Name:
Email:
Posted: December 12th, 2007 at 2:10am By: Rev. Rebecca Schlatter
Surrounded by Christmas tunes and sights and smells, it's easy to think that the "reason for the season" is good cheer, gratitude and generosity. Yes, the Christmas season has those fine attributes. But they are a bit removed from the reason Christians give for Jesus' birth. The church tells of Jesus' coming — the "incarnation," God become flesh — in the context of the painful and desperate human condition.
The human condition is to be separate from God. Whether or not you believe in an actual Adam and an actual Eve, their story in Genesis 3 depicts well the consequences of people's greed and desire for power (which seem to have existed from the very beginning of time): a decisive gap between humans and God. That separation is reflected in brokenness in every kind of relationship: between individuals or groups or nations, between humans and the rest of the natural world, and between a person and herself or himself.
God didn't just accept this gap and move on to other concerns. "Mind the gap," they say in London, warning Tube-riders not to fall between the platform and the train. Well, in the relationship between God and humanity, God minded the gap. It was and is problematic to God, the Bible tells us. It is in contrast to the intimacy God had imagined and created, the intimacy pictured in Genesis 2.
While it is always risky to imagine what God is or was thinking, sometimes it's worth the risk in order to reconsider a core question of Christian faith — in this case, why Jesus was ever born in the first place, why God would want to slog around in the human condition.
So let's imagine a conference in heaven, between God and God's advisers. God is once again sighing over the brokenness in human life, and the havoc of war, discrimination, devastation and dishonesty they seem to create wherever they go. They are always falling into that damned gap.
One adviser has all kinds of suggestions for addressing this problem of separation.
"How about wiping out this creation and starting over? You created them — why don't you just create something new?" Noah remembers: "You've been there, done that, promised never to do it again."
"Well, how about teaching them to bridge the gap through worship? You could tell them exactly what to do and how to do it, the kind of temple to build. ... Maybe if they could remember how powerful you are, they'd be afraid to behave so badly." Solomon answers, "Don't you remember the temple I built and how beautifully we did things? It didn't last. People get so excited about doing the religious rituals just perfectly. Then they spend more time criticizing each other's worship than remembering the God they're worshiping."
God adds, "Besides — this gap can't be bridged by power, only by love."
"So, maybe we just need to teach them how to love each other and behave better, stop hurting each other so much. How about you give them rules to follow? As a start, you could write down 10 commandments, and put them on stone tablets so they know you're serious." Moses responds, "In my experience, the tablets last longer than the good behavior."
God sighs, "And I get so tired of being a scorekeeper. You know, making a list, checking it twice, finding out who's naughty and who's nice. They always expect immediate rewards and punishments for everything they do. That's really not the kind of relationship I want with people. Bridging the gap means they trust me, and turn to me in good times and bad, and know intimately my heart for the world. How can they do that if they're always worried about my list?"
"OK, OK, rules don't work. How about a person — one who knows how to communicate with you, and then this prophet can speak for you and tell them the truth? You could even send a really special one, a Chosen One." In response, a chorus of prophets chime in with various complaints of how rarely people tolerate the truth, and how a human being, even one filled with God's spirit, just hasn't been able to bridge the gap.
At last the advisers realize that all their ideas already have been tried. They are ready to give up: "God, people are just too stubborn. I think you're finally going to have to admit that free will was an extremely bad idea."
But — bless God's heart! — God has one idea left: "People can't make it over the gap to me, so I'm going to have to go to them." God's advisers protest, but God explains, "People have utterly failed to bridge this gap in everything they've tried, from religious rituals to good behavior. They can't do it, but I can, and I will."
Whether or not you can imagine God having "advisers," this is a wonderful answer to why Jesus was born: to bridge the gap between humanity and God definitively, a feat humans never could and never will accomplish. In fact, it's a "reason for the season" so wonderful that you might even become cheerful, grateful and generous in response.
(Next week: How Jesus was born)
— — —
Rev. Rebecca Schlatter is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Reno, Nevada. You can contact her at {email newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com}newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com{/email}. © Copyright 2007 by Rebecca Schlatter.
