A few days ago our family went to see "The Chronicles of Narnia" at the cinema. We loved the film, thought the story stayed pretty close to the book, and were amazed by the special effects and cinematography throughout. I must confess I didn't go with overly high expectations regarding how Hollywood would present Aslan, but I was pleasantly surprised as to how they kept all the major items in the story. It was toward the end of the movie that I was caught by something that was said. A couple of days later, I asked my son, Josiah, about it and he immediately took me to page and paragraph in the book. The quote goes something like this:
"One day you'll see him and another you won't. He doesn't like being tied down--and of course he has other countries to attend to. It's quite all right. He'll often drop in. Only you mustn't press him. He's wild, you know. Not like a tame lion."
As I replayed the graphic image of the resurrected Aslan coming up over the mountain peak in the big battle scene, and heard those words--"He's wild, you know"--again in my mind, I wondered if that might be part of the problem with much of Christianity in the western world. We've tried to tame Jesus Christ. Without realising it, we're gradually allowing ourselves to be conformed to the world, and we've lost the "wild" element of life in the Spirit, where "the wind blows wherever it pleases" (John 3:8).
Every government, every societal influence in the western world is trying to create a sterile environment where man is in control of everything and everyone. What we say, what we eat, what we believe is coming under tighter control all the time. This means that we don't care for things that are "not like a tame lion". Unfortunately, many within the Christian world have fallen prey to this antiseptic tendency.
We want people to follow Christ--but only if they feel comfortable with the idea, only if it makes them feel good about themselves, as long as no offence is caused. I can't imagine Jesus today walking into some of the churches and saying, "Take up your cross and follow me ... as long as you're okay with that, or it doesn't cramp your style." The wild Lion who keeps expanding the boundaries and leaping outside of the religious box doesn't fit with our modern world. He doesn't allow us to get comfortable or to establish our own parameters as to how he will work in our lives. No, he doesn't like being tied down.
Many people are leaving traditional Christianity and exploring all kinds of alternative spiritualities and pop religions. I would suggest the biggest reason for this is because we have lost our vision of the "wildness" of Jesus Christ who calls us to new adventures every day. Rather than pursuing an eternal relationship with the living God, we hold on to our human traditions, our religious positions, our flesh-pleasing habits and sins. We give him no opportunity to do his supernatural work of transformation. We end up reducing God to our lowest human common denominator.
If we invite him to take us on his great adventure, we may not be fighting great battle scenes in Narnia every day, but he brings his infinite love, creativity, life, and power into our lives, and transforms us into his image. Give him half a chance, and he will show up when we least expect it, and bring extraordinary things into our ordinary day-to-day lives. If we make a conscious decision to follow the Lion of Judah, and allow him to manifest his "wild" Spirit in our lives, we will find him leading us into an eternity of increasing delight and pleasure in union with our Creator God. This isn't just some Disney fantasy; this is the real thing.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Hilary of Poitiers on The Incarnation of Christ
I was prepared to post some thoughts on the new year and what should be our motivation for the days ahead, but yesterday I read these thoughts on the Incarnation by Hilary of Poitiers in his book, On the Trinity. Hilary is another of the early writers who unfortunately are often forgotten these days.
He was born around 300AD and became a bishop in 350. He was embroiled in the Arian controversy, and was exiled from his post because of his orthodox views concerning Jesus Christ. In approximately 360, Hilary wrote his classic work on the Trinity. It is said of Bishop French of Lahore, one of the greatest of modern missionaries, that he always had a copy of On the Trinity in his hands and began a translation into Arabic for the benefit of the Muslims he was ministering to, since it was the best treatment of the Trinity that he had seen.
The following excerpts are regarding the Incarnation and the gratitude we should show to the almighty God who has reached down to man. It is well worth some quiet consideration:
"The Virgin, the birth, the Body, then the Cross, the death, the visit to the lower world: these things are our salvation. For the sake of mankind the Son of God was born of the Virgin and of the Holy Ghost. In this process he ministered to himself; by his own power--the power of God--which overshadowed her, he sowed the beginning of his Body, and entered on the first stage of his life in the flesh. He did it that by his Incarnation he might take to himself from the Virgin the fleshly nature, and that through this commingling there might come into being a hallowed Body of all humanity; that so through that Body which he was pleased to assume all mankind might be hid in him, and he in return, through his unseen existence, be reproduced in all. Thus the invisible Image of God scorned not the shame which marks the beginnings of human life. He passed through every stage: through conception, birth, wailing, cradle, and each successive humiliation.
