December 11: God Revealed Through His Son
♫ Music:
WEEK THREE INTRODUCTION
TITLE: THE LORD IS WITH YOU: THE FULLNESS OF TIME
December 11–17
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4–5).
God through his prophets made a promise to his chosen people that he would one day (in due season) send the Messiah to ransom Israel and indeed all of the human race from the ravages of sin and death. When the angelic host announced Christ’s birth to the shepherds, God declared that his promise was now fulfilled. With the coming of Christ, God’s “appointed time” reached full capacity. The phrase “the fullness of time” conjures up poignant words and images such as: “pregnant time,” “saturated time,” or “when the time is ripe.” The “fullness of time” describes the perfect moment when everything is ready and God’s plan of redemption finally shifts into high gear. The intrigue of the incarnation begins to unfold. God is on the move. John the Baptist put it this way in Mark 1:15: "time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand."
Indeed, the incarnation, one of the central tenets of Christianity, changed everything. This profoundest of mysteries at its core revealed that God took on flesh to become one of us so that we in turn might become akin to him. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “He has become like a man, so that men should be like him. And in the incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Henceforth, any attack on the least of men is an attack on Christ, who took the form of man, and in his own person restored the image of God in all that bears a human form.”
According to Dr. David Holwerda, “We are still living in the fullness of time, the time of the fulfillment of God’s promises! How long will it take for God’s promised blessings to be completely fulfilled? No one knows because God has His own calendar, which He reveals to no one. Only when Christ comes again will we know that God’s promises have attained their intended fullness. Until then we witness and wait patiently with confident hope.”
Day 15 - Sunday, December 11
Title: GOD REVEALED THROUGH HIS SON
Scripture: Hebrews 1:1-2
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Poetry & Poet:
“Splendor Paternae Gloriae”
by Ambrose of Milan
Splendor of the Father’s glory,
bringing forth light from light,
light of light and source of brightness,
the brightening day of days,
and true Sun slide in,
gleaming with eternal brilliance,
and radiance of the Holy Spirit
pour into our senses.
With prayers let us also call the Father—
the Father of eternal glory,
the Father of mighty grace—
that he may remove the deceitful blame,
that he may shape our actions of vigour,
dullen the teeth of the grudging one,
favourably guide harsh occurrences,
bestow the grace of carrying things through,
guide the mind and rule it
with a chaste, faithful body;
may faith be inflamed with heat,
may it not know the poisons of fraud.
And may Christ be food for us,
and may faith be our drink;
happy, may we drink the sober
inebriation of the Spirit.
May this happy day come to pass,
may modesty exist as the dawn,
faith like the noonday,
and may the mind not know the dusk.
Dawn pulls the chariot,
may the complete dawn come,
the Son complete in the Father,
and the Father complete in the Word.
GOD REVEALED THROUGH HIS SON
“’Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, ‘God with us.’” (Matthew 1:23). The incarnation – Almighty God became a tiny baby to grow up in this dark and difficult world so that he could die on a Roman cross as a sacrifice for our sins and then rise again to make a way for sinful humanity to be reconciled to God. This is the heart of Christmas! The Gospel of John says that Jesus was “in the beginning with God…the Word [that] became flesh and dwelt among us… (John 1:2, 14a). This tiny baby, “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation…by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible…” (Colossians 1:15-16a). “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” (Colossians 1:9). Miraculously, he came to save humanity from eternal separation from God, those who put their faith and trust in Jesus alone for salvation. “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20). Jesus’ incarnation was also the embodiment and ultimate expression of God’s revelation to us. “…in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world.” (Hebrews 1:1-2). The incarnation has always struck me as such an amazing miracle of love!
The painting by Bruce Herman, Pillar of Fire and Cloud, reminds us that God appeared to the Israelites in other forms. During their time of wandering in the wilderness for forty years, he guided them as a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. Yet in this case, He did not take on the form of human flesh. In the painting, in the midst of the fire and cloud is the form of a man, Jesus, the incarnate deity, foreshadowing the future time when God would fully identify with us in physical form.
Christians throughout the centuries have celebrated the amazing miracle of the incarnation. The hymn, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence,” which probably dates back to the 5th century, expresses the awe that God would appear in human likeness as a helpless baby. People stand in fear and trembling as they ponder the wonder of this miracle. In 1739, Charles Wesley declared the joy of the angels as they proclaimed the birth of Christ, the “offspring of a virgin’s womb, veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate Deity, pleased with us in flesh to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel! He was “born that man no more may die; born to raise the sons of earth; born to give them second birth.”
Yet, death casts a shadow over the incarnation. Even as a baby, Jesus faced the threat of death from Herod, who represents the world and Satan, who hate God because He seeks to be on the throne of every person’s life and competes with that innate sinful desire of all people to be their own gods and control their lives and those of others. (Matthew 2:16-18). Jesus died on a cross as a sacrifice to save us from eternal death. Christmas thus points to Easter. We need to remember, though, that Jesus is coming a second time, not as a baby but as a mighty warrior, triumphant, with “eyes like a flame of fire.” (Rev. 1:14) Then, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, even those who rejected Him, but it will be too late. The incarnation reminds us to repent now, for “now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2).
