Christmas: The Holy Contradiction

“'For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” 2Corinthians:8:9

St. Paul wrote to the Christians in the Greek city of Corinth and to Christians throughout the ages about the Holy contradiction that the Great God, the one who is Lord over all things, the one who St. Paul tells us “was rich” “became poor” all for our benefit and salvation. 

This Holy contradiction was not done out of some judicial necessity but completely out of God’s divine love for us, that is, for all humanity if they will but freely receive it.

At that time the Emperor Augustus issued an Imperial proclamation regarding census and taxation where those who lived in Palestine would return to their ancestral homes to register and be counted.

“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.” Luke: 2:1-3

It is through this Imperial proclamation that Joseph and Mary travel to their ancestral home the town of Bethlehem.

Our God has come to us in the humblest and lowliest of estates, in a stable, bedded in a manger which is the feeding trough of animals.

Our God has come to us this way showing us his identification with us all.

The Great God, the eternal Son of God the second person of the Holy Trinity stepped out of the glory of eternity and joined us here upon the Earth. Our Lord did this not out of necessity but rather out of love for each and all. 

This is a Holy Contradiction, the highest come low as the words to an ancient creedal hymn sung in the early Church declared. And these divine lyrics are introduced by the posture of mind which Jesus displayed in the incarnation and that we are to emulate that of putting others first which is what Jesus has done for each and all.

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

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. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Philp: 2:5-8

Jesus descended into that place of humiliation in that stable in the city of Bethlehem. 

It is likely that the Holy family of Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem after dark making it difficult to secure a guest room, all that could be found for the one who is deserving of the royal of accommodations was a place in a stable along with the livestock, a place which would have stank of dung, straw and animals, yet it is in such a place that our Lord came forth into the world .

“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”Lk: 2:4-7

There were no royal swaddling clothes or silk or satin blankets to place him in only old linen clothes to wrap about him which prefigured the burial shroud he would be wrapped in  thirty three years from this moment.

The Glory Revealed

The Glory of the incarnation was announced to some of the who were the least esteemed shepherds who were in the country side tending their sheep. This announcement was made through the agency of an angelic message who proclaimed it as a message to dispel theirs’s and all humanities fears.

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”(8-12)

This announcement was followed by the singing of the angelic host worshiping the great God

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”(13-14)

At the departure of the angels the shepherds seek out the Messiah which the angelic messager proclaimed to them finding him in Bethlehem with Joseph and Mary.

Here in the stable  some of the lowest of Earth meet the highest of Heaven. It is not great kings who have sought him out this Holy night so long ago but rather the outcast and the lowly who have received the divine announcement delivered through the angel who have come.

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”(15)

Having encountered their Messiah the shepherds are compelled to tell others about his coming. His coming which should have been announced by Royal heralds receives rather the lowly voice of the lowly shepherds.  

“So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” Lk: 2:16-19

The Holy Contradiction

Jesus, the one who came that night two thousand years ago, disrobed himself for a time of the glory of his divinity and took up the ragged mantle of our humanity, all for us that we might come to know our God and see his glory.

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.” John: 17:1b-6b

Jesus Exulted

Jesus the one who has come to us, none higher has come lower, even to the point of humiliating death only to be lifted high once again. Again the words of the ancient Church hymn speak of this very truth.

“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”.Philp:2:9-11

Our Lord Jesus condescended to our low estate all for us, not out of judicial necessity but only out of love, the rich became poor for us that we might share in his riches. St. Paul wrote of this very Holy contradiction.

“'For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” 2Corinthians:8:9

The one who held and possessed all riches and glorious power, the one who should have been received by the Royalty and the great of the Earth and who was worthy of the highest worship and adoration came in the lowliest and humblest of places on that Holy night long ago as we reckon time, all so that we might be made rich in him. This is the Holy Contradiction of Christmas.

