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Immanuel-God With Us -by James Seward
“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”–
That is how we speak at the manger in Bethlehem.
Our words rush out
at the sight of the divine child;
we try to put into language
what is implied in the one name: Jesus.
But at bottom these words are nothing
except a wordless silence of adoration
before the ineffable, before the presence of God
in the shape of a human child.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(originally posted in 2007 on my old blog)
from The Mystery of Holy Night by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
If God chooses Mary as his instrument,
if God himself want to come into this world
in the manger at Bethlehem,
that is no idyllic family affair,
but the beginning of a complete turnaround,
a reordering of everything on this earth.
If we wish to take part in the Advent and Christmas event,
then we cannot simply be bystanders or onlookers,
as if we were at the theater,
enjoying all the cheerful images.
No, we ourselves are swept up into the action there,
into this conversion of all things.
We have to play our part too on this stage,
For the spectator
is already an actor.
We cannot withdraw.
What part, then, do we play?
Pious shepherds, on bended knee?
Kings who come bearing gifts?
What sort of play is this, where Mary becomes the mother of God?
Where God enters the world in the lowliness of the manger?
The judgment of the world and its redemption—
that is taking place here.
And the Christ child in the manger is himself the one
who pronounces the judgment and the redemption of the world.
He repels the great and the powerful.
He puts down the mighty from their thrones.
He humbles the arrogant,
his arm overpowers all the proud and the strong,
he raises what is lowly and makes it great and splendid
in his compassion.
Therefore we cannot approach his manger
as if it were the cradle of any other child.
Those who wish to come to his manger
find something is happening within them.
