Here’s an interesting blog post about N.T. Wright’s take on Christmas based on the hymns we sing during the season. I came across it thanks to a number of RT’s on Twitter. It’s by Peter Leithart at the CREDENDAagenda blog. A really good read. I couldn’t agree with Wright (and Leithart) more. You can read his post here. Here’s the punchline for me if you don’t have time to read the whole thing:
What does Simeon sing about? When he takes the infant Jesus into his arms, he blessed God: “Let your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation.” And what is that? Access to heaven? Forgiveness of sins? No: “the light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”
Continue reading 'Is N.T. Wright a Grinch?'»
John Chrysostom, 4th C.
Here’s one of the earliest recorded Christmas sermons from one of the greatest preachers in the history of Christianity, John Chrysostom. It comes to me via way of the Spectrum blog, via way of Tony Jones‘ blog—they both provide some good introductory context. Here’s one of my favorite paragraphs:
What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infants bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness.
Go here for the post in the Spectrum blog.
Go here for the post in Tony Jones’ blog.
Gabriel visits Mary
Here’s a good quote for Advent from J.B. Philips (I don’t know the source but I found it on the Christian Prayers and Worship site, inspired by the Celtic Christian Church):
“If New Testament Christianity is to reappear today with its power and joy and courage, men [and women] must recapture the basic conviction that this is a Visited planet. It is not enough to express formal belief in the “Incarnation” or in the “Divinity of Christ”; the staggering truth must be accepted afresh — that in this vast, mysterious universe, of which we are an almost infinitesimal part, the great Mystery, Whom we call God, has visited our planet in Person. It is from this conviction that there springs unconquerable certainty and unquenchable faith and hope. It is not enough to believe theoretically that was both God and Man; not enough to admire, respect, and even worship Him; it is not even enough to try to follow Him. The reason for the insufficiency of these things is that the modern intelligent mind, which has had its horizons widened in dozens of different ways, has got to be shocked afresh by the audacious central Fact — that, as a sober matter of history, God became one of us.”
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