Greater gladness, increased joy

I was reading the following passage on Monday morning (Isaiah 9:1-2a):

The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone. You have made their gladness greater, you have made their joy increase.

The first statement that struck me here was this: “You have made their gladness greater, you have made their joy increase.” It’s not that the people were without gladness or joy, but that the dawning of the light has made that gladness and joy greater.

Christians can often exaggerate the misery of life as it is experienced outside Christ, which means that the gospel fails to gain traction with those who hear it and who think, “Well, actually I’m feeling pretty fine, so I don’t need that religious crutch, thanks all the same.” The message which this passage has to people like that is: your gladness could be greater; your joy could increase.

But in what sense is that gladness “greater” or that joy “increased”? I don’t think it necessarily lies in subjective experience, but rather in this: in a universe without God, the joy and gladness we experience can only be carved out of a fundamentally impersonal and joyless reality. Joy is thus an act of rebellion by small sparks of reality against the rest of itself.

That is not without its aesthetic appeal. But the dawning of the light of Christ reveals that our joy and gladness is not setting ourselves against the fundamental nature of reality, but bringing us back into line with it. Our joy and gladness is not a brief spark to be extinguished by death, but a distant glimmer of the joy, gladness, light and love that underlies all things. It is in that sense that our gladness is greater and our joy increased.

Well, that’s all very well for those who are experiencing joy and gladness. But what about those whose experience of life is very different? I can’t presume to speak for people in that situation, but Isaiah’s words do at least hold out a message of hope: that for those who walk in darkness and deep shadow (“the shadow of the valley of death”), light has dawned, joy and gladness are in prospect, even if for now the darkness appears to be prevailing.

Elephants and Toddlers

It has been said that the gospel according to St. John is like a pool in which a toddler can wade and an elephant can swim. It is simple enough for the novice but it is also plenty deep for the experienced disciple. As evidence I would offer the very first verse, John 1:1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” . Here are three clauses. Each clause in itself is very simple (particularly once one knows that “the word” stands for “Christ”). Take the second clause, “the Word was with God”. It is very simple. There’s no trick to it. A child knows what it means for someone to be “with” someone else. So here the Word was with God. Alongside God. In the company of God. Nothing could be simpler.

Simpler still is the third clause, “the Word was God”. A subject, a verb, and an object. A child knows what it means to be something. So here the Word was (and is!) God. Nothing could be simpler.

But we enter the elephants’ pool when we put those two simple statements together, as St. John does. Suddenly it’s not so simple anymore. The two simple statements don’t interact with each other well. How can the Word be with God, and therefore distinct from God, and be God. Are the Word and God the same? Are they distinct? Can both clauses be right? How? And then, John makes the pool deeper yet by wrapping all this up and handing it to us in quivering flesh – “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us!” (John 1:14)  We are swimming with elephants now.

All this to say that as we contemplate the birth of Jesus in  Bethlehem we should keep in mind that there are depths and shallows in the background. The simple story of a baby born under unusual circumstances and the deeper story that this child is the word made flesh. The pool is refreshing both at the shallow and at the deep end.

– posted by Richard C

I Will Find A Way

“I Will Find A Way” by Andy Gullahorn

One of the best new Christmas songs I’ve heard in recent years.

Let There Be Light

“Let There Be” by Gungor from Ghosts Upon The Earth

This song feels particularly appropriate for the Advent season, as we contemplate how Jesus’ Incarnation signaled the arrival of the new creation, in which God would once again speak light into darkness.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”  -Genesis 1:1-3

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,on them has light shone.” -Isaiah 9:2

“Arise, shine, for your light has come,and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.” -Isaiah 60:1-2

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” -John 1:1-5

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” -2 Corinthians 4:6

Vincit

Mary swells

with the anticipation

of new life springing

up from this thorny soil.

The seed of woman

kicking inside her watery womb

at serpent’s heads

waiting to be crushed.

The Nativity – Cute Overload version

An adorable re-telling of the Christmas story, from St Paul’s Church in Auckland, New Zealand.

HT @sjgarver

Gaudete (Rejoice!) Sunday

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus

Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!

Tempus adest gratiæ
Hoc quod optabamus,
Carmina lætitiæ
Devote reddamus.

Ezechielis porta
Clausa pertransitur,
Unde lux est orta
Salus invenitur.

Ergo nostra contio
Psallat iam in lustro;
Benedicat Domino:
Salus Regi nostro.

 Rejoice, rejoice!
Christ is born
Of the Virgin Mary, Rejoice!

    The time of grace has come
That we have desired;
Let us devoutly return
Joyful verses.

    The closed gate of Ezechiel
Has been passed through;
Whence the light is born,
Salvation is found.

    God has become man,
And nature marvels;
The world has been renewed
By Christ who is King.

    Therefore let our song
Now be sung in brightness
Let it give praise to the Lord:
Greeting to our King.

I think that we’re going to have an exceptionally good Christmas. . .

Bonhoeffer wrote this to his fiancée from prison: “Dear Maria—I think that we’re going to have an exceptionally good Christmas. . . I used to be very fond of thinking up and giving presents, but now that we have nothing to give, the gift God gave us in the birth of Christ will seem all the more glorious: the emptier our hands, the better we understand. . . The poorer our quarters, the more clearly we perceive that our hearts should be Christ’s home on earth.” –Love Letters from Cell 92.

