Retired Pastor Ruminates: A Blessed Christmas to All

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

A Blessed Christmas to All

“Welcome, all wonders in one sight!
Eternity shut in a span;
Summer in winter; day in night;
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
Great little one, whose all-embracing birth
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heav'n to earth.”

(From “In the Holy Nativity of our Lord” Richard Crashaw (1612-1649)
(Photo: R. L. Floyd)

2 comments:

J. Michael PoveyDecember 23, 2009 at 9:08 PM
Super

Charles Wesley wrote in his hymn "Let earth and heaven agree"

"Our God contracted to a span
Incomprehensibly made man"

I wonder if he was inspired by Crashaw
ReplyDelete
Replies
Richard L. FloydDecember 24, 2009 at 12:51 AM
Michael,

Quite possibly.

Another connection: I first saw this Crashaw quote many years ago in a Christmas card from your predecessor at St Stephen's, our friend Andrew Wissemann, later bishop of the Western Mass Diocese.

In any case, it is a deft phrase to get at the mystery of the incarnation.

Rick
ReplyDelete
Replies

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Published articles and reviews

Floyd, Richard L. “A Brief Historical Sketch: The Religious Life of the Berkshires During the Time of the Mercersburg Movement.” The Mercersburg Review. Fall, 1997.

_______. “‘And to the Son:’ The Gloria Patri and Inclusive Language.” Prism. Volume 7, Number 2, Fall, 1992.

––––––––. “A Course in Basic Christianity: Remedial Catechesis for Adults.” Horizons. Volume 1, Number 1, Spring, 1995.

––––––––. “Marriage in the United Church of Christ.” in Christian Understandings of Marriage: Ecumenical and Pastoral Directives, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox. Revised Edition. Massachusetts Commission on Christian Unity, Boston: Divinitas Press, 1990.

_______. “The Cross and the Church: The Soteriology and Ecclesiology of P. T. Forsyth.” Andover Newton Review, Volume 3, Number 1,1992.

________. “An Interpretation of the Craigville Colloquy.” New Conversations. Volume 8, Number 1. Spring, 1985.

_______. “Review Essay of ‘Justice the True and Only Mercy: Essays on the Life and Theology of Peter Taylor Forsyth.’” Edited by Trevor Hart. The St. Mary's Bulletin: The University of St. Andrews. Spring, 1996.

_______. “Review of ‘Justice the True and Only Mercy: Essays on the Life and Theology of Peter Taylor Forsyth.’” Edited by Trevor Hart. Pro Ecclesia, Volume VII, Spring, 1998, Number 2.

_______. “The Pastor as Theologian in a Fundamentalist Environment.” Andover Newton Quarterly. Volume 19, Number 4, Spring 1979.

-----------. “The Towers We Build or God our Strong Tower?” No Other Foundation. Volume 14, Number 2, Winter 1993-1994.

_______. “Unity in the United Church of Christ.” Address to the Executive Council of the United Church of Christ, October 17, 1993. Papers from the Initial Meetings of Confessing Christ, November-December 1993.

_______. “Something Old, Something New.” The Journal of the United Church Musicians Association. Vol. 1, No. 1, 1998.

_______. “The Work of Christ in the Thought of P. T. Forsyth: Kenosis and Plerosis Revisited” in P. T. Forsyth: Theologian for a New Millennium, Alan P. F. Sell, Editor, The United Reformed Church, 1999.

_______. “The Worshiping Self” in Persons in Community: Theological Voices from the Pastorate. Edited by William H. Lazareth. Eerdmans, 2004.

_______. “Churches with Adjectives.” Colleague, Vol. XXI, No. 3, May, 2000.

________. “Spills.” Colleague, Vol. XXII, No. 4, October, 2000.

________. “The Tools of a Learned Ministry.” Colleague, Vol. XXIII, No. 4, October, 2001.

_______. “Review of God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament” by Richard Bauckham. Theology Today. Vol. 58, No. 1, April 2001.

________.“God is our refuge and Strength” in “He Comes, the Broken Heart to Bind:” Reflections on September 11, 2001. Edited by Frederick R. Trost, Confessing Christ. 2001.

––––––––. “The Cross as an Eschatological Act of God” in Hope for your Future: Theological Voices from the Pastorate. Edited by William H. Lazareth. Eerdmans, 2002.

––––––––. “They’ll know him in his Cross” in Story Lines. Edited by Skye Fackre Gibson. Eerdmans, 2002.

--------------. Review of “Who do you say that I am?: The Christology of the United Church of Christ” by Scott Paeth. United Church Press, 2006, Joy in the Word, Winter 2008.