"The most profound things in life are often the simplest"
I received this from Tony Jones of Emergent and consider it well worth sharing in this season:
The most profound things in life are often the simplest.
The birth of a child. The birth of THE child. So simple, yet so profound that theologians have wrestled with it for 2,000 years. And, often, their prose has failed them. Instead, they've resorted to poetry.
"One of the first to wrestle the nativity into words was the author of the Fourth Gospel. "In the beginning," he wrote, "was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
In the year 380, in the first recorded Christmas sermon, Bishop Gregory Nazianzen preached, "Christ is Born, glorify ye Him. Christ from heaven, go ye out to meet Him. Christ on earth; be ye exalted. Sing unto the Lord all the whole earth; and that I may join both in one word, Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, for Him Who is of heaven and then of earth. Christ in the flesh, rejoice with trembling and with joy; with trembling because of your sins, with joy because of your hope. Christ of a Virgin; O ye Matrons live as Virgins, that ye may be Mothers of Christ. Who doth not worship Him That is from the beginning? Who doth not glorify Him That is the Last?"
Fifteen centuries later, Charles Spurgeon preached of the incarnation: "Everything here is simple; everything is sublime. Here is that simple gospel, by which the most ignorant may be saved. Here are profundities, in which the best-instructed may find themselves beyond their depth. Here are those everlasting hills of divine truth which man cannot climb; yet here is that plain path in which the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err, nor lose his way."
Merry Christmas, friends. May you make room in your hearts, lives, and families for the babe in the manger. And may your mouth be filled with poetry!
The most profound things in life are often the simplest.
The birth of a child. The birth of THE child. So simple, yet so profound that theologians have wrestled with it for 2,000 years. And, often, their prose has failed them. Instead, they've resorted to poetry.
"One of the first to wrestle the nativity into words was the author of the Fourth Gospel. "In the beginning," he wrote, "was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
In the year 380, in the first recorded Christmas sermon, Bishop Gregory Nazianzen preached, "Christ is Born, glorify ye Him. Christ from heaven, go ye out to meet Him. Christ on earth; be ye exalted. Sing unto the Lord all the whole earth; and that I may join both in one word, Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad, for Him Who is of heaven and then of earth. Christ in the flesh, rejoice with trembling and with joy; with trembling because of your sins, with joy because of your hope. Christ of a Virgin; O ye Matrons live as Virgins, that ye may be Mothers of Christ. Who doth not worship Him That is from the beginning? Who doth not glorify Him That is the Last?"
Fifteen centuries later, Charles Spurgeon preached of the incarnation: "Everything here is simple; everything is sublime. Here is that simple gospel, by which the most ignorant may be saved. Here are profundities, in which the best-instructed may find themselves beyond their depth. Here are those everlasting hills of divine truth which man cannot climb; yet here is that plain path in which the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err, nor lose his way."
Merry Christmas, friends. May you make room in your hearts, lives, and families for the babe in the manger. And may your mouth be filled with poetry!
Labels: emergent
posted by Pastor Buzz at 7:09 PM
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