December 2004

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Reflections

WE CAME to have a working knowledge of that cosmic crash which the theologians call the fall of man. At last we knew why God himself had to come into the world to set things right. He came because things were so wrong. We realized, too, why it cost his life to set things right—he came to a world beyond redemption by means of exhortation. The knowledge radically altered the Christian year for us. Christmas became the way things ought to be, while Good Friday underlined the way things actually were.
Gale D. Webbe, The Night and Nothing

GOD DID NOT send a subordinate to redeem us. He chose to do it himself.
Alister McGrath, Knowing Christ

IN CHRIST two natures met to be thy cure.
George Herbert, An Offering

AS CHRISTIANS … we have a … wonderful story of a divine border crossing at the heart of our faith. In the great mystery of the Incarnation, God does not merely bring fire to earth to ease the cold and dark of mortal life, but sacrificially gives the divine Life itself, that we may live with God forever… . God chooses not only to save the world, but to do so by becoming one of us, by becoming human.
Deborah Smith Douglas, "Border Crossings" in Weavings

THOUGH THERE WERE auspicious signs that preceded and accompanied his birth, preparing the world for the majestic and kingly, the birth of Jesus itself was of the humblest peasant parentage, in an unimportant town, and in the roughest of buildings. He made a career of rejecting marks of status or privilege: He loved lepers, washed the feet of his disciples, befriended little children, encouraged women to join his entourage, and, finally, submitted to crucifixion by a foreign power.
Eugene H. Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work

GOD SURPRISES ...