Christmas Day - the Implications of the Incarnation

 

"There were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock.   The angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. 

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy for all people.  Today in the city of David a savior has been born for you, who is Messiah and Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace toward men of good will." 

Luke 2:8-14

“Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair, that he takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous.  And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly. 

God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in.  He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them.   God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.

In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all. 

Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Exiled from the earth, our Lord is born under the earth, for the stable was in a cave, and there he shook the earth to its very foundations.  Because he’s born in a cave, all who wish to see him must be bend, must stoop, the stoop is the mark of humility. 

The proud refuse to stoop. Therefore they miss divinity.  Those, however, who are willing to risk bending their egos to go into that cave, find that they are not in a cave at all; but they are in a universe where sits a babe on his mother’s lap, the babe who made the world.” 

Fulton Sheen

 

“We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day.  We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us.  We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom.  We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence.  We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.

To you we say, 'Come Lord Jesus!'  The Lord is coming, always coming.  When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life.  Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord.” 

Henri Nouwen

 

"He became what we are, that he might make us what he is."

Athanasius of Alexandria

 "Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility;  So that, at the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal."

Book of Common Prayer

 

From all of us here, the young man, Daisy, and le vieux propriétaire, may the blessings of almighty God, descend upon you, and remain with you forever.

Joyeux noël, mes amis.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - And to All a Good Night

 

“You are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?”

“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?” Scrooge trembled more and more.

“Or would you know,” pursued the Ghost, “the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!..."

“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol


"Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world. And so, in God’s mercy, a happy Christmas to you all."

Winston Churchill, December 1941

“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveler, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home! I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

Charles Dickens


"All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

John 1:3-5

Nothing of particular note happened in the markets today.

The winds from the winter storm are blowing through now, and will howling throughout the night.

But there is no snow and little ice, that is a blessing.

Have a happy holiday, and a very Merry Christmas.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - The Darkness of This World - Holiday Wash and Rinse

 

"Structural deep events are events which violate the American social structure, have a major impact on American society, repeatedly involve lawbreaking or violence, and in many cases proceed from an unknown dark force.”

Peter Dale Scott, Deep Politics

"People with advantages are loathe to believe that they just happen to be people with advantages.  They come readily to define themselves as inherently worthy of what they possess; they come to believe themselves 'naturally' elite; and, in fact, to imagine their possessions and their privileges as natural extensions of their own elite selves.  The idea of the elite as composed of men and women having a finer moral character is an ideology of the elite.”

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite

"The end of Bretton Woods was a pivotal moment in the history of the US deep state. The 1960’s and 1970’s saw something of a civil war within America’s deep political system.  The systemically destabilizing effects of Vietnam War spending created a conflict between 'Prussians' and 'traders,' i.e., neoconservatives and neoliberals.

The subsequent Petrodollar/US Treasury Bill standard replaced the Bretton Woods gold standard and formed one of the two pillars of the subsequent Dollar-Wall Street Regime.  This system gave the US the Rumpelstiltskin power to create credit that the rest of the world would have to treat as being 'as good as gold.'  

Only a small number of economists and insiders recognized this at the time and in subsequent years.  This historically unprecedented power led to the reconciling of the neoliberal and neoconservative interests by facilitating US dominance of world trade and endless deficits for military spending."

Aaron Good, American Exception: Empire and the Deep State

Apparently the economic GDP data this morning was a bit too good, but the financial report from chip titan Micron was just too bad, as in laying off ten percent of their work force bad.

A little good, a little bad.  And so the markets dumped hard.

The Dollar edged up slightly.

Gold and silver were just hammered.

Gold is in a range within a flag formation.

Be careful to watch which way it breaks.

Most of the markets came back off the intraday lows and finished up at some reasonable support level.

A classic wash and rinse in the traditional Santa Claus rally space.

Is there some lesson for us here?

What will the masters of the universe think of next.

Need little, want less, love more.  For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

And that is what this is all about.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Peace to Men of Good Will

 

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shined."

Isaiah 9:1


"Late on Christmas Eve 1914, men of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) heard Germans troops in the trenches opposite them singing carols and patriotic songs and saw lanterns and small fir trees along their trenches.  Messages began to be shouted between the trenches.

The following day, British and German soldiers met in no man's land and exchanged gifts, took photographs and some played impromptu games of football.  They also buried casualties and repaired trenches and dugouts.  After Boxing Day, meetings in no man's land dwindled out.

The truce was not observed everywhere along the Western Front.  Elsewhere the fighting continued and casualties did occur on Christmas Day.  Some officers were unhappy at the truce and worried that it would undermine fighting spirit.

After 1914, the High Commands on both sides tried to prevent any truces on a similar scale happening again.  Despite this, there were some isolated incidents of soldiers holding brief truces later in the war, and not only at Christmas."

British Imperial War Museum, The Real Story of the Christmas Truce


"Christmas celebration this year is going to be a charade because the whole world is at war.  We are close to Christmas.  There will be lights, there will be parties, bright trees, even Nativity scenes– all decked out – while the world continues to wage war.

It’s all a charade.  The world has not understood the way of peace.  What shall remain in the wake of this war, in the midst of which we are living now?  What shall remain?  Ruins, thousands of children without education, so many innocent victims, and lots of money in the pockets of arms dealers.”

Francis I, November 22, 2015


"War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it."

George Orwell


"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Ephesians 6:12


It would be a suitable gesture if Russia were publicly to offer a 'Christmas truce' in its conflict in the Ukraine,  from December 25^th to January 7^th, and it would be equally interesting to see if it would be accepted.

The truce would be for caring for the wounded, a respite for the fighters and civilians and other affected parties, but not for the installation and deployment of new weapons systems or fortifications.

In this sort of conflict the interests of the locals can become subordinated to the greater designs and covetousness among their elite, and the greater principalities and powers of the world.

And for this reason there seems to be little hope for an end to the violence and bloodshed.  The people who hope to gain are not among those who suffer for their ambitions.

VIX plummeted.   It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Stocks drifted higher.

The Dollar edged up.

Gold and silver backed off a bit from their recent gains.

Trading will begin to grow even more quiet, especially if there is a lack of exogenous events.

Need little, want less, love more.  For those who abide in love abide in God, and God in them.

The madness serves none but itself.

Have a pleasant evening.

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