Christmas is a Theological Reality, and the Darkness CANNOT overcome the light
1/ He Shall Reign (Revelation 11:15)
Recently someone pointed out that Revelation 12 (my favorite passage in that book) is really a Christmas text! That is fun to think about.
2/ Meditating on the Incarnation
A few years ago I gathered up some quotations from the fathers of the church on the Incarnation.
28 Thoughts on Christmas from the Church Fathers
I also gathered up a few choice excerpts from Luther’s Christmas preaching here:
Martin Luther on the Joy of Christmas
3/ Pr Rhode on “The Desire for Eternal Life”
HT Debbie for suggesting this video. Pr Rhode is a great theologian and teacher.
You can find all the videos in this series here:
The Desire for Eternal Life (I’ve bookmarked this one to watch the entire series.)
You can also find a 26-week study Pr Rhode led on my text “Has American Christianity Failed?”
(I had heard a rumor of this study, but just found it this morning. I think Pr Rhode’s lectures are probably better than what I wrote.)
More studies from Pr Rhode and Faith Capo here. (This is a treasure test!)
4/ Threaten Us with Life
Here’s a great line from Luther on the fear of death (HT Pr Gernander):
"They threaten us with death. If they were as wise as they are foolish, they would threaten us with life. It is a ridiculous, laughable threat to frighten Christ and His Christians with death when they are lords and victors over death."
(Martin Luther, from a letter in 1522, quoted on p. 101 in The Joy of Eternal Life by Philip Nicolai, CPH 2021)
5/ On Science and Ethics
I really enjoyed this month’s conversation with Dr. Schulz about the limits of science and the importance of these limits for our current cultural conversation.
Watch that conversation here:
(You can listen to the podcast here.)
Reading Schulz’s text pointed me to T. S. Eliot’s Choruses, which was nice to read. Here are a few thoughts on that poem.
But nearness to death no nearer to God. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.
6/ Luther on Jacob vs Esau
Here the foundations of the entire Christian doctrine are confirmed. Through the birth of these twins God wants to pass sentence in advance on the entire world, yes, even to anticipate and put an end to all righteousnesses of the flesh. He wants to teach that all wisdom and excellence of the flesh is lost and vain by reason of this one statement: “The elder shall serve the younger.”
We talked about this in this week’s worldwide Bible Class. There was a lot of great stuff in there.
Merry Christmas!
I’ll be traveling next week, so you’ll probably hear from me in two weeks.
Remember to go to your pastor's Bible Class this week and, read old theology books. (If you don't have a pastor or congregation, click here. If you don't have old theology books, click here.)
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Thank you, again, for your time and attention, and for your prayers. Please keep in touch.
Lord's Blessings, Pastor Wolfmueller
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
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