nd the wor & Became plesh ani> dwelt among us
T is a n o l d , o l d s t o r y . Does it seem presumptuous to say anything new about Christmas? Yet a true householder is to bring forth “things new and old.” We think there is nothing new to say of this great event of all human history, an “event of universal and eternal sig nificance.” Yet we may be able to see some old things in a new light. Let us then think of some things that cluster about the Saviour’s birth. There are the heavenly accompaniments, the modem clutter, the violent contrasts, the unusual circumstances. I. THE ACCOMPANIMENTS We could make a profitable study of the strange and startling phenomena which accompanied the first coming of the Saviour. Is it the King of kings and Lord of lords who comes to our world? ’Twould be strange indeed if there were not some mighty and majestic movements in heaven above and on earth below. Let both heaven and nature join in songs of jubilation. “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down” — such was the unconscious but clamant cry of a condemned and hopeless humanity. And heaven came down, our souls to meet. The born-Saviour is none other than “Christ the Lord.” “Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ, the Everlasting Lord.” When Her Majesty visited Canada in 1959 to open the St. Lawrence Seaway, there were elaborte prepara tions, the most costly ceremonies, the halting (as it were) of every wheel of industry to make a royal highway for Her Majesty, the Queen. There was nothing too dear, nothing too extreme, nothing too magnificent to manifest our love for the head of the Empire. How fitting, then, that when Heaven’s Royalty steps ashore on His own world there should be stirrings amidst the stars and hosannas among the heavenly hosts! Are not the focal points of prophecy falling on Bethlehem’s Babe? Small wonder that there were startling phenomena in the heavenly world accompanying Christ’s entree into the world. II. THE CLUTTER Whatever have all the tinsel and toys of our modem commercialized Christmas to do with the Christ of the eternal glories? How shall we ever clear away the clutter and get back to the true glory of Heaven’s central Sun? For what have the modem froth and folly, the dazzling display, the commercial clutter, the dollar-getting de vices — what have all these to do but to conceal and contradict the true concept of Christmas? These modern lovers of money have taken away the Lord, but we know where they have hid Him. They have smothered Him with their flowers, have done Him to death with their dollars, have killed Him with their commerce. Santa Claus and all his clutter are a diabolical caricature of Christ.
III. THE CONTRASTS Come with us as we dig back through the clutter and study the overwhelming contradictions. Remember that He alone of all the race could choose His place of birth. And what kind of a place will it be? Where will this King choose to be bom? Surely in some palace, or, per haps appropriately, in “the City of the Great King.” At least in some decent place. But it cannot be. Man must be brought low. Think of the oriental stable, the stinking stall, the lowing of cows, the abject poverty, the unbelievable depths of self-humbling and voluntary humiliation. Yet in spite of these frightful contraditions, the lowly maiden knew the mystic Secret hidden beneath those swaddling clothes — “the Son of the Highest” — “God contracted to a span” (Wesley). Christ’s first Christmas pointed to His Cross. His royal highway was “From the throne of highest Glory How do these frightful contrasts fit into the picture? Do such contradictions seem inappropriate for Heaven’s Royalty? On the human level, and for earth’s great o.nes, all seems so shocking. What can be the divine design? Is it not to disguise deity and in a single stroke lay the axe at the root of man’s pride and cut the tree down? Man must be saved from his sinful pride. But consider these circumstances on the human level. Did the great Caesar make a demand? Is there to be a national tax? Yea, verily, but the great God had a plan. Yet where is there a plan in all these milling crowds at Bethlehem? Consider the streets jammed, the inn over full, the town in an unholy hubbub. There were the don keys, the carts, the cattle, the camels, the sheep, the dogs, to say nothing of the stupid masses who had neither place nor space for Joseph and Mary. We can imagine the pious pair pushed all around until the barn in the rear receive them. Where is God in all these circumstances? “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.” Christ Jesus is coming into the world “to save sinners.’ And in order to win them He is already being numbered with the transgressors. He is making Himself one with those He is coming to seek and to save. None will ever be lower or poorer than He. In the heart of Africa a missionary friend held meet ings for four days before Christmas. The tribe had never before had the gospel. The Christmas “glad tidings which shall be to all people” finally reached this tribe still sitting in the very valley of death and not its shadow. No less than 330 of these benighted souls came to Christ. This is how the missionary wrote: ‘On Christmas day, we instructed converts from 7:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., with an egg sandwich for Christmas dinner.” Blessed and hallowed season! How it must have pleased the Christ of Christmas! To the Cross of deepest woe.” IV. THE CIRCUMSTANCES
DECEMBER, 1963
17
Made with FlippingBook Annual report