Christmas 2015

"Therefore, when the time came for the eternal Son of God to be sent by his Father into the world, the work of the Holy Spirit was a quiet, unobtrusive work in the service of the Father and the Son. Through him the Father caused the Son to be conceived in Mary the virgin. So from the very beginning of Christ’s incarnation the Holy Spirit was quietly doing what needed to be done to put forward Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of man." (John Piper)

"Infinite, and an infant.
Eternal, and yet born of a woman.
Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman’s breast.
Supporting a universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms.
King of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph.
Heir of all things, and yet the carpenter’s despised son." (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

"How shall we deal with such a child? Have our hands, soiled with daily toil, become too hard and too proud to fold in prayer at the sight of this child? Has our head become too full of serious thoughts … that we cannot bow our head in humility at the wonder of this child? Can we not forget all our stress and struggles, our sense of importance, and for once worship the child, as did the shepherds and the wise men from the East, bowing before the divine child in the manger like children?" (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

"The enemy is not going to win. Christmas is but the beginning of the story. The baby brought light into the darkness, and He would break the back of the powers through His later death and resurrection. If you’re struggling this Christmas season, don’t forget the rest of the story!" (Thomas Rainer)

Prior posts:

Day 26 | Day 25 | Day 24 | Day 23 | Day 22 | Day 21 | Day 20 | Day 19 | Day 18 | Day 17 | Day 16 | Day 15
Day 14 | Day 13 | Day 12 | Day 11 | Day 10 | Day 9 | Day 8 | Day 7 | Day 6 | Day 5 | Day 4 | Day 3 | Day 2
Day 1

Advent 2015 - Day 24

"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." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Prior posts:

Day 23 | Day 22 | Day 21 | Day 20 | Day 19 | Day 18 | Day 17 | Day 16 | Day 15 | Day 14
Day 13 | Day 12 | Day 11 | Day 10 | Day 9 | Day 8 | Day 7 | Day 6 | Day 5 | Day 4 | Day 3 | Day 2 | Day 1

Advent 2015 - Day 18

"Look up, you whose gaze is fixed on this earth, who are spellbound by the little events and changes on the face of the earth. Look up to these words, you who have turned away from heaven disappointed. Look up, you whose eyes are heavy with tears and who are heavy and who are crying over the fact that the earth has gracelessly torn us away. Look up, you who, burdened with guilt, cannot lift your eyes. Look up, your redemption is drawing near." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Prior posts:

Day 17 | Day 16 | Day 15 | Day 14
Day 13 | Day 12 | Day 11 | Day 10 | Day 9 | Day 8 | Day 7 | Day 6 | Day 5 | Day 4 | Day 3 | Day 2 | Day 1

Advent 2015 - Day 12

"For the greatest, most profound, tenderest things in the world, we must wait. It happens not here in a storm but according to the divine laws of sprouting, growing, and becoming." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Prior posts:

Day 11 | Day 10 | Day 9 | Day 8 | Day 7 | Day 6 | Day 5 | Day 4 | Day 3 | Day 2 | Day 1

Advent 2015 - Day 8

"Look up, you whose gaze is fixed on this earth, who are spellbound by the little events and changes on the face of the earth. Look up to these words, you who have turned away from heaven disappointed. Look up, you whose eyes are heavy with tears and who are heavy and who are crying over the fact that the earth has gracelessly torn us away. Look up, you who, burdened with guilt, cannot lift your eyes. Look up, your redemption is drawing near." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Advent 2015 - Day 4

"The Advent season is a season of waiting, but our whole life is an Advent season, that is, a season of waiting for the last Advent, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Advent 2015 - Day 2

"Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. Waiting is an art that our impatient age has forgotten. It wants to break open the ripe fruit when it has hardly finished planting the shoot. But all too often the greedy eyes are only deceived; the fruit that seemed so precious is still green on the inside, and disrespectful hands ungratefully toss aside what has so disappointed them. Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting—that is, of hopefully doing without—will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

The Throne of God in the Depths of Humanity

(excerpted from God is in the Manger, a collection of writings by Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

"We cannot approach the manger of the Christ child in the same way we approach the cradle of another child. Rather, when we go to his manger, something happens, and we cannot leave it again unless we have been judged or redeemed. Here we must either collapse or know the mercy of God directed toward us.

