But the intent of Christmas is something totally different. The Child in the crib is not an ideal. It is only our love and often our sentimentality which have turned his story into an ideal…
Crib and cross—they are both of the same wood, they are of a piece.
And I believe that all this, with all its terror, is infinitely more comforting than the soft, sweet spirit we seek at Christmas, which afterward leaves only a hung-over, letdown feeling if it is the only thing there is in it…
From Helmut Thielicke’s “Christ and the Meaning of Life”
How oppressive this advent season is to so many. They do not see it as Christ entering into our suffering. They do not see it as Christ becoming vulnerable, available, humbled and seemngly buffeted about by the tides of other people’s decisions and agendas. Christmas is God becoming us, the real us – small, outcast, weak and no chance at greatness (as the world counts greatness). Christmas is God understanding. Christmas couldn’t be more in touch with the human condition than it is – a teenager with child born into a poor family, with whispers of illegitimacy, birthed in dirt and stink without a college fund and no prospects. Christmas couldn’t be more earthy except that it is God in the stable. It is God in my kind of life.
Wow, did you read the entire Thielicke chapter? Your words echo the sermon perfectly. Thank you.