"What worthy return can we make for so great a condescension? The One only-begotten God, ineffably born of God, entered the Virgin's womb and grew and took the frame of poor humanity. He who upholds the universe, within whom and through whom are all things, was brought forth by common childbirth; he at whose voice archangels and angels tremble, and heaven and earth and all the elements of this world are melted, was heard in childish wailing. The Invisible and Incomprehensible, whom sight and feeling and touch cannot gauge, was wrapped in a cradle. If any man deem all this unworthy of God, the greater must he own his debt for the benefit conferred the less such condescension befits the majesty of God. He by whom man was made had nothing to gain by becoming man; it was our gain that God was incarnate and dwelt among us, making all flesh his home by taking upon him the flesh of One. We were raised because he was lowered; shame to him was glory to us. He, being God, made flesh his residence, and we in return are lifted anew from the flesh to God.
"But lest perchance fastidious minds be exercised by cradle and wailing, birth and conception, we must render to God the glory which each of these contains, that we may approach his self-abasement with souls duly filled with his claim to reign, and not forget his majesty in his condescension. Let us note, therefore, who were attendant on his conception. An angel speaks to Zacharias; fertility is given to the barren; the priest comes forth dumb from the place of incense; John bursts forth into speech while yet confined within his mother's womb; an angel blesses Mary and promises that she, a virgin, shall be the mother of the Son of God. Conscious of her virginity, she is distressed at this hard thing; the angel explains to her the mighty working of God, saying The Holy Ghost shall come from above into you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you (Luke 1:35). The Holy Ghost, descending from above, hallowed the Virgin's womb, and breathing therein (for The Spirit blows where it will--John 3:8), mingled himself with the fleshly nature of man, and annexed by force and might that foreign domain. And, lest through weakness of the human structure failure should ensue, the power of the Most High overshadowed the Virgin, strengthening her feebleness in semblance of a cloud cast round her, that the shadow, which was the might of God, might fortify her bodily frame to receive the procreative power of the Spirit. Such is the glory of the conception.
"And now let us consider the glory which accompanies the birth, the wailing, and the cradle. The angel tells Joseph that the Virgin shall bear a son, and that that son shall be named Emmanuel, that is, God with us. The Spirit foretells it through the prophet, the angel bears witness; he that is born is God with us. The light of a new star shines forth for the Magi; a heavenly sign escorts the Lord of heaven. An angel brings to the shepherds the news that Christ the Lord is born, the Saviour of the world. A multitude of the heavenly host flock together to sing the praise of that childbirth; the rejoicing of the divine company proclaims the fulfilment of the mighty work. Then glory to God in heaven, and peace on earth to men of good will is announced. And now the Magi come and worship him wrapped in swaddling clothes; after a life devoted to mystic rites of vain philosophy they bow the knee before a Babe laid in his cradle. Thus the Magi stoop to reverence the infirmities of Infancy; its cries are saluted by the heavenly joy of angels; the Spirit who inspired the prophet, the heralding angel, the light of the new star, all minister around him. In such wise was it that the Holy Ghost's descent and the overshadowing power of the Most High brought him to his birth. The inward reality is widely different from the outward appearance; the eye sees one thing, the soul another. A virgin bears; her child is of God. An Infant wails; angels are heard in praise. There are coarse swaddling clothes; God is being worshiped. The glory of his majesty is not forfeited when he assumes the lowliness of flesh.
"So was it also during his further life on earth. The whole time which he passed in human form was spent upon the works of God. I have no space for details; it must suffice to say that in all the varied acts of power and healing which he wrought, the fact is conspicuous that he was man by virtue of the flesh he had taken, God by the evidence of the works he did."-- Hilary of Poitiers
Such is the enormous mystery and glory of our Lord's coming to earth. It goes a way beyond "Santa Clause is coming to town." He deserves our deepest gratitude.
He was born around 300AD and became a bishop in 350. He was embroiled in the Arian controversy, and was exiled from his post because of his orthodox views concerning Jesus Christ. In approximately 360, Hilary wrote his classic work on the Trinity. It is said of Bishop French of Lahore, one of the greatest of modern missionaries, that he always had a copy of On the Trinity in his hands and began a translation into Arabic for the benefit of the Muslims he was ministering to, since it was the best treatment of the Trinity that he had seen.
