Christmas is a Feast | SL 2.3 (December 2020)
In this newsletter
- Christmas is a Feast
- Work & Ministry Update
- Something Beautiful: Christmas Stories
- A Moment of Exegetical Euphoria: Proverbs 8 and the Wisdom of Christmas
- Pray With Us
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Pieter Bruegel's "Winter Landscape with Bird Trap", probably a copy done by his son (1601 or thereabouts)
Christmas is a Feast
Meghan and I have been reflecting recently that we are looking forward to next Christmas. There's the obvious hope that by then we'll be looking at the backside of a pandemic that is now walking away (if still too slowly) and, by the grace of God, perhaps civility in the world will feel like it's on the march. But for us it carries with it the hope that we'll have a new baby approaching one and that Meghan won't be pregnant anymore (it feels like she's been pregnant for about three years, which is pretty close to true). As well as the hope that my dissertation will be submitted or in the final stages of polishing before submission. And the hope that we'll be able to travel and see family and teach and engage in ministry again unhindered. I say all this, because—as a perennially hopeful person—I have found hope more challenging and more draining this year than at any time I can remember in my little life.
And yet there is, as I keep insisting, much to be thankful for. The holiday season has been especially meaningful with its festivity—even as we celebrate on a small scale over here (for Christmas we're allowed to fraternize with up to 3 households for up to 4 days!). We celebrated Thanksgiving by splitting the cooking and swapping dishes with good friends because we could not gather. Meghan has hung "fairy lights," an advent calendar, Christmas stockings, dried oranges, and popcorn strings everywhere leaving an unmistakable mark on the house. We have a teeny little fir tree on a table in the living room.
All of this has reminded me that although we don't always feel joyful, feasting is a choice. And Christmas is nothing if not a feast. It is the feast. The paradigm of feasting in this present world. At midwinter we feast because God is with us. God has not abandoned his children. He walks among us.
To the feast!
Merry Christmas from Alex, Meghan, Rue, Willa, and the new baby
You are Training Pastors to be Faithful to Scripture & Strengthening the Global Church
- I've been working on some short pieces of writing for the Training Leaders International writing team. We had a constructive meeting online this Tuesday and I'm happy to report that some of these pieces may see the light of day soon. I'll keep you posted.
- I presented my paper, "The Burden of the Sages: Surveying the Semantic Typography of maśśā' (משׂא) from the Perspective of Proverbs 30" earlier this week at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature online. It was enthusiastically received and I was encouraged.
- After Fall teaching and canceled trips, I am focusing on academics/writing my PhD dissertation at the moment. By Christmas/New Years I hope to have a paper submitted for publication, a proposal for a special session at next year's Society of Biblical Literature written, and be off on my next chapter.
Thank you. Your prayers and support empower everything we do.
Pieter Bruegel's "Adoration of the Magi in the Snow" (1563).
Christmas Stories
To pass a Winter's evening, Meghan and I have been enjoying reading some Christmas-themed stories aloud to each other. I can't say how good the Penguin Book of Christmas Stories is yet, because we've only read a few. Reading a collection like this is adventurous and broadening because I get to read stories and writers I otherwise wouldn't encounter.
Obviously, if you haven't read a A Christmas Carol, you simply must. On reading it as an adult, it is striking how over the top it is in many of its details, exclamations, and images and yet it all adds to the ambiance and the message. More than that, its therapeutic. The three ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future basically take Scrooge on an intense and unasked-for counseling session, forcing him to come to terms with and process experiences and memories that he has mostly suppressed. Scrooge emerges as less a greedy old man and more someone who has lived a hard life of disappointment and coped in a miserly way. May all our spirits be broadened.
