In the Noise and Quiet

As a young man, the Puritan Stephen Charnock didn’t celebrate Christmas. That’s because the Puritan-led Parliament of 17th-century England had banned Christmas services and celebrations between 1644 and 1660 — from the time Charnock was 16 until he was 32. 

The reason for the ban was because Christmas was too Catholic for them, and therefore counterproductive in their efforts to reform the country. It was their context, and we shouldn’t judge them. (If you worry about being too divergent from the Puritans just remember that they too would have detested “Santa Baby.”)

Regardless of their position on the formal celebration of Christmas, it didn’t stop them from meditating deeply on the incarnation. Case in point, Charnock writes,

What a wonder is it that two natures infinitely distant should be more intimately united than anything in the world, and yet without any confusion!
That the same person should have both a glory and a grief;
an infinite joy in the Deity, and an inexpressible sorrow in the humanity:
that a God upon a throne should be an infant in a cradle;
the thundering Creator be a weeping babe and a suffering man.
These are such expressions of mighty power, as well as condescending love, that they astonish men upon earth and angels in heaven.

Amazing. It’s worth a couple of rereads.

Charnock reminds us that the incarnation is not a sentimental story to be admired once a year, but a staggering reality to be contemplated at all times. God did not remain distant. He did not save us from afar. He came near — nearer than we could have imagined — taking on our nature without laying aside his glory.

That is the wonder worth our focus, through our celebrations or not. Whatever it takes — whether we sing carols or we don’t, whether our traditions are simple or full — let Advent press into our hearts that the eternal Son has entered our world, borne our griefs, and secured our salvation. Let that truth do its work. Let it humble us, steady us, and fill us with fresh wonder — in the noise and in the quiet. Christ has come!