What do you want for Christmas?

The Christmas story is not just a story about light. It is a story about light coming into darkness. As we celebrate the light, we ought not to miss the darker tones in the story; the deeper richer hues grounding this heavenly story in our earthly humanity.

A peasant girl, in a backwater village. No majestic hopes or grandiose expectations for life. 

Suddenly, a stranger breaks in to her presence, shattering her life. He greets her with words of honour, words she cannot understand. His words of explanation only deepened her confusion and consternation. His words, intended to communicate a blessing, in fact condemn her to death. How could an unmarried virgin become pregnant and not be killed to restore the honour of the family? This miraculous visitation would have to be followed by many more miracles or the story would be cut short, brutally short.

An old priest and his barren wife. Whatever hopes or expectations they had carried in their youth, now long forgotten.

Suddenly, a stranger breaks into his presence, interrupting his worship, shattering his life. The stranger greets him and brings him a startling message. His wife will have a child after all, not just any child, but a great and important prophet. The old priest in the midst of his religious ritual fails in faith and is struck dumb. His lack of faith notwithstanding the strange words of the interrupting angel come true and the miraculous baby is born.

A miraculous baby, now grown into a mesmerizing prophet. Arrested and imprisoned by an unrighteous king, his hopes and expectations lay scattered like so much soiled straw.

Suddenly, nothing…. No interruption. No angelic visitation. The passion, faith, vision, and hope that had blazed in him, attracting followers like moths, is fading. His job was to prepare the way. He had done his part. He met the One to follow. He handed over his ministry, his crowds. He decreased so that the One could increase. One day, visited by some friends, he gives voice to his fears. Maybe he got it wrong, and the one he thought was the Lamb of God was just another pretender. “Go to him! Go to him and ask him, are you the one?”

Jesus, the Lamb of God, the daughter of the virgin peasant girl, responds to the friends of his cousin John, the first miraculous baby in the Christmas story. He compassionately recognizes John’s fading, failing faith. He encourages John’s friends to share what they have witnessed, and by implication to look at the things He is doing rather than the things He isn’t. Jesus affirms the previous ministry of John, even as he recognizes the fickleness of faith and the perils of perception.

How many times? How many times are we frustrated and disappointed? Either God comes to us and does something that feels like it’s wrecking our lives, or He interrupts us with surprising words at an inconvenient time, or God doesn’t show up at all and doesn’t do the things that we ask and expect. How often are we disappointed with God?

But this God, with whom we are disappointed, delights to give good gifts to His children. We know how to give gifts to our kids. We may not cater to their every whim, but we do like to give them presents. We want to make them happy. God, delights to give himself to us, not only at Christmas, but every day. The God who enfleshed Himself that first Christmas, giving Himself in the package of a baby boy, now gives His Spirit to all who ask Him.

Preaching to the Choir

I have spent most of my adult life living and working among Muslim peoples. Few of my friends there had even a rudimentary understanding of Christianity or Christ.

As a follower of Jesus, who has tasted and seen that life with Christ is truly the best kind of life, I was eager to share with them. I was often the first, if not the only Christian they had ever met. As I, and my family, lived among them, they watched our lives and our interactions closely. Although few were eager to embrace Jesus, many were interested in hearing more. They wanted to learn more about what I believed and why we lived the way we did.

I now find myself living the the United Kingdom, in Wales specifically. I live among a people who would generally consider themselves Christians. We have public, government sanctioned, ceremonies where prayers are recited and hymns are sung. The head of the government, Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of the Church of England. My being a Christian is nothing interesting or worthy of notice.

Since moving here I have struggled with how to effectively reach a people for whom the Gospel is no longer new, or of interest. How do you share the good news, when it is not received as either news or good?

Recently, I have been drawn back to the Old Testament prophets. These men lived among the people of God. The Israelites were steeped in the knowledge of God through their law, festivals, and culture from their birth. These were, by definition, the chosen people of God.

The prophets of Israel to Israel were preaching to the choir. With the exception of Jonah, the prophets were called by God not to take the good news to those who had never heard, but to remind the people of what they should have already known and been practicing. But the people didn't want to know. They repeatedly rejected the prophets messages and often treated the prophets badly, even killing a number of them.

I now find myself in a similar position. I am encouraged to know that others have gone before me, and to learn from them. On the other hand, I'm not wild about the track record of the prophets and do not hope to emulate their dangerous and frustrating experience. In the end, I don't need to worry about any of that. I just need to answer the call and step out of the boat to follow my Master across the waves wherever He leads.