God Has Shown Up in Mary's Belly

Once again, Stanley Hauerwas puts things in perspective:

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There is something right, as well as ironic, about the diminishment of our existence in a world in which we have made our human existence more important than the existence of God. That is why it is surely the case that the only interesting atheism left is not the denial of God, but rather the denial by some of the significance of our existence as a human species.

The question, therefore, is not does God exist, but do we. For whatever it means for us to exist, we do so as creatures created, as the universe has been created, to glorify God.

Holiness and godliness are the characteristics of a people who have faced God and by doing so have refused the nihilism that threatens all our lives in this time called modernity. For we have seen the face of God in Jesus Christ giving us confidence that time is not a tale told by an idiot, but time names God's patience to give us time to participate in God's very life. We are not abandoned. The heavens do declare the glory of God.

Christian humanism is not based on the presumption that our humanity is self-justifying. Rather Christians are humanists because God showed up in Mary's belly.

We are not an evolutionary accident. We are not bubbles on the foam that coats a stormy sea. We are God's chosen people. We have been given good work to do in a time when many no longer think there is good work. What an extraordinary claim. What extraordinary good news.

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You can read Stanley's entire sermon, "Facing God in the Face of Nothingness," here.