Wonderings--December 23

As Christmas comes again this weekend, and as we put the finishing touches on our Christmas Eve plans, I want to share with you a poem from John Milton that is meaningful in my life. 

Milton is most famous for his epic work: Paradise Lost. In seminary I enrolled in a class where John Milton was the primary text as we learned about Puritan Theology and how it shaped the Reformed Church. John Milton was one of the most well-known, and most often read, Puritan writers in history. 

But reading John Milton is very challenging. His use of language and sentence structure are complex and can be hard to understand. Sometimes a reader has to re-read the same section over and over again to fully grasp what the poet is saying.  

Before our class tackled Paradise Lost, John Milton's poetic work addressing the fall of Mankind as Adam and Eve are tempted by Satan, the six members of my class read On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. It'a wonderful work that touched my heart the very first time I found it. 

So every year as I get ready for Christmas worship, I pull my copy of John Milton off the shelf and find the poem near the front of the book. Sitting in my chair I read it out loud letting the words act as a form of prayer. I hope that these words will touch your heart also.

"This is the month, and this the happy morn, 

      Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King, 

Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born, 

      Our great redemption from above did bring; 

      For so the holy sages once did sing, 

            That he our deadly forfeit should release, 

            And with his Father work us a perpetual peace. 

That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable, 

      And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty, 

Wherewith he wont at Heav'n's high council-table, 

      To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, 

      He laid aside, and here with us to be, 

            Forsook the courts of everlasting day, 

            And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay."

The final three lines that I am sharing today are powerful and I hope that they touched your heart also--just as they touch mine.

Jesus willingly laid aside the beauty and perfect of heaven for us. He willingly came to earth for us knowing where his choice would lead him. He left behind the majesty, the perpetual worship that occurs in heaven so that he could reunify the creation with God in heaven. 

As Christmas comes we might be tempted to reduce the impact of Jesus' incarnation--but don't. As you gather around your Christmas trees sharing presents and joy, I hope you will remember the choice that Jesus made for you. . . 

Blessings

Rev. Derek