two kingdoms, hundreds of thousands of miles
Santa Aardvark has given out a gross of golden kudos for those in the Lutheran blogosphere who write Christmas posts. I got hit twice, bringing NR’s total up to six. If you’re still on vacation, you could spend it reading instead of shoveling snow. 
Thanks, Aardvark!
I had known that I would sing the first verse of Stille Nacht during the late Christmas Eve service for several weeks. I became a little concerned when I was informed I would solo (chant) the Opening Versicles and the Phos Hilaron of the Evening Prayer service, both the Pastor’s part and the Congregation’s Part. It was strange to me, because worship during Christmas is usually a Divine Service with Christmas, in effect putting the Mass in Christmas. The Evening Prayer service has no Lord’s Supper.
When we arrived, I noticed communion hardware on the altar, then looked at the bulletin. Sure enough, my solo was there, used as a processional for the cross. Liturgy for D.S. with H.C. followed.
Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. — Isaiah 7:10-14
The most naturally unbelievable miracle in my opinion, second only to the Resurrection, is the Virgin Birth. These two events go right to the core of God-with-us. They establish his identity. The denial of either of these ideas is irreconcilable with being called a Christian.
The Incarnation is the isolated point in time where God the Son becomes God and man. This is how God solves our problem, correctly diagnosed. The Incarnation is unnecessary if our problem is simply that we don’t pray enough, claim his favor, deny our creeds, or join “self-feeding” bible-reading communities.
We give our gifts on or about Christmas, but God gives us his gift of faith in the incarnation, the death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He gives us the gift of the Word which, unlike Christmas dinner, one really can’t get too much of. He gives us his sacraments, where through His promises He again is God-with-us.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and happy gift-receiving.
Update, January 3rd, 8:11am: Aardvark Alley has passed out another round of Golden Aardvarks, and this post was a recipient. Thank you!The best Lutheran blogger operating under a pseudonym, the Aardvark has given On Pseudonymous Bloggers one of his Golden Aardvark awards. Since it’s been a while since the Great Earth Pig has handed out awards, this one elicits an extra dose of gratitude.
Unsurprisingly some of the other award recipients made it into this most recent Lutheran Carnival, but the long-snouted one has included posts outside this familiar domain. Thanks again, bifurcated one.
On some of the religious blogs that I read, I am seeing the call for pseudonymous (fake-name) bloggers to reveal themselves. The proposition is made that because a real name is not revealed, integrity is destroyed and Christian virtue is not extolled.
I’m not sure I can agree with the premise, for more reasons than I just happen to not disclose my last name on this blog.
First: Why withhold my name? For the same reason you don’t put credit card numbers on your web site. People can use your name and other information disclosed in your blog to harass you. I can use the time not spent dealing with harassment for better things. For this reason I don’t disclose exactly where I am until I’ve left. I’m pondering making that “Dan Nation Tour” widget subscriber-only, by the way. I can think of three Lutheran bloggers off the top of my head who have decided to pull their last names off their blog. Eating Words is the latest, and he’s not a flamethrower. He doesn’t lose integrity points in my book for going pseudonymous.
The highly esteemed Aardvark of Aardvark Alley has posted another list of awards. One of my posts, Paying for Consequences, Known and Unknown, has received an “Aardie,” one of his awards.
I had joked that if I ever got three of these, they were going to need their own category. That’s been done.
Here’s hoping for more. Thanks, Aardvark!
