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Great Thinkers in the History of the Church (no. 4)
Love has penetrated my heart with its flame,
And is ever rekindled with new warmth.
Neither sea nor land, hills nor forest, nor even Alps,
Can stand in its way or hinder it
From always licking at your inmost parts, good father,
Or from bathing your heart, my beloved, with tears.
Sweet love, why do you inspire bitter tears,
Why do bitter draughts flow from devotion’s honey?
If now your sweetness, world, is mixed with bitterness,
All prosperity will alternate rapidly with misfortune
All joys be changed to sad lamentation;
Nothing lasts, anything can perish.
Therefore, world, let us flee from you with all our hearts,
As you, ready even now to perish, flee from us.
Let us seek the delights and ever-enduring realms
Of heaven with our whole heart, mind, and hand.
The blessed hall of heaven never separates friends;
A heart warmed by love will never be estranged.
Look with joy and with a gladdening heart, I pray,
At these little offerings which great love sends you,
For our gentle Master praised the two copper coins
The needy widow put into the temple’s treasury.
Sacred love is better than any gift,
And so is steadfast faithfulness which flourishes and endures.
May divine gifts follow you, dearest father,
And at the same time precede you. Always and
Everywhere farewell.
—Alcuin of York (b. c. 735), Words to Arno of Salzgurg, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcuin .
Scripture: St. John 1.9ff (ESV)
9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own [lit. “his own things], and his own people [“people” added] did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Comments
Within Jesus Christ is the irony of being the friend of everyone and being a stranger to many. Therefore, let us first answer the question “What is a stranger?” A stranger is one who is strange; “strange” derives from the Latin for “extraneous.” This person seems to other persons as odd, different, out of context, and, this can imply not needed or out of place. Jesus was strange.
Jesus being the stranger is linked with the Incarnation. “In the Incarnation God is revealed as a stranger,” writes S. T. Kimbrough, Jr. (“Kenosis in the Nativity Hymns of Ephrem the Syrian and Charles Wesley, in Orthodox and Wesleyan Spirituality). And, Kimbrough continues, “The Holy One who becomes human is estranged from those to whom the divine comes closer.”
Kimbrough quotes St. Ephrem and Charles Wesley, regarding Jesus being the stranger. St. Ephrem affirms:
He became a servant on earth: He was Lord on high.
Inheritor of the height and depth, who became a Stranger.
And, St. Ephrem has Mary, the Mother of Jesus, asking Jesus Christ:
What can I call You, a stranger to us,
Who was from us: …
Even to the Mother of God, who raised this Jesus, he remains a stranger. She is confused by him, even while she loves him as the Son of God and Son of man, and her son.
Charles Wesley writes of this mystery of the self-humbling of the Eternal One:
Wrapped in swathes the immortal stranger, …
And, also,Wesley prays:
God see the King of glory,
discern the heavenly stranger,
so poor and mean,
His cradle is a manger.
What are practical implications of this strangeness of Jesus Christ for you and me?
1. To follow Jesus is growing in the likeness of Christ: this we call sanctification. Therefore, to grow in Christlikeness, first, means we honor the strangeness of Christ. We do not try to figure out Jesus Christ. Our worship, doctrines, scriptures, and congregations provide signs and symbols of Christ. However, nothing defines Christ fully. We worship and rejoice in the Mystery. We continue to seek understanding of Christ, and that seeking leads us to respect that our finite minds cannot explain so great a Mystery as the God-Man.
2. To follow Jesus is becoming strange, or a stranger, like Jesus Christ. If we are becoming more like Christ in spirit, word, and act, then, is it not true that we will be seen more as he was seen and is seen? If Jesus was even a stranger to those religious persons whom we would have most expected to welcome and affirm him at the time of the historical Incarnation, how can we escape becoming a stranger to many who claim to follow him today? If I am not becoming more a stranger to persons who are not following Christ Jesus, then, I need to question whether I am becoming like him or something else (possibly, becoming more religious, even one naming Christ, instead of like Christ, who found his greatest foes among the religious, not among the pagan Romans or the social outcasts).
This being strange is at the root of the ideas of “holiness” and “sanctification.” Sanctification means to be becoming holy, or set apart to God, in every aspect of life. Christ Jesus was strange, not because he was weird, but because he was ultimately the Holy One. That holiness was both a judging of the unholy, or that alienated from Spirit of God, and an attraction for many. Again, those most angered by Christ Jesus were those who were already esteemed to be the religious examples and marketers of holiness. Those esteemed unfit or lesser than holy were those who were most drawn to Christ Jesus. Are there not important lessons in that irony for us today, as we seek to reconsider what it truly means to be a church, the Church, and a Christian in a society where being “Christian” seems often to be more generational and cultural than being wonderfully strange like Christ himself?
Reflection
1. What does it mean to you that Christ Jesus was and is strange, a stranger? What does this mean for your life?
2. Are you growing in sanctification? Explain.
Spiritual Exercise
1. Keep spending at least twenty to thirty minutes daily in Silence, resting in the Lord of Love.
2. Talk to a friend about how he or she sees you growing in Christlikeness?
3. Make sure you are in a covenant group. For more information on covenant groups, write the address below.
Consider, if you are not already, sponsoring a child through Compassion International. You can find out more about Compassion International by going to www.compassion.net to read about sponsoring, in the name of Jesus, children living in poverty. Thanks! Brian K. Wilcox
To contact Brian, write briankwilcox@comcast.net .
*Original sources for the quotes from St. Ephrem and Charles Wesley, include: St. Ephrem, (Kathleen E. McVey, Ephrem the Syrian Hymns); Charles Wesley, (Hymns on the Nativity of Our Lord), 1745.
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