Merry Christmas!

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.   John testified about Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'"   For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.  For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.  No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.  (John 1:14-18 NASB)

While what has been said so far is overwhelming, this is not all John has to say about my Master.  The Incarnation was for Paul an “emptying”, and for John, the Eternal Divine Word becomes flesh.  Having described the power and majesty existing before all else, existing with God, and being God, John turns now to the “pitching of tents”.  “The Word became flesh…”  He wasn’t before, but now He is.  All the glory and majesty described earlier lay contained in the baby resting in a feed trough in a stable, in a small town, in a small region of a small country, of a wide wild world which took no notice; we missed the whole thing. 

The Word with, being, and from the very breast of the Master of the universe shows up unannounced…oh wait, He was announced.  Well, He shows up in a strange place…oh wait; no, it was supposed to be in Bethlehem.  Okay, then He shows up to the lowest of parentage… but wait; no, they were still descendants of King David.  It happened as was announced, where it was supposed to happen, through whom it was supposed to happen, and even the part about a young virgin turns out as it was supposed to.  The Master of the universe enters human history as one of the human creatures and no one notices; well, almost no one.

In the star-lit heavens angels announce to local herdsmen, and in the East, the heavenly bodies reveal an Israeli King born of a virgin.  The shepherds take off to see, and so do the astronomers in the far off country.  One arrives that night, and the others take a few months, to years.  Why only them?  Why not the priests in Jerusalem, or the king in his palace?  The shepherds most likely worked for the wealthy priests or possibly the king.  But the important could not be bothered, and only the obscure took notice.

How often is my Master relating something to me so profound, it could change my life, and my face is buried in a book or computer screen, or television, and I miss it?  This cosmos swirls about at the beck and call of my Master, and He speaks through it to all His human creatures.  I should be one who hears, who sees, and who answers the message.  But am I?  Do I seek to hear His messages?  Scripture records His announcement of what will come, but do I look for those things?  Am I focused on the things of my Master, or things of my own?

The Word became flesh and camped in us.  How different is that today?  I don’t think it’s all that different.  Today, the Spirit of my Master lives within me, so, in a sense, He is still “camped” just in borrowed “flesh”.  Yet, I’m not permitting Him to have much control over this meat suit.  And it’s not just my suit, but of those I worship with and minister with, we all have this incarnation of the Master of the universe within us.  The Word is still flesh, still pitching His tent with us, just a lot closer than it was.  Now I am brought into God Himself through His Spirit.  And I’m MISSING IT!  I’m living my life, but it is NOT mine to live!  What am I doing?

The Baby resting in the smelly hay two millennia ago has brought the Creator and Master of all matter to live with His human creatures.  A helpless, yet fearless, baby lies forgotten by the world He came to save, and everyone’s okay with this?  Ironically, He seems to be.  He seems to want it that way or at least expect it.  Only the astronomers from the East bring royal gifts, everyone else ignores the event all together.  The shepherds come, but only briefly, and no one really believes them anyway, crazy old shepherds.  Jesus is content to sleep in complete obscurity.  Perhaps this is part of His selection process; another parable?

Still, this day, the minds of those around me and me are on the packages, the food, the kids, and the fun we have together.  Unless we work at it, the story is lost in the background, like the small stables and figures lost among the lights and pine needles.  The commercialism may not overtake the holiday for us, but sometimes the gifts outshine the Giver for me and my family.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  The story can be told first, of the best Gift of all.  Prayer of thanks can be said for what is received, thanking the One who truly gave, and has given every good and perfect gift.  It can happen, but only intentionally.

The Word has become flesh and lives within me, but the question remains, “Will I behold His glory, the glory of the Unique One from the Father full of grace and truth?”

Illuminating Children

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.  He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.  There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,  who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:6-13 NASB)

In this passage the Light emerges to front center stage.  The Light is in the world yet misunderstood by the world; among His own yet rejected by His own; received by others who are then reborn by God Himself.  As if that were not enough to wade through, there is this illumination problem.  Either the True Light which illuminates every person is coming into the world; or this is the True Light which illuminates every person coming into the world.  This may seem like a semantic problem, but on the surface it could be seen to support an unorthodox belief.  In either translation, the True Light illuminates every person.  One implies potential illumination, the other actual illumination.  It is a matter of implied universalism.  Are all people illuminated, and therefore saved (universalism)?  Or do all people have the potential to be illuminated and therefore can be saved?

I think the context really argues against any sort of universalism since the rejection and ignorance is contrasted against the reception by those who become born of God.  So, really, I’m not bothered by either translation, nor am I bothered by some sense of universal illumination of God’s human creatures.  I think it works really well with the beginning of Romans where Paul claims that all people are without excuse for rejecting God.  While Paul points to a natural revelation, this common internal illumination works as well.  If the True Light illuminates everyone who comes into the world, then everyone is without excuse for rejecting or being ignorant of Him.  They reject or are ignorant of their own illumination by the divine Light.

Interpretations of possible translations aside, this selection of verses illuminate an amazing picture of my Master for me.  The first element to this beautiful image is the condescension of my Master to enter His own creation.  In Philippians, Paul says that He empties Himself to do it.  Here I see Him intentionally take on the scorn and apathy of His human creatures.  So, not only did He need to set aside the glory He had with the Father from before the foundations of the cosmos, He also has to endure little or no recognition, no thanks, from those He has come to save.  He is in His creation and it didn’t recognize Him.  He was among His own chosen people, and they rejected Him.  And yet He came.  He doesn’t leave in an offended huff, and stomp back off to heaven, obliterating all life on earth as He goes.   How unlike me He is here.  He is foreign, strange, and wonderful.

And then this Character of ironic mistreatment does the next most amazing thing.  He gives to those who do receive Him this right or authority to become born of God.  This is amazing, not only because it clearly not from anything human, but also because it is so much more than adoption.  Here the adoption is done through rebirth, even more than regeneration, perhaps more than transformation, those who received the Illuminating Word are given the power to be born of God.  The irony is driven by the opportunity cost paid by the ones apathetic and rejecting Him outright.  What could they have possibly gained through their rejection that could in any way compare to what they would have gained?  It’s crazy, they are crazy, and yet they, and often I, consider John and the Master of the universe crazy.  It is a sad irony full of death and evil.

I have been given the power to become born of the Creator of the universe.  I have been given this by the Creator Himself, by His choice, for receiving the Illuminating Light having come from beside Him.  It is the single most amazing thing about my life.  Everything else is mundane and common.  The only remarkable thing about me is my rebirth by my Master.  It comes not from my will, nor from my desires, but from my Master.  It is a gift He chooses to give.  My only claim to it is that it comes as I receive His divine Illuminating Word, Jesus.  I simply receive, and He keeps on giving.  I am overwhelmed by more than my senses can process, than my imagination can reach, and more than my reason can explain.  My only response is to let it wash over and through me, to submit to my Master’s work.  I can only let Him illuminate my soul with Himself.  I shatter in the process, but from the shards is formed a better creation.  Sure it hurts, but it also heals.