 |
|
|
 |
The world was re-made by the birth of one Man, when he was born in a way the world had never seen. Unsullied by the corruption of the Fall, He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. He is the new Adam. He, who grieved when His Word was rejected in the Garden, came as the Word in flesh, to restore the Word of Life to all the sons and daughters of Adam. In the re-creation of the age, the garden of perfect fellowship with God was restored by the birth of that one solitary Child born of Eve's daughter. The Word which Adam doubted in the old age and the serpent tried to unsay in the new age, God said again, this time through enfleshment. Virginal nativity makes new in that one Life.
Christ is the new Adam. The old Adam had been cast out and the world came all undone (Genesis 3). The Garden was now surrounded by the tangled and thorn infested hedge of nature run wild, groaning under the weight of human perversity (Rm 8:20). The death-dealing angel bars the way to the Tree of Life until Mary's new Eden is opened to the Life. The seed of her womb plants the fruit of life again among men. The angel who once blocked the way of life speaks it again into the world, telling into Mary the world's second true fruitfulness. Creation is re-created. The old Garden's life now becomes the new Life of the world. Because this Son of God is the fruit of her womb, Mary is mother of us all. Fair Eden's door stands open through the birth of her Child. No wonder that in faithful anticipation of what is now ours through faith in this Life, heaven and nature sing "Joy to the World!"
This life, by coming to earth, sets right all things in heaven and earth. The tangled hedge blocking the way to life has been torn down and pushed over by the little finger of the Baby of Bethlehem. The flaming sword of death has been extinguished by being plunged into the heart of His life. His life smothered death's sizzling sword, drowning it in the water gushing forth from His fertile chest. His life is the medicine of immortality dispensed into the cup of the New Testament in His blood.
Rev. Dr. Scott R. Murray
Memorial Lutheran Church
|
|
|
Gregory Nazianzen
"The Son of God deigns to become and to be called Son of Man; not changing what He was (for it is unchangeable); but assuming what He was not (for He is full of love for man), that the incomprehensible might be comprehended, conversing with us through the mediation of the flesh as through a veil; since it was not possible for that nature which is subject to birth and decay to endure His unveiled Godhead. Therefore, the unmingled is mingled; and not only is God mingled with birth and Spirit with flesh, and the eternal One with time, and the uncircumscribed with measure; but also generation with virginity, and dishonor with Him who is higher than all honor; He who is unable to suffer with suffering, and the immortal One with the corruptible. For since that deceiver thought that he was unconquerable in his malice, after he had cheated us with the hope of becoming gods, he was himself cheated by God's assumption of our nature; so that in attacking Adam, he thought he would really meet with God. Thus the new Adam would save the old, and the condemnation of the flesh abolished, death being slain by flesh."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hebrews 1:1-6
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"? Or again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son"? And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him."
(ESV)
|
|
|
Prayer
O God, our Maker and Redeemer, who wonderfully created us and in the incarnation of Your Son yet more wondrously restored our human nature, grant that we may ever be alive in Him who made Himself to be like to us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
For the people of the world that do not know the great tidings of glad joy which are for all people, that they may share with us that God-given joy
For the joys of family being united in these holy days, that thanks and praise be given to God who creates and sustains our families
For all small and struggling churches, that rejoicing in their lowliness, God would give them perseverance in the truth of His Word
|
|
|
Art: MARATTI, Carlo The Holy Night (1650s)
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
