Dear Members and Friends,
Concurrent with the emerging dominance of TV, Marshal McLuhan observed that “the Medium is the Message” and the human race increasingly found itself living in the “Global Village”. Thus have we all been deeply struck and profoundly saddened by the enormous death toll left in the wake of a terrifying tsunami wreaking havoc half a world away.
Given our cultural sensibilities and the ease with which images from far off lands are beamed into our living rooms, one would think that with our manifold mechanisms of modern media, we would deem ourselves the inventors of mass communication. Yet, even a casual reading of Luke’s account, along with the other Gospels, should cause us to consider that our present day capacity for rapid response is but the latest reflection of a divine predilection for being personally present.
Considering the opening thoughts from the renowned Canadian expert on communication, what does it mean when God comes to our world in the flesh, as a fragile infant dwelling in a stable? If indeed the “medium” is a baby, what then is the “message”? What does it mean when the Lord of Creation enters our common life inside a painfully humble abode, no more substantial than so many of those swept away so recently in Asia and Indonesia?
One tendency we have as believers is to think that redemption begins after our death. In this sense it becomes a future prospect, more than a present reality or past event. Another inclination is for us to believe that reconciliation only pertains to Christians. However, the biblical truth is that in Jesus Christ, from conception to crucifixion, God redeemed all of our humanness – and therefore every human being. Literally touching every phase and stage of being a person, from the pinnacle to the pit, God embraced the essence and experience of all people.
Beyond all else, the Christian Gospel isn’t a dry recitation of dogma that can only survive within a sheltered environment. It’s a dramatic story of love that makes the most sense in the midst of the darkest disaster. Preeminently and permanently, the essence of the Word becoming Flesh is the announcement of an eternal affection that will not be denied or deterred. This devotion wasn’t communicated from a distance via impersonal words, but fully and intimately within a Babe lying in a Manger.
We may marvel at our big televisions and take pride in our powers of telecommunication, but long ago in Bethlehem, the Medium did indeed become the Message, and a beautiful theology predated our modern technology. Ours is an ancient faith with a most modern application. For surely as God did not come all the way from Heaven to Earth just to stop at Bethlehem, we cannot allow our compassion to remain in Branford. I am sure that just as he was present at Christmas, and then on the Cross, our Lord is certainly present now in Thailand and Sri Lanka and India. As broken as these regions are, with Christ as our Guide and Companion, in material restoration and spiritual resurrection, these places crushed by catastrophe will also be the means of hearing the Good News and rising up to find the Kingdom of God.
From Reverend William J. Keane,
Senior Minister of First Baptist Church of Branford
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