The Third Joyful Mystery: The Birth Of Our Lord

This is part four of our look at the mysteries of the Rosary. I would like to remind you that if you want to purchase a Rosary for yourself, you don’t have to look any further than to the righthand side of this page for Alan Creech Rosaries. Alan is a longtime friend of InternetMonk, and he makes excellent products.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.  When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.  20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).  When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.  And he called his name Jesus  (Matthew 1: 18-25).

Do I really have to talk about this one?  Okay, I’m going to talk about this one.  Thanks to the comment from Jack on the Visitation post, and I hope he will permit me to quote from it here:

If we believe in the reality of the Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection, is the Virgin Birth all that important to our religion?  And what might we lose if we say it isn’t?

Yes, it does make a difference that Mary was a virgin when she conceived and gave birth to Jesus (I’m not going to go into the controversy about was she a virgin afterwards in perpetuity or did she have children by Joseph).  We’re all familiar (and indeed, over-familiar) with the account in Luke, the shepherds, the angels and ox and ass and laying the child in the manger wrapped in swaddling clothes. The lovely, comfortable, sentimental readings we’re accustomed to seeing whether in school nativity plays or art or Christmas cards.  The season all about love and family and generosity and the rest of it.

Continue reading “The Third Joyful Mystery: The Birth Of Our Lord”

Open Mic: Is The Virgin Birth Necessary?

As Martha of Ireland walks us through the mysteries of the Rosary, we have visited the topic of the virgin birth of Christ. There have been some comments wondering if it is necessary to believe in the virgin birth in order to be a Christian.

I asked a friend what she thought about this. “Yes,” she said, “because otherwise Jesus is just another god.” Then I asked iMonk writer Adam Palmer. “I’d say you do have to believe in the virgin birth to be a Christian,” he said. “Otherwise you’re calling the divinity of Jesus into question.”

The virgin birth points to a God who is outside of the natural—thus, supernatural. It points us to a God who doesn’t play by the rules, who is not limited to what we can see or imagine. This is a God who is not like we are, only more moral. No, the God who can create life simply by “coming upon” a young virgin is not like us. He is, as Lisa Dye has said, “other.” God is other. And whereas we cannot figure him out, we can trust him. Perhaps because we can’t figure him out, that is the reason we can trust him.

This is what I think. I think it is absolutely necessary to believe in the virgin birth in order to be a Christian. We cannot assign this story to the “mythological” section simply because it’s impossible by our standards. We must grip onto it for dear life—literally for dear life. For if Jesus was not born in this way, we simply have a good man, a moral man, a mighty teacher. But we don’t have a savior who can rescue us from the grave.

This is what I think. What about you? Do you feel the virgin birth is absolutely necessary in order to be a Christian? Or is this a part of the story that can be explained away in another way, yet still allow one to follow Jesus? What do you do with stories in Scripture that frankly don’t make sense? Can we not just take the sayings of Jesus and work to live those out in our lives? What is up with a God who demands that we believe the ridiculous, the absurd, the impossible?

Time for you to step up to the microphone and voice your thoughts. Let us hear what you do with this story.

The First Joyful Mystery: The Annunciation

This is part three of Martha’s series on the mystery of the Rosary. Yes, we ran the Second Mystery before the First, partly due to when Martha’s emails arrived on this side of the pond, and partly due to user (i.e., yours truly) error.  You can read parts one and two if you haven’t read them yet before you embark on this segment. JD

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,  to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.  And the virgin’s name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”  But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.  And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy — the Son of God.  And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.  For nothing will be impossible with God.”  And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”  And the angel departed from her (Luke 1:26-38).

Here we have the root and basis of our faith as Christians: God became Man for our salvation.  From this account, we get part of the first half of the prayer which constitutes the Rosary, the “Hail, Mary” (from the Angelic Salutation): “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.”

“Highly favored” or “full of grace”?  Which is a better translation?  I haven’t the Greek to argue it, but to be in the favor of God is to be graced, and given grace, and to be filled with grace.  Grace is a large subject on its own, all the varieties of grace and is it irresistible and how do we get it and what do we mean when we say “by grace alone” and all the rest of it.

Continue reading “The First Joyful Mystery: The Annunciation”

The Second Joyful Mystery: the Visitation

This is the second in a series by our own Martha of Ireland on the mysteries of the rosary. Part one can be read here. 

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah,  and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.  And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.  And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!  And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me,and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home (Luke 1:39-56).