The following excerpts are regarding the Incarnation and the gratitude we should show to the almighty God who has reached down to man. It is well worth some quiet consideration:
"The Virgin, the birth, the Body, then the Cross, the death, the visit to the lower world: these things are our salvation. For the sake of mankind the Son of God was born of the Virgin and of the Holy Ghost. In this process he ministered to himself; by his own power--the power of God--which overshadowed her, he sowed the beginning of his Body, and entered on the first stage of his life in the flesh. He did it that by his Incarnation he might take to himself from the Virgin the fleshly nature, and that through this commingling there might come into being a hallowed Body of all humanity; that so through that Body which he was pleased to assume all mankind might be hid in him, and he in return, through his unseen existence, be reproduced in all. Thus the invisible Image of God scorned not the shame which marks the beginnings of human life. He passed through every stage: through conception, birth, wailing, cradle, and each successive humiliation.
"What worthy return can we make for so great a condescension? The One only-begotten God, ineffably born of God, entered the Virgin's womb and grew and took the frame of poor humanity. He who upholds the universe, within whom and through whom are all things, was brought forth by common childbirth; he at whose voice archangels and angels tremble, and heaven and earth and all the elements of this world are melted, was heard in childish wailing. The Invisible and Incomprehensible, whom sight and feeling and touch cannot gauge, was wrapped in a cradle. If any man deem all this unworthy of God, the greater must he own his debt for the benefit conferred the less such condescension befits the majesty of God. He by whom man was made had nothing to gain by becoming man; it was our gain that God was incarnate and dwelt among us, making all flesh his home by taking upon him the flesh of One. We were raised because he was lowered; shame to him was glory to us. He, being God, made flesh his residence, and we in return are lifted anew from the flesh to God.
"But lest perchance fastidious minds be exercised by cradle and wailing, birth and conception, we must render to God the glory which each of these contains, that we may approach his self-abasement with souls duly filled with his claim to reign, and not forget his majesty in his condescension. Let us note, therefore, who were attendant on his conception. An angel speaks to Zacharias; fertility is given to the barren; the priest comes forth dumb from the place of incense; John bursts forth into speech while yet confined within his mother's womb; an angel blesses Mary and promises that she, a virgin, shall be the mother of the Son of God. Conscious of her virginity, she is distressed at this hard thing; the angel explains to her the mighty working of God, saying The Holy Ghost shall come from above into you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you (Luke 1:35). The Holy Ghost, descending from above, hallowed the Virgin's womb, and breathing therein (for The Spirit blows where it will--John 3:8), mingled himself with the fleshly nature of man, and annexed by force and might that foreign domain. And, lest through weakness of the human structure failure should ensue, the power of the Most High overshadowed the Virgin, strengthening her feebleness in semblance of a cloud cast round her, that the shadow, which was the might of God, might fortify her bodily frame to receive the procreative power of the Spirit. Such is the glory of the conception.
"And now let us consider the glory which accompanies the birth, the wailing, and the cradle. The angel tells Joseph that the Virgin shall bear a son, and that that son shall be named Emmanuel, that is, God with us. The Spirit foretells it through the prophet, the angel bears witness; he that is born is God with us. The light of a new star shines forth for the Magi; a heavenly sign escorts the Lord of heaven. An angel brings to the shepherds the news that Christ the Lord is born, the Saviour of the world. A multitude of the heavenly host flock together to sing the praise of that childbirth; the rejoicing of the divine company proclaims the fulfilment of the mighty work. Then glory to God in heaven, and peace on earth to men of good will is announced. And now the Magi come and worship him wrapped in swaddling clothes; after a life devoted to mystic rites of vain philosophy they bow the knee before a Babe laid in his cradle. Thus the Magi stoop to reverence the infirmities of Infancy; its cries are saluted by the heavenly joy of angels; the Spirit who inspired the prophet, the heralding angel, the light of the new star, all minister around him. In such wise was it that the Holy Ghost's descent and the overshadowing power of the Most High brought him to his birth. The inward reality is widely different from the outward appearance; the eye sees one thing, the soul another. A virgin bears; her child is of God. An Infant wails; angels are heard in praise. There are coarse swaddling clothes; God is being worshiped. The glory of his majesty is not forfeited when he assumes the lowliness of flesh.
"So was it also during his further life on earth. The whole time which he passed in human form was spent upon the works of God. I have no space for details; it must suffice to say that in all the varied acts of power and healing which he wrought, the fact is conspicuous that he was man by virtue of the flesh he had taken, God by the evidence of the works he did."-- Hilary of Poitiers
Such is the enormous mystery and glory of our Lord's coming to earth. It goes a way beyond "Santa Clause is coming to town." He deserves our deepest gratitude.
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