Benediction: May we each and all ever bow our needs before that one who became poor so that we might become rich, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor   

The Fountain of life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion 2101 Old National Pike,  Washington, Pennsylvania, 15301     www.gcfountainoflife.org

The Fountain of Life is heard on the RKP Radio Network 1710 and 1670 AM in Washington and North Franklin ,and 1790 AM in the Arden Fair Grounds area of Washington Pennsylvania, and on 1710 AM in Bentleyville and Monongahela, Pennsylvania. And online around the world at www.rkpradio.com

You can follow the Fountain of Life on Face Book - Click on our Face Book link : https://www.facebook.com/Fountain-of-Life-Church-349595355088375/

"If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything"

Advent: God With Us

Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

The Promised Seed

From the very beginning there has been the promise that God would provided the means whereby humanity would be saved out of their estrangement from him, even as our first parents, under the deceptive sway of Satan,  set the course of human civilization. 

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel"Genesis: 3:15

This verse is called by some Theologians the "Proto Evangaliuem",   which means, the First Preaching of the Gospel.  This is the message that has been consistent, that God will save His people. That he will be with them. In Jesus, Who The Apostle St. Paul identifies as "the Seed" , God has accomplished this and more for each of us. In Jesus, God has come to us as one of us and he meets us all in a very unlikely place.

To See The Glory

Moses during a time of prayerful dialogue with the Great God.  Moses asked to see what all humanity truly has   sought, even if they are unaware of it.

"And Moses said, I beseech you, show me your glory." Exodus: 33:18

 God responded by giving Moses just a glimpse of His glory.

  "And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said, You cannot see my face: for there will no man see me, and live": (19-20)

The Lord then tells Moses that his face cannot be seen, this means far more than we may first understand, what is being told to Moses and all of us, is that God was not, at that time yet incarnate, that is, in the flesh in Jesus.

Apart from the incarnation we cannot see the full glory of God, that is  "His face", we can only see a glimpse of his glory , "His back". 

   "And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen".(21-23)

Jesus is the face of God wherein we can truly see God's glory at its greatest, as we are the recipients of His mercy and grace through Jesus, as the Lord God said to Moses:

"and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy"(19c)

Jesus Reveals God

At the conception and birth of Jesus God has come to us, in the person of his Holy Son the second person of the Holy Trinity. In Jesus we meet our God even as we peer into  the manger of the  Nativity.  God is there come to us as one of us.  We are beholding the face of God even in the infant Jesus.

 In the Nativity there in the manger long ago as we count years, yet ever present for any and all who will but come forward to look and gaze upon the child Jesus, who, was and is,  wrapped in swaddling clothes of  old linen strips used mostly to bury  the dead .

 If we will but look even here in the manger, we will see the glory of God; we will meet our God there, even  in this the humblest of places  just to be with us as one of us.

Emmanuel 

“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.

But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,

but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus” .Matt:1:18-25

Jesus is God with us, not just in a historic sense but rather in a very real and personal sense, a one of us, yet in his Holy Self all of God is found and met in Jesus even in the manger of Bethlehem .

"All the history of Israel was to prepare them, and all humanity to encounter the great God, to meet God face to face in Jesus. "

The Great God had prepared all history, not just Israel’s history but all human history for this moment when we meet our God in the person of Jesus.

   "Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel" Amos:4:12

  

Jesus came to reveal to us the loving Creator, to give us all what Moses had asked  to see God;  to know God.

 "show me your glory" Exodus:33:18

In Jesus, we come to know God; he has made this possible by becoming one of us.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." John: 1:1-3

"and the Word became flesh"(14)

Jesus has come to show us the Glory of God in its clearest most powerful way.

"Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.

If you had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from now on you know him, and have seen him.

Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffises us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show us the Father? Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. Truly, truly, I say to you, He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to my Father. And whatever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “John: 14:6-13

From his very birth Jesus has been showing each of us the Glory of God in his very self, Jesus is the self of God for if he were not, God could not reveal himself in and thru  Jesus , even in His High Priestly Prayer affirms this.

"I have glorified you on the earth: I have finished the work which you gave me to do. And now, O Father, glorify you me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was."John: 17:4-5

The Fullness of God

In Jesus the fullness of God dwells in him. We can encounter the fullness of God in the person of his Holy Son Jesus.

"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form", Colossians: 2:9

  Meets Us Still

There in the manger, all of this was present and made possible by the workings of the power of the great God. That Child, in this place suited more for livestock, which stunk of the dung and animals; this is where we meet our God. This where we see His glory, then and now some times in the worst of conditions, where we would have never had expected to find him, we encounter Jesus.

