A marvelous wonder has this day come to pass: Nature is made new, and God becomes man. That which He was, He has remained; and that which He was not, He has taken on Himself while suffering neither confusion nor division. … How shall I tell of this great mystery? He Who is without flesh becomes incarnate; The Word puts on a body; The Invisible is seen; He Whom no hand can touch is handled; and He Who has no beginning now begins to be. The Son of God becomes the Son of man: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.
~ from the Orthodox Festal Menaion vespers on Christmas day.
God has taken His place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods He holds judgment: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah… Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” Arise, O God, judge the earth; for You shall inherit all the nations!
~ Psalm 82
Oh beloved, it is true.
Christmas is a holiday. This we know. Christmas celebrates the birth of The Saviour through the willing virgin vessel, Mary. Christmas is a time to understand the generosity of G_d, in the giving of His Son. However, in our hurry to think we understand the historicity of it all, we miss nearly all of the story.
And much of this is due to the digital existence we have in this world. Each tiny moment is a one-dimensional slice of time, that gives context and motion to the the three-dimensions we inhabit. However, this existence takes on kind of a clumpy and chunky feel. It is transactional, with us passing bundles of thought, currency, and activity around to each other. We sense that things in the natural are a zero-sum game, and that giving something away means that things that were in our possession are now far away.
So, in our dealings with the Word of G_d, and our attempts to understand the reality of it’s Author, we are terribly prone to overlay (even impose) our limited view of reality, onto The One Who created even existence itself. This is especially true in the West, where we have codified our sense of reality into a dualism that puts the spiritual in one place, separated from the life we live in the physical world.
This is terribly dangerous to our thinking. It degrades our ability to see what reality really is. And Christmas helps us to begin to begin to see things as they really are.
Jesus did not get up out of one place, and just downgrade His existence to join us on this planet. No, Jesus – by His very Nature – does nothing contingently. Jesus did not move from one place to another. Jesus did not leave a place behind. He took on flesh; the flesh that He had already created from within Himself.
Said more simply: The Infinite took on even more. Forever subsumed the temporal in the incarnation. Scripture is full of this reality. Jesus is called the Root and Branch of Jesse. He is the One Who formed the form that He came to inhabit in the womb of His most-blessed-among- women, Mary. He is The Author and Finisher of the faith we have been reborn born into.
But, why? Why would G_d do such a thing? Why take on something that is less than Who He already was, is and will be? Why enter into such a miniscule space to be born among, and die for, a fallen race of beings? There has to be a reason. Wisdom Himself would not act the fool. He is not bored, and simply trying to amuse Himself. No, rather Who He Is, is where we find the answers. And the ancient creed of our faith points us in the right direction.
Can we see it?
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. … I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father (ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί); through Him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven
~ from The Nicene Creed
The phrase above, consubstantial with the Father is a rendering of the Greek phrase ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί (homoousion to Patri). And it is in the meaning of the word, that all of eternity changes. G_d was not alone in ages past. G_d was a dance and rhythm of an effulgence so full that not even a trans-eternal, trans-dimensional reality could contain it. G_d has forever burst forth from Himself in a Perfect begotten (can you see it in the word begotten? Gotten from Being) image of Himself. And between them is a Love so real that This Love Itself is another Being – a Holy Spirit Who is Them in Their Relationship to each other.
Great, you might say. What does this have to do with Christmas? And, what does this have to do with me? Everything beloved. Absolutely everything.
Scripture is just as clear about this point. Jesus did not come to this world simply to pay off some debts for some people (though He surely did). Jesus did not just come to this world so he could pick up some friends and have them come stay with Him in some future, nicer – even heavenly – life. No, Scripture makes an astounding claim. Jesus took on a full identity with us, bringing all of Who He Is with Him, that He might draw us up into the Dance that He and The Father have been enjoying forever.
The Church father, Athanasius, said it in the most jarring manner: “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” And, though we nearly recoil from a statement like this, it is an entirely accurate rendering of the meaning of Christmas.
We are being called into a participation in the Divine nature. And Christmas is the opening line of that invitation. All this is of Him, of course. So, at Christmas, He brought all of Himself to the life of a baby, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus, like He Always Is, is the answer to the question of why He came at Christmas. This One Who is eternally One with The Father, has come that we might be one with Him in the same way. Don’t believe this fool of a writer, read His prayer in John 17
We will, like the Seraphim, but be able to call out to each other in the clear Light of His Presence: “Holy!, Holy!, Holy!” And still, we will know it. We will comprehend it. We will be made one with Him. We, ever and only created; fallen and redeemed man made now, eternal. But then… Then… Then, (dare we even whisper this Hope?)… Then, we will be one with The One Who Is Forever Himself. Not just alive. Then we will be the μέτοχοι (metochoi, partaker), partaking in His Nature. Not just loved. But subsumed into Love Themselves.
Kinda puts a different spin on Christmas, doesn’t it? We, who thought G_d was just some King who was lowering a rope to help us get out of trouble, and take us to a nicer place someday, suddenly can be seen for Who He Is, and why He came. He came to draw us into the very Life that gave us life in the first place. He came that we might become in a way, His begotten – forever alive in the Dance of Life and Love and Pleasure that is G_d Himself.
Beloved, G_d is not far away. He is here, and wishes to draw down the distance between you and Him to zero. He has solved the problem. Allow Him to show you, even tonight.
Pretty good Christmas present!
OH! Praise Him!
The command “Be ye perfect” is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were “gods” and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creatures, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to Him perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what he said.
~ CS Lewis
