A Mystery

At the right time, God sent his Son, and the Word who is from the beginning came into our history. The Word who was with God became God with us. This is a mystery of our faith: God who is eternal spirit became God in mortal flesh.

According to God’s plan, as the centerpiece of history, God the Son emptied himself. The One who created thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities, and who upholds them all by his powerful word, humbled himself by taking on the form of a servant. God-with-God and God-equal-with-God made himself nothing, by adding rather than taking away. This is a mystery of our faith: The Creator took on the likeness of his creatures.

For our salvation, the omnipotent One became weak and the self-existent One became subject to death. To make us rich, the heir of all things became poor. To destroy the one who has the power of death, the radiance of the Father’s glory veiled himself in humanity so that he could die. 

And in the mysterious wisdom of God, it is by the veiling of his glory that the Son displayed God’s glory to us. “No one,” God told Moses, “can see me and live,” but in the Son, the image of the invisible God, we can see the unseen One. In Jesus, who came to us from the Father’s side to show us God’s glory, we see “all God’s goodness pass before us.”1 This is a mystery of our faith: We see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In the mystery of God’s will, for our sake, the exalted Son chose to make himself nothing and be born as one of us. The one for whom and by whom all things exist came to die to free us from the fear of dying. This is a mystery of our faith: The Lord-of-all was born as Mary’s little son, bringing us salvation.

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Sunday's Hymn

Oh Come, Little Children

Oh, come, little children, oh, come, one and all,
To Bethlehem’s stable, in Bethlehem’s stall.
And see with rejoicing this glorious sight,
Our Father in heaven has sent us this night.

Oh, see in the manger, in hallowèd light
A star throws its beam on this holiest sight.
In clean swaddling clothes lies the heavenly Child,
More lovely than angels, this Baby so mild.

Oh, there lies the Christ Child, on hay and on straw;
The shepherds are kneeling before Him with awe.
And Mary and Joseph smile on Him with love,
While angels are singing sweet songs from above.

—Christ­oph von Schmid

There are so many different versions of this children’s hymn, probably different translations from the German. I wish I could have found the words used in this sweet video below, but I couldn’t.

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel at threegirldad
• He Has Come, the Christ of God at Rosemary at Home
• In the Bleak Midwinter at Wordwise Hymns
• Rest of the Weary at The Happy Wonderer
• Behold a Branch Is Growing at Field Stone Cottage
• O Come, O Come Emmanuel at Hiraeth
• Watcher, Tell Us of the Night at Conjubilant with Song
• Lord’s Day 49, 2010 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Sabbath Keeping at Thistle Cove Farms
• Update: Heart Aflame - December 5, 2010 at The Upward Call

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by contacting me using the contact form linked above, and I’ll add your post to the list.

Status Report: December

Sitting… at the old dining room table pushed up under the front window, watching the world go by.

Drinking…my morning coffee. Black, french-pressed.

Planning…my day. It’s cold out and I’d love to just stay home, but I usually go work in the church library  for a bit on Friday. But I could take a week off, right? Especially since I have some other important things to do?

Waiting… for the temperature to rise. We’ve had a pretty mild fall and early winter, until this week, when we got a big dump of heavy snow, and then the temperature began to drop…down, down, down to -35C at my place at 7pm last night. Since then the thermometer’s been slowly rising, and it’s supposed to be above freezing this weekend. I’m waiting for it and hoping the weather prediction is accurate.

Reading… a few books. One is Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns by T. David Gordon. I won’t be reviewing it because my feelings about it are mixed and I don’t want to take the time to explain. Some of what he writes I agree with, but his arguments seem scattered in places, and I’d say he pushes his conclusions beyond what his arguments can support. That said, I learned some interesting things, like why, for instance, some newer worship songs are so hard to sing together as a congregation.

Deciding… what to give this Christmas. This is the part of Christmas I dislike most, not because I’m a Scrooge, but because I don’t like deciding, especially when there’s a deadline.

Anticipating… Christmas parties. Putting the tree up this weekend.

Wondering… if this will be a wicked winter and hoping that it’s not. Wondering when I got to be such a weather wimp.

Pondering… the incarnation. How can it be? What does it mean?

Thankful… for a warm home, for time by the fire, for hope.

Copying… Staci.