quod non assumptus, non redemptus

Christmas Eve + 2012

Emma drew this manger scene many years ago. She’s sleeping right now as I write this. There is quiet except for the furnace. It snowed 8 inches during the night. Utah powder. The world is indeed a wonderful, beautiful place. But not always and not for everyone. We all will experience brokenness, limits, evil and finally death. This is exactly what happens in the Christmas story.

A Roman Catholic priest once gave me this Latin phrase: quod non assumptus, non redemptus. The words come from the 4th CE and mean: that which is not assumed, is not redeemed.

This is the Incarnation, that somehow God takes on, assumes, all that we are, all that the world is and redeems it all, because Love takes on everything and finally redeems everything. No exceptions. No exclusions. This is the power of Christmas.

Pastor Jeffrey D. Louden

St. Matthew’s Lutheran + Taylorsville, UT + www.stmatthewsut.org + 801 965 8484 

Of Holy Writing, Fountain Pens and Ancient Laptops

tolle scribe   take and write

The story goes that St. Augustine was converted when he heard the words, tolle lege “take and read” and then picked up the Scriptures.  So this is a riff on that. I love fountain pens, the way they feel in my hand and help me to write. I found this 100 year old “lap top” writing box in a pawn shop in Pocatello for $15. The glass bottles were filled with dried ink. Into the box I have put my pens, collected over the years from my Uncle Gary and Aunt Marge's office equipment store in Grand Junction. One pen, a Mont Blanc Diplomat, a very fine black pen, came from my father. It is inscribed with his name, "Bob." Writing helps me think. Writing with a fountain pen slows me down, reminds me of what is beautiful. Not a bad thing for Advent.

JDL