“Do you really believe in the virgin birth?” I was asked recently.
“Why yes I do,” I stated as matter-of-factly as was asked of me.
Perhaps you believe that the person asking me was not religious, but an unbeliever attempting to unmask my obvious ignorance. However the person asking me this was not a nonreligious person, but a believer. What does it mean to say that Jesus was born of a virgin? It is preposterous! Ludicrous! Ridiculous! It defies everything we can know, and helps to make those who do not believe as we do paint us as fools. I suppose some of us are tired of being foolish.
Some biblical scholars have pointed out that the Hebrew word that was translated as “virgin” in the ancient Greek translation of the prophet Isaiah actually means “young maiden.” Therefore, so the argument progresses, the gospel writers using the Septuagint (the name of the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) took a mistranslation of the Hebrew and used it in the New Testament. Some then say that Jesus was born, just like us with an earthly mother and father, but a mistranslation changed it all up.
If one is in need of looking less foolish in the eyes of the wise then I advise them to consider such an argument. Some, however, believe in the virgin birth and do so unashamedly. Eugene Peterson writing in the Advent devotional book “Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas: God With Us” claims,
The miracle of the virgin birth, maintained from the earliest times in the church and confessed in its creeds, is, in Karl Barth’s straightforward phrase, “a summons to reverence and worship….” Barth maintained that the one- sided views of those who questioned or denied that Jesus was “born of the virgin Mary” are “in the last resort to be understood only as coming from dread of reverence and only as invitation to comfortable encounter with an all too near or all too far-off God.”
I had not read Barth’s description until I read Peterson quote it. I was struck, and still am, by the phrase, “invitation to comfortable encounter.” It might be true that to deny the mystery and miracle of this season is to seek a comfortable encounter with God. We do not have to revere and worship a God we can explain so easily, because in our explanations we cease allowing God to be God, and attempt to hold onto a God who cannot be held. Do we need to be able to explain God to accept God?
By keeping God from being God we seek that comfortable encounter, that one where we dictate the rules and know the outcome in advance. However, Scripture makes a different claim. It speaks of a God that cares little for our rules, who is dangerous at times, and will seek us out in the most uncomfortable of encounters.
We remember the story of Jacob who wrestles all night with God and leaves with a limp he would have until death came for him. It is a story that is easy to recall because of its certain truth. When we find the God who has found us we rarely leave the same as we arrived. Sometimes we are forever altered by our experience. Limping throughout life because God encountered us.
At Christmas we claim that God encountered us as a child. This is no normal child, this is one born without a father, from a virgin, therefore one that is due our reverence and our worship. To revere (which comes from the Latin which meant to stand in awe of and fear) him is to know that when we encounter him he will change us forever. To keep him at a safe distance, to seek an invitation to comfortable encounter, that is not what Christmas is about.
Christ has come into the world, is still coming, and will come again. This year pray that we meet him and are changed forever. In being changed by God perhaps we can be used by God to help change the world into a place where peace and justice flow under the reign of the Prince of peace. A lofty Christmas wish you think? Perhaps, but one that is possible through faith I am sure.
With faith that I am riding the wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Made in the Divine Image
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” – Acts 17:24-25 (NIV)
What does this speech of Paul’s say of God? What does it say of people? What does it say of you?
The following is an excerpt from Nelson Mandela’s book “Long Walk to Freedom” where he speaks of a particularly brutish officer in the prison in which he spent 19 years:
A few days before Badenhorst’s departure, I was called to the main office. General Steyn was visiting the island and wanted to know if we had any complaints. Badenhorst was there as I went through a list of demands. When I had finished, Badenhorst spoke to me directly.
He told me he would be leaving the island and added: ‘I just want to wish you people good luck’. I do not know if I looked dumbfounded, but I was amazed. He spoke these words like a human being and showed a side of himself we had never seen before. I thanked him for his good wishes and wished him luck in his endeavours.
I thought about this moment for a long time afterwards. Badenhorst had perhaps been the most callous and barbaric commanding officer we had had on Robben Island. But that day in the office, he had revealed that that there was another side to his nature, a side that had been obscured but still existed.
It was a useful reminder that all men, even the most seemingly cold-blooded, have a core of decency and that, if their hearts are touched, they are capable of changing. Ultimately, Badenhorst was not evil; his inhumanity had been foisted upon him by an inhuman system. He behaved like a brute because he was rewarded for brutish behaviour.
