Klauslis in Korntal

Amazed at the Birth of Jesus

Note: This was a devotional for chapel that I delivered on the 12/20/07

Sometimes as we approach Christmas I have heard the Christmas story so many times that I almost become numb to its message. It’s not that I want this to happen, but I think the continuous focus on the historical event of Christ birth, while extremely important, often leaves little time to reflect on the mystery of it all: how is it that the second person of the Trinity became a man?

This morning I want to consider this question from the perspective of eight verses in the NT. And while in the process we will be doing some theology, my goal is not a theological study. Rather, I want to gives us all a chance to hear the Scripture and be amazed again at the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus.

The first three verses are some general statements that emphasize the fact that God became a man.
The first is 1 Tim 3:16.

“And admittedly, great is the mystery of godliness:
He was revealed in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit
proclaimed among the Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.”

By the “mystery of godliness” Paul is speaking of the revelation of the gospel that now makes people “godly,” and at the foundation lies the incarnation of Jesus: “He was revealed in the flesh,” that is, he took on a body.

In John 1:14 we find a further explanation that the “one revealed in the flesh” is none other than God:
“Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us.”

Jesus’ deity is seen in 1:1-5 where John speaks of Jesus in terms of the “Word” or Logos who is by nature “fully God” (1:1) and through whom God made the world (1:3).” The idea is mindboggling. As some have put it, the Creator Himself becomes a creature.

In Phil 2:6-7 we are given a bit more background to Jesus’ incarnation, especially the choice He made to humble Himself in this way and what exactly it cost Him:

“who though he existed in the form of God
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
but emptied Himself
by taking the form of a slave
by looking like other men
and by sharing human nature.”

Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, does not give up His divinity, but for a while, its position in order to be a servant who would die on a cross.

These three general questions have given us the “fact” of Jesus’ incarnation. We now turn to three more that give us a bit more of the “how”. The first is in Gal 4:4

“But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights.”

The statement “born of a woman, born under the law” tells us two important things about Jesus’ birth. That it was “under the law” tells us it took place in human history, that He was born of a woman” tells us that the incarnation is not something estoric or metaphysical, but that He had a normal birth. Although all three of our children were born by C-section, I had the opportunity to be present. While the miracle of birth is wonderful, it is terribly messy process—one which our Lord did not shy away from.

The mystery that God could be born of a human is heightened in the next verse. In Matt 1:20-23 the angel explains to Joseph that his pregnant wife-to-be is still a virgin since,

“the child conceived in here is from the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus’ virgin birth, Matthew explains, is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isa 7:14. The fact of Jesus’ birth is something that I accept from the Scriptures and as something theologically necessary for God to bring about salvation. But that does not mean that I understand it!

Luke’s gospel also takes up the virgin birth and attempts to explain it more through the explanation of angel to Mary when she asks: “how can these things be (Luke 1:34)?” While I am grateful that we have more information, the answer only further deepens the mystery:

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born will be holy;
He will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)”

This Christmas, take time to contemplate the mystery of the incarnation: and just be amazed.

Doing Things Twice

At times, when our children do a task with a poor attitude, we have them do it again. The Lord did this with me last week on my trip to the grocery store. We were going to have company for lunch, and I decided to take a ‘quick’ trip to the grocery store with the kids. By the time I had found stockings, shoes, hats, jackets, scarves and gloves for everyone and we had walked down the steep hill, I already had a bit of an attitude. After about 45 minutes of carefully stacking groceries around kids in the stroller, trying to keep three pairs of hands from shelves, as well as keep the noise level down we were finally standing in the check-out line. It was then that I noticed I had forgotten my wallet in the apartment. I have to admit if my attitude was not the best at the beginning of the shopping trip it was very low at this point. But what else was there to do? Since everything was in our stroller we went back through each aisle carefully placing all items back onto the shelves while the kids were loudly whining about not getting this or that. I mumbled an embarrassed excuse as I tried to squeeze the empty stroller past the lady at the checkout and back we went up the hill to our apartment.

It was at this point that the Lord gave me a chance to reflect on my tense mood. When we went to the store the second time my prayer was more for the ‘how’ of our little trip rather than the accomplishment of the task. We had such a better time. We even met the children’s new Sunday school teacher in the store as well as one of the students from the seminary. It seemed as if the children were reflecting my changed attitude and were very pleasant and helpful on our second round through the aisles. I learned a lesson. Thank you, Lord, for an opportunity to adjust my attitude.

Living in a sandwich

“We are living in a sandwhich” is the way we have explained to our kids our new living situation. We live below the library, above a lecture room and another apartment and next to some dorm rooms and another lecture room. Since living in a house is all our kids have ever known the idea of ‘noise may bother others around us’ has never really been part of their thought patterns. We are learning (and probably not doing a great job at it quite yet) to go through our days a little more quietly. But how do we teach that without constant ‘NOs’? I was so glad when Markus came up with the sandwich idea; the kids love it and are of course very proud to be in the middle - the best part of the sandwich. While we are still working on becoming a little more quiet, it has not been a negative at all and quite often Naomi will remind us (still in her very loud voice) “Mommy, daddy remember, we are living in a sandwich”.

My first week at work . . .

Last week was my first offical week at "work" as a faculty member here at the Academy for World Mission. Since I am not schedueled to teach a class until the beginning of February, these first couple months are devoted to getting me up to speed with things here at the school and to prepare my class. So my week was pretty full, including a number of meetings, working on my syllabus, and sitting in the MA comprehensive exams and new student interviews.

Most striking to me as I watched both the exams and the interviews was the wide range of missions experience and interest brought by both those finishing their degrees and those just beginning the process. Among the examinees, a few had served 20 years or longer in such fields as Japan, Kenya, and Papua New Guinea, while others were on their way to the field in SE Asia and former East Germany. Those who applied at the school were younger people with interests in Bible translation and working among unreached peoples. What an encouragement to see how God is fulfilling the Great Comission through these and many others here, and what a privilege it is for us to be here.