Rejoice!

I find that with all the holiday-ness and end of the school year stuff surrounding Christmas I have trouble rejoicing in Christmas the same way I do Easter. While for Christians, Easter is the chiefest of holy days Christmas is still a day to rejoice in, for Truly God is incarnate and our salvation is now at hand in the form of a babe!

I picked up a book while I was at the monastery and though I am not a big fan of extensive mariology I read something that helps me to put Christmas into perspective and brings tears to my eyes and makes my heart want to leap out of my chest for joy.

Building on the Angels proclamation for Mary to "rejoice" (Lk. 1.28), the beginning of the akathist to the Theotokos reads:

An Angel, and the chiefest among them, was sent from heaven to cry: Rejoice! to the Mother of God. And beholding Thee, O Lord, taking bodily form, he stood in awe, and with his bodiless voice he cried aloud to her such things as these:

Rejoice though through whome joy shall shine forth. Rejoice, thou through whome the curse shall be blotted out.

Rejoice though the Restoration of fallen Adam. Rejoice, thou the Redemption of the tears of Eve.

Rejoice, Height hard to climb for human thought. Rejoice, Depth hard to explore, even for the eyes of Angels.

Rejoice, for thou are the Throne of the King. Rejoice, for thou sustainest the Sustainer of all.

Rejoice, Star that causest the Sun to appear. Rejoice, Womb of the divine Incarnation

Rejoice, thou through whome creation is renewed. Rejoice, thou through whome the Creator becometh a babe.

Rejoice, thou Bride unwedded.

I know a lot of that language may make some of you uncomfortable (to be honest it does that to me a little as well). But how glorious is this incarnation!! God has taken flesh, but not merely flesh, but has become a babe! This is not merely Jesus' birthday that we celebrate (more on this later) but the incarnation of our God! Jesus Christ, God of God, Light of Light, the begotten of the Father before all ages has condescended and become human. The eternally begotten one of the Father is now brought forth through the womb of a young girl in order to die and rise again so that humans can becomes friends of God.

With the incarnation of our God the beginning of the end has come for sin and death. The curse of sin is being tread under foot by an infant yet unable to walk. God has taken flesh and the tears of Eve are wiped away and the groans of creation are subsided. Glory to Jesus Christ!!

Let us praise God that a young girl when confronted with the proclamation from an Angel said: "He am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word," for it was through her womb that the creator of all things took on flesh and was born in order to redeem us all from the curse of sin and death.

Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit!! Let the joy of Christmas ring not merely because we get to see family and friends, but because our God took flesh and was born this day! Let the tears of Eve be blotted out this day, for today our Savior and our God - Jesus Christ - is born!! Hallelujah! Glory to God in the highest!!

May you all have a joyous Christmas!!

- Ben

Did Easter really happen?

I believe so, but if you attended a recent chapel at Asbury Seminary you wouldn't be able to tell. I've never been to services that are more void of joy in the weeks following Easter in my life. I'm not sure what the problem is but the services are dry and joyless. There is no excitement when the leader says "Christ is risen" and there seems to be even less excitement when the people respond "He is risen indeed." When we sing song proclaiming the resurrection they are listless and flat. We celebrate the resurrection with our words but our physical expressions and our emotions don't attest to the fact that Christ is truly risen.

Could it be that the end of the year rush has gotten students down? Well if it is the case that school work can rob you of the joy of Christ being risen from the dead then I would wondering if you have any business being a pastor.

I'm not sure if this is the case but I wonder if the problem is with the chapel services themselves. I don't want to say this is definitive problem, but I would like to offer it as a possibility. It seems to me that lately in chapel we have misplaced our focus. Instead of focusing on the major things (i.e. CHRIST'S RESURRECTION) we decide to focus on music, call to worship creativity, and other things. It seems to me that we may be allowing ourselves to become blinded by things that should just be natural expressions.

Allow me to offer one example.

During lent I suggested, using the Orthodox Church as my example, that we not only proclaim "Christ is Risen" in English, but that we also proclaim it in other languages (ideally those that are represented in our seminary community). It seemed good to the group that this was a good idea and thus we decided to press forward with it and even got a banner made with all the languages. The problem is that somewhere between idea and praxis this small expression has blinded us. It seems that we are striving so hard to "make this work" and "get enough mileage our of it" that we are forcing the issue. It's almost as if it is a showcase and we're trying so hard to be intercultural that we are allowing it to be our focus rather than the joy of the resurrection which indeed allows us to proclaim that there is "no longer Jew nor Greek."

I think this idea is great but it seems that it only works when the the focus is absolutely on the Resurrection and not on the means to convey the truth of it. It seems that this problem of focusing on the means rather than the truth to be conveyed has been a protestant problem for such a long time, but I digress.

This is just one example. I am completely befuddled as to how a SEMINARY community to be so lackluster and joyless in the weeks following Easter. I shudder to think that many in this community are merely semester away from leading churches in the celebration of our Lord's resurrection.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm completely out of my mind but this is what I observe. Maybe I'm not observing correctly because I sit in the balcony running sound or maybe I'm just comparing this to the amazing joy and celebration that was had during the Pascha Vigil at my church. I'm not sure, but if what I am observing is correct then I am scared to death for the western protestant church.

May the Lord rekindle his people and fill them with joy for truly Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death!!