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A Christmas Meditation
Approaching the Christ-child in the still of a cold winter-night, we behold the awesome grace of God. This grace is expressed in the circumstance of Christs birth, which calls all of us to the manger to witness the advent of the kingdom of God. The nativity is thoroughly communal: the old, the young, the rich and poor, the believers and unbelievers, the educated and uneducated, the laity and the priests are all summoned to the coming of the Christ. At the dawn of this new age, a kingdom is inaugurated, and a call is issued to everyone.
The nativity of Christ calls us to live the life of redemption, exchanging comfort for suffering so that God can express grace completely in the life of the community. We are called to turn the other cheek, bringing an end to endless retaliation. We are called to give to the poor, ending the endless cycle of poverty. Above all, we are called love or enemy and love our neighbor, living not according to what builds our empire but what builds up and encourages other people. The only way to fulfill this calling is to be poor in spirit, living a life patterned after the impoverished Christ: the one who had nothing to lose but everything to gain in turning the other cheek, caring for the needs of others, and proclaiming Gods redemptive love.
Paul writes of the incarnational outpouring of God in Christ, and its meaning in our lives:
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Let us remember Christ by building the kingdom of God in like manner, leaving behind all the pride that hinders us from love. Christian doctrine, salvation, belief in Christ himself or the Christian God whatever is precious to us as Christians is not a thing to be grasped, like one who takes hold of a prize at the end of a race. The precious calling of Christianity is to live a life of redemption, exchanging the attitudes that destroy ourselves and others with the gentle, abiding love of God that seeks only to make us whole.
We have a pattern of sacrifice in Christ that provides for us the foundation of this kingdom of God: self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice is the only way to establish the kingdom of God, and this kingdom only exists in the moment of this action, because in it Gods presence is fully known in our lives and in the lives of others. As we love others, as we provide for others, as we make the awesome sacrifice of forgiveness, we touch the lives of other people in the name of Christ and make the good news of the kingdom of God known in the world.
Approaching the Christ-child in the still of a cold winter-night, we behold the awesome grace of God. This grace is expressed in the circumstance of Christs birth, which calls all of us to the manger to witness the advent of the kingdom of God. The nativity is thoroughly communal: the old, the young, the rich and poor, the believers and unbelievers, the educated and uneducated, the laity and the priests are all summoned to the coming of the Christ. At the dawn of this new age, a kingdom is inaugurated, and a call is issued to everyone.
The nativity of Christ calls us to live the life of redemption, exchanging comfort for suffering so that God can express grace completely in the life of the community. We are called to turn the other cheek, bringing an end to endless retaliation. We are called to give to the poor, ending the endless cycle of poverty. Above all, we are called love or enemy and love our neighbor, living not according to what builds our empire but what builds up and encourages other people. The only way to fulfill this calling is to be poor in spirit, living a life patterned after the impoverished Christ: the one who had nothing to lose but everything to gain in turning the other cheek, caring for the needs of others, and proclaiming Gods redemptive love.
Paul writes of the incarnational outpouring of God in Christ, and its meaning in our lives:
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Let us remember Christ by building the kingdom of God in like manner, leaving behind all the pride that hinders us from love. Christian doctrine, salvation, belief in Christ himself or the Christian God whatever is precious to us as Christians is not a thing to be grasped, like one who takes hold of a prize at the end of a race. The precious calling of Christianity is to live a life of redemption, exchanging the attitudes that destroy ourselves and others with the gentle, abiding love of God that seeks only to make us whole.
We have a pattern of sacrifice in Christ that provides for us the foundation of this kingdom of God: self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice is the only way to establish the kingdom of God, and this kingdom only exists in the moment of this action, because in it Gods presence is fully known in our lives and in the lives of others. As we love others, as we provide for others, as we make the awesome sacrifice of forgiveness, we touch the lives of other people in the name of Christ and make the good news of the kingdom of God known in the world.
