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I am writing this on the Monday before Thanksgiving, so it seems strange to write something not just about Christmas but the New Year as well. However, there is a famous painting, which helps me do this. The artist depicts the great encounter between Faust and Satan. Faust gambled for his soul. The painting pictures the two sitting at a chessboard, the devil leering because he has checkmated Faust’s king and knight.
One day a famous master of chess went to the gallery in London to study the picture. He spent hours meditating on the seemingly impossible situation it depicted. He paced back and forth. Then, to the utter amazement of the other art viewers in the gallery, he shouted his discovery. “It’s a lie!” It’s a lie! The king and the knight have another move!”
So here in lies my strange connection, it seems to me that in a strange way, that is the meaning of the Incarnation and the blessing of Christmas. In Jesus Christ, God always has another move. In writing about how the Incarnation has touched her life Kathleen Norris, lifts this theme up. She writes: “When a place or time seems touched by its overshadowing, a sudden eclipsing of my priorities and plans…even in terrible circumstances and calamities, in matters of life and death, if I sense that I am in the shadow of God, I find light, so much light that my vision improves dramatically, I know that holiness is near. And it is not robed in majesty. It does not assert itself with raw power but it waits in puzzlement, it hesitates. Coming from Galilee, as it were, from a place of little hope it reveals the ordinary circumstances of my life to be full of mystery and gospel which means “good news.”
And it is in the mystery and the gospel that we shall discover God’s next move for our lives. This brings me to the final connection. How will we let the mystery, the wonder and the Good News of the Gospel of Christmas, be reflected in the resolutions we make on New Year’s Eve play out in the New Year?
As we enter the holy and mysterious seasons of Advent and Christmas may God bless you and may God touch you with grace and mercy as you enter your journey into the New Year.
One day a famous master of chess went to the gallery in London to study the picture. He spent hours meditating on the seemingly impossible situation it depicted. He paced back and forth. Then, to the utter amazement of the other art viewers in the gallery, he shouted his discovery. “It’s a lie!” It’s a lie! The king and the knight have another move!”
So here in lies my strange connection, it seems to me that in a strange way, that is the meaning of the Incarnation and the blessing of Christmas. In Jesus Christ, God always has another move. In writing about how the Incarnation has touched her life Kathleen Norris, lifts this theme up. She writes: “When a place or time seems touched by its overshadowing, a sudden eclipsing of my priorities and plans…even in terrible circumstances and calamities, in matters of life and death, if I sense that I am in the shadow of God, I find light, so much light that my vision improves dramatically, I know that holiness is near. And it is not robed in majesty. It does not assert itself with raw power but it waits in puzzlement, it hesitates. Coming from Galilee, as it were, from a place of little hope it reveals the ordinary circumstances of my life to be full of mystery and gospel which means “good news.”
And it is in the mystery and the gospel that we shall discover God’s next move for our lives. This brings me to the final connection. How will we let the mystery, the wonder and the Good News of the Gospel of Christmas, be reflected in the resolutions we make on New Year’s Eve play out in the New Year?
As we enter the holy and mysterious seasons of Advent and Christmas may God bless you and may God touch you with grace and mercy as you enter your journey into the New Year.
Blessings,
Pastor Kurt+
Pastor Kurt+