"What does that mean? Isn't all of this just a way of speaking? Isn't it just pastoral exaggeration of a pretty and pious legend? What does it mean that such things are said about the Christ child? Those who want to take it as a way of speaking will do so and continue to celebrate Advent and Christmas as before, with pagan indifference. For us it is not just a way of speaking. For that's just it: it is God himself, the Lord and Creator of all things, who is so small here, who is hidden here in the corner, who enters into the plainness of the world, who meets us in the helplessness and defenselessness of a child, and wants to be with us. And he does this not out of playfulness or sport, because we find that so touching, but in order to show us where he is and who he is and in order from this place judge and devalue and dethrone all human ambition.

"The throne of God in the world is not on human thrones, but in human depths, in the manger. Standing around his throne there are no flattering vassals but dark, unknown, questionable figures who cannot get their fill of this miracle and want to live entirely by the mercy of God.

"'Joy to the world!' Anyone for whom this sound in foreign, or who hears in it nothing but weak enthusiasm, has not yet really heard the gospel. For the sake of humankind, Jesus Christ became a man in a stable in Bethlehem: Rejoice, O Christendom! For sinners, Jesus Christ became a companion of tax collectors and prostitutes: Rejoice, O Christendom! For the condemned, Jesus Christ was condemned to the cross on Golgotha: Rejoice, O Christendom! For all of us Jesus Christ was resurrected to life: Rejoice, O Christendom! ... All over the world today people are asking: Where is the path to joy? The church of Christ answers loudly: Jesus is our joy! (1 Pet 1:7-9) Joy to the world!"

To God alone be the Glory.

The Great Turning Point of All Things

(or as Gandalf would say, "I come to you now, at the turn of the tide")

I've been posting here and on Facebook, excerpts from God is in the Manger, a collection of writings from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. They are focused primarily on Christmas and Advent, but with other themes thrown in. The book was very helpful for me this year to reorient my heart and mind to the meaning and purpose of Christmas. Much has been lost and distorted even in the Christian celebration of this glorious event. I think we lose the majesty and the power and the awesomeness of Christmas when it becomes about gifts or family or church (good things, but not ultimate things). Christmas should always and forever be about God becoming man (no, a baby), being born  (no, born in a stinky, dirty, noisy stable), living  (no living a commoner's life), and dying (no dying a traitor's death). He did this for the twin goals of fulfilling his Father's will and executing a rescue mission that no Seal team would dare attempt. Jesus was born, lived and died for God and for you. Christmas is about Christ, not us. Glory to God indeed!

"What kings and leaders of nations, philosophers and artists, founders of religions and teachers of morals have tried in vain to do--that now happens through a new born child. Putting to shame the most powerful human efforts and accomplishments, a child is placed here at the midpoint of world history--a child born of human beings, a son given by God (Isa 9:6). That is the mystery of the redemption of the world; everything past and everything future is encompassed here. The infinite mercy of the almighty God comes to us, descends to us in the form of a child, his Son. That this child is born for us, this son is given to us, that this human child and Son belongs to me, that I know him, have him, love him, that I am his and he is mine--on this alone my life now depends. A child has our life in his hands... 

"How should we deal with such a child? Have our hands, soiled with daily toil, become too hard and too proud to fold in prayer at the sight of this child? Has our head become too full of serious thoughts...that we cannot bow our head in humility at the wonder of this child? Can we not forget all our stress and struggles, our sense of importance and for once worship the child as did the shepherds and the wise men from the East, bowing before the divine child in the manger like children"  - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Government upon the Shoulders, Christmas 1940

To God Alone be the Glory

The Wonder of All Wonders

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

God travels in wonderful ways with human beings, but does not comply with the views or opinions of people. God does not go the way that people want to prescribe for him; rather his way is beyond all comprehension, free and self determined beyond all proof. 

