“Celebrate the stuff. Use fudge and eggnog and wine and roast beef. Use presents and wrapping paper . . . You do not prepare for a real celebration of the Incarnation through thirty days of Advent Gnosticism. At the same time, remembering your Puritan fathers, you must hate the sin while loving the stuff. Sin is not resident in the stuff. Sin is found in the human heart — in the hearts of both true gluttons and true scrooges — both those who drink much wine and those who drink much prune juice. If you are called up to the front of the class and you get the problem all wrong, it would be bad form to blame the blackboard. That is just where you registered your error. In the same way, we register our sin on the stuff. But — because Jesus was born in this material world, that is where we register our piety as well. If your godliness won’t imprint on fudge, then it is not true godliness. Some may be disturbed by this. It seems a little out of control, as though I am urging you to “go overboard.” But of course I am urging you to go overboard. Think about it — when this world was “in sin and error pining,” did God give us a teaspoon of grace to make our dungeon a tad more pleasant? No. He went overboard” (God Rest Ye Merry, pp. 89-90).
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This is wonderful!
In one of the Narnia movies, I was struck by the joyful exuberance of the mermaids as they raced through the surf.
I thought, “This is our Lord, this is God’s way”.
Amen…there are many times when I look at God’s creation and think, “Wow…He really went overboard this time!” But that’s just it: God does remarkable things with (and for) His creation. Are we really following in His steps if we do otherwise? Sin mars our efforts, but we can work on the heart so that the fruit of our hands is improved.
Amen. I remember being struck when reading a command that the Jews celebrate Shavuot. Come, bring enough for a party, and enjoy!