Wonder about the real meaning of Christmas? We all wonder about God, His plan, His ways, His blessings and His messages of hope, faith and love for us.
So the answer to what is the meaning of Christ's incarnation, becoming flesh -- stepping into our humanity, embracing the full condition of our human nature while still divine being equal with God the Father and Holy Spirit, fully to be worshipped and adored as one God in three divine people dwelling in perfect unity -- is a good question to be raised today, Christmas Day.
To Christians, Christmas means something so special and sacred and sacramental and joyful and blessed. Jesus, our Lord and Savior, has been born in Bethlehem in Israel to be able to experience in his own life all that we experience in our own -- joys and sorrows, highs and lows, victories and tribulations, good times and bad, sickness and health, ecstasy and depression, moments of transcendence and moments of immanence, where we feel the presence of God so near.
This human journey of participating in all we face makes our God in Jesus Christ know our hearts far better than we can ever know them, as God is sovereign, almighty and divine, and knows all things clearly with and in and through his being God.
So when we can see the humanity of Jesus Christ and come to grasp the full extent that he is like us in all things but sin, our hearts are moved with a pure joy that God has done such a marvelous action within human history to become the centerpiece of our salvation history by his death and resurrection, thus preparing for us the ultimate truth that we shall live forever in the kingdom of heaven, as God so calls us to Himself in faith and in love to know and experience a heavenly home not made by human hands, and in which will be forever love, happiness and joy, and nothing can separate us then from Him.
This is the true love story of Jesus' becoming a little child in Bethlehem as God's great plan of salvation included his own entry into all that is human -- tears, laughter, hunger, love, feelings, tenderness, refreshment, longing, hope, trust, intimacy, healing, forgiveness, friendship, meals, presence, kindness, patience, gentleness, holiness, prayer, family, thirst, fear, pain, goodness, creativity and peace.
This is the true love story of God becoming like us in every detail we live and breathe each day of our lives, and God holds us in the palm of His hands because of His great, tender merciful love for each one created with the majesty of His creative, holy love.
So let us bring this message to all this Christmas Day. Rejoice as God is with us now and forever. Amen.
The Rev. Michael Lubinsky, Augusta
(The writer is parochial vicar at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta.)
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010. All Rights Reserved.
All sounds very nice but is there anyone out there that can see past the materialism and superficial glitter used to hide the true origen of this day? Why celebrate it?
It's an effective piece, but you are either preaching to those who feel as you do or to those feel the best way to deal with tragedy is to shop, as our leader recently said. Many are incapable of having the feelings you described out of no fault of their own, but I'll best most everyone can tear open a Christmas present. A recent study says about 20% of the population has been injured in the excitemet of opening presents. Amen.
"but I'll bet" it should have read. The lack of an edit function is troubling.
To the many without jobs this holiday,, it will be hard to have a good warm touchy feeling...My Christmas wish is We put our resources & money in the GOOD OLD USA..
Thank you, Rev. Lubinsky, for a wonderful message which sums it up nicely! Merry Christmas!
The joy of knowing Jesus Christ is available to everyone regardless of their human state. Joy is knowing that "all is well with my soul". There may be laughter with joy, but there also may be tears of gratitude. Toys and lights, as with other materialistic "things" brings only a momentary high. Knowing in your heart that the God of Creation loves YOU with an everlasting love that transcends any circumstance can and will bring true joy. Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let earth receive her king. The Bible, all of it is written that we might believe in Jesus Christ and in believing in Jesus Christ we would have eternal. May you in simple faith accept the "greatest gift ever given".
I always get a laugh from the good rev's Jesus gibberish. For starters, Lubinsky's over-heated prose is funny enough by itself. But his message
is--I'll be kind-- moronically simple minded. The really GOOD NEWS is that 2/3's of the world's people don't know Jesus from Jennifer Lopez, and couldn't care less. The number of Christians world-wide is about 1/3 and SHRINKING. So there is indeed reason to be cheerful this year.
Happy Holiday-of-Choice, y'all!
Idiot elitist liberal, remember if you eat to much it might be indigestion or it might be your heart. Please don't ask for Jesus help if its your broken heart and when you die please don't scream when that fire gets hot under the cheeks of that dumb azz.
Merry Christmas to all and God's blesing be with you always. Today another glorious day that the Lord has given us.
apex24, thanks for hauling out once again all the old threats of "fire and brimstone" used by Christian voodoo priests for two millennia to scare
the wee out of credulous folks like you. And, of course, you believe the fairy tales of virgin birth, loaves and fishes, and a guy rising from the dead. And I'm the "Idiot"???
The letter is shear lunacy.
grouse: amen!
Who would have thought it, now we have two Idiot Liberals on this joyous Christmas Day. Merry Christmas idiots!!!!!
Merry Christmas, Grouse and EE LIB. Hope your Christmas is all you could hope for. Time for bed here. Type to you all tomorrow...