Midweek: The Nativity

Some time around 1405, Andrei Rublev painted his work The Nativity in the Flesh of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a lengthy title often shortened to The Nativity. Mary Elizabeth Podles has collected some of her essays in a book entitled A Thousand Words, including her essay on Rublev's work. In this meditation, Podles pulls out elements of the painting and guides her readers in uncovering their symbolism. If you loved pouring over hidden picture puzzles as a child, you will enjoy this taste of discovering details and meaning with Podles' direction in The Nativity today:

[The Savior] is placed at the center of the image, within a womb-like grotto like the one in Bethlehem traditionally associated with his birth. Sharp, angular rocks rise above it to symbolize the harshness of the world into which he is born. He is wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a tomb-like manger as if to foreshadow his grave clothes and future tomb. His very littleness seems to speak of the human frailty he was born to embrace. The lowly workaday animals, the ox and the ass, which symbolize the Jewish and the pagan peoples, regard this newcomer with appropriate surprise...

Mary is the dominant figure of the icon. Stretched at the diagonal on a mandorla-shaped cushion, she who has just borne God leans her hand on her cheek... Her gaze rests on a little gnarled tree at the right: this is the Tree of Jesse, and only she recognizes her little son's royal heritage. Or, it may at the same time be the Tree of Life, which the liturgical apolytikion proclaims "has blossomed from the Virgin in the cave."...

In the corners below her are two additional scenes with a melancholy tinge. ...Yet there is the hope of faith... [A] midwife, identified as Salome, the mother of James, pours out her faith in a kind of Magnificat even as she here pours out water for the baby's bath... The bath, incidentally, both points up the very humanity of Christ's birth, and looks forward to his Baptism in the Jordan and its revelation of his divinity; another tree, perhaps another reference to the Tree of Life, seems to spring from the upper edge of the fount.

...In the upper half of the icon are further signs of hope. ...[S]hepherds approach the Virgin. Their sheep...foreshadowings of the Christian flock, nibble at the Tree of Life. The shepherds have heard the glad news announced by the angels at the upper right. There are four angels: ...they are the Trinity, manifesting their workings in the Incarnation to the humble shepherds. The fourth angel is mostly hidden, representing the hidden face of God, the unknowable who is beyond our comprehension.

Finally, the Trinity...puts in another appearance at the opening of the cave. In fact the babe is not alone: through the merciful working of the trinity, the Godhead has broken through into our inhospitable world in the miracle of the Incarnation, and the world is made new.

~ Mary Elizabeth Podles

"The Nativity"

A Thousand Words

Upon Them a Light Has Shined

There's a special irony in what I'm about to write in that it's about seeing and being made to see, and I am squinting and blinking through tears that have accumulated over the past several minutes. Isaiah 9:2 declares:

The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined. 

God promised hope for His people during a dark time --a dark time, I might add, of their own doing. The people of Israel had a history (as do the people of history in general) of crying out to God when they found themselves in a jam and abandoning Him once things began to run smoothly. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Nevertheless, God promised a greater deliverance through a greater Deliverer. Their lives in this valley of the shadow of death would be ransomed by a Messiah so they might live in a new way, an eternal way, and their hearts would be turned toward Him by His Holy Spirit. This is where Advent comes in: celebrating the arrival of the promised Savior. 

In reading about ways to commemorate this season meaningfully, the central theme seems to be "Imitate Christ." Imagine that! Something we are supposed to be doing all year long, all life long, we do at Christmas to mark His Incarnation. This is where the tears come in: How well do I do that?

The crux of the Gospel of Jesus is, in Jesus' words: 'And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ... ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mark 12:30-31) Loving God is bound to loving others. The two cannot be separated. How deeply, actively, compassionately, selflessly do I love? How deeply, do I love people whose stories seem to have no bearing on mine at all? How actively do I love people who disagree with me? How compassionately do I love people I see as freeloaders or scammers? How selflessly do I love those who in all likelihood will not or cannot love me in return? Do I weep and pray for those who have been victimized --or believe they have been victimized (There's a tough one!) --by the government or their employer or a landlord or the church? Do I seek justice by laboriously, publicly, legally advocating for those treated unfairly? Do I come alongside the poor, the desperate, the ill, the lost and encourage them, help them find resources? Do I try to understand the stories and opinions of those who think differently than I? The alternative is to stand on the truth of God's Law and tell others they can climb on with me or they can struggle, but "I'll just be over here living my best life regardless." That's not how Scripture says Jesus loved others and I know that's not how He loves me. Man! The times He's taken me around the block! That is His grace. He has loved me in such a way as to do exactly what He promised His people: cleanse me, change my heart, give me His Spirit so that I might keep His Law (Ezekiel 36:25-27). That is the Gospel the world needs to hear and see!

