Thursday, December 10, 2009

the risk of birth.

If you could indulge in only one type of cookie this holiday season, which cookie would you be eating a lot of?

This question is really tough since we have so many amazing cookie recipes in the Bennett household, but I think I would have to stick with Lemon-Cheese Logs.

“This is no time for a child to be born,

With the earth betrayed by war and hate

And a comet slashing the sky to warn

That time runs out and the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born,

In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;

Honour and truth were trampled by scorn –

Yet here did the Saviour make his home.

When is the time for love to be born?

The inn is full on the planet earth,

And by a comet the sky is torn –

Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.”

-Madeleine L’Engle

Today I want to continue the story of Jesus’ birth according to the gospel of Matthew.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teacher of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’” Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

-Matthew 2:1-12

I am always amazed that the Magi dropped everything to simply follow a star. They had the kind of faith that completely changed their lives. They believed that following that star was worth more than anything else in their lives, and they didn’t rest until they found what they sought. And then, after they had found Jesus, they had even more faith to let a dream direct them. I want to have that kind of faith in my life.

6 comments:

  1. I would definitely have fruitcake cookies - may sound unappetizing to the uninitiated, but trust me, they are topnotch.

    Yes it is amazing that the magi just took off in faith. And they were men with responsibilities.

    Love the song and the poem.

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  2. Well, I would like to choose the gingerbread house that I described in response to your previous blog because it includes all the good Bennett cookies.... But if I have to choose one, I'd choose mushrooms.

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  3. I'm with you in regards to the Magi. It takes a lot of faith to follow a star. Never thought about it like that before.

    Jesse

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  4. I guess if you guys have already snarfed up all the lemon-cheese logs, fruitcake cookies and mushrooms, I'll take the candy cane cookies (aka kandy kyn kookys).

    The Magi were real studs, a rare combination of wisdom, learning, and action. These days, that behavior would probably be called crazy. I wonder what real wisdom in following Jesus would look like today.

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  5. Cookies...cookies...cookies! I'll stick with mushrooms!
    A quote on faith I read this week from Luci Shaw:
    "It came to me, recently, that faith is 'a certain widening of the imagination'. When Mary asked the Angel, 'How shall these theings be?' she was asking God to widen her imagination.
    All my life I have been requesting the same thing--a baptized imagination that has a wide enough faith to see the numinous in the ordinary. Without discarding reason, or analysis, I seek from my Muse, the Holy Spirit, images that will open up reality and pull me in to its center."
    I guess the Wise Men saw the "nuinous in the ordinary" and were drawn in to the center of Reality!

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  6. I'm so glad none of you Bennetts mentioned those wonderful super-ginger cookies your mom has recently added to the list. That must mean I'll get to eat them all!

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