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Naming GodMonday, December 29, 2008
Luke 2:20-21 Thank heavens Mary and Joseph were not theologians. They were dumbfounded by the virgin birth, but they didn't question God's plan. They just watched it unfold. After Jesus was born Mary fed him from her breast, Joseph changed his diaper, and they walked and rocked him when he cried. They giggled when he did. And they worried when he had a fever. They took their baby to be circumcised. The priest's knife cut him and he cried. He was just like all of us. God ... born on earth and crying and being circumcised, fitting into this human-ness ... who can believe this? Is he the King of Kings or isn't he? Since the fall of man, all men die. David, Solomon, Nebuchadnezzar, all the great kings ... died. God came to earth to be a man. He came to be a man and die. God, becoming man, took what Richard Rohr calls the "path of descent," always choosing to go down. Down into humility, down into suffering, down into death: the way of all flesh. Paul wrote that Jesus "emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and ... humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death" (Philippians 2). Jesus wants me, like Mary and Joseph, to watch this all unfold. Learn how to be human, and then to follow him into his kingdom. Which shall have no end. Not only have you made yourself a man, Lord, but you bring us into eternal life like you. You conquer death by dying. And tell us to go and do likewise. |
"Thou shalt call his name, Jesus." Such a simple name, more fitting for a carpenter than a king. Isaiah said he would be called Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and his peace will have no end. How can this be?