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And the word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 NRSV
At the time of writing Christmas is almost upon us. I’ve just been Carol singing with some friends and am very glad to be back home, out of the cold and drinking a nice hot mug of Sainsbury’s hot chocolate. In front of me sits the Christmas present I bought for my sister just this afternoon, the first of this year’s presents as I build up to the annual Christmas shopping campaign. Yep, much the same as any other Christmas, really. Carols, presents and hot chocolate after carol singing. Yet, for me, this year, it is slightly different, it seems to mean just that little bit more than in previous years. I have been a Christian now for over seven years (yes, I’m one of those Christians who can name the date and the place!) but for some reason this Christmas seems somehow different, somehow more meaningful. Let me explain … It all began at the University Carol Service in Central Hall. There I was singing away, enjoying the carols and trying to get the deepest meaning out of the chaplain’s sermon — much like in any other carol service I have ever been to. In the midst of all of this I was struck by something which, to me, seemed so utterly profound, so utterly life-changing. It was almost as if Christmas has leaped out, hit me on the head and said “I’m here, wake up!”. It was the thought that, in Bethlehem, nearly 2000 years ago a child had been born. A child that was the incarnation of the living God. I know that this may seem pretty obvious to most Christians but I found this deeply profound. You see, previously, I had always thought of Jesus as the incarnation of God, and the baby Jesus as well, the baby Jesus! The two seemed somehow remote, somehow detached from one another. Yet as I sung the Christmas Carols I became more and more convinced that this was not the case. That, somehow, in the helplessness of a small child we can see El Shaddai, God Almighty.
Let us take a quick theological digression at this point. The Christian faith is based on the belief that the truest image of God is that seen in the incarnate Christ. St. John put it this way:
No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
John1:18. NRSV
The Council of Chalcedon in AD451 stated that the two natures of Jesus, divine and human are “unconfused and unchangeable, indivisible and inseparable”. In other words if we are looking at Jesus we are, at the same time, looking at God.
OK, theology lesson over, back to planet Earth. The thought of the infant Jesus stayed somehow engraved upon my mind throughout the Carol service. Again during the next Carol Service I went to the image crept back in to the foreground. There in that manger 2000 years ago Jesus, as a baby, was weak, helpless and vulnerable. Could this possibly mean that, somehow, God is also weak, helpless and vulnerable? Is that what the infant Jesus is trying to tell us? Certainly this image is in stark contrast to the classical Platonic view of an invulnerable God, expressed so vividly in the Church of England’s 39 articles. Yet the infant Christ presents a different picture, that of a helpless child. But surely this cannot be true? God cannot be helpless and vulnerable! And yet, as I pondered over this point, something else struck me — God, above all else, is love (1John4:8). To love is to make oneself vulnerable. God, therefore is vulnerable, not because He is weak but because the act of love is a self-emptying one.
Might this also be, just perhaps, a way of understanding how God can stand back and watch so much suffering take place in the world? Could it be that God, due to His intense love of creation and desire to allow it to be itself, has to watch helplessly as famine and other natural catastrophes indiscriminately take countless lives. Yet, I believe, God does not merely stand back and watch it happen. Thinking back to the baby Jesus, perhaps God does do something, as in Him, Heaven and Earth come together, God and Humanity reconciled and made at one. God is no longer separate from creation but a part of it, here with us now, identifying with those suffering and taking on their burdens.
This is what really makes the Christmas message so strong for me this year. Because God became human, became that which is not God — a tiny, helpless child — we are not longer separated from Him, He is here!
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Last modified: 25th November 2005