Fridolin Leiber-Pater Noster

 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” John 1:1-3

God spoke. He has always spoken. There was never a time when God was not speaking. His very nature is revealed in His Word and His Word is inseparable from Who He Is.

God Is. God speaks.

These are two basic corollaries of any Christian theology.

When God speaks things come into existence. All that is was once spoken by God.  Nothing has been made apart from His Word. His Word is living. His Word is a person. His Word is as real as He is.

As we enter into the season of preparation for celebrating the birth of Jesus, we must know that He is first of all, the Word of God, co-equal and absolutely reliable.  He is the heartbeat of God’s will, the expression of God’s love, and the demonstration of God’s purity and holiness.

I originally scribbled these thoughts during and for the Christmas season.

Christmas is an ongoing experience for God’s incarnational people. It is about celebrating the Word of God in Jesus Christ and is most appropriately celebrated with an open Bible and an open heart.

Our take-home is the know this God who has come to live and walk among us and to enter into the experience of God in Christ. When this happens, we can slowly and gingerly learn to see and to know through the mind and eyes of Christ. This will transform our knowing and thinking.

This truth drives us back to the scriptures to seek understanding of the ways of God.  It prompts us to yearn for deeper understanding in the pages of the Bible that we might ascertain God’s eternal purposes and His plan for the people of His world.

We become like the Magi, seeking the wisdom of the ages.

We will end the season of Epiphany soon and enter the season of Lent.

I desire to make a new start, yet again, by beginning with the eternal preexistent Word and orienting my understanding around Him.

God has spoken. Let us listen.

 “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”  John 1:4-5

To the extent we see and know anything through our visual senses, we must depend upon light.

When Christmas is over, I miss two things most: the music and the lights.

It takes me months to get over Christmas. I extend it through Epiphany and it spills over into Lent.

The colors shining in the December night can be seen from afar and even from space. They are at the same time happy and holy, gaudy and dignified. They serve as reminders of joy and correctives to the harsh edges that so often dominate the landscape of our cities and our lives.

It is clearly, visibly, and festively Christmas year round in some of our more flamboyant cities and the light is shining in the darkness.

In fact, it is in the darkness of night that we most often venture forth from our homes to view these lights and celebrate the profound contrasts that they afford.

From simple candle lights in the windows of homes to magnificent displays in the public squares, we behold temporal illustrations of eternal reality: The evergreen trees which live long through Winter when planted in the soil of the earth are types of the tree of life which is planted in the fertile soil of God’s truth. In and from that life, which is Christ, flows the life and light of men.

If we aspire to seeing and knowing through incarnational eyes, we must be prepared for the startling flash of brilliant light.

That light shines in the darkness beckoning men and women who live in darkness to come.

To those outside on the cold dark streets of our cities, shivering from the frosty darkness that envelopes them, the flickering lights from a Christmas tree in the window of a warm home serve as an invitation to come to something better. They softly hum the call of God to enter into His brightness and the warmth of His presence. They sway to the melody of each sweet carol, “O come, let us adore Him.”

The light is shining, and it is, indeed, the light of men.

 “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: “ – John 1:9-12

The lights on the trees are synthetic. Though lovely in their appearance, they are temporal and will fade away, burn out, or be immediately extinguished as they or their power source is broken. They are not true lights.

They do not shine universally, but only within the close proximity of those who light them. There are dark places where their ambiance is not known. There are pockets of despair in the world where the lights of Christmas have never been lit.

But the true light shines on every man while in pervasive blindness, there are many who do not and will not see. Hardness of heart and bitterness of spirit obscure the view of those for whom the light is intended.

We live in a land of shadows and distortions where every ray of light is filtered through our prejudicial thinking and blind ambition. We stumble in our assumptions and trip over our own dark thoughts oblivious to the Light that has come into the world and is already shining on us.

Our knowing is impaired. We have blinded our hearts with cataracts of  prejudicial thinking. We need the eyes of the Incarnated God.

Many there are who do not recognize him when confronted by Him, who sing the songs of Christmas, hang the decorations on their trees, gasp at the beauty of the colors of the season, and greet one another with manufactured cheer. Yet they do not see him to whom all the signs and symbols point.

Those who do become the children of God, and playfully unwrap their spiritual gifts around the tree of life.

With all of this, the central message of each of these seasons, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Eastertide, and Pentecost, is incarnation.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14

SEEING THE WHOLE WORLD THROUGH THE INCARNATION

This is a vision without which, we are blind and lifeless. 

It is the vision of one who sees us as we are and envisions our world from the inside out and the outside in. 

The Incarnate Lord made His dwelling among us.  Literally, He pitched His tent here. 

I had read about California all my life, seen it on TV and in the movies, but I only truly experienced it when I moved here many years ago. 

But the vision message of this verse is not that God learned to experience our life by becoming flesh, but that He made it possible for us to experience Him and to behold His glory. 

We have a new vision of God because of Jesus and can now view the world through His eyes because He dwelt among us as one of us. 

So, must we dwell among the people, indwelt by Christ that they may behold His glory as we see then through His eyes.