“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And He made man in His own image.
He fell. The image is marred.
Our beginnings are thus already headed toward endings. Some children don’t even make it out of the womb. Others are cut down too soon….
Read MoreThe satire in Peter Gabriel’s song Big Time is often missed. From college basketball to professional wrestling, it’s bumper music for success. “I’m on my way, I’m making it, big time.” It’s the American dream: you can be anything you want to be; you can make it big.
There’s a religious dimension to the song that fits perfectly the modern obsession with bigger and better churches. “And I will pray to a big god as I kneel in the big church.” Then later, “And my heaven will be a big heaven, and I will walk through the front door.”
The way God works couldn’t be more different….
Read MoreDoubtless you’ve heard the myth—and it is most certainly a myth—that the Christian holy days were borrowed from older pagan festivals. You do find this kind of thing in Latin America, where Roman Catholic missionaries renamed local deities as Mary or one of the saints, so the people continued to worship the same statues but with new names. It’s called christopaganism. But that all happened much later. I’m talking about the origins of Christianity.
Jesus probably was born on December 25, or a day close to it. But today, January 1, was a day the early Christians resisted celebrating. That’s because New Year’s Day was “kept with great riot and licence by the pagans” …
Read MoreBlessed be that Child who gladdened Bethlehem today! Blessed be the Babe who made manhood young again today! Blessed be the Fruit, who lowered Himself to our famished state! …
Read More“We have seen the Lord.” Thomas doesn’t believe it.
It’s hard to blame him. The dead remain in their tombs.
Jesus heard Thomas’ words: “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Jesus repeats Thomas’ words back to him: “Put out your finger, and see the wounds; thrust your hand into My side.” And Thomas confesses: “My Lord and my God!”
That confession is Christianity: God is in the manger; God is on the cross. God was made man in Mary’s womb. The God-man died and was laid in a tomb….
Read More“An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.” It’s not an example. Many of our dreams are the fruits of anxiety or indigestion. I once had a dream that Fritz Pauling and I were in Italy stealing a pipe organ. I don’t plan to do what I dreamed. (Although it might make a pretty good buddy caper movie.) The kind of dream Joseph has is extremely rare. But it should remind us of another Joseph: the son of Jacob who had that amazing technicolor dreamcoat. His dreams got him thrown into a pit, then sold into slavery. To where? Egypt. See the similarities? With this new Joseph, and the Mother and Child, God is going to redo the Exodus.
So the “Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying.…” Angel means messenger. An angel speaks; that is his purpose: he brings God’s Word to particular people. What’s the message?
Read More“Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him!”
Today, my friends, we remember that the only-begotten Son of God, who from eternity had no body, assumed a body in the womb of the virgin Mary. This unfathomable thing He did for us children of Adam—the Adam who once stretched out his arm, grasping fruit forbidden by God, plunging our race into bondage and our world into decay.
Adam’s son Cain stretched out his arm to slay his brother; and the human race has been at war with itself ever since.
Cain’s descendant Lamech stretched out his arms to grasp two wives, contrary to God’s design, showing the corruption of lust that has overtaken generations upon generations of men….
Read MoreThings Ain’t What They Used to Be. It’s a jazz standard from 1942, written by Duke Ellington’s son Mercer. It’s increasingly how I feel: Things ain’t what they used to be. In Flannery O’Connor’s story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” one of the characters observes, “Everything is getting terrible.” Perhaps you’ve felt that way. “Everything is getting terrible.” Things ain’t what they used to be.
What does any of that have to do with Christmas? Much in every way. The cultural Christmas event is all about experiences. Adults want to recapture and experience anew our childhood Christmases, when things were better. We want to create great memories for our children.
Feelings of nostalgia are powerful. But they might just be a sin. We can’t recapture a golden age. Since man’s fall into sin, there never has been a golden age. The meaning of Christmas is not found in sentiment. The meaning of Christmas is not found in giving. As much as we should love our families, the meaning of Christmas is not found in family time….
Read MoreAll the stuff we buy ends up eventually discarded. There’s no joy there. Our own bodies return to the dust. The things we think will make us happy are only temporary. But to be joined to the communion of Jesus and His Church – there is life, and light, and joy. Which is why John wants us to join not his church, but Christ’s Church. Being part of that one, holy, catholic and apostolic church is to enter into communion with the One who is Life. That’s our only path to joy. That’s why John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes his Gospel and letters: “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”
Read MoreThe cultural revolution upheaving the Western world is intensely dogmatic. Each day a new dogma is decreed. Bake the cake, wear the mask, close your church, stay at home, check your privilege, shout your abortion, don't use those pronouns, gender is a social construct, the baby will be made comfortable as we abandon it to death. In the New Inquisition, expect no mercy. Fierce and unforgiving are the world’s dogmas.
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