Dr. Alicia M. Dewey
Professor of History
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Untitled: Pillar of Fire and Cloud
Bruce Herman
2002
Oil on canvas
Holy Family Epicopal Church, Houston, Texas
Pillars of fire and clouds are usually considered manifestations of God as described in various stories in the first five books of the Bible. Pillars are said to have guided the Israelites through the desert during the exodus from Egypt. A pillar of cloud provided a visible guide for the Israelites during the day, while the pillar of fire lit their way by night. When the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai, the cloud covered the mountain, and Moses entered into it to receive the Ten Commandments. After the Tabernacle was constructed, the pillar of cloud descended to the entrance of the tent, where God talked with Moses "face to face." Elsewhere in the Bible, there are references to the pillars of cloud and fire in the Psalms and Nehemiah. The theme is built upon in Isaiah 4, where the prophet describes his vision of the holy city of Zion in the post-apocalyptic era, and says that the city will be canopied by a cloud of smoke by day and a fire by night.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_fire_and_cloud
Bruce Herman (b. 1953) is an American artist, writer, curator, and educator who until 2022 held the Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in the art department of Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. He achieved both a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. from the School for the Arts at Boston University, where he studied under Philip Guston, James Weeks, David Aronson, Reed Kay, and Arthur Polonsky. He joined the faculty at Gordon College in 1984 and was awarded various chairs and positions until he was awarded the aforementioned position. His work has been shown around the world in more than one hundred fifty exhibitions, and he has paintings housed in the Vatican Museum of Modern Religious Art, the Cincinnati Museum of Fine Arts, and the DeCordova Museum. Herman’s art has been exhibited in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and most major cities in the USA, and abroad in Italy, England, Israel, Japan, and Hong Kong. Herman’s art and writings are published in a thirty-year retrospective in Through Your Eyes (2013, Eerdmans Publishing). His published essays are found in many print and online journals, including IMAGE, Comment, Books and Culture, and many others.
https://www.bruceherman.com/
About the Music:
“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent”
Lyrics:
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly-minded,
For with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heav’nly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the pow’rs of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six-winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
“Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Lord Most High!”
About the Performers:
St. Patrick’s Orthodox Choir directed by Jacob Lash
Saint Patrick’s Orthodox Choir is known for their ancient style of sacred chanting.
Jacob Lash holds degrees in music education and choral conducting from George Mason University. He has been actively involved in church music since growing up as a preacher's kid. He has been participating at St. Patrick’s Orthodox Church and has been the director’s assistant since 2015. He is founder and director of the Gainesville Community Choir, a full-time music teacher with Prince William County, and teaches private music lessons in both voice and piano.
https://www.stpatrickorthodox.org/our-parish
About the Composer: arranged by Nazo Zakkak
“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent” (also known as “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”), is an ancient chant of eucharistic devotion based on words from Habakkuk 2:20, "Let all the earth keep silence before him," and Zechariah 2:13, "Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling." The original was composed in Greek as a hymn for worship in the early church and dates at least to AD 275. In modern times, the Ralph Vaughan Williams arrangement of a translation from the Greek by Gerard Moultrie to the tune of "Picardy,” a French medieval folk melody, popularized the hymn among Christian congregations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_all_mortal_flesh_keep_silence
An improvising pianist from an early age, Nazo Zakkak entered the jazz world and, after performing both locally and internationally with many notables in the field, graduated with an M.F.A. in composition from UC Irvine. Having also worked in the fields of ambient music, experimental music, and minimalism, he turned his attention towards the spiritual music of the Orthodox church and has been commissioned by churches and monasteries across the US. His works have been sung and recorded by various church and professional choirs. He has been the choir director at St. Anthony Antiochian Orthodox Church in San Diego, California, since the fall of 2013.
https://st-anthony.org/nazo-zakkak%E2%80%99s
About the Poetry & Poet:
Ambrose of Milan (c. 339–c. 397), venerated as Saint Ambrose, was the Bishop of Milan, a theologian, and a statesman. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promoting the Latin Church against Arianism and paganism. He left a substantial collection of writings, of which the best known include the ethical commentary De officiis ministrorum (377–391) and the exegetical Exameron (386–390). His preachings, his actions, and his literary works, in addition to his innovative musical hymnography, made him one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the fourth century. Tradition credits Ambrose with developing an antiphonal chant, known as Ambrosian chant, and for composing the "Te Deum" hymn, though modern scholars now reject both of these attributions. He also had notable influence on Augustine of Hippo (354–430), whom he helped convert to Christianity. Western Christianity identified Ambrose as one of its four traditional Doctors of the Church. He is considered a saint by the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, and various Lutheran denominations, and venerated as the patron saint of Milan and beekeepers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose
About the Devotion Author:
Dr. Alicia M. Dewey
Professor of History
Biola University
Alicia Dewey received her doctorate from Southern Methodist University and has taught at Biola University since 2007. Her courses include the History of the American West; California History; American Democracy, Civil War, and Reconstruction, 1800–77; the Rise of Modern America (1877–1920); Research Methods in History; the U.S. History Survey; and U.S. History Since 1865. When she is not teaching, researching, or writing, she enjoys the outdoors and experiencing the American West through hiking, camping, canoeing, bird watching, and landscape painting, as well as spending time with her Maltese dog, Ranger. She is a member of Kindred Community Church in Anaheim Hills, California.