The Feast of the Visitation is celebrated nowadays on 31st May.  It used to be celebrated on various dates, most recently 2nd July, but in 1969 Pope Paul VI moved it to 31 May, “between the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord (25th March) and that of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (24th June), so that it would harmonize better with the Gospel story.”  These words of Elizabeth make up the second part of the first half of the “Hail, Mary” when combined with the angel’s salutation.  (Hail, Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.)

This event, where Mary went to visit her pregnant kinswoman Elizabeth, has been used as an example in various ways, usually to point out that the Christian should be zealous in doing good and in the same way that Mary bore Christ within her to Elizabeth, so we should bear Christ to the world.

Continue reading “The Second Joyful Mystery: the Visitation”

The Offensiveness Of The Cross

And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased (Galatians 5:11, KJV).

“I know of a church where they no longer speak of the blood of Jesus,” said my friend. She said this church thinks it too outdated. Is speaking of the blood of Christ outdated in your church?

Telling the Good News does not give me any reason for bragging. Telling the Good News is my duty—something I must do. And how terrible it will be for me if I do not tell the Good News (1 Corinthians 9:16, NCV).

Jesus replied, “We must go to the nearby towns, so that I can tell the good news to those people. This is why I have come” (Mark 1:38, CEV).

It seems that preaching the Gospel of grace, which is the story of the Cross, was very important to Jesus and to Paul. If that is so, why is it not important to us?

And now I want to remind you, my friends, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm. That is the gospel, the message that I preached to you. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it—unless it was for nothing that you believed. I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Good News Translation).

There is a story told of an old woman who claimed she and God talked on a regular basis. Her bishop was doubtful of her claims to hear from God. After all, he prayed on a regular basis, but the Lord never spoke back to him. So he decided to put this woman to the test in order to reveal her for either a misguided soul or a fraud. He went to her and said, “The next time you are talking with God, ask him to tell you what my most grievous sin was.” The woman agreed to do so.

A week later the bishop returned and asked, “Did you ask God to reveal to you my worst sin?”

“Yes,” said the woman. “I did ask him.”

“Well,” said the bishop, “what did he say?”

The woman said simply, “He says he forgets.”

Continue reading “The Offensiveness Of The Cross”

Desertion

“There is no way of piercing faith to its very marrow like the sticking of the arrow of desertion into it; this finds it out whether it be of immortals or no.”

—C.H. Spurgeon 

            “Immortals or no …” I’ll just tell you right off that I feel as if I fall firmly into the “or no” category … decidedly mortal and faith challenged. It’s why I haven’t written for two months. I’ve been holding my breath waiting to see if I can stay steady in some circumstances where God seems missing in action. Lately, so many others have also expressed the fear that they may have been abandoned, ditched or deserted by God so maybe we shouldn’t ignore discussing that sentiment. We usually feel more comfortable recognizing and talking about God’s gentler characteristics. But let’s be honest. He does quite a lot to disabuse us of the idea that he’s so one-dimensional.

In writing, my main motivation is most always a desire to encourage. If I have any fire shut up in my bones that would be it. That’s what I want to do, but much of what God is working in my life and so many lives these days seems heavy and hard, not what I would bring you by choice. I’m sorry to say that difficulty is sometimes … okay, often … the arrow that most effectively penetrates to the faith he wants to draw out of us.

I last wrote about God’s acts of destruction – his curious habit of first destroying what he desires to resurrect. Today it is his propensity to desert us, or seemingly to do so, at our moments of highest need. Am I being ridiculous in proposing such ideas? I’m not the first to do so. Am I being negative or even harsh and damaging to God’s reputation as a loving God? Teresa of Avila once said of God, “If this is the way you treat your friends, it’s no wonder you have so few!” and she was still named a saint and doctor of the church.

Continue reading “Desertion”

Open Mic: Do We Need To Vote For A Christian?

I am going to say this right up front. I do not want any comments shilling for a specific candidate, or any comments that put down other candidates. Moderation (once I can get back to my computer) will be strict. Play by the rules, iMonks.

Quite a dust storm has erupted from Dallas. No, as far as I know, Jerry Jones hasn’t fired another coach. Yet. This storm emanated from First Baptist Church in the Big D. If you read Saturday Ramblings this week you already know that Rev. Robert Jeffress, speaking at something called the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., told reporters that while he believes Mitt Romney, a Mormon, might be a “good, moral man,” those who are followers of Jesus should prefer a “competent Christian” candidate for president.

Jeffress has publicly endorsed the Texas governor, Rick Perry, for president. He furthered that endorsement when he told CNN this weekend, “I again believe that as Christians, we have the duty to select Christians as our leaders…Between a Rick Perry and a Mitt Romney, I believe evangelicals need to go with Rick Perry.”