Isaiah 60:1-7 says God's glory will be seen in His people, that the world will be drawn to Him through the way His people live, the glory with which He makes them glorious! But in the valley of the shadow of death, the world cannot see unless the light our Light has sent dwells there. This Advent, He has sent us to dwell in this valley and shine. Deeply, actively, compassionately, and selflessly (Matthew 25:31-46).

  

Jesus Is the Why

I settled in my seat. I was dressed appropriately, had my Bible, was on time. I was clearly where I needed to be, quiet, respectful. Appearing ready for church. But the secret that gnawed at me was that I was not prepared to worship. It had been a hectic morning. I'd not had my quiet time. I'd not had the opportunity to pray as I sat in my seat. I was thinking of a dozen other things. My heart was not prepared to worship my King.

When we think about our weekly worship service, what comes to mind? Great music or an inspirational message? Reuniting with our Christian family after a long week of "doing life?" In our weekly Bible studies, do we look forward to learning something new? Maybe "sampling" some more of Miss Dierdre's apple crisp she always makes this time of year? Perhaps we can't wait to share with the group the progress missionaries are making in the Republic of Ecuador? What about our daily "quiet time" keeps us coming back morning after morning? Jesus, or the quiet and peace of our specially prepared space? Are we eager to please our Lord, or get that word --you know the one, the one that will get us through what could be the worst day ever?

Sure, there are benefits, byproducts of our relationship with the Lord and fellowship with the body. There are comfortable and uplifting ways in which we walk out this eternal life of ours. But if those things are not being practiced and lived out, first and foremost, for the glory of our King, if they are not being conducted with our Lord and Savior at the center, we are missing the point; we are not ready to engage or worship in the manner God intended. Fellowship is not the primary reason we go to church. Learning new fun facts about Jesus and His disciples is not the primary reason we study. Sharing the things God is doing in South America or South Jersey, even, is not the primary reason we attend prayer meeting. Silence, serenity, and the smell of a clean cotton candle is not the why of our time alone with Jesus. Jesus is the why; not only the Reason for the season, but the point of our life. 

Imagine this: it's your birthday. Your best friend wants to throw you a big party. She asks for a list of people to invite --names, numbers. She discusses with you the menu, color scheme, and venue. She even tells you how much she longs to please you, to make this your best birthday ever. Then, she calls on Sunday evening and tells you what a great time everyone had at your party that day. WHAT?! HOW? Well, she'd thought of everything. Except you. She neglected the most important preparation: inviting you. Everything else was there; everything else was in order, but obviously, it was never really about you?

Thou shalt have no other gods before Me, right? Not the god of good intentions, or the god of squeezing in those last few moments of sleep, or the god of freshly brewed coffee, or even the god of socializing with our church family. As churchgoers and do-gooders and street corner preachers, we can have all the right accoutrements; but if we aren't prepped, if we've not made room in our perfect plans for the Guest of honor, all of our "worship" and our "good deeds" fall woefully flat. If we're feeding the hungry and clothing the poor, but haven't made room in our lives for Jesus, for whom are we performing? We can be in the right place at the right time, we can look the part, we can quote chapter and verse, but if Jesus isn't front and center, we've completely missed the point.

So, this Sunday morning, set the alarm a few minutes early, skip the coffee shop drive-thru, spend some time in God's Word, prepare your heart to worship Him, and arrive ready to worship a King, the King of kings! Be sure you've invited him to His party.

Midweek: Keeping Time or Ruling It

Welcome to Wednesday! Today, I'd like to share with you this thought from U.A. Fanthorpe, BC-AD. A single event, the birth of the prophesied King, the Savior of the world altered time as no other event could. 

BC – AD

This was the moment when Before
Turned into After, and the future’s
Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.

This was the moment when nothing
Happened. Only dull peace
Sprawled boringly over the earth.

This was the moment when even energetic Romans
Could find nothing better to do
Than counting heads in remote provinces.

And this was the moment
When a few farm workers and three
Members of an obscure Persian sect

Walked haphazard by starlight straight
Into the kingdom of heaven.

U A Fanthorpe, from Christmas Poems (Enitharmon, 2002)