Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God? Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us!”
Isaiah's exasperation speaks for the Lord; he is very serious when he declares, "...the virgin shall be with child!"
During the first four centuries of Christian history, even as we struggled to survive under sporadic persecutions in Rome and parts of the empire, our bishops -- the "Fathers of the Church" -- discussed, debated, and quarreled to "define" our faith. If they could not reduce the mysteries to facts and data, we could state clearly what did not belong. It didn't help that some friendlier emperors -- the Constantines and Justinian -- prefered the Arian heresy because it made God resemble an emperor, and the emperor resemble God. With political friends like that, who needs enemies?
An emperor god cannot save us. We need a God who can save others but cannot save himself. Or, to put it in more familiar language, we need a God who can be born of a virgin and die on a cross.
In the VA I have met many Veterans who struggle with addictions. They often leave the hospital with a plan to not drink. Only to return a week, a month, or several years later, wasted by the disease. "Cunning, baffling, and powerful!" we say of alcoholism.
But alcohol, heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamines are not evil; they have no soul.
What is cunning, baffling, and powerful? The self. I am the one who will not surrender; I am the one who wants what he wants when he wants it, even at the price of my own life. I am the one who prays devoutly today and sins without remorse tomorrow.
The Lord will save us by becoming our child, servant, and victim. He will save us by inviting each one of us to give the self to one who gives himself to us. He saves us by receiving the gift of myself -- a precious gift far beyond my ability to assess it. But even as he receives that pearl of great price, my soul, he surrenders himself and all his treasure to the Father. He is poured out, with the blood and water from his chest, in devotion to the One who spoke his Name.
Nor can he do this unless he is one of us, a human being like us in all things but sin. We could not be saved by a god who is not human; nor would we be saved by a man who is not God.
In the middle of Lent we pause to remember the earthly origins of Jesus, and the woman who conceived the Word of God in her mind as she received him in her body.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.