The Incarnation Is The Greatest Miracle

Over the years I have experienced discomfort as evangelicals insist that the cross be the center of Christmas. It seems to take away the magic of new life and hope to dwell on death and the cross. Mega-Churches certainly spare no expense at Easter dramatizing the death, blood and cruelty of the cross.

It seemed I was always forced to find a place for the cross and death in the planning for Christmas Eve services instead of providing a magical evening of celebration and new life. It did not seem right to dwell on death instead of life, mourning instead of magic and gore instead of gifts. Hey, this is the birth of the Christ child we're talking about. Christmas. Magic. Glory. Wonder.

It was a personal confirmation to hear Dr. Lou Markos speak (and write) about the Incarnation, not the Resurrection, as the greatest miracle.

For Dr. Markos, one of the greatest Christian thinkers of our time, it is much more. He writes this in the evangelical periodical Christianity Today:

"As Christians, we worship a God who at a specific time in history became a man, a spiritual Creator who became a physical creature. The greatest miracle of our faith, I would argue, is not the Resurrection but the Incarnation. And the amazing thing about the Incarnation is (to put it in linguistic terms) that it means that the ultimate Signified (God) can enter into the life of (indeed, become) a lowly signifier (a carpenter from Nazareth) without ceasing to be the ultimate Signified. Pretty slippery—in fact, a paradox which has taxed the minds of great theologians. Poetry, with its desire to incarnate transcendent truths in material images while maintaining (via metaphors, symbols, allusions, etc.) a vital sense of play and interchange between the two, comes much closer than science, logic, or systematic theology to capturing the mystery inherent in the Incarnation.

Jesus Christ (the Word made flesh) is the nexus, the way station, the middle ground where God and man, spiritual and physical, Signified and signifier, meet and join hands across a divide that was built by sin and that too often is maintained by a rationalistic view of reality. Christ has broken down the dividing wall, and every great poem seconds him in his mighty work of spiritual, metaphysical, and linguistic reconciliation."

It is ironic to see the disclaimer at the end of the article: Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Christianity Today.

My family enjoys attending the joyful celebration of Christmas at our neighborhood parish. As the acoustic bells peal a litany of magic throughout our neighborhood, St. Paul's revels in the joy and celebration by providing an evocative Eucharistic service filled with layers of meaning and symbolism that somehow manage to touch the mysteries of the Incarnation, if only for a brief few moments.

Please take the respite of the next few days and reflect on this poetic paradox called Christmas.

Ponder the following words if you dare from T.S. Eliot's poem Gerontion If you feel especially adventurous, read the entire poem and do a little research. You may be surprised at what you find.

Signs are taken for wonders. “We would see a sign!”
The word within a word, unable to speak a word,
Swaddled with darkness. In the juvescence of the year
Came Christ the tiger
In depraved May, dogwood and chestnut, flowering judas,
To be eaten, to be divided, to be drunk
Among whispers; by Mr. Silvero
With caressing hands, at Limoges
Who walked all night in the next room;