HT: Leonard Sweet

Come, Lord Jesus

Posted by Chris Yokel

Sometimes, this is what Advent is about:

Today I am discontent. 

I am discontent with duplicitous politicians pandering promises,
with media absorbing zombie-walking citizens,
with my own less than stalwart heart.
I am sick of hearing of the vaulted lives of wrecked celebrities,
of the disappointments of nearly perfect sports records,
and of my own foolish grasps for fame.
I am sick of sickness and death in the third world,
of images that spoil my lunch,
and of my own lack of doing anything about it.

I am discontent with Babel builders, intoleristas,
Muslim murderers, Christian hypocrites, and secular self-importants.
I stand in the shatters of broken economic systems
broken down bodies,
broken hearts,
and broken promises.
I do not believe in politicians, capitalists, international peace keepers, TV talking heads, salesmen, Oscar nominated films or platinum records.

I think democracy has failed.
I much prefer monarchy–or dictatorship
Provided there is one Leader
one Savior,
one Healer,
one Promise,
one Song,
one King,
Jesus.
May He come and rule
–please, soon
May He come and rule.
Kyrie eleison.

 

St. Nicholas of Myra

On this St. Nicholas’ Day here’s a trailer to a new movie that I hope I get to see…

Mystery of the Ages

Posted by Chris Yokel

Advent is here again, which for myself is the call to once again attempt to wrap my head around the mystery of the Incarnation. It seems that every year, that is the increasing focus of my spiritual energies during this season, to press deeper into the heart of the Magnum Mysterium. I can’t say my progress has been very great, but allure of the journey is always and ever there.

My deepest struggles with such things are usually best expressed in poetry. The following is some verse that I wrote several years ago already, but I find it rings as true as ever. I put it to music sometime later, so here is the text and then the song:

Flesh of her flesh

Bone of her bone

Yet wholly other

The supernatural

In earthly thread spun

Galaxy strider

Now warmly imprisoned

Within the womb of Eve

He who cast the sun about Him

Royal splendor

Now the prince of paupers

In the beginning was the Word

Into the darkness light tumbles down

Now the Word cries with child’s voice

Now the Light tumbles into darkness

Underneath the stars that He birthed

He Himself is born

 

The strong, invisible hand

Whose might upholds this earth of rock and stone

Now small, enclosed within His mother’s grasp

Those fingers, which in creation past

Traced out all man’s noble lines

Will one day reach to touch his putrid flesh

Sin-cursed

And set His work aright

Will one day reach out

Sin-cursed

His noble flesh torn

To set His work aright

 

For unto us a child is come

Unto us a son is descended

From Abraham and heaven both

That heaven and earth may both be joined in one

Through One in whom both heaven and earth are joined

That all may be

From Him, through Him, to Him

Forever and amen

Mystery of the ages

Immanuel

 

Show Me the Place Where the Word Became A Man

Lots of Advent themes in this new Leonard Cohen song (LISTEN)

 

 

 

show me the place, where you want your slave to go
show me the place, i’ve forgotten i don’t know
show me the place where my head is bend and low
show me the place, where you want your slave to go

 

show me the place, help me roll away the stone
show me the place, i can’t move this thing alone
show me the place where the word became a man
show me the place where the suffering began

 

the troubles came i saved what i could save
a shred of light, a particle away
but there were chains so i hastened to the hay
there were chains, a lot of chains
like a spade

 

show me the place, where you want your slave to go
show me the place, i’ve forgotten i don’t know
show me the place, where you want your slave to go

 

the troubles came i saved what i could save
a shred of light, a particle away
but there were chains so i hastened to the hay
there were chains so i loved you like a slave

 

show me the place
show me the place
show me the place

 

show me the place, help me roll away the stone
show me the place, i can’t move this thing alone
show me the place where the word became a man
show me the place where the suffering began

My Favorite Collect

Thomas McKenzie (of One-Minute Review fame) writes about his favorite BCP collect: The Collect for Advent

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

Fr. McKenzie writes:

The prayer weaves together the reading, as well as the meaning of the season.  More importantly, it asks God for a two fold grace.  We pray to put away the works of darkness.  Without the power of the Holy Spirit, we have no hope of leaving our bad behavior behind.  We are naturally inclined toward darkness, toward hiding, toward dishonesty.  Advent is a time of repentance, of turning aside from darkness.

We pray to put on the armor of light.  Leaving aside darkness is crucial, but so is battling against evil.  Christ calls us to join the struggle against the powers of this dark world (Ephesians 6:12)  This requires the whole armor of God.

Read the rest

Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Advent

This is wonderful…

“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) [repost]

A Prayer of Confession for the First Sunday in Advent (from our dear late friend, Michael Spencer)

Almighty and most merciful Father,
we come to the season of Advent with
the brokenness of the world in our eyes,
the cries of our fellow human beings in our ears
and our own sinfulness in our hearts.

We come to Bethlehem,
as those who need a Savior.
We come to the light
because the darkness has almost overwhelmed us,
but the darkness can never overcome You.

We come to Bethlehem as invited guests;
to see, to wonder
and to be changed by the Child Messiah who is Jesus.
For his sake, and by his grace,
forgive our sins.
Give us hope and eternal life.
Help us to move through a worldly holiday of excess
to a worshipful Advent and Christmas.
For Jesus’ sake, and through Jesus we pray.
Amen.