CHRISTMAS
That the word comes from Christ-Mass is
not often remembered in Protestant churches. But Communion
on Christmas Eve is common and usually well attended. This piece reflects
on the connection between Christmas and Good Friday.
Whenever I have arranged a Christmas Service (or
Nativity Play) I have always felt the need to include The
Cross in some way. Often just by including
the evocative tune for: There is a Green Hill far away outside
a city wall. But that brought its own problem since it includes the
words:
There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. Could
the great God of Love really demand a sacrifice before He could forgive
His creatures for being Sinful. There is nothing new in tussling with that
problem and Douglas, my guest preacher knows more
about it than I do.
It may be that in a culture where capital and
corporal punishment are entirely acceptable such as exists in some Muslim
Countries even today, and which was certainly the case in first century
Israel, the idea of God requiring a sacrifice was not particularly surprising.
And it has to be said that many modern western Christians accept, what
to me is, a very simplistic understanding of the Cross: All
have sinned; God cannot look upon sin; Jesus, God's only son, became sin
for our sake: He died in our place; God turned His back on Him for a moment.
I say "simplistic" because it led such a person to ask the question: Do
you think it was fair for God to sacrifice His own son?
I prefer to step back and put Christmas and Easter
together and try to answer the question: Who was Jesus? in language suitable
to our time. Was He the Son of God? Yes, in a the real sense that
He was conceived of Mary and took some of her genes but also, I like to
suppose, Genes provided by God. Remember the words in Genesis God created
Adam in His own image. But
there was more to Him that that. He said if
you have seen me you have seen the Father.
I don't think He meant that He looked like His Dad, although perhaps He
did look like Him! He meant that He was the fullest possible human expression
of God. Our God contracted
to a span, incomprehensibly made man
as Charles Wesley puts it. Thus God put Himself completely
at risk, on the receiving end of sin and
narrowly missed being put to premature death by Herod together with all
the other little boys under two years old in Bethlehem. The Cross was the
final crucial submission in this way, but
His birth and life are also part of the same submission. It is not
unreasonable that, to achieve this, God separated part of Himself into
Jesus the man, who then felt separated and could pray to His father
(without feeling that He was talking to Himself) and ultimately feel
forsaken on the Cross. Wesley again:
'Tis mystery all the immortal
dies .............
So given this, how does the Cross save us? God
put Himself on the receiving end of sin and the
evil which gave rise to it. He forgave the former (SIN) but not
the latter (EVIL), but in so doing achieved The
Victory over Evil.
Having thus put Christ's birth and death into the same context it is
thus entirely fitting that we should hold a Communion Service at Midnight
on Christmas Eve and reflect also on His death on the Cross.
Well dear reader, this helps me considerably,
not least since it brings together my other thoughts, as you will see from
the links. I hope and pray it might help you. There are also some footnotes,
and the complete verses from the Hymns quoted.
Footnotes:
outside.
In the original this was without a city wall and, like many of my
generation, I grew up wondering why the author supposed it strange for
a hill not to have a city wall.
crucial.
Note the word, it comes from the latin crux meaning of course cross
own image. Creation must have meant the provision of Genes and perhaps the "forbidden
fruit", which Adam and Eve ate, polluted these Genes!?
Verses from Wesley's Hymns
Let Earth and Heaven combine,
Angels and Men agree
to praise in songs divine,
the Incarnate Deity
Our God contracted to a span,
incomprehensibly made man.
He laid His glory by,
He wrapped Him in our clay;
Unmarked by Human eye,
the latent Godhead lay
Infant of days He here became
and bore the mild Immanuel’s name
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'Tis mystery all the
Immortal dies,
who can explore His strange design
In vain the first born seraph tries
to sound the depths of love divine
‘'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
let angel minds enquire no more
He left His Father's throne above,
so free so infinite His grace
Emptied Himself of all but love
and bled for Adam's helpless race
'Tis mercy all immense and free,
for O my God it found out me.
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