Perhaps one of the remarkable facets of Christian theology that the evangelical church in America has missed is that of the coming of the kingdom of God in the person of Jesus. It is with Christ's coming that God's kingdom breaks into this world and out of that breaking in Christ himself, the agent of creation, sets about the task of new creation.
Here is how Jeremy Begbie states it in Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music:
The vision is stunning and overwhelming, but the central pivot on which it turns is unmistakable: in the person of Jesus Christ, the Creator has re-created creation within creation, freeing it from all that thwarts it (even from death), and freeing it for a new future, thus giving us a promise within our world of that day when creation will be flooded with the glory of God and come to its final union with the Creator. (Begbie, p.197)
What a grand vision this is! God has stepped into time and go about the task or recreation from within.
This is what Advent and Christmas is about, "that God's unceasing love for creation has led him to come as a man in Jesus, on the cross to submit to the forces of destruction and chaos, and through the raising of Jesus from the dead, forge out of history's most evil event a resplendent and uncontainable glory." (Begbie, p. 197)
As such these great truths will be proclaimed in our worship this Sunday. The choir will lead us in our meditation with Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus", a text celebrating the incarnation of the Word of God and our confidence we can take because of the work he has done on our behalf. We also will hear from the jazz combo tht plays from time to time with a medley of well-known Christmas hymns. They will play Coventry Carol (see Matthew 2:16-18), Silent Night, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. This medley traces a path from mourning and sorrow to one of great joy that we as God's chgildren can find great hope and solace in the work God is doing among us.
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