I came across a quote by Joan Chittister a few days ago that I really like and want to share with you: “To understand Christmas is to come face-to-face with the incarnation. The very notion that God imbued creation with divinity makes everything we see sacred, every step we take a pilgrimage to the divine.” I find these words to be quite profound and helpful.
Chittister’s first sentence conveys a truth most Christians readily accept. John 1:14 says “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” The word “incarnation” means “in flesh” and points to the miracle of Christmas—that the Almighty God, the Maker of heaven and earth, at one point in history took on human form (flesh) in Jesus and actually dwelt among us. It is this event we celebrate every December 25. And well we should!
It is the second sentence in Chittister’s quote that conveys a truth that many believers may not be so aware of and this is that by joining us here on earth God made “everything we see sacred.” We now abide on holy ground. The Bible makes clear from the very beginning that God created the world and declares its goodness. The Bible also tells us that “the earth is the Lord’s” (Psalm 24:1); it belongs to God. I suppose there is a sense in which these two truths also point to the earth’s sacredness but this is made most clear in the incarnation, the birth of Christ. At Bethlehem “God imbued creation with divinity.” I’m not sure many, if any, of us can fully comprehended the meaning of this but it should be enough for us to realize that the world we live in is holy and that all we see in God’s creation is sacred. God’s holiness is literally all around us. This should lead us to worship God every day and cause us to live in a perpetual state of wonder and awe. I would also like to think that realizing the earth is sacred would cause us to do a better job of protecting and preserving it.
I like Chittister’s suggestion that every step we take here on earth is “a pilgrimage to the divine.” This probably shouldn’t be taken literally but there is a sense in which what Chittister says is true. We are not only created by God, we are made for God. It is God’s intention that we draw nearer and nearer to Him. God longs to envelope us in His love and to enjoy fellowship with us. Hopefully every step we take will, in fact, draw us closer to the fullness of God’s love and His divine presence. That is my goal for the days to come and throughout the New Year. I hope it will be your goal too.
During my retirement I have been rereading some of my textbooks from seminary. Many of these are over forty years old! Currently I’m reading The Christian Doctrine of God by Emil Brunner. In this classic work Brunner highlights the self-revelation of God and emphasizes God’s revelation of Godself as holy and love. Both aspects of God’s nature must be maintained in order to have a significant grasp of who God is. Brunner says “love is the very nature of God.”“Love is the self-giving God: love is the free and generous grace of the One who is Holy Lord.” Elsewhere he adds, “Only now do we understand why love and revelation belong to one another. Love is the movement which goes-out-of-oneself, which stoops down to that which is below: it is the self-giving, the self-communication of God—and it is this which is His revelation. The idea of self-communication gathers up into one the two elements love and revelation.”
Reading Brunner’s words has caused me to give further thought to God’s self-communication through nature. I firmly believe that God has used that which God created to reveal numerous truths to us. These truths are given in love and continuously point us back to the Source of this love—a God who is Holy Love. So many times nature has forced me to recognize the holiness of God. How can we not be struck by God’s holiness or otherness when we contemplate the sun, moon, and stars? The Psalmist wrote “The heavens declare the glory of God.” (Psalm 19:1) How can we not sense God’s holiness when we visit the ocean, mountains, or desert? I find myself standing in awe of God in natural settings more than any other place. I suspect many of you do too.
Yes, Creation points me to the holiness of God over and over again, but it also serves as a perpetual reminder of God’s infinite love. Creation may be viewed as an incredible gift God has lavished upon us out of love. It is a precious gift for many reasons. In Creation we find many of our physical, spiritual, mental and emotional needs met. In Creation we discover a beauty that both humbles and inspires us. For those with eyes to see, all around us is the evidence of God’s love. The fact that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) here on earth reveals the full measure of God’s love for both the world and us. Recognizing the value of this gift of love should move us to pay more attention to God’s overtures of love and affection. It should also move us to cherish, protect, and preserve this amazing gift.
Now that spring has arrived I hope we will all get outside more and with the eyes of faith contemplate the wonders and glory of God’s handiwork. As we do so, let us offer our praise and thanksgiving to the One who has been revealed to us as Holy Love.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14
Today is the twelfth and final day of the Christmas season. When you add the four weeks of Advent to the twelve days of Christmas, and then tack on all the pre-Advent weeks of Christmas decorations, music and commercials, Christmas seems to last forever these days. I hope it has been a joyful and blessed season for you and before we officially leave it I’d like to pause one more time to consider the significance of the Incarnation.
