Stoop to Lift: First Tuesday of Advent

He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulders.
~ C.S. Lewis, Miracles, p148

In our world, what goes up must come down. But in God's way of doing things, what goes down will go up. Or, as St. Peter observed: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time."  

The way of Jesus was to humble himself in order to meet us in our humiliating condition of sin and pain, wandering and hopelessness, striving and surviving and ambition and war. The way of God to lift us up out of our humiliation was to have Jesus join us there. Since God lifts up those who humble themselves, Jesus becomes our hope for being lifted up out of our mess.

Jesus is both the one who lifts us up, and he is the model of how to meet others in their humiliation, and lift them up. If we will be humbly honest about our condition, we will be prepared for Jesus to lift up our chin, to lift up our hearts, to lift our souls. If we will be humbly loyal to Jesus, we will be used by him to lift up the chins, hearts, and homes of those in our city, our neighbors, our fellow believers.

Jesus became one of us to show us how to live, and he became one of us that he might bring us back up to him. The two go together. We know that we will want to be with Jesus in heaven when we want to be used by Him to help lift others up out of their sin, their poverty, their mess.

When we seek to exalt ourselves, we will be pressed down. When we follow the example of Jesus and humble ourselves - even to the point of death, in order to help lift up others, we will be exalted. We walk the way of humility out of obedience, but also out of imitation. And we walk under the burden of humiliation knowing it is the true path to exaltation - and it will be an apt reward we are prepared to receive and properly enjoy.

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
~ Philippians 2v9-11 (NIV)

Who has God placed in your path that needs lifted up out of sin? Lifted up out of poverty? Lifted up out of a mess?

Are you too proud to stoop?

If not, what have been the rewards of humbling yourself?

Who Needs Rescued: First Monday of Advent

The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a fetus inside a Woman's body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.
~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p179

We're so used to the idea of God entering the world as a baby that we often forget to pause and ponder it. God of the universe becomes a fetus. The Creator of galaxies nourished by an umbilical cord. It's hard to grasp the idea since we've never been a deity, and we can't remember our own conception. But maybe we can entertain the idea of becoming a slug or a crab!

What's the value of a slug or a crab? To what lengths would someone go to rescue them? The Hermit Crabs that live in the Gulf of Mexico need rescued - and there are plenty of scientists and volunteers who are jumping in to help. Slugs and crabs are amazing creatures, gifts from the Creator, an important part of our ecosystem. Humans are made in the image of God, the crown of creation, the gifted stewards of the Earth. And we need rescued. Desperately.

It may be difficult to fathom why God entered the world via a womb. It may be impossible to fully understand what it was like for the Eternal Being to become like one of us. But we needed it.
We still need him.

Who in your life needs rescued? Who do you need to go to to help?

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
~ Philippians 2v6-7 (NIV)

The Grand Miracle: First Sunday of Advent

The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, come into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left.
~ C.S. Lewis, "The Grand Miracle," God in the Dock, pg80.

According to Lewis, a miracle is "an interference with Nature by supernatural power." The Incarnation is a miracle - it is God inserting himself directly into our humanity. The grand miracle of God becoming one of us points us towards the reward: that we might become one with Him. Jesus is what God looks like as one of us. Jesus born as an infant, Jesus named Emmanuel: God with us. It's a name pregnant with meaning, a name that we must grow to understand and accept and experience.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
~ John 1v14 (NIV)

What can compel us to give grace? What can enable us to accept truth? It would take a miracle. And that is what the Incarnation is about - Jesus coming to show us what grace looks like, how to live by the truth. We worship God best when we live out the way of grace and truth as demonstrated by Jesus.

Who needs grace from you? Who needs truth from you? May it be your best gift this Christmas season.