Pondering: Thoughts on the Wonder of Christmas, #2: "Gobsmacking" Truth

 If you didn't read the first part of my "pondering," I encourage you to do so, before you go on. Click here. More than two millennia after the birth of Christ, I fear that most of we Westerners--at least those of us who pay attention to the Christmas story, the real one--have succumbed to what I'll call the "Hallmark Syndrome." For us, the account of the coming of Christ in human form is all softly lit, airbrushed, and accompanied by a subdued version of "O Little Town of Bethlehem." That Christmas Card, Sunday school play version of the Nativity has its place, but there is so much more.

As I read through the first two chapters of The Gospel of Matthew and chapters 1-2 of Luke--those passages contain the record of Jesus' birth and the accompanying events--I found over twenty times that the key people in the story were disturbed by what was going on.. Sometimes they questioned, wondered, or pondered. They were amazed. Some were frightened, "sore afraid," to quote the venerable King James Bible. While the angels that appeared to the shepherds spoke of "peace on earth," There was an awful lot of disturbance going on.

Gobsmacked!

I found that very un-Christmasy word to applies to what was happening to people as the story of the Savior coming to earth unfolded. And why should I be surprised? 

In Theological terms, the Apostles, John, and Paul describe what was going on.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . .. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being . . ..  And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1)

[Christ] existed in the form of God, [but] did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6–8)

 

This baby in the manger was, and is, God come in the flesh. The Creator had entered His creation in the form of a human being. No wonder it took the Theologians of the early church a couple of hundred years to wrestle this Gobsmaking truth to the ground. In all the history of God's work, this "incarnation" happened once. Joseph, Mary, the shepherds and the others we see pictured on Christmas cards were key players in a once in eternity happening. The gobsmacking truth continues. John 3:16 tells us that this incredible story applies to you and me.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

I encourage you to do some pondering on your own. Read the four chapters from the Gospels that I mentioned, and then stay tuned for more. The pondering and Gobsnacking is about to get personal.

Pondering: Thoughts on the Wonder of Christmas, #1

 I've been pondering about the word ponder recently. We don't ponder much anymore; at least we don't

call it by that name. I'm purposely not going to look the word up. The reason I'm not is because my pondering leads me to believe that ponder is a word that carries an emotional, as well as technical meaning. It's something that's felt as much, or more than it's "telt." It's a word that furrows one's brow, causes one to stare off into the distance, and not hear what's happening around them. Getting all definitional kind of robs the word of some of that.

My pondering is generated by a series of Christmas messages I'm working on, "The Wonder of Christmas." By the way, wonder and ponder rhyme. Don't worry, though, I won't compose any poetry. My thoughts go well beyond the incidental fact that these words sound alike. They are alike. We ponder on the wonderful--the vastness of the universe, the potential in the life of a baby in the womb, the future of a newly married couple, the meaning of life, or the glory of a sunrise. We ponder over things about which we know enough to know they are wonderful. We wonder about what is over the horizon, and that provides more fodder for pondering. Subjects most worthy of pondering concern matters that are like a diamond mine with an endless supply of gems. We know we'll never get to the bottom of it, but the deeper we dig the more wonders we find.

Nothing in the universe is more worthy of pondering than the wonderful truth that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son . . .

Check back with me. We'll ponder this wonder together.