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.

The Advent of Hope – December 2, 2013

Suggested Reading: Luke 1

The world is messed up!

There are wars and rumours of wars. There are economic problems, political problems, racial problems, family problems, and the list could go on and on. Proposed solutions and the people proposing them come and go, but the problems remain. In the midst of all of this, it is easy to become discouraged. Just a quick glance at the headlines on any given day gives us many reasons to despair and few reasons to hope.

We may imagine that we are living in a uniquely terrible time in history, but many generations have seen similar times and felt similar things. Empires have risen and crumbled and people in those times have lived through a level of pain and chaos that most of us have never experienced. And, I hope we never will. The Jews living in Palestine at the turn of the first century knew more about these things than we do in the West at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

They were living under an oppressive foreign regime who installed a puppet king. They lived under military occupation, subject to brutal treatment and crushing taxation. They longed for someone to deliver them. They lived in anticipation that God would intervene and save them, setting them free. They dreamed of the coming of the Messiah, the promised deliverer, the long delayed fulfilment of the ancient prophecies, already hundreds of years old in their day.

When Zechariah was ambushed by an angel of God in the temple, the plot began to thicken. There were rumblings and rumours – not of war – but of hope. Could this baby be the Messiah? Could this unborn child of a barren old woman and a dried up husband be the One? There were whispers in the hills of Judah. God is on the move! There is something special about this child!

But this baby, miraculous though his birth was, was not the One. There was another coming. A birth even more miraculous was on the way. Not one originating in the temple, but in a backwater town. God initiated another visitation, and another miraculous pregnancy, this time in a virgin womb. God's only Son became human, the Spirit of Christ enfleshed in the waiting womb of a willing young woman. Mary was to be the mother of Our Lord, the Hope of Nations.

The Advent of Christ was a rebirth of hope; more than that, a fulfilment of hope becoming flesh and dwelling among us. God drew near to us and demonstrated His love in the most tangible way possible, He became one of us. The God who created all things humbled Himself and became part of His creation. He began the remaking that will ultimately be fulfilled when His reign is fully established. But what a beginning He has made!

He is not distant or disengaged. He is not against us. He is one of us. He is among us. He is for us. We can know Him and know that He understands us. He is the reason for and the embodiment of our hope—the hope that came at Christmas!

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Questions:

What pain, conflict, or problem is challenging your ability to live in hope?

How does the miracle of Christmas restore your hope?

The Advent of Hope

The world is messed up!

There are wars and rumours of wars. There are economic problems, political problems, racial problems, family problems, and the list could go on. Proposed solutions and the people proposing them come and go, but the problems remain. In the midst of all of this, it is easy to become discouraged. Just a quick glance at the headlines on any given day gives us many reasons to despair and few reasons to hope. 

We may imagine that we are living in a uniquely terrible time in history, but many generations have seen similar times and felt similar things. Empires have risen and crumbled and people in those times have lived through a level of pain and chaos that most of us have never experienced. And, I hope we never will. The Jews living in Palestine at the turn of the first century knew more about these things than we do at the end of the twenty-first century. 

They were living under an oppressive foreign regime who installed a puppet king over them. They lived under military occupation and were subject to brutal treatment and crushing taxation. They longed for someone to deliver them. They lived in anticipation that God would intervene and save them, setting them free. They dreamed of the coming of the Messiah, the long delayed fulfilment of the ancient prophecies, already hundreds of years old in their day. 

When Zechariah was ambushed by an angel of God in the temple, the plot began to thicken. Their were rumblings and rumours  not of war but of hope. Could this baby to be born to a barren old woman and a dried up husband be the One? There were whispers in the hills of Judah. God is on the move! There is something special about this child!

But this baby, miraculous though his birth was, was not the One. There was another coming. A birth even more miraculous on the way. Not one originating in the temple, but in a backwater town. Another visitation, and another miraculous pregnancy, this time in a virgin womb. God's only son became flesh, the Spirit of Christ enfleshed in the waiting womb of a willing young woman. Mary was to be the mother of the Our Lord, the Hope of Nations. 

The Advent of Christ was a rebirth of hope. More than that, a fulfilment of hope becoming flesh and dwelling among us. God drew near to us and demonstrated His love in the most tangible way possible, He became one of us. The God who created all things humbled Himself and became part of His creation. He began the remaking that will ultimately be fulfilled when His reign is fully established. But what a beginning He has made!

He is not distant or disengaged. He is not against us. He is one of us. He is among us. He is for us. We can know Him and know that He understands us. He is the reason for and the embodiment of our hope. The hope that came at Christmas!