Thursday, December 07, 2006

Christmas Escapism?

“Christmas, then, is not a dream, a moment of escapism. Christmas is the reality, which shows up the rest of ‘reality.’ And for Christmas, here, read Christianity. Either Jesus is the Lord of the world, and all reality makes sense in his light, or he is dangerously irrelevant to the problems and possibilities of today’s world. There is no middle ground. Either Jesus was, and is, the Word of God, or he, and the stories Christians tell about him, are lies.”

N.T. Wright, For All God's Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church, p.2.

3 comments:

Jonathan Dodson said...

Thank you for posting this Josh. Succinct, soul-satisfying, and sublime truth. Isn't the incarnation baffingly wondrous?

Josh O. said...

ou're very welcome. Indeed, the incarnation is a eucatastrophe!

Tolkien says it this way:
"The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has re-eminently the “inner consistency of reality.” There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath....The Christian joy, the Gloria, is of
the same kind; but it is reeminently (infinitely, if our capacity were not finite) high and joyous. But this story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused."

corey thomas said...

i love me some N.T. Wright and I love me some Tolkien...

come on over and experience Joy to the World!