Advent: Always be Ready
In my home it is no secret that I am no fan of secular Christmas. I was raised outside the Church. When I was a kid, I loved Christmas. The music. The beautiful colors. Nostalgia for a “better time.” The idea of joy, family, and peace. And, naturally, presents.
But, then, I answered the call of Jesus. Christmas, I came to understand, was not just a remembrance of a nice man that gave out pretty sayings and showed an examplary way of life. Christmas was a Christian feast of the Incarnation. God became human. God came to us! The world and the universe were bigger than I had ever imagined. God was real. God knew me and — even when he really and truly knew me — he loved me unconstrained and unconditionally. The nativity is the moment where everything changed. It is the momement were the Word of God took on flesh. My flesh. Your flesh. Our flesh. “Cur Deus homo?”/“Why did God become Human?” asked St. Anselm. One begins to find the answer to that question with Christmas.
Read more...It Wasn't the Nails
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
Nailed to a cross, bleeding, hurting, mocked, physically suffering for hours, Jesus breaks his silence.
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
On the cross, dying for the treason of being a Messiah when he was truly so much more. Jesus, in his greatest moment of terror continues to identify with humanity; with us; with you; with me; yes, even with them.
Read more...Martin Luther: Christological Implications to Eucharist
Martin Luther’s Small Catechism – though short and concise – presents a clear window into Luther’s understanding of Christ’s nature and how that nature works itself out in the ordo salutis. Historically, Luther’s writings on the Sacrament of the Bread and Wine followed the path of the Reformation debates on the Mass as a sacrifice and how – or even if – Jesus was present in the Eucharistic elements. Theologically, however, Luther’s views on Sacraments, specifically the Eucharist, can best be understood through his Christology. Martin Luther rejected the Mass as a sacrifice and strongly affirmed the corporeal presence of Christ in the bread and wine of Eucharist. Luther rejected both Catholic and Reformed Eucharistic theologies because of his deeply incarnational Christology. For Luther, because Jesus was fully divine and fully human and because he suffered and died on the cross for humanity’s salvation, the Mass simply could not be a salvific sacrifice and the Eternal Word could not be separated from his final testament of bread and wine.
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