Your Role as a Human Being

We all serve multiple roles. We can't be mothers without first having been daughters. We are leaders in some arenas, followers in others; most times our leadership is born because of whom or what we choose to follow. We are parents and employees and neighbors, all in the same day. I just spent Christmas Day as a wife, mother, and grandmother, as generations gathered.

Throughout Scripture, Jesus is identified as the Son of God and the Son of Man. When He emerged from the water after His baptism, and again at His transfiguration, the Father's voice from heaven declared, "This is My beloved Son." And yet, again and again, Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man. I don't assume to know all the theology behind it, I don't pretend to understand the idea of God maintaining His deity in full while existing completely as a human being, but Scripture says it. 

As human beings, we think linearly. We want to know where His human existence stops and His deity begins. We want to know if, as a human He said what He said and did what He did (the implication there, perhaps, is our capacity to imitate those things), or if He was acting in His authority as Creator or Redeemer. But this morning, as I was reading over Matthew 20:27-28, I began to understand Jesus' desire to identify with those He came to save and to serve. He tells His disciples, "And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Briefly, and with regard to another day's topic, Jesus had to enter earth as a human being in order to be the proper substitute for the penalty required of all human beings outside His redemptive blood. But He came to serve as well. To serve humanity as a human. And not only those few hours on the cross, though that was worldwide, comprehensive service surpassing all of time and circumstance; but Jesus came to teach and heal and feed and comfort and correct. Jesus served by doing the same things we do each day. Only, He did them for everyone. Yes, even the Pharisees to whom He spoke so sharply. Even Judas! Admittedly, I have a difficult time serving those I love consistently, humbly, day after day. 

I know the celebration of Jesus' incarnation was days ago, but by it He taught us a principle that is timeless (and, perhaps, something that can challenge and inspire us in the new year). We can love and serve others --all others --as He did and as He still does today. He makes us a part of that continued ministry. As human beings we can do it. Our role as human followers and imitators of Jesus, given His righteousness and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, provides us with the desire to do it.

Midweek: A Virtuous Life

The love of God for all of humanity came in flesh to free any who would believe. As we spend this time with those we love, let us not forget the power of that love to drive out the darkness and to conquer those things which would make us poor and captive. The words of Frederick Buechner, originally published in his work Whistling in the Dark, provide some perspective:

NEXT TO THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, the seven cardinal virtues are apt to look pale and unenterprising, but appearances are notoriously untrustworthy.

Prudence and temperance, taken separately, may not be apt to get you to your feet cheering, but when they go together, as they almost always do, that's a different matter. The chain smoker or the junkie, for instance, who exemplifies both by managing to kick the habit, can very well have you throwing your hat in the air, especially if it happens to be somebody whom for personal reasons you'd like to have around a few years longer. And the courage involved isn't likely to leave you cold either. Often it's the habit kicker's variety that seems the most courageous.

If you think of justice as sitting blindfolded with a scale in her hand, you may have to stifle a yawn, but if you think of a black judge acquitting a white racist of a false murder charge, it can give you gooseflesh.

The faith of a child taking your hand in the night is as moving as the faith of Mother Teresa among the untouchables, or Bernadette facing the skeptics at Lourdes, or Abraham, age seventy-five, packing up his bags for the Promised Land. And hope is the glimmer on the horizon that keeps faith plugging forward, of course, the wings that keep it more or less in the air.

Maybe it's only love that turns things around and makes the seven deadly sins be the ones to look pale and unenterprising for a change. Greed, gluttony, lust, envy, and pride are no more than sad efforts to fill the empty place where love belongs, and anger and sloth just two things that may happen when you find that not even all seven of them at their deadliest ever can. 

~ Frederick Buechner

Photo courtesy LuAnn Martin

Christmas: December 25, 2023

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you are enjoying this blessed time with your family. I've wrestled with this post for a few weeks now. A simple wish for a merry Christmas? some Bible verses --prophecy fulfilled? But, as the Holy Spirit is wont to do, He shook things up a bit to grab my attention.

I've been reading some books on parenting. In one, there was an exercise which required me to "Describe your image of the ideal father." There were two fathers who immediately came to mind, both fathers of childhood friends with whom I spent quite a bit of time --sleepovers and day trips and such. One father was authoritarian, but gentle and genuine in his approach. The other was more like a buddy --not a peer, necessarily, but he interacted with us regularly. He'd tell jokes and talk about popular TV shows and music. We knew the rules at both homes: the first, because he communicated them clearly; the second... well, I'm not sure why. I don't ever recall rules being the topic of conversation; I don't even recall what the rules were or how they got there. All I know is that we followed them. There was no reason to disobey: we were safe, we were loved, and we had all we could need.

And that brings me to Christmas and the precious Gift of Jesus to the world. Beloved, we are safe in Christ. We are loved enough to die for. And in Him we have all we could need. As you continue in your celebrations, bear in mind our reason to celebrate all year long: the Light of the world alive and living in us through His Holy Spirit, eternal salvation and infinite supply. Blessed be His name!

Merry Christmas!