In today’s “Daily Meditation” by Richard Rohr he makes the claim that Christmas for many is an even bigger celebration than Easter. It would be hard to deny that claim. In fact, I’ve often wondered why we go all out in our celebration of Christmas but seem rather subdued when it comes to Easter. Rohr offers one reason. He says “because for God to be born as one of us in this world among the animals and in a poor family shows that humanity is good, flesh is good, and this world is good!” I’m not sure Rohr’s reason fully justifies the disproportionate celebration Christmas receives over Easter but he does point to an often forgotten truth that was made manifest when God took on human flesh that first Christmas. By entering this world and actually becoming a part of this world God revealed the goodness of Creation and humanity itself. This goodness was already affirmed in the Genesis 1 account of Creation but by taking on human flesh and living in the midst of this Creation God affirmed their goodness on a whole new level.
Contrary to various philosophies that have dominated human thinking at times, this world is good and life in this world is as well. The birth of Jesus Christ offers proof of this. If the world and life were not sacred prior to Jesus’ birth—and I believe that they were—they certainly were afterwards. In a definitive way God added God’s stamp of approval on both when Jesus was born.
At the end of today’s “daily meditation” Rohr says “Christ is both the Alpha and the Omega of history (Revelation 1:8), naming it correctly at the very start and forever alluring it forward. Love is both the cause and the goal of all creation. This is a meaningful universe, and meaning is what the soul needs to thrive.” God’s love revealed at Christmas, and certainly Easter too, does in fact give meaning to the universe and life itself. It also serves as a useful reminder that God is as much a part of this earth and this life as God is of heaven and the life to come. I’m afraid far too many of us fail to recognize this. If we fully understood this truth we’d be singing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” not just at Christmas but year round.
–Chuck
(I took the first and third image in Henderson County, KY., and the middle image at Yellowstone National Park.)
The Hebrew Scriptures, also known as the Old or Older Testament, begin with an account of the creation of “the heavens and the earth.” The strong affirmation here is that God spoke the world into existence. Right at the start one learns that God is both mighty and extremely creative. The world is viewed as God’s handiwork and remains evidence of God’s might and creativity. Later in the Hebrew Scriptures God reveals Himself as a mighty deliverer, enabling the Hebrews to escape their bondage in Egypt. Much later in time poets like David arose who sang God’s praises. These poets frequently look back to these two revelations and refer to God as being the One who made the heavens and the earth or brought about Israel’s deliverance.
When one turns to the New Testament God reveals Himself in a most unexpected way. The Gospel of John says “The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (1:14) Through “the word,” or Jesus, the clearest picture of God we have was made manifest. Christians now understand God first and foremost through Jesus. Christ becomes the new deliverer and much is made of his role as such in the pages of the New Testament. God’s role in Creation, however, also continues to be emphasized.
This year I have been teaching a study on the Book of Acts. As we have gone through this book I’ve noticed how God’s role as Creator keeps popping up. For example, in Acts 4:24 you find the disciples praying. They begin their prayer with the words, “Sovereign Lord, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.” Even after the marvelous manifestation of God in Christ God continues to be addressed as the Creator. In chapter 14 of Acts Luke tells the story of Paul and Barnabas being worshiped by the people of Lystra after they heal a crippled man. The two urged the group to stop and directed their attention to “the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.” (v. 15) In Acts 17 we find Paul’s speech to the “men of Athens.” Here he introduces them to “the God who made the world and everything in it.” (v. 24)
Clearly, even after Christ came the early Christian leaders felt it was necessary to hold on diligently to the idea of God as Creator. I suspect there are a variety of reasons for this. As already noted, in Creation they saw the evidence of God’s power or might. This evidence was something they encountered each and every day in nature. Creation bore testimony to God’s power and was a reminder that this same power was available to believers. I also think they continued to focus on God’s role as Creator because this gave them a point of entry as they sought to spread the gospel. Practically everyone believed that the world was brought into being by divine forces of one kind or another; the early Christians hoped to help people understand that the God they believed in, and who was made fully known in Jesus Christ, was, in fact, “the Maker of heaven and earth.”
I believe that it is important that we continue to hold on to and emphasize God’s role as Creator of the heavens and the earth. Some Christian groups do so each week as they recite the Apostles Creed. Others don’t. Continuing to focus on God’s role as Creator will help us connect better with the world around us and we will daily be reminded of God’s power and creativity. Focusing on God as Creator also is still a good starting point when it comes to sharing our faith with others. Although not everyone today believes the world was actually created, most still feel that the world didn’t just come into existence on its own. As Christians we can help people make the connection between nature and the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. This connection is vital for understanding the goodness of Creation, its sacredness, and our responsibility to take good care of it.
I hope we’ll never cease affirming God’s role as Maker of heaven and earth. There is no reason not to and plenty of good reasons for doing so.
–Chuck
(I took the top two pictures in western Kentucky and the bottom two in southern Florida.)
Let me begin by wishing you a very merry and blessed Christmas. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you happen to be reading this. Last night the church I serve had a late night Christmas Eve Service. For the message I shared with them I found inspiration in the beautiful Christmas song penned by K. K. Wiseman a few years ago that was recorded by Faith Hill. It is called A Baby Changes Everything. Obviously the coming of a baby into any home “changes everything” but never was that so true as the child that Mary brought into the world that first Christmas long ago.
