I'm going to do a weird thing this week - and contradict and not contradict the main idea of this song. How does that even make sense? Well, it's a both/and situation. Yes, that happens. Jesus is both human and divine, so blammo.
Human AND divine, you say? We call it Christ's dual nature, that Jesus was both 100% divine and 100% human. This, of course, makes no sense. Back in the early church several heresies gave alternative views, that Jesus was just divine and his body was an illusion, or he was a man who divinity was given to, or just a cool guy. Eventually, after those theories had been thrown out, people generally understood Jesus as human and divine. Then, around 300, Arius hit the scene.
Arius poked a hole in the rhetoric around Jesus's relationship with the Creator and said that the Son must be a creation of God the Father's, and therefore not eternal. The dogma of Trinity had not yet been fully formed, so he made some headway with his argument. He even had a slogan: "There was a time when the Son was not." (Placher 73) I have a story in my head but I can't find the source (if someone can cite it for me that would be great!) that in Alexandria, people at the marketplace were debating this topic.
Imagine that! While bartering and haggling was happening, the nature of Jesus was being debated. Imagine a world where talking faith and discussing theology was as common as buying bread. Emperor Constantine even got involved in the debate, even though he didn't understand the difference. "Having made a careful inquiry into the origin and foundation of these differences, I find the cause to be of a truly insignificant character, and quite unworthy of such fierce contention." (75) Constantine, probably worried about the unrest, called the Council of Nicea and (now Saint) Athanasius, who was the champion of anti-Arianism was declared the winner and Arius a heretic. Arianism did not quite hit the mark.
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Why is it so important? Why did Saint Nicholas punch Arius? Why was the extremely stubborn Saint Athanasius so adamant about the words begotten and of the same substance/consubstantial? (or homoousios in Greek, but that starts a whole other story about the Trinity which is connected but I won't go there for this. But it's super interesting.) So what does all this have to do with an Avett Brothers song?
I hear this song in two parts: the first and third lines, and the rest of it.
There ain't no man can save me
...There ain't no man or men who change the shape my soul is in
That's true, except for one. There is no man or woman (Trump or Clinton) who can save you, or change the shape of your soul, except for one. And that one can save you because he is both human and God. He is begotten or consubstantial or however you would like to say it with our Creator. There was no time when the Son was not. That is something to rely on when there's not much else that can be considered eternal.
There ain't no man can enslave me
...There ain't nobody here
who can cause me pain or raise my fear
'cause I got only love to share
The rest of the song, lines 2, 4, and beyond. All that is true because of this great mystery of divine and human as one person. "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because God first loved us." (1 John 4:18-19) We have the ability to love because our Eternal Creator loved us; we know how to put our love into action because the human Jesus gave us examples.
This song is joyful; Advent is joyful. Advent is our preparation for celebrating this great mystery, something we celebrate every Sunday but commemorate in a special way with Jesus's birth. Another big word (because I didn't give you enough in this post) is Incarnation. That is the word we use for Jesus's birth as both a fully human and fully divine being. God incarnate. This is what I mumble to myself whenever I watch a bad Christmas movie tell me the "real meaning of Christmas" is family, or caring, or warm fuzzy nonsense. It's about the Incarnation. (so, all those things but only because of the Incarnation) It is incredible to consider being loved so much that my Creator wanted to live, die, rise for me. And you. And everybody.
So there are a couple lines I contradict, but I affirm the other lines because of the contradiction to the few. Theology so often works out in that confusing kind of way, but the message of all of this is always the same: you are loved.
If you're looking for truth I'm proof you'll find it there.
There ain't no man can enslave me
...There ain't nobody here
who can cause me pain or raise my fear
'cause I got only love to share
The rest of the song, lines 2, 4, and beyond. All that is true because of this great mystery of divine and human as one person. "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because God first loved us." (1 John 4:18-19) We have the ability to love because our Eternal Creator loved us; we know how to put our love into action because the human Jesus gave us examples.
This song is joyful; Advent is joyful. Advent is our preparation for celebrating this great mystery, something we celebrate every Sunday but commemorate in a special way with Jesus's birth. Another big word (because I didn't give you enough in this post) is Incarnation. That is the word we use for Jesus's birth as both a fully human and fully divine being. God incarnate. This is what I mumble to myself whenever I watch a bad Christmas movie tell me the "real meaning of Christmas" is family, or caring, or warm fuzzy nonsense. It's about the Incarnation. (so, all those things but only because of the Incarnation) It is incredible to consider being loved so much that my Creator wanted to live, die, rise for me. And you. And everybody.
So there are a couple lines I contradict, but I affirm the other lines because of the contradiction to the few. Theology so often works out in that confusing kind of way, but the message of all of this is always the same: you are loved.
If you're looking for truth I'm proof you'll find it there.
original image http://www.stpatrickshamilton.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Advent-Wreath-5.jpg
Placher, William C. A History of Christian Theology: An Introduction. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1983.
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