saviour and King, we worship thee.
The following is a word about the author from John (Confessing Evangelical:)
Frank Houghton was editorial secretary for the China Inland Mission (now OMF), and he wrote the hymn in the aftermath of the savage martyrdom of two missionaries, John and Betty Stam, who were beheaded by bandits in China in 1934 (their three-month old daughter miraculously survived, unnoticed by the bandits). The Stams’ great-nephew, Chip Stam, takes up the story:
The news of these sorrows had reached the mission’s headquarters in Shanghai. Though this was a very dangerous time for both the Chinese Christians and the foreign missionaries, Frank Houghton decided he needed to begin a tour through the country to visit various missionary outposts. While traveling over the mountains of Szechwan, the powerful and comforting words of 2 Corinthians 8:9, “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,” were transformed into this beautiful Christmas hymn.
I already loved this hymn, but the “backstory” only adds to its power. Had it been written in comfortable, western safety, this would already be a great hymn. But how moving it is to think of a hymn so full of the love of God being written in circumstances of such precariousness and fear.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"
Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"
Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"
Hark Now Hear The Angels Sing – The Travellin Strawberries
Norway's answer to Bez just edges out Bellafonte for sheer car-wreck-watchability...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3k6wlSpYTQ
Long time ago in Bethlehem
So the Holy Bible say
Mary's boy child, Jesus Christ
Was born on Christmas day.
Hark, now hear the angels sing
A new King born today
And man will live forever more
Because of Christmas day.
While shepherds watched their flock by night
And see a bright new shining star
And hear a choir sing
The music seem to come from afar.
Now Joseph and his wife Mary
Come to Bethlehem that night
And find no place to borne she child
Not a single room was in sight.
By and by they find a little nook
In a stable all forlorn
And in a manger cold and dark
Mary's little boy was born.
Santa is anti-Christ
From my sermon this morning (Isaiah 9:2-7).
Don't have the spirit of Scrooge.
Don't have the spirit of Winterfest.
Don't have the spirit of Santa.
Look again to the manger.
Text below...
As Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL9HG9oL2wQ
While shepherds watched their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around,
And glory shone around.
“Fear not!” said he, for mighty dread
Had seized their troubled mind.
“Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you and all mankind
To you and all mankind.
“To you, in David’s town, this day
Is born of David’s line
A Savior, who is Christ the Lord,
And this shall be the sign,
And this shall be the sign.
“The heavenly Babe you there shall find
To human view displayed,
All meanly wrapped in swathing bands,
And in a manger laid,
And in a manger laid.”
Thus spake the seraph and forthwith
Appeared a shining throng
Of angels praising God on high,
Who thus addressed their song,
Who thus addressed their song:
“All glory be to God on high,
And to the Earth be peace;
Good will henceforth from Heaven to men
Begin and never cease,
Begin and never cease!”
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