Christmas Faves III – Part 2

Philippians 2: 5-8: Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

Leona Lewis

John 14: 8-9: Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” 

John 10: 30: “The Father and I are one.”   

Matthew 28: 17-20: The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

The Partridge Family

The Incarnation was God’s answer to the double problem that faced fallen mankind. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, became man, took to Himself and made his own a human nature; and in that nature offered to God the sacrifice which outbalanced the sin of mankind, and merited the supernatural restoration of man: Adam’s offense was expiated; the breach it had caused between God and man was healed, so that God and man might be at one again, and man brought back from servitude to sonship.

Thus, we have the unique instance of one single person with two natures. To the question “Who are you?” Christ would have but one answer. He is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, the Word. But to the questions “What are you?” Christ our Lord  would have two answers, for he has two natures; He is God and He is man. 

Note the consequences for our Lord’s actions. Nature decides what the person can do. This one Person had two natures, two sources of action from which He could draw. He had the divine nature, and so could do all that goes with being a man. But whether He was doing the things of God in His divine nature or doing the things of man in His human nature, in either event it was the Person who was doing them: and there was but the one Person and He was God. 1

Adoration of the Child by Gerard van Honthorst

01. The Drifters – “White Christmas” (1954)
02. Loretta Lynn – “Country Christmas” (2016)
03. Jimmy Durante – “Frosty the Snowman” (1950)
04. The Harry Simeone Chorale – “O’ Holy Night” (1963)
05. The Partridge Family – “White Christmas” (1971)
06. Burl Ives – “Happy Birthday, Jesus (A Child’s Prayer)” (1968)
07. The Harry Simeone Chorale – “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear / Good King Wenceslas / We Three Kings/ Villancico / Hark, the Herald, Angels Sing Medley” (1959)
08. Dolly Parton – “Hard Candy Christmas” (1984)
09. Ray Conniff and The Ray Conniff Singers – “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1959)
10. Run-DMC – “Christmas in Hollis” (1987)
11. Sarah McLachlan – “O Little Town of Bethlehem” (2006)
12. Aretha Franklin – “O Christmas Tree” (1992)
13. Choir of St. Mary’s Cathedral – “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” (2000)
14. Blues Traveler – “Christmas” (1997)
15. Carpenters – “Silent Night” (1978)
16. U2 – “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” (1987)
17. The Harry Simeone Chorale – “The Little Drummer Boy” (1958)
18. Mormon Tabernacle Choir – “Joy to the World” (1970)
19. Leona Lewis – “One More Sleep” (2013)
20. Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers – “A Christmas to Remember” (1984)
21. Andrew Bird – “So Much Wine, Merry Christmas” (2014)

John 10:7-11: So Jesus said again,“Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

 

Listen to the playlist on Spotify...

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1 Frank Sheed, Theology and Sanity (San Francisco : Ignatius Press, reprint edition 1993)