Where reason is indignant, where our nature rebels, where our piety anxiously keeps us away: that is precisely where God loves to be. There he confounds the reason of the reasonable; there he aggravates our nature, our piety--that is where he wants to be, and no one can keep him from it. Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair, that he takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous. And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly... God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and the broken.

To God Alone be the Glory

Vote 2012

In 2010, I wrote the post below.  I stand by those thoughts today even more than I did then. And to them I would add one other.

There is a responsibility that comes with our rights. Whether those rights are God given or the result of the government system we are under, our rights lead to our responsibilities. So, not only do we have the right to vote on Nov 6, 2012, we have the responsibility to do so.

But rights and responsibilities go beyond voting. They include helping others when they are down and we are doing good. They include sharing our bountiful excess when others have nothing. And, they include defending the helpless and the hopeless, when we have both safety and security.

No one is more at risk than a baby in his or her mother's womb. And no deserves more protection from society and yes, the government. If I can be compelled to recycle to protect a defenseless environment or wear a seat belt to protect my defenseless self, how much more do the weakest and most precious members of humanity deserve our protection?

Please vote and pray for life.

To God Alone be the Glory

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On Nov 2, 2010, all Americans 18 years old and older will have the privilege to vote.  I typically avoid discussing political issues because I think such discussions can quickly slide from a pure Biblical perspective to a very humanistic one.  However, I feel compelled to share the thoughts of two of my heroes in the faith: John Piper and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I will let their words speak for themselves, but my prayer is that for true Christians, we would approach our privilege to vote prayerfully, seriously, humbly and very, very gratefully.  SDG

Piper:

No endorsment of a single issue qualifies a person to hold public office. Being pro-life does not make a person a good governor, mayor or president, but there are numerous single issues that disqualify a person from oublic office. For example, any candidate who endorsed bribery as a form of government efficiency would be disqualified, regardless of his party or platform. Or a person who endorsed corperate fraud would be disqualified no matter what else he endorsed. Or a person who said no black person could hold office--on that single issue alone he would be unfit for office. Or a person who said rape is only a misdemeanor--that single issue would end his political career. These examples could go on and on. Everybody knows a single issue that for them would disqualify a candidate for office.

You have to decide what those issues are for you. What do you think disqualifies a person from public office? I believe that the endorsement of the right to kill unborn children disqualifies a person from any position of public office. It's simply the same as saying the endorsement of racism, fraud or bribery would disqualify him--except that killing a child is much worse. -- The Godward Life, vol 1

Bonhoeffer:

"Destruction of the embryo in the mother's womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And this is nothing but murder." -- Ethics pg 206

Bonhoefferian Radicality

The following is an except from an article by Robert W. Yarbrough in the most recent issue of Themelios.

We might note that Bonhoeffer seemed to have an eye for what one could call the apocalyptic dimension of his era in the run-up to Axis hegemony (recall, e.g., the rape of Nanking in 193711) and World War II. It is in tragic hindsight of what he glimpsed and what most denied that his work takes on special poignancy. Surely we are not on the cusp of some analogous international cataclysm? We could wish for Bonhoeffer's prophetic instincts; it might put fire in our bones when we are prone to be at ease. 

Might this help? It has been plausibly estimated that since the early 1920s, around the world there have been nearly 1 billion abortions-about 950 million, actually.12 At current rates we will have reached 1 billion very soon. I wonder if that alone constitutes enough of an affront to God to justify Bonhoefferian radicality in our work, if I may coin a term. This would be in response, not to political usurpation in one nation most relevant to us, as terrible as the Nazis were and the Holocaust was, but because we realize how richly this world as a whole deserves divine retribution. Six million Jews is horrendous, but 950 million is about 158 times the Holocaust. Scripture seems to indicate that God is slow to anger, not bereft of the capacity. If justice exists in or around this cosmos, how short the time may be for us to extend the good news of redemption in whatever ways granted to us! (And to be quite clear: I have in mind here radical and engaged gospel-ministry and legal political activity where warranted, not physical aggression of any kind against abortion clinics or doctors.)

Read the whole article here.

At the end our days, may we be able to say along with Bonhoeffer: "This is the end. For me the beginning of life."

To God Alone be the Glory