He is not a God who has removed himself from us and stands a-far off, aloft and withdrawn, no he is a God who is come to us amidst our toils and trials and hardships, even when we stubble and fall he is there with us to reassure us of his unconditional love, his mercy and grace.

Jesus lifts us up and encourages us to move forward in life knowing that he walks with us. 

 He is still meeting us in the places of our lives that have the offensive smell of the dung of our broken humanity. Jesus is there to assure us that God is near and he has come to us.

Our God has come in the least threatening way possible to us. As an infant. Our God does not want us to fear, but rather, our God wants us to know that he loves us and has come to us even where we may not think to have found him.

He loves us so much to have descended into the humblest of places, the feeding trough of animals. Jesus awaits each of us, ever still, there calling us to come and look upon Him and know that our God loves us.

Here, in the Nativity manger, is where we all see His glory and first meet our God and come to know that he is Emmanuel God with us.

Benediction: May we each and all  ever meet our God and see his glory in the person of his Holy Son Jesus, today, tomorrow and forevermore...Amen

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor
The Fountain of life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion 2101 Old National Pike,  Washington, Pennsylvania, 15301     www.gcfountainoflife.org

The Fountain of Life is heard  on the RKP Radio Network 1710 and 1670 AM in Washington and North Franklin ,and 1790 AM  in the Arden Fair Grounds area of Washington Pennsylvania, and on 1710 AM in Bentleyville and Monongahela, Pennsylvania. And online around the world at www.rkpradio.com

You can follow the Fountain of Life on Face Book - Click on our Face Book link : https://www.facebook.com/Fountain-of-Life-Church-349595355088375/

"If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything"

Advent: Rejoice

The third Sunday of Advent is sometimes called Gaudete , or Rejoice Sunday. Gaudete is Latin word that is translated "rejoice" .  Rejoicing means to give expression to Joy

When John stood on the banks of that Jordan he had a message which called on the people of Israel to repent, that is, to change the way they thought and behaved.

He called on the people of Israel to repent,  in light of the coming of the Messiah , to alter their lives, to be free of the ways that led to heart ache and suffering;

"In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" Matthew: 3:2-3

Jesus' coming into our lives always calls on us to repent, to change, but in doing so,  we can truly "rejoice and be glad in Him".  We can rejoice in that we can be free from the past ways of thinking and behaving that brought on so much suffering. We are now free to enter into the fellowship which our God has always intended us to have with him and one another. There is hope.

“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” Philippians: 4:4-6

This rejoicing is the understanding that the things of this world are temporal and only last for a moment, both the good and the bad.  We can understand repentance as a letting go of the things of this life and the world, that because of Jesus’ coming we can now take hold of the eternal. The things which are above and the relationship which our God calls us each and all to be in.

All things of this life which brings us only momentary joy or suffering, whatever they might be , are for this life alone. Gold, silver, titles, positions, fame, bricks and mortar; all of it ends when we depart this life and are left behind.

Things Above

“If you then be raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory”. Colossians: 3:1-4

When we have let go of the things of this world, we have an eternity to look forward to, but even more we have Jesus here and now, not just “someday”.

St.Paul wrote regarding Jesus, calling him as, “who is our life” ; that is even now, Jesus is living moving and shaping and preparing  us for eternity  . We so often think of these things as just “some day”. But here and now we can rejoice over what is ours in our Lord, this should all the more, should heighten our joyful anticipation of what awaits in Him. We are able to have but a glimpse of it even now this side of Eternity.

He Comes to Us

These are the things we can embrace and walk in, as we live by the lead of the Holy Spirit.  We can rejoice as our Lord transforms us in His coming, his advent to us. Jesus lives in us and his life in us is demonstrated by the Fruit of the Holy Spirit,   and all the more his life is lived out in and by us.

This happens when Jesus “comes to us” through the agency of the Holy Spirit 

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever;” John: 14:16

“I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you see me: because I live, you shall live also. At that day you shall know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you” (18-20)

What Jesus describing to us is that even now through the Holy Spirit we are brought into this Holy relationship with God.

