Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Bonhoeffer on Advent

It is not yet Christmas. But it is also not the great final Advent, the final coming of Christ. Through all the Advents of our life that we celebrate goes the longing for the final Advent, where it says: "Behold, I make all things new."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Bonhoeffer on Advent

We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience.

Only when we have felt the terror of the matter, can we recognize the incomparable kindness.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Bonhoeffer on Advent

For the great and powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger and the cross of Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Bonhoeffer on Advent

“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing

John begins his gospel by saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  This sets the stage for perhaps the most dramatic truth in human history, as described later in that same chapter in verse 14: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

John tells us that, amazingly, the Word became flesh...God became a man.  In Philippians 2:6-8, Paul says Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God and the second person of the Deity, "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."

What an act of humility for God to submit himself even to death, and the most painful and humiliating form of death at that.  But even apart from this, the fact that God even became a human being in the first place is the most supreme act of gracious condescension one can imagine.

When John says he "dwelt among us," the literal language is "he pitched his tent" or "he tabernacled" in our midst.  It is an allusion to the fact that before the Temple was built, God's dwelling place in the midst of his people had been in the Tabernacle, essentially a tent-temple that moved with the people.  What John is implying here (and says outright in Revelation 21:22) is that the Christ is the true Temple, the place where God and man meet.

When Moses requested to see the glory of God, God's response was, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live" (Exodus 33:18-20).  But so great is the graciousness of God in Christ Jesus that John can truly say, "we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

I am reminded of what may be my favorite lines from any Christmas hymn:

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th'incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.

May we, with John, look to Christ and his glory.  And may we, with the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn king!"

Previous posts in this series:

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 1)

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 2)

O Little Town of Bethlehem 

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

O Holy Night

Joy to the World (part 1)

Joy to the World (part 2)

Joy to the World (part 2)

In Genesis 3:17-19, we read God's proclamation to Adam of the curse that is a result of his sin.  "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Adam was originally created and placed by God in the Garden that he might tend it.  Work existed before the Fall and it was good.  We might struggle to understand this today, but that is because the very nature of work, just like all of creation, was dramatically changed as a result of Adam's sin.  What once was wholly good, became hard and painful and frustrating.  But this is not where the story ends.

As previous hymns in this series have suggested, God's plan of redemption is not just for the people he has created, but for his creation as a whole.  Often in the Church, we think of the ultimate goal of the Christian life as the escape from this world (to heaven).  But the Bible actually teaches a different thing.  It tells us in Revelation 21:1-3 that ultimately it is not we who will go to be with God in heaven, but rather, it is he who will bring heaven with him as he comes to be with us.

You see, Christ came to redeem his creation, that his redeemed people might eternally inhabit it.  One of my seminary professors, Michael Williams, has written, "To suggest that the sin of man so corrupted his creation that God cannot fix it but can only junk it in favor of some other world is to say that ultimately the kingdom of evil is more powerful than the kingdom of God.  It makes sin more powerful than redemption, and Satan the victor over God."

This Advent, let us remember that Christ came not only that I might be forgiven of my sins, but that I might one day live free of sin altogether.  And he came not to get rid of this creation, but ultimately to restore it to its original functionality, beauty and grandeur.  As Dr. Williams often said in class, God doesn't make junk, and God doesn't junk what he's made.  So it is that throughout Advent, and the rest of the year as well, we look forward to the great day of restoration when the words of the hymn will be realized,

No more let sin and sorrow grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse was found,
Far as the curse was found,
Far as, far as the curse was found.

Previous posts in this series:

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 1)

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 2)
O Little Town of Bethlehem 

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

O Holy Night
Joy to the World (part 1)

Joy to the World!

In the 98th Psalm we read in verse 4 and verses 7-9, "Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!...Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity."

It is indeed ironic that one of the most loved of all Christmas hymns was never intended by its author to be a Christmas hymn at all.  Inspired by the 98th Psalm, Isaac Watts merely intended to give a more overtly Christian representation of the Psalm's meaning.  Drawing on and making allusions to other passages of Scripture, he penned the now famous hymn which, like many great hymns for Advent, looks forward both to Christmas and the celebration of the Lord's first coming, as well as to His second coming.

In addition to this, similarly to O Holy Night, Joy to the World speaks not only to the joy which humans are offered in Christ Jesus, but also to the joy that all of Creation itself is waiting to express as it longs for its release from bondage.  It points us to that day when this release will be realized, the day when He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.  And on that day, the words of this hymn will be made manifest,

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

May it be said of us that we are a people who sing of the glories of God not only at Christmas, but year round. And may the Creation itself echo back those praises!

Previous posts in this series:

O Holy Night 

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 1)

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 2)

O Little Town of Bethlehem

O Holy Night!

We read in Romans 8:19-22, "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now."

The Bible is clear that when Adam fell, not only did we fall with him, but so did all of creation.  That is why the world does not work perfectly and why disease and natural disasters can rightly be said to be a result of sin, even when there is evidently no direct one-to-one correspondence.

