Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4 v 6-7
DECEMBER 2008
Heaven and earth divided.
The first word of the bible in Genesis is "Bereshith" which is usually translated ‘In the beginning’. This begins with the Hebrew letter B (bet). Israeli physicist Gerald Shroeder, author of ‘Genesis and the Big Bang’, points out Bet means "house" (Bethlehem means "house of bread," for instance). …The universe is a house, a dwelling, having an "upper storey" inhabited by God and the angels, and a "lower storey" populated by animals, men and other creatures of the material realm. This division between heaven and earth is emphasized when on the second day God created the ‘firmament’ a solid shell dividing earth from heaven. Genesis 1 6-8.
We live in a beautiful world with such stunning and amazing creatures but we are all well aware that this is not heaven. The earth and its people are full of failings and we are all destined to decay and die.
The Christ
Throughout the Jewish scriptures there are references to the coming ‘anointed ruler’, ‘the Messiah’ or in Greek ‘Christos’ ‘the Christ’, who will break down this divide between heaven and earth and establish the kingdom of heaven here on earth eg:
But you, O Bethlehem Eph'rathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Micah 5:2 (RSV) (Eph'rathah, interestingly, means ‘ rubbish heap’)
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. Isaiah 9:6-7 (KJV)
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; …They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:1-2, 9(KJV)
Mary
Mary (مريم "Maryam" in Arabic), the mother of Jesus, is venerated as a righteous woman in Islam. She is mentioned more times in the Qur'an than in the entire New Testament. According to the Qur’an, Jesus (called ’Isa’ in Arabic) was born miraculously by the will of God without a father. His mother is regarded as a chaste and virtuous woman and is a highly respected figure in Islam. The Qur’an states that Jesus was the result of a virgin birth, and that Jesus is one of the great prophets of Islam, but that neither Mary nor her son was divine.
The Christ
Christians on the other hand believe that Jesus, the son of Mary, was the anointed one – ‘the Christ’ and that he was fully divine. This is why every week Christians recite the ‘Creed’ which was agreed at the Bishops’ Council of Nicea in 325 and added to at the Council of Constantinople in 381. This includes the following poetic and beautiful words:
‘We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made man.’
Jesus the Christ
Jesus the Christ (the anointed one) breaks down the barrier between heaven and earth.
We forget how precious we are in the sight of God. We are created in the very image of God (And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: Gen 1:26 (KJV)). But more than that, according to the stories that Jesus told, even though we waste our inheritance and are great sinners, God still loves us with great devotion and yearns for us to be part of heaven. (See the stories of ‘the lost sheep’ or ‘ two sons’ in Luke 15).
Mother of God
Jesus Christ was not just a prophet – he was indeed divine – breaking down the barrier between heaven and earth. That is why at a later Council of the Bishops at Ephesus in 431, Mary is given the title Theotokos (God-bearer or the one who gives birth to God; or ‘Mother of God’) because her son Jesus is one person who is both God and man, divine and human.
The Humble Servant
Saint Paul writing in his letter to the people of Philippi in the 1st century puts it this way:
Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:3-11 (RSV)
And St John writes:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:16-17 (KJV)