To see the explanation for this Advent series, please click here.
Opening Verse
If in your heart you make a manger for his birth
Then God will once again become a child on earth.
Opening Prayer
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Something to Ponder (continued)
For the past couple of days we've been meditating on (thinking about) the First Adam and the Second Adam.
There's a sense in which this is about our common humanity rather than our individual personalities. "For as in Adam all die"— all of us—"so also in Christ shall all be made alive"— all of us.
In John's Gospel, the individual response to "the free gift of the grace of God" comes to the fore. In the opening verses of the Fourth Gospel, John writes this:
"But to all who received [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man [that is to say, Adam], but of God" (John 1:12-13).
Here the emphasis is not on what the Second Adam has accomplished for all of us— the emphasis is on our individual receiving of what he has accomplished for us, on our own believing, and on our own empowering to become God's daughters and sons.
This individual emphasis, and the metaphor of being "born," is reinforced in this passage from John's Gospel (3:1-8):
"Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
"He came to Jesus by night and said to him,
"'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.'
"Jesus answered him,
"'Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."
"Nicodemus said to him, 'How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?'
"Jesus answered,
"'Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above." The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.'"
"Being born of water and Spirit" is a reference to the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, which is one of the ways we can receive what Jesus accomplished for us.
It's also possible to receive what Jesus accomplished for us by a new awareness, a new alertness, to what Jesus accomplished for us— a new consciousness that comes like a thief in the night!
So just as there is a First Adam and a Second Adam, so there is a First Birth and a Second Birth— a birth "from below" (our birth into the world) and a birth "from above" (our birth into faith).
Of course, none of us remember our First Birth!
Do you remember your Second Birth?
Or, let me put it this way, using the typology of the First Adam and the Second Adam:
For me, there is a First Bill and a Second Bill.
How would you describe the First You and the Second You?
When and how did the First You became the Second You?
Closing Prayer
O God, make the door of my heart wide enough to receive all who need human love and fellowship, and a heavenly Father's care; and narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride, and hate. Make its threshold smooth enough to be no stumbling block to children, nor to straying feet, but rugged enough to turn back the tempter's power. Make it a gateway to your eternal kingdom. Amen.
Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1637-1711
Comments