Pastor’s Corner

Pastor Joel

Winter 2023

Our Lord Jesus Christ is completely one in the unity of his person.

–from the Athanasian Creed

 

Jesus –– the babe of Bethlehem –– is completely one. That sentence proclaims as much of a Christmas miracle to me as any Bible verse of virgin birth or prophecy of God made flesh, Emmanuel among us.

To be one, and one who is complete: it sounds miraculous to me because I so often feel divvied up, fractured and frazzled, scattered and shattered, cracked and whacked and smacked by the fact that I try over and over to be more than one person. I try to live more than one life. I try to fit more into one day –– one season –– one celebration –– than any single day or any

single life can hold. If Jesus is completely one, I feel one complete opposite: a chaotic mess.

I’m not trying to complain and I’m not attempting to confess anything more or less than my humanity. I trust I’m not the only human being who tries to do more and be more and cram more into life than is humanly possible. From what I can tell — and from the expressions of mixed-together sweat and smiles on hectic holidayers all around me these days –– there is something very plainly human about trying to split our selves into a bazillion pieces we hope will match the hopes and fears of all the years that spill out life in and around us. I haven’t met many folks who feel immune from the humpty-dumpty duplicities of being persons who are not confident in being completely one.

Maybe that complete oneness is part of what Jesus comes to save for us. Jesus isn’t worried about being plainly human. Jesus isn’t aiming to be what a textbook calls a normal guy. Jesus isn’t concerned about matching holiday expectations or fourth-quarter profit goals or the Jones’ best efforts to present a picture-perfect

life on social media. Jesus isn’t even bothered to join my desire to find a miraculously complete oneness in the frenzy of a human nature –– which is good and gospel news indeed, because who among us feels like a human being with complete oneness at the core of our nature!?

Part of what we see in the birth of Christ Jesus is that sometimes it’s ok to acknowledge more than one nature at our core. We don’t actually confess that Jesus is “completely one in the oneness of his person” ​​–– we confess that Jesus is “completely one in the unity of his person.” If Jesus, so small and still and sweet in the manger, is especially talented at resting as one complete person on this earth, it helps me to remember that his is a united person: in Jesus, the human nature is united with God’s nature to embody one complete person.

Now, I am not gonna claim a divine nature for myself. I am human through and through. Yet within my human nature I wonder how many natures I can parse. There’s my good nature. I like to think of myself as a naturally happy-go-easy type of soul –– and, yes, I do have an occasionally affable nature. But I also have a particularly judgmental nature, quick to condemn myself for missing my highest ideals –– and swiftly skilled at judging those around me who fail to reach their my highest ideals for how they should live. As you who know and love (or at least put up with) me are well aware, that’s also my sinful nature. Plus, I’m naturally shy –– an introvert off the personality charts! –– but the nature of my calling is to engage the world as a people person. So Jesus has two natures, one human and one divine, united in one complete life. My human nature(s) may benefit from learning unity too. A lesson in unity –– first in myself, then with my God, also with my neighbors, necessarily with all creation –– becomes a Christmas miracle so worth pondering and so worthy of prayer. “Come, o come, completely one Lord Jesus!” Ah, and it becomes natural to slip into prayer…

“When you come, precious Christchild… when you begin to unfold this mysterious miracle of how I and my neighbors will live into your unity… draw my eyes to the next line of our creed and teach me to live without confusion as this completely one united soul I am. If it takes you to the cross and back, trade my confusion for the clarity of your good news. If it takes longer than this Christmas season to do so, I’m happy to let Easter hold miracles as well. I’m waiting for you to lead me completely on(e)ward. Come. Come. Come. Amen.”

In this prayer for peace, complete and one, Pastor Joel