Introspection: A Christmas Reminder

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A Christmas Reminder

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.

John 1:14a (The Message)

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail th'incarnate Deity
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell
Jesus, our Immanuel

From "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" by Charles Wesley

I had driven to another part of town with plans of eating breakfast at a mom-and-pop cafe I enjoy, as I often do when I take Friday off from work.  Ending up back at a chain coffee shop closer to my home and ordering a tiny, overpriced toaster-oven breakfast sandwich naturally put me into a bad mood.  I was already primed for cynicism when I started noticing the Christmas music playing over the speaker.  I started to wonder once again if there might be some conspiracy involving Hallmark Media, Mariah Carey, and countless other parties to do to one of the two Christian high holy days what has been done to the Feast of St. Valentine.

Seriously though, I always tend to feel a bit cynical during the Christmas season.  The senior pastor of my church recently admitted that, though he loves the meaning of Christmas, he tends to dislike the "stuff" we cram into the season.¹  I totally understood what he meant.  For me personally, trying to figure out what to give people for Christmas is a source of frustration and anxiety, and the sentimentality permeating so many Christmas songs and Christmas movies just seems empty.

My devotional reading for that Friday consisted of a section from the Second Letter to the Corinthians, in which Paul urges his readers to follow through on a commitment they made to contribute to a fund to help fellow believers in need.²  When I've encountered this particular reading in the past, I've focused on what Paul writes about giving - that one person's excess can meet another person's needs³ and that a person should give joyfully and not begrudgingly.⁴  That Friday, out of the two chapters in the day's reading, a singular verse captured my attention, a verse I've previously ignored in order to focus on the "big picture" of what Paul is writing.

Paul writes, "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Although he was rich, he became poor for our sakes, so that you could become rich through his poverty."⁵

The theological term for Jesus' "self-impoverishment" is kenosis, which means "self-emptying."⁶  This concept is developed further in other parts of the New Testament.  Paul includes in his later Letter to the Philippians what is thought to be an early Christian hymn, which is commonly called the Christ Hymn.  In it, we read,

Though he was in the form of God,
he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
But he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings.⁷

At the very beginning of the Gospel of John there is another early Christian hymn, which is sometimes called the Hymn to the Word.  In it, we read,

The Word became flesh
and made his home among us.⁸

The Son of God "became poor for our sakes" by divesting Himself of the power and glory of divinity in order to walk among us as a flesh and blood human being.

The mystery we ponder and celebrate at Christmas is that, in the words of one preacher, "the Infinite has become an infant."⁹  This is the whole Christmas story in a nutshell.

Singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen once mused, "There is a crack, a crack in everything.  That's how the light gets in."¹⁰  That Friday morning, a reminder of the Incarnation cracked through my cynicism, or maybe my cynicism was the crack that allowed in the reminder of the Incarnation, which I admittedly glossed over previously.  I suppose I needed a reminder amid all the "stuff" that there is something worth celebrating this season.

Whether or not you struggle to get into the "Christmas spirit" and whether or not you enjoy all the "stuff" that goes on this season, may you, dear reader, remember that, in a dirty stable in Bethlehem, the Son of God once lay in a feeding trough, having become "poor for our sakes."


Notes:

1. Brian Gilmer.  "A Thin Christmas."  Travelers Rest United Methodist Church, 12/08/2024.
2. 2 Corinthians 8-9
3. 2 Corinthians 8:13-14
4. 2 Corinthians 9:7
5. 2 Corinthians 8:9 (CEB)
6. Wikipedia: "Kenosis"
7. Philippians 2:6-7a (CEB)
8. John 1:14a (CEB)
9. C.H. Spurgeon.  "The Condescension of Christ."
10. From "Anthem" by Leonard Cohen

Natività was painted by Carlo Maratta in 1655.