Christmas: God Loves small, Insignificant Places and Little Deeds Done in Great Love

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

    though you are small among the clans of Judah,

out of you will come for me

    one who will be ruler over Israel,

whose origins are from of old,

    from ancient times.”   

     -Micah 5:2

“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

        -Mother Teresa

This year as I read and heard the familiar Scripture passages on the Nativity, I was struck with just how often God chooses the small places for Jesus’ birth and live. The Father could have placed Jesus anywhere but chose to place him in the obscure little town of Bethlehem. Although it was the birth place of King David, it had become in insignificant village by the time of the Prophet Micah. 

Jesus grew up in Nazareth, another small town in the region of Galilee where people had a funny accent, as far as the Jews in Judea were concerned. Jesus was raised in an insignificant, poor laborer’s family. Not only was it humble, Jesus’ family had a scandal—everyone knew Jesus was not really Joseph’s son. During Jesus’ ministry, much of his care for people went unappreciated and to everyone at first, his ultimate gift on the cross seemed to be one more scandal and loss.

Yet God the Father knew what he was doing. He chose to send his Son into the obscure, unappreciated, seemingly insignificant places. This was the Father’s perfect plan for the Incarnation.

Christmas is about the Incarnation. The Incarnation dignifies all the obscure and scandalous areas of our life. It dignifies poor families. It dignifies all forms of work. It dignifies those who lack education and might have funny accents.

Moreover, the Incarnation dignifies our little labors of love. By sending his Son, God graced little, obscure places and unappreciated people with great love, dignity and divinity. Thereby he dignified and indeed deified our labor given in his name, our little deeds done with great love. He honored our acts of kindness, even when they are unnoticed and unappreciated. He has infused those small deeds with his Incarnation—the Divine inhabiting the earthly.

Every little act of kindness, every humble service to others, every self-emptying done in Jesus’ name is a participation with the Incarnation. We joint the Christmas story. We step into the grand History of Salvation. Our deeds are no longer about us as we become one with him!

© 2017 Glenn E. Myers

Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring: Christmas Invitation to Soar to Uncreated Heights

“Prayer is the ascent of the spirit to God” –Evagrius Ponticus

This Christmas season Sharon and I have been listening to the new CD Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, published by the Dominican Sisters of Mary. What a joy it is! This is the first time in some years that I’ve listened to the words of the song by the same name:

Jesu, joy of man's desiring,
Holy wisdom, love most bright;
Drawn by Thee, our souls aspiring
Soar to uncreated light.

Word of God, our flesh that fashioned,
With the fire of life impassioned,
Striving still to truth unknown,
Soaring, dying round Thy throne.

What an invitation this is! Our soul’s desires are drawn to Jesus who is himself Holy Wisdom—the Logos, the Word (John 1:1-2). That Word is true light (v. 9), uncreated and pure. Then that “Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us” in order to reveal God the Father to us (vv. 14, 18). Ultimately he came to lift us up to the Father, so that we might experience that glory and grace upon grace (v. 16).

Jesu is indeed Love Most Bright, come to earth. That event was not just the Incarnation over two millennia ago: it is a fresh invitation for us to soar anew in devotion to God’s Uncreated Light!

These twelve days of Christmas, especially as most of us have a few more days of leisure from work, let us set aside some of that time for unhurried devotion to the Lord. May our hearts be renewed “with the fire of life impassioned” as we prayer, worship and contemplate in silence. May we allow our souls to soar to the Throne of God and pass into his very Presence!

Link: https://www.sistersofmary.org/

© 2017 Glenn E. Myers

Christmas: Christ’s Birth Bridging Heaven and Earth

“Unto us a Child is born, a Son is given.” (Isaiah 9:5)

Here is a wonderful Christmas sermon I ran across in my reading. It is by the 14th century German preacher, Johannes Tauler, whose work is rather much my life’s study. The excerpts here in English are my paraphrase from the Middle High German edition. [1]

The Three-fold Birth of Christ
Today holy Christendom remembers the three-fold birth that every Christian certainly celebrates. He delights in it so much that he should jump up out of himself for joy in jubilation and love, in thankfulness and inner rapture. And whoever does not experience such an impulse should be alarmed!

First Birth: God the Father Begets the Son before all Eternity
The first and highest birth is that in which the Heavenly Father begets his only born Son in His own divine essence—yet as a distinct Person. The first Christmas Service we celebrate is in the darkness of night, and it begins with the words, “The Lord said to me: You are my Son; today I have begotten you” [Psalm 2:7]. This Service is directed at the hidden birth that took place in the darkness of the hidden, unknowable Godhead.

Second Birth: Mary Gives Birth to Jesus in Bethlehem
The second Christmas Service begins with the words, “Today a light shines above us” [adapted from Isaiah 9:2]. And this means the spark of human nature made godly [in the Incarnation]. This Service begins in the dark of night but ends in the light of day, for this birth was partly unknown and partly known.

Third Birth: Christ Continually Born Afresh in Our Hearts
We celebrate the third Christmas Service in bright daylight, and its introduction resounds, “Unto us a Child is born and a Son is given” [Isaiah 9: 6]. This symbolizes the birth, rich in love, that should be taking place – and indeed does take place – every day and every moment in each believing and holy soul.

