Imagine Christmas without Carols

Imagine Christmas without carols. Imagine Christmas without packages wrapped with care (and torn open with glee). Imagine Christmas without commercialization. Imagine December was merely a count down from one calendar year to the next. No Advent. No holiday parties and no sugar cookies (I know…sugar cookies are yum). No “Wonderful Life” reruns and no ghosts of Christmas past for Scrooge or anyone else. No shepherds sporting bathrobes or angels cardboard wings. No hustle and bustle and running crazy to get the latest card sent off.

Instead, imagine a country occupied by a foreign power. Instead, imagine a local scandal involving a teenage girl who isn’t old enough to drive (a camel maybe, but not a car) and her respectable, righteous even, fiancée. Imagine, the shame. Imagine the surprise when she is not dismissed quietly, but aforementioned boyfriend stays the course, solid as the timber he plies for a trade. Imagine the panic as labor pains increase along with doors slammed shut, refusing welcome. Imagine the relief at entry, barn animals or not. Imagine the water breaking.

Imagine the mystery of all things, the creator of all that is, nurtured, nestled, in that young womb for nine months, submitting to the same story of every human come before. Imagine the emergence of beautiful new life: blood, fluid, and labored breaths; the young mother exercising a form of workmanship ancient and fresh, producing art which lives and loves. Imagine the impossibility made possible, of the creature caressing the creator to her breast. Imagine the cry of Life itself, Divinity itself, joining with baby’s breathe, hastening the redemption of all.

Imagine this tiny breath expanding from that straw stable to enveloping all that was and will be. A breath that we inhale by faith. A breath we inhale by virtue of having lungs and breathing air. A life we partake in by virtue of every cell in our body and every spiritual molecule in our soul. Imagine this and you will have come close to the Kingdom. Imagine this and you will tremble with the audacity of it all. You will slam your Christmas dinner table with fists of epiphany. You will have seen through the mirror dim, the true message of Christmas, given in a single name:

Emmanuel.

The Resurrection of the Dead

The belief in a general resurrection of the dead at the end of time is one of the oldest beliefs of the Christian faith. It is found throughout the pages of the New Testament and in both of the oldest and most widely used statements of Christian belief, the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds. However, while this doctrine is ancient and attested to by both Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition it is not well known.

Most Christians believe that after they die they will be separated from their bodies, judged, and then go to be with God in heaven forever. This sort of view, according to traditional Christian faith, is missing part of the story. The story we find in the pages of Scripture and the story that men and women have preached, taught, believed in, and died for during the course of 2000 years. One of the distinctive aspects of Christian faith is its affirmation of the body, both for this life and the life to come.

Bishop N.T. Wright, Anglican bishop, New Testament scholar, and perhaps the leading authority today on this subject of life after heaven, has done much to remind us of the importance of the Resurrection of the dead on the last day. Bishop Wright compares our future selves, after the resurrection of the dead, to our current selves in a helpful way.

He comments that sometimes when we visit a friend or relative in hospital we say that “they were a shadow of their old selves.” Wright tells us that we are currently “a shadow of our future selves,” meaning we will become fully as God intended on that future day (to hear directly from N.T. Wright on this subject click here, to check out his book on this subject, click here).

Our hope for life after death as Christians is life after heaven, the resurrected life.  Christian belief about the final things: death, judgment, heaven and hell, have vast implications for our lives right now. Since Christ will return we must always be prepared for his arrival.

Since Christ will create a new heavens and a new earth at the end of time we must get busy working with God to re-deem our world, because God will create the new world out of the old. All that we do in this life, whether we are saving the environment or saving souls will be included in the new creation. This should be a great encouragement, because this means that all of life has a double-meaning, both for the present, and for the future life to come.  

The Doctrine of Creation

The doctrine of creation refers to the Christian belief that God created the universe out of nothing. All aspects of creation from the smallest particles to the mightiest of mountains are believed to have their origin in the will of God. All inanimate objects, as well as all animate beings, were created by God. The exact mechanics of how God created the world have been hotly contested over the last one hundred years. Christians of serious faith and capable mind fall on both sides of the evolutionary debate, some embracing theistic evolution, others embracing a literal six-day view of creation.

The doctrine of creation’s major claim is that God is the creator of all things. Churches around the world affirm belief in this doctrine every week when they recite the following words from the Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God,

    The Father, the Almighty,
    maker of heaven and earth,
    of all that is seen and unseen. 

The doctrine of creation affirms the goodness of creation, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). The goodness of creation carries serious implications for understanding our selves, and especially our bodies. The Christian Church has had a checkered past when it comes to dealing with the human body, especially as it relates to sexuality. Our bodies are good. Sexuality was a gift given to us by God. Sex as God intended it was meant to be a beautiful, vigorous expression of life, union, and procreation.

The Church has often given people the impression that sex is dirty and thus our bodies are dirty, particularly the female body. This is wrong. This is in direct opposition to the doctrine of creation. We are told that “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Therefore, the physical aspects of being male and female are also good and intended by God.

In addition, the doctrine of creation reminds us of the importance of all life, and the necessity of being good stewards of the earth. Adam, who is representative of all humanity, was given a job, a job which we inherit as children of the human race, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). The doctrine of creation reminds us of our divinely ordained role as stewards of creation.

The doctrine of creation also unites philosophy, science, and theology into friendly disciplines seeking truth from the same ultimate source: God. The doctrine of creation also reminds us that nature itself points people to the existence of God and often leads them to an experience of God, “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made” (Romans 1:20). More could be said about this doctrine but it is one that deserves greater and more comprehensive attention than it normally receives in our churches today.