Christ Jesus came to save us from our sin and to free us from its effects.  On one hand, he did this by paying the penalty we owed for our sin and by making us righteous before God.  But it is also true that he came to free creation itself from its bondage to sin.  We often think of the former but fail to recognize the latter, but if we do recognize both, it brings a new depth of meaning to the words,

O holy night!  the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope -- a weary world rejoices;
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

That new and glorious morn broke when Christ Jesus was born.  The sun of that new and glorious morn continued to rise even as the crucified Son of God rose from the dead.  And now, along with creation itself, we long for the consummation of this day, when when faith becomes sight and sin and its effects are no more!

Previous posts in this series:

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 1)

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 2)
O Little Town of Bethlehem

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

2 Corinthians 1:3-4a reads "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction..."

God nowhere promises to make your life comfortable free from trials and tribulation.  For the Christian, just as it was for Christ, precisely the opposite is true.  But God does promise that in times of affliction, he will be our comfort.  And we know that this promise is not an empty one because of the incarnation.  The second person of the trinity took on flesh and became a human being, just like you and me.  As a result, God's knowledge of our trials and temptations is not a mere cognitive awareness, but an experiential appreciation.  "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus has experienced every form of temptation we might experience, and he has endured more suffering than we will ever endure.  As a result, he can truly be a comfort to us in all situations, and we can sing, especially in the midst of times of great difficulty and unrest,

God rest ye merry, gentlemen Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan's power When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

My prayer for you this Advent season is that Christ Jesus may indeed be your comfort and joy!

Previous posts in this series:

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 1)

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 2)

O Little Town of Bethlehem

O Little Town of Bethlehem

In Micah 5:2 we find the prophetic words, "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days."

It is the fulfillment of this prophecy that is highlighted in these lyrics:

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight

I have always enjoyed the poetic quality of this verse, especially the final line of this stanza.  And I like the fact that it deals with our fears.  In one sense, we are very  right to have fears.  Not one of us is righteous and yet we all stand before a judge who demands our righteousness.  We are rightly to be condemned, every one of us, to the pains of eternal judgment.  And this is certainly worth fearing.

But for those of us who find our righteousness not in our own deeds, but in the holiness of Christ Jesus, these fears are met by hope.  Not an unfounded wish, but a confident expectation that we will be spared this judgment.  We will be spared it because the holy One of God is not just a mighty ruler and the Ancient of Days.  He is also the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and he has faced the judgment that we deserved.

And so it is that even in the dark streets of the little town of Bethlehem, a light shined on that night so many years ago.  It was no ordinary light, but an everlasting one, and so it shines on today.  As such, just as truly as Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds could have said it then, we can say it now, "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight!"

I pray that this Christmas your fears might be met by the hope that is present in Christ Jesus.

Previous posts in this series:

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 1)

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 2)

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 2)

1 Corinthians 15:54-57 reads, "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Yesterday, in discussing O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, I made the point that Christ came not just to keep us from being lonely, but to free his covenant people from bondage.  This bondage can be to many things, but ultimately it is to death.  That is why the Immortal clothed himself with mortality and allowed himself to be laid in a feed trough…that we, his children, might one day put on immortality.

I love the confidence that knowing this gives a believer.  We can boldly (almost tauntingly) proclaim to death that it no longer holds sway over us.  This is exactly what Paul does when he proclaims, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” and it is what the English poet John Donne did when he wrote,

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more, death, thou shalt die.

And it is that same hopeful, longing confidence with which we can sing

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

For when Christ took on human flesh, he did so with a plan.  And according to that plan (to borrow the words of another hymn) he died, eternal life to bring, and lives that death may die.  May we all rejoice in this fact throughout this Advent season and beyond!

Previous posts in this series:

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (part 1)

Christmas Hymns...Some Thoughts for Advent (1)

The other day I was listening to some Christmas hymns and it occurred to me how theologically rich the lyrical content of many of these songs is. Unfortunately, it has often been my practice (and I assume the same is true for at least some of you) to be so familiar with these songs that I sing them without actually thinking about the words I am singing.

As a result, I thought it might be a nice idea to write short reflections on certain lines and verses throughout the season of Advent. My primary goal in this is to help ensure my heart and mind are in the right place of worship as Christmas approaches. I hope you will benefit as well.

Isaiah 7:14 reads, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." These words were given to the people of Israel on the virtual eve of their being carried off into captivity by Assyria. As they were in exile, it is easy to imagine them singing,

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

The name “Emmanuel” is a Hebrew phrase which translates literally as “God with us,” so what is represented here is a desire for God to come be with us. But the desire is not just that he might come be with us so that we’re not lonely. Rather, the purpose of this coming is that he might “ransom captive Israel, that is, the covenant people of God.

It is interesting how a number of Christmas hymns “work” not just at Christmas, but year round. We often see ourselves as those who are comfortable and at home in the world around us. If we are to think biblically though, it would be more proper to see ourselves as lonely exiles, awaiting deliverance by the hand of our great king (Philippians 3:20).

You see, just as we normally think of the Lord’s first coming when we sing this song, so too we should really be longing now for the second coming of Emmanuel. As Trevin Wax has suggested, perhaps that is why it opens with the two-fold, “O come, O come…” Certainly, this Advent we ought to look forward to the day we celebrate the birth of Christ.  But how much more ought we to look forward to the day he actually returns!  For, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).