Disturbing the World

‘Christmas’

Christopher Columbus rattled the establishment. In 1492 he sailed west from Spain to discover a new trade route to the Far East, but instead he followed the stars to the Caribbean Basin.

At the time, Nicolaus Copernicus was a nineteen-year-old astronomer working on a radical theory that placed the sun at the center of the solar system and not the earth. It was a revolutionary concept because it challenged Aristotle. Scientists and philosophers held true to Aristotle’s principle that the earth was the fixed center of the universe.

Copernicus did not make many friends in religious circles either, but he persevered forward. His ideas outraged both the Catholic and emerging Protestant churches because from their perspective he was contradicting accepted theological understandings; he wasn’t just taking on Aristotle, he was attacking God’s Word. Read the rest of this entry »

While Canadian winters are known for their shortened days and darkness, what I love the most about a crisp winter’s day is the quality of the sun’s light when it does deign to shine. There is a blue, piercing quality to the light of winter that doesn’t exist at any other time of the year. It is a purer, truer light that shines on a sunny December morning.

In the same way, winter’s truth is a truth without distraction. The frills and fluff of the leaves and plants have been taken out of the way to reveal a bare bones reality that doesn’t allow for haziness, laziness, or excuses. The glare of the winter’s sun might seem harsh and blinding, but it can reveal things that would otherwise go unnoticed in the shadows. Read the rest of this entry »

In the classic Dickens story, A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge sees a ghost. Skeptic that he is, he does not believe what he sees. When the ghost asks him why he doubts his senses, he replies:

“Because, a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”

Scrooge was making a valid point. Our thoughts and perceptions can be influenced by what we ingest. That is why we have laws about driving while intoxicated. When we are cold sober, however, it is usually safe to assume that our thoughts and perceptions are our own. And so we do.

The adoption of a materialistic point of view questions this assumption. Read the rest of this entry »

A word is a separate thing from that which it describes. It is also linked by meaning to the thing it describes. Meaning unites the word and its object inseparably. A rose is a rose is a rose. The object gives meaning to the word and the word becomes inseparable from the object. One can no longer exist without the other.

This is so true, that it is safe to say that no thing or concept can exist in our minds without us naming it. How can we have a discussion about pride (or prejudice for that matter!) without having a word to describe it? Words are the means by which we interpret reality to ourselves Read the rest of this entry »

Advent Season unfolds in the midst of carnival-like barkers vying for our attention. The halls are all being decked while marketing agents scheme to capture our imagination. Colorful brochures arrive daily; on television sixty-second episodes guarantee happiness or satisfaction if the product being hawked is purchased. Amid all the hoopla it is easy to slip into the commercialization trap.

We ought to take heed, for while being assailed by advertising we can be consumed by a perspective that actually diminishes us. Leave the counting of cash and tallying up the score to those who glorify material prosperity. The real focus should be riveted on an event of absolute wonder.

These December days are set aside to prepare our hearts to celebrate a mysterious event. Read the rest of this entry »

Christian scholars agree that God spent all of human history up to the birth of Christ preparing for that exact moment when a young Jewish girl would speak her acquiescence to the will of God with a humble “behold the handmaid of the Lord.” Nations were brought low, and nations were raised up to provide the propitious circumstances for the birth of the son of Mary and the Son of God in long ago Bethlehem.

The notion of a single deity was remarkable in the setting to which Christ was introduced. Read the rest of this entry »