This happens when we but turn our attention and love upon it, for in order to feel and be aware of this birth, we must turn inward and redirect all our faculties. In this birth God gives Himself to each of our soul to own. He gives Himself inwardly to our soul, to be possessed above everything it owns!

May God help us all to prepare a place within for this noble birth, so that we can truly spiritually bear Christ in our lives! Amen.

[1] Die Predigten Taulers, ed. Ferdinand Vetter, Deutsche Texte des Mittelalters 11 (Berlin, 1910), sermon V 1.

© 2010 Glenn E. Myers

White as Snow: Last Sunday of Advent before Christmas

Carver Park, Minnesota

"Come now, let us reason together,"
    says the Lord.
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
    they shall be like wool."
-Isaiah 1:18

This is what Advent anticipates. This is God's love poured forth on Christmas!

© 2013 Glenn E. Myers

Advent and Christmas Devotion: The Prayer of Desire – Si semper desideras, semper oras

Christ the King Retreat Center

Advent is a season of desire. When Jesus was born, the nation of Israel was waiting, longing and desiring the coming of Messiah. For us, is it a time to kindle anew our inner desire for more of Jesus in our lives, our minds, our busy schedules, and our hearts.

That desire during Advent is what continually draws us to Bethlehem. While Mary and Joseph journeyed to the City of David for very practical reasons, fulfilling the census of Caesar Augustus, we journey there for a spiritual purpose to see afresh the Heir of David!

Just as the shepherds came down from the hills, filled with awe and wonder at the message of the angels, we descend to the lowly manger with deep desire to worship him who lowered himself and emptied himself beyond our comprehension.

As the magi were invited to glimpse the fulfillment of the great sign in the stars that they saw, we come to adore Emmanuel with all our longing, love and desire.

Desire Itself is Prayer
Sometimes we do not know how to pray. That is okay, because our desire for the Lord is itself prayer. St. Augustine said, “Si semper desideras, semper oras”—“If we are always desiring, we are always praying!” How true that is, and how comforting to know that our heart prays, even when our mouth cannot articulate that inner longing!

This season let our hearts reach out in the wordless prayer of desire as we sit silently by the fireplace or candles late at night or early in the morning when everyone else in the house is asleep. Let our prayer of desire ascend as we read again Luke’s account of the very first Christmas.

As the pilgrimage of Advent reaches its culmination in the celebration of Christmas Day, let us cultivate the inner prayer of desire. Let us allow that desire to come to full blossom as we gather with the faithful on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning to worship Christ the King. O come, let us indeed adore him!

© 2013 Glenn E. Myers

Christmas: An Invitation to Stillness

“Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, all is bright.”

Silent, attentive and still, the world waited to receive its savior. Into the tranquil night hours, God the Father spoke his Word, Jesus, to humanity. The Father sent his one and only Son to be Emmanuel—God with us. “The Word became flesh and tabernacled a little while among us” (John 1:14).

Christmas is an invitation to stillness. It is a call to quiet our hearts and focus our minds on God’s Word to us. The antithesis of pop culture’s hectic “holiday season,” the true season of Christmas is about quietness and receptivity.

While Christmas celebrates Jesus’ coming into the Roman-ruled world of Caesar Augustus some 2000 years ago, it goes beyond a mere remembrance. Christmas welcomes us to receive Jesus anew into our own situation, with whatever joys and sorrows face us today. Each of our worlds is very different than Caesar’s—but just as much in need of Emmanuel. Our life situation may even be very different this year than it was a year ago. The observance of Christmas calls us to invite Jesus afresh into our world—with its new challenges, new losses and new opportunities.

How can we, like Mary and Joseph, receive him amidst all our quests and concerns for the future? How can we, like the shepherds, realize God’s glory as it breaks into our everyday life?

In order to be attentive and receptive to the Lord, we need to set aside space for stillness in our lives. Isaiah 30:15 calls us to return and rest in the Lord if we desire to see his deliverance. It invites us into quietness and trust so that we can have our inner strength renewed:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and trust shall be your strength.” (RSV)

One of the most beautiful reflections on Christmas I have ever read comes from the fourteenth-century preacher, Johannes Tauler:

“In this midnight silence, in which all things remain in
deepest stillness and where perfect peace reigns,
there we will truly hear God’s word. For if God
is to speak, we must be silent; if God is to enter in,
all other things must make room for him.”

What things are crowding him out of your life right now? Where are your thoughts so loud and hectic that you have no space to listen to him? Tauler continues:

“We should often cultivate this deep silence within
us and allow it to become the habit of our life, so
that through habit it takes firm root in us.”[1]

Let us set aside time for stillness each day this Christmas season to pull back from our frenetic activity in order to nurture quiet space in our hearts. Let us cultivate calm and receptivity. In that midnight silence, let us welcome Jesus into our world, our situation as it is right now, and into the inner sanctuary of our being.
_____
1. Johannes Tauler, Sermon 1. Although not well-known today, Tauler’s sermons profoundly impacted believers in his generation, Martin Luther during the Reformation, and thirsty souls over the centuries. The translation is my own from Johannes Tauler Predigten: Vollständige Ausgabe. Edited by Georg Hofmann. Freiburg: Herder, 1961.

© 2010 Glenn E. Myers