No un-Christlikeness at all: a homily for the Second Sunday of Christmas

No un-Christlikeness at all: why we confess the Incarnation

At the early Eucharist on the Second Sunday of Christmas, 2021

John 1:10-18

“No one has ever seen God.”

The words of Saint John in our Gospel reading point to fundamental truths about what Christians mean - in common with Jews, Muslims, and indeed with the ancient Greek philosophers who shaped the intellectual world in which John wrote - when we say the word ‘God’.

God is eternal, infinite. Not restricted or contained by time or space. God is eternally present in all places. God is the ground of all being, closer to us than we are to ourselves. God is invisible, unseen, not a physical being.

And so, “No one has ever seen God”: because God cannot be limited by space, time, and the physical.

I imagine, however, that after writing this, John - like a good dramatist - then expected a pregnant pause in our reading of his words.

“No one has ever seen God.” Pregnant pause. “It is God the only Son … who has made him known.”

Here is the distinctive belief at the core of Christianity. Here is the distinctive belief which distinguishes Christianity’s proclamation of God from that of our Jewish and Muslim friends, and which makes the God of Christianity different from the God of the philosophers.

It is what we call the Incarnation: the belief that the eternal, unseen, infinite, invisible God became flesh and dwelt amongst us.

In the words of the carol we sing at this Christmastide, ‘Word of the Father now in flesh appearing’. Or as we say of Jesus Christ in the Creed, He is “true God … of one being with the Father”, who “was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man”.

And so, to gaze upon the Christ Child, dwelling amongst us in grace, humility, and love, is to see God present and redeeming. To behold Jesus of Nazareth healing the lepers, feeding the hungry, giving sight to the blind, embracing the wandering, is to see God present and redeeming. To gaze upon the Crucified One, forgiving amidst bitter sorrow and the darkness of humanity's sin, is to see God present and redeeming.

This is why the Incarnation is the defining belief of the Christian faith, the belief that makes sense of everything else we say about God, Jesus Christ, the cross, the resurrection, forgiveness, the sacraments.

It is in Jesus Christ - in the manger, amongst the crowds in Galilee, upon the Cross - that God is present and revealed. We know God draws us into the divine life - with grace, mercy, love, forgiveness - because this is what we see in Jesus.

As a former Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Ramsey, said: “God is Christlike and in him is no un-Christlikeness at all”.

For “no one has ever seen God [pause]. It is God the only Son … who has made him known”.

(The contemporary icon of the Saviour and the Theotokos is by Jerzy Nowosielski.)

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

Pride, progressive sectarianism, and TEC on Facebook

Let me begin this post with an assumption that will be rejected by some readers of laudable Practice , but affirmed by other readers. Observing Pride is an understandable aspect of the public ministry of TEC. On previous occasions , I have rather robustly called for TEC to be much more aware and respectful of the social conservatism of the Red states and regions in which it ministers. A failure to do so risks TEC declining yet further into the irrelevance of progressive sectarianism. At the same time, TEC also obviously ministers in deep Blue states and metropolitan areas - and is the only Mainline Protestant tradition in which a majority of its members vote Democrat .* With Pride now an established civic commemoration, particularly in such contexts, there is a case for TEC affirming those aspects of Pride - the dignity of gay men and lesbian women, their contribution to civic life, and their place in the church's life - which cohere with a Christian moral vision. (I will n...

laudable Practice

Search This Blog