Jesus told those who thought themselves as righteous that he did not come for the well but for the sick. Apparently God gives up on no one, and thereby robs no one of life and breath. Even the vilest can be changed by the love of Christ. Mandela saw in Badenhorst a flicker of the divinity with which we are all created. It is that flicker, that light that no darkness can extinguish, which Jesus works to turn into a roaring flame. If God does not give up on people, we must not either.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
What does this speech of Paul’s say of God? What does it say of people? What does it say of you?
The following is an excerpt from Nelson Mandela’s book “Long Walk to Freedom” where he speaks of a particularly brutish officer in the prison in which he spent 19 years:
A few days before Badenhorst’s departure, I was called to the main office. General Steyn was visiting the island and wanted to know if we had any complaints. Badenhorst was there as I went through a list of demands. When I had finished, Badenhorst spoke to me directly.
He told me he would be leaving the island and added: ‘I just want to wish you people good luck’. I do not know if I looked dumbfounded, but I was amazed. He spoke these words like a human being and showed a side of himself we had never seen before. I thanked him for his good wishes and wished him luck in his endeavours.
I thought about this moment for a long time afterwards. Badenhorst had perhaps been the most callous and barbaric commanding officer we had had on Robben Island. But that day in the office, he had revealed that that there was another side to his nature, a side that had been obscured but still existed.
It was a useful reminder that all men, even the most seemingly cold-blooded, have a core of decency and that, if their hearts are touched, they are capable of changing. Ultimately, Badenhorst was not evil; his inhumanity had been foisted upon him by an inhuman system. He behaved like a brute because he was rewarded for brutish behaviour.
Jesus told those who thought themselves as righteous that he did not come for the well but for the sick. Apparently God gives up on no one, and thereby robs no one of life and breath. Even the vilest can be changed by the love of Christ. Mandela saw in Badenhorst a flicker of the divinity with which we are all created. It is that flicker, that light that no darkness can extinguish, which Jesus works to turn into a roaring flame. If God does not give up on people, we must not either.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Monday, November 21, 2011
Prayer Changes Things
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. – Revelation 3:20 (NKJV)
What does this image of Jesus standing and knocking mean to you? Do you believe Jesus is chasing after you? Have you opened the door to your heart and life? Are you willing to become a temple for the presence of God?
Last week I was attending a Presbytery meeting. After driving an hour and a half to the church where the meeting was being held I was not in much a mood to worship, but the first thing we do at such meetings is worship. My mind was wandering, I was thinking of things I had to do, I wasn’t worshipping God.
Then after the offering I went out to wash my hands and take a breather. Perhaps in the act of washing my hands some of my concerns washed away, or maybe it was that grace poured over me.
Whatever it was when I went back in the Prayers of the People started. People lifted up names that were heavy upon their hearts, and names that gave them reason to rejoice. They shared the reasons for naming each person and we held their names as a group. It felt holy.
The prayer itself wasn’t the normal kind of prayer prayer, as when a person stands before the rest of us and utters a prayer on our behalf. It was responsive where the leader read some and then the congregation read some. It also left time for silence after various groups of people were named. As we prayed for groups of people across the world I could feel them. Those people whose names I will never know and faces I will never see I could feel and I sensed them close in the Spirit. As I prayed for them I realized something else… I loved them.
In that moment I knew something had happened. Right then I was living in the heart of God.
Jesus pursues us hoping that we will open the door of our lives, so that he might enter into them and eat with us. In the Bible eating together is one of the highest forms of fellowship. He wants to fellowship with us so that we might experience life together. In our times of prayer and while we sit at the Communion table we open our hearts to God so that we might find ourselves living in the heart of God. It is there, within God’s heart, that we find out we can love as God loves. So pray on, it does in fact change things, it changes us.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
What does this image of Jesus standing and knocking mean to you? Do you believe Jesus is chasing after you? Have you opened the door to your heart and life? Are you willing to become a temple for the presence of God?
Last week I was attending a Presbytery meeting. After driving an hour and a half to the church where the meeting was being held I was not in much a mood to worship, but the first thing we do at such meetings is worship. My mind was wandering, I was thinking of things I had to do, I wasn’t worshipping God.
Then after the offering I went out to wash my hands and take a breather. Perhaps in the act of washing my hands some of my concerns washed away, or maybe it was that grace poured over me.
Whatever it was when I went back in the Prayers of the People started. People lifted up names that were heavy upon their hearts, and names that gave them reason to rejoice. They shared the reasons for naming each person and we held their names as a group. It felt holy.
