Advent Day 1: The Word

The Word (The Jesus Mural), Kent Twitchell, 1990. Acrylic on parachute cloth, 30 x 50 ft.
Bardwell Hall, Biola University. La Mirada, California. Image courtesy of The Chimes.

“The Word Was God” from the album For God So Loved the World. Composed by Rosephanye Powell, Performed by The St. Olaf Choir, Conducted by Anton Armstrong.

“Overture/Come All Ye Faithful” from the album The Ultimate Christmas Collection. Performed by Michael W. Smith, Composed by John Francis Wade, trans. by Frederick Oakeley, and arranged by Ronn Huff.

Week One Introduction:

Names Associated with the Deity of Christ

Most world religions acknowledge the historic Jesus as a great prophet/teacher. Yet, the trajectory of Scripture from beginning to end proclaims the deity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and second person of the Trinity, who took on flesh to redeem the world from sin. The Nicene Creed, an early statement of faith recited by Christians for hundreds of years, articulates that Jesus is “the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”

We understand Jesus to be the visible image of the invisible God. That Christ, the “Great I Am,” would leave the heavenly realm and humble Himself to walk among mere mortals is the awe-inspiring story of Christmas. The real significance of the Nativity is to be found in the incarnation of Christ. Our Advent meditation begins by pondering names that identify Christ as one with the Godhead. Each title has something particular to tell us about the Messiah in His relationship to God the Father. So come, let us worship and fall down before Christ Himself, our King and our God.

Poetry:

“Creation”
by Philip C. Kolin

He peoples the darkness with stars:
Eyes in all that vastness.
He stores sunlight in his tabernacle
Doling out each day enough to gladden
The trees and moons with their changing
Colors. Vestments over land and sea.

Space is a trellis in his garden
He scatters organelles, pods, bulbs,
Protozoa, spermatazoa, ovaries
All bursting into blossom. Every womb
Awaits the coronation of its birth.
Stone fruits and star apples.

He breathes obbligatos,
By turns symphonic, volcanic.
The seasons speak through him.
In the fullness of time, bread's bounty
The sacrifice of grapes becoming wine.

Hidden Glories

What is essential is invisible to the eye.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Sometimes, I can see Venus from my window. It doesn’t look like a planet; it shines like a star. The Babylonians watched it wander and called it the morning and evening star. The tiny point of light was visible, but its massive, spherical properties were as yet invisible.

Creation is full of God’s hidden glories. We can’t see God Himself, but like the wind rustling through the trees, His presence and redemptive ways are made manifest by the movement of His Spirit.

Believers are often revealers of our invisible God. Ebed-Melek was a Cushite, in service to King Zedekiah of Judah. Though not an Israelite, he was among the few who had the Spirit of God moving in his heart. He believed Jeremiah’s warnings about Babylon bringing “the sword, famine and plague.” Zedekiah’s officials, incensed over Jeremiah’s prophecies, lowered him into a cistern, leaving him to die. Ebed-Melek disregarded his own safety to appeal to the king to rescue him. With permission granted, he gathered thirty men to help.

The Holy Spirit wanted us to see a tender picture of mercy tucked inside the telling of his bold move. Ebed-Melek stopped to gather some rags and old clothes. He lowered them to Jeremiah to pad the ropes so they wouldn’t hurt him. Later, God told Jeremiah to tell Ebed-Melek that he would be saved from the Babylonians because he trusted in God. Ebed-Melek’s actions, big and small, made the Holy Spirit visible.

Our poem, “Creation” by Philip C. Kolin, speaks of invisibilities. It tells us that seed, even before it’s sown, is encoded with latent miracles that come to life. Pods, bulbs, protozoa, and the child all begin as invisibilities, yet come “bursting into blossom.” They become vibrant realities. All creation had its beginnings in the unseen realm, in the mind of God, before He made it visible.

Jesus, existing eternally with the Father, was unseen before the Incarnation except in some gracious theophanies. At the right time, heralded by angels with the backdrop of a magnificent star, the promised Word of God entered the world, His glory “wrapt in night’s mantle.” Our music imagines the angel’s song with its jubilant and joyful crescendos. When the angels vanished, darkness and silence returned. Surely the shepherds wondered if what they had just witnessed was real.

Now after Christ’s ascension, Kolin’s poem points us to the Lord’s Supper:

In the fullness of time, bread's bounty

The sacrifice of grapes becoming wine.

Today we partake of Communion until Jesus returns, a visible sign of an invisible grace, as Augustine expressed. That return, as Kent Twitchell’s painting The Word reminds us, will be larger than life, so visible that “every eye will see Him.” As Luke tells us, we will touch His flesh and bones. We will worship in His presence.

Some realities are just hinted at, the planet behind the shining star, God’s presence in the soul of man, and God’s glory in the Incarnation. We don’t see Him now, but when Christ, the Morning Star, rises, we will see the full weight of His glorious visibilities.

Prayer

“O Lord, I look forward to the time when I shall see the visible display of thy glory;
when, after I have enjoyed the manifestations of thyself in this world,
I shall also have the full enjoyment of thee in heaven.
Until then let faith be the eye of my soul,
and let it behold thee continually in thy promises, ordinances, and providences.”

From: The Valley of Vision

Jayne English
Essayist

For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, please visit our website via the link in our bio.