Jesus comes to us, so that we might be made partakers of the Divine Fellowship of the Holy Trinity all through Jesus.

The Holy Relationship which God has within himself and offers us each and all to be a part of  was described by the Primitive Apostolic Church by the word Perichoresis , meaning to eternal dance around one another is joy.

This is why the Advent of Jesus has truly occurred, that we might all through himself be admitted into to this eternal dance of joy, to join in and be a part of the Joy that the Great God has within himself.

The call of John the Baptist there upon on the banks of that Jordan was a call to repent of any and all things which would keep us from experiencing the Joy of this Holy Relationship.

Those around us see this relationship in which we live as the decreasing of “ourselves”, by the character attributes of Jesus himself increases in our lives. The decreasing of the "fruit of the flesh", that is , we now have an all new joy filled life, the life of our Lord in us. Jesus did not just come to enhance our present life, that is , to amplifying us, but  rather, Jesus came to be our life, it is a transposition from who we are, to being who he is.

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, jealousies, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Contentions, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” Galatians: 5:16-26
  When we hear the call of John to repent of the things which have sowed such strife among us, when we experienced the forgiveness of sin, there can be such joy come to us.

Understand this, we are not just forgiven of what we have done, or thought, that is ours sins, but rather we are forgiven of who and what we are. God in the person of his Holy Son has dealt with the very heart of sin which is our flesh.

We, in Christ, have been crucified, that is the very flesh form which our sin proceeds from has been dealt with. The Apostle St. Paul writes of this crucifixion of our flesh through our Lord and what Jesus accomplished for us.

  Jesus shares our flesh, that is our humanity, so   that we might share eternity with him in this Joy filled Perichoresis relationship.

"For the love of Christ constrains us; for we have considered , that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not from now on live to themselves, but to him which died for them, and rose again." 2Corinthians:5:14-15

 We are, even now,   new creations in Jesus. All that we were is now past. We can rejoice in this.
"Therefore if any man be in Christ,he is a new creation;the old is gone; behold , all things are become new." (17)

The Joy Beyond

We can rejoice in Jesus' coming, his advent,  to us here and now knowing  a midst all that we might deal  with in this life whatever we contend with,  that beyond it all  is great eternal joy which awaits us. Just as our Lord faced the sufferings of the cross and saw beyond it  all to the glory that awaited him.

 "Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."Hebrews:12:2

This joy, even facing the cross of  suffering ,can be ours as well  when we take hold of all that our Lord has come  that we might have. When we see it , that is,  what awaits us beyond all that we face in this life with its hardships and troubles and pain then we can rejoice.

Consider that the Great God , has come for you and  I , for each and all,  none are found outside of His love.   
He Loves each of us and would not be without us.  He has come in the person of His Son Jesus, He has come to die that we might live. He has come to show us that He loves us more than He loves Himself and proved it in taking on our flesh and dieing in it. 

Jesus' coming, His advent,  was an act of love not just a necessity.  

"God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that who so ever believes in Him should not perish have eternal life" John:3 :16

When we come to grasp the depth of God's love for us it  should alter our lives,  transform us.  If we could only take hold of it ,we would be forever changed by it. Joy would fill us and rejoicing would break forth in or lives.

 Jesus' coming, his advent, brings us great joy, a joy that can resound in this life as we rejoice in him here and now and on into eternity,   giving him all the praise and glory for what is Advent has brought to us.

Benediction: May we, each and all, forever rejoice in our Lord Jesus has come to each and all and for all that Jesus has done for us, and all that we have in him, today, tomorrow and forevermore .Amen.

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor
The Fountain of life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion 2101 Old National Pike,  Washington, Pennsylvania, 15301     www.gcfountainoflife.org

The Fountain of Life is heard  on the RKP Radio Network 1710 and 1670 AM in Washington and North Franklin ,and 1790 AM  in the Arden Fair Grounds area of Washington Pennsylvania, and on 1710 AM in Bentleyville and Monongahela, Pennsylvania. And online around the world at www.rkpradio.com



You can follow the Fountain of Life on Face Book - Click on our Face Book link : https://www.facebook.com/Fountain-of-Life-Church-349595355088375/

"If It Is Not About Jesus, It Is Not About Anything"