In my Christmas homily I talked about how the baby who was born in Bethlehem long ago went on to change how we look at God, how we look at ourselves and also how we are to look at others. I very easily could have gone on to talk about how the coming of Jesus also changes the way that we are to look at the earth. There are a number of different ways this is true.
The first chapter of Genesis makes it clear that the earth is “good.” After each day of Creation God declared that what He had made was (is) good. Later the Psalmist would declare that “the earth is the Lord’s.” (24:1) The fact that God made and owns the earth would indicate that it is quite special. But realizing that God actually came to earth and for a time made His dwelling here (John 1:14) makes it clear that the earth should also be viewed as holy or sacred. This planet of our was blessed to be visited by its Maker. That fact alone sets the earth apart. We should learn to view this place we live as holy ground and treat it as such.
Jesus would also change the way we look at the earth when he repeatedly used the world of nature as teaching tools for spiritual principles. The earth, for him, contained a repository of divine lessons. He told us to pay attention to the birds above us and to the flowers at our feet. In his parables he often pointed to plants and other natural objects as divine indicators. The way Jesus looked at the world should change the way we look at it too. Like him, we are to see the earth as a school of higher learning—much higher learning!
The one born at Bethlehem not only used the natural world as object lessons in his teaching ministry, he also sought the presence of his Father there. We know that Jesus did attend the synagogues of Palestine and visited the Temple in Jerusalem on a number of occasion but we also learn in the Gospels that it was his custom to find solitude with God on lonely hillsides and in the stillness of garden enclosures. Later some of Jesus’ followers would come to view the world as evil. He, however, found it to be a place where God can be found and encountered in a multitude of different ways. We should look at the earth in the same way.
Today I am very thankful for the many changes the baby born in Bethlehem has made in my life. I, and hopefully others too, now see God, myself, others and the earth itself differently because “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
–Chuck
(I took the three pictures used above not far from my home in Henderson, Kentucky.)
In the book, Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring for Creation, you will find a prayer penned by Brian McLaren. I’ve been reading Brian’s books for a number of years and have had a chance to hear him speak a couple of times. I know he shares with me a common love for God and nature so I was excited to discover this prayer recorded in Holy Ground. The prayer is too long to include in its entirety here but I do want to share the final portion of it with you:
“We thank you, God, for speaking to our world through Jesus. He told us that, just as you care for every sparrow, you care for us. He reminded us that you give the wildflowers their natural beauty and you wish to clothe us with beauty in a similar way. He taught us that wisdom is hidden in the growth of the smallest seed, in the turning of seasons, in every corner of your amazing creation. He taught us to see every creature as beloved by you, God our Creator, and he called us to live with your love pulsing in our hearts. So let us learn to see and love this good Earth as Jesus did, and to care for it and enjoy it and rejoice in it, so that the Earth may indeed be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.”
I like the way Brian summarizes Jesus’ teachings in this prayer but there is something else here that caught my attention. It is found in his last petition where he prays that we might “see and love this good Earth as Jesus did.” Needless to say we talk a lot on this site about seeing Creation and also about loving it but I’m not sure I’ve ever given much thought to how Jesus actually saw and loved it. Obviously, as Brian makes clear, Jesus saw Creation as a source of God’s revelation, but how did the world look to Jesus through his own eyes?
I suspect that Jesus saw far more than we tend to. I imagine, for example, that he noticed the small and “ordinary” things of nature that we often pass right by without a second glance. I can picture Jesus taking the time to soak in the beauty that surrounded him and meditating on what he saw. No doubt Jesus looked at the flora and fauna, the geography and geology, about him with an understanding like no one else who has ever lived. Ultimately, however, it’s hard for me to imagine just how Jesus looked at the world. Here’s why…
In the Prologue to John’s Gospel we are told both that “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” and that “through him all things were made.” (1:14, 1:3) It is impossible for me to comprehend the Word (God) becoming flesh; to try to grasp what it was like for the Creator to live in and look at the Creation is equally impossible. I would imagine, however, that Jesus looked upon His own handiwork with great delight. What he had created “in the beginning” as “good” was still good. Perhaps the joy he felt in making all things was renewed and experienced again as he looked upon it all through human eyes. The one thing I believe I can say with certainty is that Jesus saw the world he had created through the eyes of love.
I doubt that it is fully possible for us to see the earth as Jesus did but I know that if I could I would be even more grateful for it than I am now and would not be able to look at anything without wonder and awe. It would be love at first sight, and second sight, and third sight… As Brian McClaren prayed, I think I would also “care for it and enjoy it and rejoice in it” in ways I’ve not yet done. For that reason I intend to make Brian’s prayer my own and encourage you to do the same.
–Chuck
(I took the four images above recently at a county park near my home.)