The prayer itself wasn’t the normal kind of prayer prayer, as when a person stands before the rest of us and utters a prayer on our behalf. It was responsive where the leader read some and then the congregation read some. It also left time for silence after various groups of people were named. As we prayed for groups of people across the world I could feel them. Those people whose names I will never know and faces I will never see I could feel and I sensed them close in the Spirit. As I prayed for them I realized something else… I loved them.
In that moment I knew something had happened. Right then I was living in the heart of God.
Jesus pursues us hoping that we will open the door of our lives, so that he might enter into them and eat with us. In the Bible eating together is one of the highest forms of fellowship. He wants to fellowship with us so that we might experience life together. In our times of prayer and while we sit at the Communion table we open our hearts to God so that we might find ourselves living in the heart of God. It is there, within God’s heart, that we find out we can love as God loves. So pray on, it does in fact change things, it changes us.
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Monday, November 7, 2011
God Will Supply
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:19 (NIV)
Do you believe God meets your needs? Why or why not? What do you lack? What do you need? What to you give thanks for?
The following story is about the 7th century English saint Cuthbert:
Once upon a time, the good Saint Cuthbert of Lindesfarne, went forth from his monastery to preach to the poor. He took with him a young lad as his only attendant. Together they walked along the dusty way. The heat of the noonday sun beat upon their heads, and fatigue overcame them.
"Son," said Saint Cuthbert, "do you know any one on the road, whom we may ask for food and a place in which to rest?"
"I was just thinking the same thing," answered the lad, "but I know nobody on the road who will entertain us. Alas why did we not bring along provisions? How can we proceed on our long journey without them?"
"My son," answered the saint, "Learn to have trust in God, who never will suffer those to perish of hunger who believe in Him."
Then looking up and seeing an eagle flying in the air, he added, "Do you see the eagle yonder? It is possible for God to feed us by means of this bird."
While they were talking thus, they came to a river, and, lo the eagle stood on the bank.
"Son," said Saint Cuthbert, "run and see what provision God has made for us by his handmaid the bird."
The lad ran, and found a good-sized fish that the eagle had just caught. This he brought to the saint.
"What have you done?" exclaimed the good man, "why have you not given a part to God's handmaid? Cut the fish in two pieces, and give her one, as her service well deserves."
The lad did as he was bidden, and the eagle, taking the half fish in her beak, flew away.
Then entering a neighboring village, Saint Cuthbert gave the other half to a peasant to cook, and while the lad and the villagers feasted, the good saint preached to them the Word of God
An old story you say? Yes it is, but it still speaks an eternal truth. God will supply our needs! As things are getting harder economically we begin to worry. As our things are going away, and budgets get harder to meet and the needs keep increasing our faith wanes. It is a good time that we pray for faith – not just belief in God’s existence, but faith that God can do what God promises. God can!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
Do you believe God meets your needs? Why or why not? What do you lack? What do you need? What to you give thanks for?
The following story is about the 7th century English saint Cuthbert:
Once upon a time, the good Saint Cuthbert of Lindesfarne, went forth from his monastery to preach to the poor. He took with him a young lad as his only attendant. Together they walked along the dusty way. The heat of the noonday sun beat upon their heads, and fatigue overcame them.
"Son," said Saint Cuthbert, "do you know any one on the road, whom we may ask for food and a place in which to rest?"
"I was just thinking the same thing," answered the lad, "but I know nobody on the road who will entertain us. Alas why did we not bring along provisions? How can we proceed on our long journey without them?"
"My son," answered the saint, "Learn to have trust in God, who never will suffer those to perish of hunger who believe in Him."
Then looking up and seeing an eagle flying in the air, he added, "Do you see the eagle yonder? It is possible for God to feed us by means of this bird."
While they were talking thus, they came to a river, and, lo the eagle stood on the bank.
"Son," said Saint Cuthbert, "run and see what provision God has made for us by his handmaid the bird."
The lad ran, and found a good-sized fish that the eagle had just caught. This he brought to the saint.
"What have you done?" exclaimed the good man, "why have you not given a part to God's handmaid? Cut the fish in two pieces, and give her one, as her service well deserves."
The lad did as he was bidden, and the eagle, taking the half fish in her beak, flew away.
Then entering a neighboring village, Saint Cuthbert gave the other half to a peasant to cook, and while the lad and the villagers feasted, the good saint preached to them the Word of God
An old story you say? Yes it is, but it still speaks an eternal truth. God will supply our needs! As things are getting harder economically we begin to worry. As our things are going away, and budgets get harder to meet and the needs keep increasing our faith wanes. It is a good time that we pray for faith – not just belief in God’s existence, but faith that God can do what God promises. God can!
With hope and joy,
Garrett
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