If you're looking for an excellent Christmas film that you may not have come across before, can I recommend the heartwarming World War I film, Joyeax Noel? It's a French movie that recounts a Christmas truce struck up between French, Scottish, and German troops in the trenches on Christmas Eve, 1914. Through a series of unexpected events, three sides of a brutal war managed to lay down their arms, trust one another, and commune together in no man's land. Gifts are exchanged, songs are sung, football is played—they worship together. What the film highlights brilliantly is the shared humanity and, indeed, the shared Christianity of these various warring nations. Like all Christmas movies, Joyeux Noel verges toward the sentimental, but as Roger Ebert wrote,
"Its sentimentality is muted by the thought that this moment of peace actually did take place, among men who were punished for it, and who mostly died soon enough afterward. But on one Christmas, they were able to express what has been called, perhaps too optimistically, the brotherhood of man."
Ebert's reading is true but he misses the deeper thing: the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of Christ with all.
Let me know what you think.
Pieter Bruegel's "Hunters in the Snow (Winter)" (1565).
Proverbs 8 and the Wisdom of Christmas
In light of Christmas, I'm interrupting the series on the theology of the Pentateuch. I've shared this reflection before, but I recently rewrote the whole thing so I hope you'll find it fresh. Merry Christmas!
Proverbs and Christmas?
From the most straight-forward perspective, Proverbs doesn’t have much to do with Christmas. But certain central doctrines in Christianity—“common places” as theologians call them—serve as crossroads for all the teachings of Scripture. The doctrine of the incarnation—the fact that God became man in Jesus Christ, which we celebrate at Christmas—is one of these common places. Although Proverbs doesn’t appear to connect to Christmas the book deals with the physical, incarnational, challenges of human life in practically every verse.
Proverbs 8 is a picture of Wisdom incarnate.
In 1 Cor 1:22–24 the Apostle Paul writes, “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (NIV). To the Church Fathers these verses didn't just allow but demanded that everything in Scripture that refers to wisdom be read in connection to Jesus Christ. But this interpretive move precipitated one of the most significant theological debates in all of Church history. It centered on the text of Proverbs 8:22–31 and the doctrine of the incarnation.
Proverbs 8 and Arius
Wisdom is speaking in these verses (see Prov 8:3–4). Her voice is a poetic device—the personification of one of God’s attributes so that we can hear her speak and learn her story. The verbs draw out a primal birth metaphor: brought forth (v. 22), formed (v. 23), given birth (vv. 24–25). The poetry describes Wisdom’s “birth” to make one fundamental point—Wisdom precedes the creation of the world. Absolutely everything that has been made was made under her watchful eye. She was there “day by day” rejoicing and watching creation unfold (Prov 8:30–31; Gen 1:5–31). Within the context of Proverbs this means that we can trust Wisdom intimately and absolutely because she understands how the world works. She understands how we work within the world better than we do (Prov 8:12–21).
But this very birth metaphor, beautiful as it is, creates a theological challenge. The New Testament tells us that Jesus is Wisdom, and yet here we see Wisdom “brought forth,” “formed,” or “given birth” (Prov 8:22). As Arius (perhaps the most notorious heretic in Church history) argued, if the Son was “brought forth” then there was a time when he was not and this means he must be fundamentally different from God. A “created” Christ is a creature of a lower order than eternal God because he was once “brought forth.”
Gregory of Nyssa’s Incarnational Interpretation
In Book III of his master work, Contra Eunomium, the orthodox Church Father, Gregory of Nyssa, responded by making some brilliant theological connections. First, he grants a point to Arius and his followers—Gregory concedes that Wisdom (read Jesus) was born. But what does that mean and when did that take place?
Next Gregory pushes on the poetic language of Proverbs 8 to show that if Arius takes everything in the passage at face value in a wooden and literalistic way then it becomes absurd and falls apart completely (e.g., vv. 27–29). In other words, Arius is treating v. 22 literally but he cannot apply the same logic across the whole passage.
Finally, Gregory shows that in a similar way Arius’s reading would contradict other christological texts. For example, John 1:3 says, “Through him [the Word/Christ] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” Colossians 1:16 forcefully makes the same point. “For in him [Christ] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.” Does “all things” include Wisdom? How can Christ create himself?
