Psalm 2, 85; Zechariah 2: 10-13; John 1:1-18
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word Of all the ways God could have come into the world, by spaceship, by meteor, by a soft shower of rain, God came the way all humans do, God was born. From a woman, his mother, who endured the vital agony of labor, ended by the deep silence of delivery, the cessation of pain. Today, Christmas Day, our preparations are finished. We have emptied ourselves, and listened in silence and darkness while the mystery was in the making. Now we gaze upon the child, perhaps as the mother of Jesus, spent and stunned with joy. I turn to the opening verses of John’s gospel and ponder again how they speak of the coincidence of divine and human, exalted and humble, spirit and skin. No mother is in the text. No story of conception, pregnancy, and birth. The birthing is light shining and light coming into the world. He comes unto his own. The Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. Not so earthy. More abstract. And yet here begins the theme of birthing and being born that weaves through John’s story of Jesus and his glory. “…he gave power to become children of God, who were born…” We who have faith are the ones being born. Our birth will be like and unlike human birth, from God, from above. And our life will be like and unlike human life, with joy and friendship, but forever, eternal life.
Holy God, source of pain and joy, thank you
The Very Rev. Cynthia Briggs Kittredge, ThD
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2014 Advent Meditations Front Page
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In her teaching Professor Kittredge gives students the exegetical and interpretive tools to appreciate and to critically engage with biblical texts for theological reflection. She believes that historical and literary study of scripture in its ancient context can inform and nourish the imagination for faithful preaching and teaching. Professor Kittredge, a contributor to The New Oxford Annotated Bible and the Women's Bible Commentary, is the author of Conversations with Scripture: The Gospel of John and Community and Authority: The Rhetoric of Obedience in the Pauline Tradition. She co-edited The Bible in the Public Square: Reading the Signs of the Times and Walk in the Ways of Wisdom: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza. She is the co-editor of the Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The New Testament (2014). Professor Kittredge is past president of the Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars and chair of the board of the Evangelical Education Society. She is a member of the Steering Committee for Theological Education in the Anglican Communion. Prior to joining the seminary faculty in the fall of 1999, Professor Kittredge taught at Harvard University and the College of the Holy Cross. She serves as assisting priest at The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin.
BA, Williams College. MDiv, ThM, ThD, Harvard Divinity School.
