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By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation; by thy holy Nativity… Good Lord, deliver us.
Hebrews 1-3 (NIV) In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
For the last few days I have been sharing some things I have gleaned from part of a prayer service called The Great Litany found in the The Book of Common Prayer. (* see note below) (BCP) This was first published in 1549 after the Church of England broke with Catholic Rome. The book is more than a collection of prayers, it contains the outline for the entire year of worship and church services, marriage vows, baptisms, funeral rites, and prayers for every situation you can think of. Are you getting ready for a perilous ocean voyage? No worries, there is a prayer for that, as well as many, many others.
Whether or not we acknowledge it, most of our Christian traditions as Protestants came from the BCP. The Great Litany contains a portion called “The Petitions”, which first calls us to reflection and repentance, and then has us focus on the source of our Salvation, Jesus Christ. For the last ten days, we have examined our faults, failures and sin and the need to repent of these and follow Jesus. The next set of petitions focus on Jesus and His work to redeem us, sanctify us and restore us to right relationships with God and men.
This is the entire “Jesus” part of the prayer, where we acknowledge His work of salvation:
By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation; by thy holy Nativity and submission to the Law; by thy Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation, Good Lord, deliver us.
By thine Agony and Bloody Sweat; by thy Cross and Passion; by thy precious Death and Burial; by thy glorious Resurrection and Ascension; and by the Coming of the Holy Ghost, Good Lord, deliver us.
Today, I want you to notice something. There are several words that are spelled with capital letters. They may seem to be typographical errors. They are not and I did not leave my finger on the Caps Lock button by mistake.. These words have been written this way since 1549.
Now that they have our attention, why make these words special: Incarnation, Nativity, Law, Baptism, Fasting, Temptation, Agony, Bloody Sweat, Cross, Passion, Death, Burial, Resurrection, Ascension, Coming of the Holy Ghost ? Why indeed.
The best understanding I have is this; Jesus Christ is unique. In the history of the universe, He is the Alpha and Omega and by His power the Universe is held together. (Hebrews 1:1-12) There have been billions of babies born, but when God came as Jesus it was The Incarnation. When His birth announcement was revealed to shepherds, wise men and priests the whole story is called The Nativity. Each of these words describe a Holy event unknown before and never experienced again. There were thousands or crucifixions in the ancient world, but only The Cross which paid the price for my sin. Others have come back from death by God’s hand, but there is only one Resurrection, by which Jesus Christ is the first and foremost of a new Creation.
I could go on but I will close with this: all these one-of-a kind things that Jesus did, every single one, he did for me. He Fasted for me. He was Baptized for my benefit, not His. He was Tempted for me. He went through Agony and Bloody Sweat for my lost soul. The Cross, the Passion, His death was for me. He Arose and Ascended for me. He sends His Holy Spirit to me. His work deserves all my praise in all caps, for all time. Amen!
Now, do you want to know a really cool, cosmos shattering truth? He did all this for you as well. Good Lord, deliver us.
Peace. Phil Parsons
(*) The full name of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England, Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, pointed as they are to be Sung or said in churches: And the Form and Manner of Making, ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.
* * * * *
From Rodger:
It really all boils down to Jesus, doesn’t it? Plenty of religions call their adherents to live faithful, moral, ethical lives. Some consider a version of our “Golden Rule” to be just as central in their faith as it is with Christians. At their best, every single religion that has ever existed has, to some extent or another, tried to help us deal with the ultimate question, “Why am I here?” Religion – at its best – ties the individual struggling with existential meaning to something larger, grander, more important than himself or herself. Religion (ANY religion) helps us deal with the fact that life is simply too difficult without something giving us some kind of ontological anchor to hold us fast amid the storms of our existence.
But what none of the others have, is Jesus. So, at some point, we simply have to deal with him – on HIS terms, not on those we’d like to use. (Which are usually ways of shoehorning Jesus into this little cubbyhole of our lives or that one, so that we can deal with him safely, contained in a nice, little “God-box” that we can take out on Sunday morning and conveniently forget on Thursday night when the pub is serving 2 for 1 mixed drinks during happy hour.)
And dealing with Jesus on his terms means paying attention to all those intentional CAPS that Phil pointed out. It ultimately boils down to the choice of taking him at his word – that he’s not just unique – but that he’s everything he said that he is – or dismissing him because he’s not. The problem with many Christians is they haven’t figured out that, on this one point, there’s simply no halfway measure. When it comes to Jesus’ dual nature – divine AND human, God AND man – we can’t have it both ways.
Which may be a long way of getting to my point; that reading Phil’s part of today’s thought above, almost immediately the words of the British author and lay theologian (He would NEVER claim that status for himself, despite how clearly it applies to his thought and words) C. S. Lewis. He hits the nail on the head with these words from his masterpiece “Mere Christianity:”
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Yep, that about covers it from my perspective.
And, if you have never read “Mere Christianity?” It’s high time to rectify that situation. While it’s most assuredly NOT bed time reading material – it demands and deserves the effort to truly digest and understand it; it may well turn out to be, in hindsight, the most important book you could read this year.
Please buy it here on KOBO – Amazon doesn’t need any more of our money.