When asked if religious views should trump competence in a presidential candidate, Jeffress replied, “Yes. To religious people, religion matters.”

I could keep quoting him and various responses (including some knucklehead from one of the “family values” organizations who said that since Mormons and Muslims do not believe in the same god as the founding fathers, they are not protected by the Bill of Rights. Seriously.), but I think I’ve made my point. Jeffress has a right to express his opinion, as misguided as it may be. I’ve heard worse. My question for you is this: Is Jeffress right? Should we as followers of Jesus prefer a competent Christian as a presidential candidate? In light of what Damaris wrote this morning, do you think it important that we elect Christian leaders to government whenever possible? And how would you respond if the pastor of your church took a similar stand as that of Jeffress?

Ok, before you begin your comments, go back and re-read the first paragraph. Stay on topic, brothers and sisters, and all will be well.

Decline And Fall

There’s been a lot of discussion over the last 1500 years or so of what led to the fall of the Roman Empire and ushered in the Dark Ages.  Such discussions are hard to conduct because already there are those (and I am among them) who want to point out that the eastern half of the Roman Empire survived until almost the time of Columbus and that the “Dark Ages” is an unnecessarily condescending term for the years from oh, say AD 500 through AD 800.  But still, I am going to talk about the fall of the Roman Empire and the advent of the Dark Ages, because the conditions that prevailed then are eerily familiar to us now.

First, a rough collection of scholarly opinion about the fall of the western half of the Empire would have to include the following points.

Immigration Conflict:  Starting in the 300s, the western Empire was overrun with immigration.  Some of it was violent – invasion, actually – while some was potentially peaceful.  At one point, the Germanic tribes on the other side of the Danube, squeezed by the inroads of Asian nomads and attracted by Roman culture, petitioned to be allowed to join the Empire.  The petition was granted.  But when the Goths tried to cross the river, they were met with a fatal reception of corruption and inefficiency, which resulted in warfare that killed the emperor.  Eventually the Goths entered the Empire anyway.

Environmental Disaster:  It wasn’t really a disaster, just a cold winter.  But the winter of 406-407 was cold enough that it froze the Rhine River, and Germanic warriors were able to cross into Roman territory.  Troops had to be pulled from other areas of the Empire to defend the Rhine frontier, and as a result Britain was emptied for good – one domino down.

Continue reading “Decline And Fall”

Another Look: The Bigness Of God

Chaplain Mike is headed for a weeklong retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani. Let’s be in prayer for our brother as he goes on what will no doubt be an overwhelming encounter with the Lord. Here is another look at my retreat at the Abbey from this past March. JD
Silence, it seems, is big business these days. A friend mine leads silent retreats several times a year. He started with four guys, and now gets close to 80 wanting to go and experience something that is getting harder and harder to find in our day: Silence. I went away for a similar retreat last weekend. I needed to get away from the noise of life and listen to the one who most often speaks in a still, soft voice. And while the quiet was very welcome, one thing I was not prepared for was encountering just how big God is.

The retreat was in a monastery where I was invited to pray the offices with the monks who live and work there. I gladly went to most of the offices held in the church on their property. When you first enter the church you find six rows of chairs set out for the lay people, with a small, decorative wall separating this area from the monks’ carols. My first impression was how small and narrow the church is. There is a low ceiling where I sat (a balcony is above), and the whole section might only seat 40 or so people. Very small indeed.

Continue reading “Another Look: The Bigness Of God”

The Open Door

After a week of ordinary and inevitable failures, sins, and missed opportunities, I’m content to remember in whose hands salvation lies and who invites us in to his Sabbath rest.  Psalm 84 talks about being a doorkeeper in God’s house.  I suspect I’ve occasionally been more like the malodorous bum lying on the steps, preventing others from entering.  But this poem reminds me that I am not strong enough to block God’s grace – great reassurance to a sinner like me.

 

The Doorkeeper

By John William Taylor

“I had rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness.”

 

To keep God’s door –

I am not fit.

I would not ask for more

Than this –

To stand or sit

Upon the threshold of God’s House

Out of the reach of sin,

To open wide His door

To those who come,

To welcome Home

His children and His poor:

To wait and watch

The gladness on the face of those

That are within:

Sometimes to catch

A glimpse or trace of those

I love the best, and know

That all I failed to be,

And all I failed to do,

Has not sufficed

To bar them from the Tree

Of Life, the Paradise of God,

The Face of Christ.