Alex Swain

Beloved in Christ,

But a few days ago, we celebrated Jesus Christ’s birth. We lifted our hearts in joy for that great and wonderful moment, some 2,000 years ago, when God incarnated Godself as a human! In those holy moments where Blessed Mary bore God into humanity, the world is forever changed, thanks be to God.

This birth, no doubt, is a fulfilling of “plans formed of old, faithful and sure” as the Prophet Isaiah exults in today's readings from the Hebrew scriptures. Prophet Isaiah vociferously describes a world that is not yet realized, but that one day will be. A world weeping, wailing, waiting for its utter and total union with Almighty God. A union so proximate and beautiful that God “will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.”

For the LORD has spoken! When God speaks, creation is bound to respond. “As the Greek fathers liked to say, God creates by uttering a multitude of logoi, designating words, names: creation springs into being in order to answer God’s speech, God’s call, so that his Word does not return to him empty (Isaiah 55:11).”[1]

As we wait for this final reality, we are yet provided, by God’s sovereign wonder, the greatest hope in Jesus. I sometimes think of Jesus as an ultimate word. For the word was made flesh…

Until we have this final reality, we live in God’s mercy and tenderness, knowing that He walks with us through this life. In today’s Gospel reading, imagine yourself as the adulterous woman. Seriously, pause whatever you’re doing, take some deep breaths, and become her in this story. Place yourself in the setting!

You are her. You are snatched by the religious authorities, perhaps by the police today; a sin-sick individual (that is, each and every one of us) hauled before the very incarnation of God. The authorities (sin-sick individuals, like each one of us) gleefully stand, stained in malice, awaiting your-her judgement and punishment of her-you. The law calls for your death, they say, what are we to do?

God does not condemn her – he does not condemn you. He looks upon this woman – he looks upon you – with mercy and tenderness, not condemnation. Imagine yourself there, staring at God who says, You are not condemned, beloved, go your way and sin no more.

In Christ we see the fruition of “plans formed of old, faithful and sure.” In Christ’s birth we see the beginnings of the end, where all creation is redeemed and God wipes away our tears. In Christ’s life we experience our sinful souls brought in front of God and told, you are loved and cleansed, go and sin no more. In Christ’s death and resurrection, we perhaps peak at a glimmer of the final logoi uttered, the reality that awaits our souls in Jesus. Eternal life, salvation from our sin, joyous union in God Almighty.

Blessed Christmas,
Alex Swain
Beloved in the Desert Alum ’19-‘20

Today's readings
[1] Rowan Williams, A Ray of Darkness. Essay title: Vocation (1), p. 149.