Christmas time is here

I like Christmas.  I like it a lot.  It's a season where people get simultaneously crazier and nicer.  There's pushing and shoving from Black Friday on, but many people seem to be more joyful.  As I write this, I'm watching the end of Miracle on 34th street.  In it, Kris Kringle shows up out of nowhere at the Thanksgiving day parade.  Apparently he's in the habit of attending this parade.  So on Thanksgiving day, Santa Claus comes into some ordinary, skeptical people's lives and saves them from the life of the humdrum.  They doubted the "supernatural" (humor me) and Santa Claus came in to save the day and let them believe in something more.  Through his work, the girl (I didn't pay attention enough to get her name) was saved from a boring life and brought to life in a world where she could truly live as she was intended, as a little girl.  She was free to pretend and imagine and hope and dream and believe.

In the same way, this time of year brings to my mind the miracle of the incarnation, which dwarfs the sequence of events described earlier (Not to diminish the significance of the Thanksgiving day parade, or Santa Claus, or Santa Claus at the Thanksgiving day parade, the Incarnation is just that cool).  The Incarnation can be described simply as the action of God the Son taking on flesh, being born of the virgin Mary.  Though it is far from a simple process and cannot be explained simply or easily (all great theological truths are like that), the Incarnation is one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith, and our hope of salvation from the power of sin and death.

As Karl Barth believes (stay with me, he's a beast), God is wholly other from us.  He is of an entirely different material than his creation, and we do not have the power to transcend the gap from us to him.  There is a vast chasm between us and God which is the equally vast distinction of the difference between the quality of our being, and that of God.  This, which Barth calls the infinite qualitative distinction, leaves fallen man without any hope of knowing God.  You see, God is far higher than man, far higher than man could ever hope to reach.  Man's only hope of knowing God is that God (he's infinite ya know) would cross the infinite qualitative distinction and reveal himself to man.  God does this in three ways.

1) For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
(Romans 1:19-20 ESV)

Calvin calls this general revelation.  God's fingerprint is in his creation.  The creator has left his mark on our world.  Because of this, every civilization in the history of our world has attributed its creation to a higher power.  We sense the presence of God in our world, though some have perceived Him incorrectly.

2) God has revealed himself at certain times to certain people.  More generally, he has revealed himself through scripture. Calvin calls this special revelation.

3) Finally , Jesus the Word became flesh in the most significant act of revelation.  Although God's other revealing activities afford us the knowledge of God's activity and his character, we are still on the wrong side of the gap known as the infinite qualitative distinction.  Our hopes and dreams are realized, but they are unattainable.  We know who God is and how we ought to live, but we find we are unable to live in such a way that is truly pleasing to him.  Because of Christ's work through his life death and resurrection, we not only know who God but we also have the opportunity to commune with that God.

So as Christmas approaches quickly I am reminded of an old Christmas song:

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.


The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. Because of Christ, we can know God.  Because of the incarnation, we have hope.  We can escape the power of sin and death through the power of Christ.  Praise the Lord that our one hope came through.  My only chance at real life is Jesus, and he succeeded.  


Merry Christmas.