You shall see below that I am full of questions this morning. This post is more in the way of a note of intention to myself.
The other night as I was cleaning up my kitchen I listened to the second volume in the Songs from the Voice collection called, Son of the Most High. It occured to me as I listened that this CD actually qualifies as Christmas Music as it contains songs that are a fitting way to be reminded of and inticipate the celebration of Christ's birth.
Several months ago I ordered one of the books that is part of the voice project. It is titled the last eyewitnesses: the final week with the following explanation on the cover that John relives Christ's last week before the crucifixion. This book was written in collaboration, and at the time I considered reading it and then writing a review for our church newsletter. The long and short of it is that I haven't read the book, but it recurrs to my attention now because of the Son CD. This is all very interesting too because Michael recently stated that he thinks we skip too quickly over the crucifixion to get to the ressurection, which we consider the good part of the story. Michael says that Christ probably spent a great deal of time preparing himself for and anticipating the sacrifice, and that we should do so as well. The reason why he links this to advent approaching Christmas I do not entirely understand, but remembering this book brings it back into my mind. Perhaps reading it, or reading in it, could be a beginning to materializing what my husband suggests. It's definitely worth an investigation.
If only I could organize my reading a little better. How many books can one person start in a week and really understand what is communicated by any of them?
3 comments:
I can't say as to how many books one might start at the same time and still understand, but I can clarify my reasons for focusing more on the crucifixion during Christmas time. The way I understand it, God put into Christ's birth a lot of symbolism alluding to his death: swaddling clothes, the spices used to wrap a dead body for burial, etc. Christ was born so he could die for us. It seems to me God doesn't really keep Christ's birth and death as separate events, but as parts of a much larger picture.
We humans like to control things, and our desire to categorize and classify everything is an example of that. We like to distinguish everything from everything else. God doesn't have to separate things to understand them, he can sit back and let reality be as complex as it needs to be, which is why I think he isn't nearly as concerned as we are about certain details like past or future (Christ was crucified before the foundation of the world). We can clearly see God was thinking about Christ's death even as he was a newborn child. Even though that death was only a matter of 3 days out of all of eternity, I really think we should pay closer attention to it than we do now. We know so little, and understand even less, and appreciate even less than that, I know a better understanding of Christ's death helps me better appreciate and understand the meaning of his resurrection. And that makes me all the more thankful.
Michael, I agree wholeheartedly. Among our many problems as humans in understanding Our God is our inability to conceive eternity. We can't even discuss God's ways without butchering them, because we consistently must refer to time. Even "Before the foundation of the world" is a time-reference. As good a description as it is, "God was thinking about Christ's death even as he was a newborn child," is an inaccurate description, because it includes a time-reference. Although it is incredibly cumbersome, if a person is going to most accurately describe God's activities, he probably must resort to something like this:
God is ever-thinking about Christ's death, even as he was a newborn child.
As an interesting aside: compare how God is described in Rev. 4:8 to how "the beast" is described in Revelation 17:8.
Interesting to think about what all 3 of you have written. M, that's the reason I like the Passion movie, as difficult as it was to endure it. I almost felt I was there, and wept grievously through most of it. I remember some of those images during communion. I want to remember His suffering and sacrifice when I am tempted to sin, also. I believe that sins I choose to commit today heap another lashing on His back 2000 years ago. Perhaps that is theologically unsound, but God is outside of time, and it's clear that we can grieve the Spirit. Anyway, I think Christ's birth and crucifixion and resurrection are relevant to my daily thought-life.
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