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<\/a><\/p>\nI intimated in my last post that one of the real problems for Protestants in celebrating Advent and Christmas is: 1) that Advent is hardly celebrated at all, with too many Protestants only having a nodding acquaintance with the whole notion of the \u2018Christian year\u2019; and 2) too much is loaded into Christmas day itself, whereas we should be celebrating a season, not just a day. Indeed, if we want to talk about days, then we should be talking about two days\u2014 the day of his first coming, and the day when the King finally returns. My own spiritual forebears, the Wesleys knew this perfectly well, being good Anglicans. This is why Charles not only wrote \u2018Hark the Herald Angels Sing\u2019 but he also wrote for the first Sunday in Advent \u2018Lo He Comes with Clouds Descending\u2019. It\u2019s a tale of two Advents. And to be sure, the window dressing of the Second Coming suggests a much more obvious, visible, cosmic event\u2014 plain for all to see, accompanied by signs in the heaven, loud heralding, the resurrection of the dead, and so on. Not so, the first coming. In the first coming Jesus comes incognito (see the poem below), and it is worth asking why. Why the incognito? <\/p>\n
One partial answer is that as Phil. 2.5-11 suggests, Jesus stripped himself of his divine prerogatives, his royal trappings, in order to not merely appear to be, but actually be fully human. I take this to mean he accepted all the normal limitations of what it means to be truly human\u2014 limitations of time, space, knowledge, power, and mortality. You will notice I did not say sin. Sin is not an inherent or necessary part of being human, at least not as God created us. It is of course an endemic part of being a fallen human being. But Jesus was not a fallen human being. If we ask what the virginal conception is really all about and what it is not about, it is certainly not about the notion that God prefers celibacy for humans if they are to be holy creatures. This a later notion imposed on Christianity with the rise of asceticism, but it is no part of early Jewish Christianity. The virginal conception is about Jesus not inheriting a fallen nature: 1) so the womb of Mary is sanctified and she is given a child by means of the working of the Holy Spirit, and 2) no seminal transmission or intercourse is involved. This does not mean that Mary herself was not a sinner, or had not inherited a fallen nature or was immaculately conceived, rather it means that the Spirit intervened in her life and made sure her child did not inherit our fallenness. That\u2019s all. Later Marian doctrines really have no basis in the NT itself. Mary is however a beautiful example of responding in faith to the most demanding challenge possible from God\u2013 namely being called to be the mother of the messiah, contributing a human nature to whom he already was (the pre-existing Son of God). <\/p>\n
So in regard to the first coming, Jesus did not come trailing clouds of glory, nor wearing a golden crown like you see above. There was nothing about his physical appearance that was a tip off to who he really was. He came incognito\u2026..because he fully assumed the mantle of being human. Here\u2019s the poem <\/p>\n
INCOGNITO<\/p>\n
He came in incognito,
\nA thinly veiled disguise
\nThe not so subtle son of man,
\nA human with God\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
The messianic secret,
\nLeft many unawares
\nA God had walked upon the earth
\nAnd shared our human cares.<\/p>\n
We did not see his glory,
\nAt least not at first glimpse,
\nIt took an Easter wake up call,
\nBefore it all made sense.<\/p>\n
The truth of Incarnation,
\nOf dwelling within flesh,
\nShows goodness in creation,
\nAnd Word of God made fresh.<\/p>\n
Standing on the boundary
\nTwixt earth and heaven above
\nA Jew who hailed from Nazareth
\nBut came from God\u2019s great love.<\/p>\n
Born of humble parents,
\nInstalled inside a stall
\nThis king required no entourage
\nNo pomp or falderal<\/p>\n
No person was beneath him
\nNo angel o\u2019er his head,
\nHe came to serve the human race
\nTo raise it from the dead.<\/p>\n
His death a great conundrum,
\nHow can the Deathless die?
\nBut if he had not bowed his head,
\nLife would have passed us by.<\/p>\n
Though we are dying to be loved,
\nAnd long for endless life,
\nHe was dying in his love,
\nAnd thereby ending strife.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the incognito
\nBelongs instead to us,
\nWho play at being human,
\nAnd fail to be gold dust. <\/p>\n
But there was once a God-man
\nWho played the human\u2019s part
\nAnd lived and died and rose again
\nMade sin and death depart.<\/p>\n
Yes now through a glass dimly,
\nWe see the visage royal
\nAnd feebly honor his great worth
\nAnd his atoning toil.<\/p>\n
We cannot see his Spirit,
\nBut moved by its effects
\nWe are inspired to praise his worth
\nAnd pay our last respects.<\/p>\n
Yet that too brings him glory
\nThat too makes a start,
\nThe journey of a million miles
\nBegins within one\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n
And someday we shall see him
\nAnd fully praise his grace,
\nSomeday when heaven and earth collide
\nAnd we see face to face.<\/p>\n
He comes in blinding brilliance,
\nA not so veiled disguise
\nThe not so subtle Son of God,
\nA God with human eyes.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I intimated in my last post that one of the real problems for Protestants in celebrating Advent and Christmas is: 1) that Advent is hardly celebrated at all, with too many Protestants only having a nodding acquaintance with the whole notion of the \u2018Christian year\u2019; and 2) too much is loaded into Christmas day itself, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n