In place of Arius’s heretical reading, Gregory suggests that the moment of creation in Prov 8:22 refers to Christ’s incarnation, his birth of a woman for the sake of our salvation. Gregory argues that because Jesus is fully God and fully man, statements about Jesus can refer either to his divinity or to his humanity. Gregory reasons that it is absurd to think of the only wise God acquiring the virtue of wisdom as if there was a time when God was unwise. The wisdom of the world is nothing if not the very wisdom that comes from God and that he put in it.
Reading the Greek text of Proverbs, Gregory draws a line from Prov 8:22 to John 14:6 and argues that “the beginning of his works” should be understood to refer to Jesus as “the way, the truth, and the life” (the same Greek word lies behind both works and way). The beginning in Proverbs 8 is best understood as the beginning of our salvation initiated in the incarnation. Thus Gregory sees the same theological moment illustrated in both Prov 8:22 and John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Gregory works out the theology of this passage by connecting Prov 8:22 to Jesus Christ in his humanity. The birth of Wisdom becomes the birth of Jesus as a human baby to redeem humanity.
Feasting with Wisdom
So what on earth can all this ancient theological reasoning mean for you at Christmas tide? Christmas celebrates the incarnation—the theological reality that the LORD has not abandoned his creation but entered into it. Proverbs 8, as Gregory reads it, illustrates the LORD’s great Wisdom in creation and in incarnation.
Proverbs 8 draws out the Wisdom of Christmas.
Get up from this screen and consider whatever Christmas treats or decorations are probably already strewn around your home. A fir tree has probably been chopped down, propped up, and decorated in a conspicuous place in your living room. Know that Wisdom incarnate, the LORD himself, rejoiced as each of its boughs and needles were traced out before the dawn of time.
Consider the faces of your loved ones as you gather to carry on the simple traditions that define the season. As you look on their faces, know that Wisdom incarnate, the LORD himself, rejoiced as they were formed ligament and limb in the womb and brought forth into this world.
Listen to the hymns and carols, listen as the Scriptures are read. Light a candle and take part in the annual rituals. As you lift your eyes, know that Wisdom incarnate, the LORD himself, walked into the world that He Himself made through the womb of a woman to make us wise unto salvation (2 Tim 3:15).
Christmas is nothing if not a feast. Enjoying the incarnation of Wisdom in Christ involves rejoicing with Him in His creation. This is precisely what Wisdom herself does in Prov 8:30–31: “Then I was constantly at his side. / I was filled with delight day after day, / rejoicing always in his presence, / rejoicing in his whole world / and delighting in mankind.”
So, this Christmas, give thanks for the Wisdom of God made flesh that we, in our flesh, might be made wise. Feast and sing day by day. Rejoice in his presence, rejoice in his whole world, and delight in all mankind. Wisdom will save the world.
LORD, we praise you because you have not abandoned us to the darkness, but in your Wisdom you have come into our world. This Christmas may we feast in you. May we feast on your Wisdom and rejoice in your creation. LORD, you are the light that the darkness cannot overcome.
Pieter Bruegel's "Slaughter of the Children in Bethlehem", probably a copy done by his son (16th century)
Pray With Us
- Maybe focus on adoration and thanksgiving this Christmas. Worship God for his incarnation and care.
- Pray for my spirits, energy, and focus to stay hopeful, trusting, and moving forward.
- Pray for my academic writing to make steady progress.
- Pray for Meghan and the new baby that all would be well.
- Pray that the LORD would prepare good work for us in 2021 and that the he would give us wisdom and provision in balancing all our commitments and opportunities.
Pieter Bruegel's "Census at Bethlehem" (1566).
Notes:
- My reflections on Proverbs 8 and Gregory of Nyssa's Contra Eunomium are indebted to this excellent article: Susan Ticciati, “Proverbs 8:22 and the Arian Controversy,” pages 179–90 in Reading Proverbs Intertextually, edited by Katherine Dell and Will Kynes (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2019).