Permalink
Surrounded by Christmas tunes and sights and smells, it's easy to think that the "reason for the season" is good cheer, gratitude and generosity. Yes, the Christmas season has those fine attributes. But they are a bit removed from the reason Christians give for Jesus' birth. The church tells of Jesus' coming — the "incarnation," God become flesh — in the context of the painful and desperate human condition.
The human condition is to be separate from God. Whether or not you believe in an actual Adam and an actual Eve, their story in Genesis 3 depicts well the consequences of people's greed and desire for power (which seem to have existed from the very beginning of time): a decisive gap between humans and God. That separation is reflected in brokenness in every kind of relationship: between individuals or groups or nations, between humans and the rest of the natural world, and between a person and herself or himself.
God didn't just accept this gap and move on to other concerns. "Mind the gap," they say in London, warning Tube-riders not to fall between the platform and the train. Well, in the relationship between God and humanity, God minded the gap. It was and is problematic to God, the Bible tells us. It is in contrast to the intimacy God had imagined and created, the intimacy pictured in Genesis 2.
While it is always risky to imagine what God is or was thinking, sometimes it's worth the risk in order to reconsider a core question of Christian faith — in this case, why Jesus was ever born in the first place, why God would want to slog around in the human condition.
So let's imagine a conference in heaven, between God and God's advisers. God is once again sighing over the brokenness in human life, and the havoc of war, discrimination, devastation and dishonesty they seem to create wherever they go. They are always falling into that damned gap.
One adviser has all kinds of suggestions for addressing this problem of separation.
"How about wiping out this creation and starting over? You created them — why don't you just create something new?" Noah remembers: "You've been there, done that, promised never to do it again."
"Well, how about teaching them to bridge the gap through worship? You could tell them exactly what to do and how to do it, the kind of temple to build. ... Maybe if they could remember how powerful you are, they'd be afraid to behave so badly." Solomon answers, "Don't you remember the temple I built and how beautifully we did things? It didn't last. People get so excited about doing the religious rituals just perfectly. Then they spend more time criticizing each other's worship than remembering the God they're worshiping."
God adds, "Besides — this gap can't be bridged by power, only by love."
"So, maybe we just need to teach them how to love each other and behave better, stop hurting each other so much. How about you give them rules to follow? As a start, you could write down 10 commandments, and put them on stone tablets so they know you're serious." Moses responds, "In my experience, the tablets last longer than the good behavior."
God sighs, "And I get so tired of being a scorekeeper. You know, making a list, checking it twice, finding out who's naughty and who's nice. They always expect immediate rewards and punishments for everything they do. That's really not the kind of relationship I want with people. Bridging the gap means they trust me, and turn to me in good times and bad, and know intimately my heart for the world. How can they do that if they're always worried about my list?"
"OK, OK, rules don't work. How about a person — one who knows how to communicate with you, and then this prophet can speak for you and tell them the truth? You could even send a really special one, a Chosen One." In response, a chorus of prophets chime in with various complaints of how rarely people tolerate the truth, and how a human being, even one filled with God's spirit, just hasn't been able to bridge the gap.
At last the advisers realize that all their ideas already have been tried. They are ready to give up: "God, people are just too stubborn. I think you're finally going to have to admit that free will was an extremely bad idea."
But — bless God's heart! — God has one idea left: "People can't make it over the gap to me, so I'm going to have to go to them." God's advisers protest, but God explains, "People have utterly failed to bridge this gap in everything they've tried, from religious rituals to good behavior. They can't do it, but I can, and I will."
Whether or not you can imagine God having "advisers," this is a wonderful answer to why Jesus was born: to bridge the gap between humanity and God definitively, a feat humans never could and never will accomplish. In fact, it's a "reason for the season" so wonderful that you might even become cheerful, grateful and generous in response.
(Next week: How Jesus was born)
— — —
Rev. Rebecca Schlatter is an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Reno, Nevada. You can contact her at {email newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com}newhousesfromoldbricks@hotmail.com{/email}. © Copyright 2007 by Rebecca Schlatter.
Permalink
Add your comments