Every morning I get up and have my coffee and read my e-mails and watch the news and get depressed. The house wives of Atlanta have spoken and they see nothing ahead in our world but dark skies and troubles. There is a continual clown show that parades across our TV screens and in the columns of our newspaper that seem so important but are really foolish. There is good evidence in the Scriptures that the attitude of a faithful believer to the political realm is laughter – more on that some other time but right now in the Advent season we need to be aware of the foolishness that surrounds us.
Luther looked at the world in which he lived and the world into which Jesus was born and saw God’s action as a sign of a mutual contempt. All that we think about in the Advent season is a tension between the world and the world’s Creator. How God chooses to deal with the world shows not only His great love for us, but also His contempt for the powers that be.
In the manger of Bethlehem Luther saw a sign –
“Thus God indicates that he pays no attention at all to what the world is or has or can do, and on the other hand the world proves that it knows nothing at all of, and pays no attention to, what God is or has or does. Behold, this is the first symbol wherewith Christ puts to shame the world and indicates that all of its doing, knowledge, and being are contemptible to us, that the greatest wisdom is in reality foolishness, that its best performance is wrongdoing, and that the greatest good is evil.”
Pastor,
And every Christmas Eve when I would see the barn door open to a homely scene of dairy cattle munching lustily on hay or what ever dairy feed they had before thier eyes at the time. The cats sitting contentedly with tails curled around their legs and dogs with tails wagging espectatly I would marvel again how God came to a scene much like this so long ago. Why would He have to care for beings who mostly forget Him except in fits of anger or one church showing a year because that is just the thing to do on Christmas. Why? It seems almost silly BUT I sure am glad He did.
Betty M