Considering a Non-Nostalgic Jesus This Christmas…
For the past few Christmases I have posted a little note about the season, influenced by what I’ve learned over the last year. This year, I have spent a lot of time in the Psalter, a book which begins with a lot of complaining, but in the end calls us to a posture of praise. In a time of the year when we celebrate the birth of our King, we must come to terms with the fact that his birth meant the death of other children born around the same time he was, from the same town, with a life much like his own. His birth meant that everything was going to change. His birth meant that there would be change, but not right away – not soon enough for a lot of folks. Was it soon enough for those parents who had their little children murdered by Herod? Was it soon enough for the leprous who would die a few years before a grown Jesus would be able to heal them? When would the peace come? When would the “good will to all men” actually come?
The Advent, the story of how God clothed himself with human flesh that he might reconcile the world to himself, that story is not a clean, Christmas story. It is a story that fits into the book of Psalms. It is a story that invites our laments – it invites our grievances – it invites our frustrations and problems and drama – it invites us to ask God why? how? – it tells us that God is listening, that God is acting, that God has not left us on our own. It tells that one day all will be made right, and in the mean time it tells us that God is there. It demands that once we complain, we remember that we complain because we trust God. We don’t grumble, as if God doesn’t care about us – but we complain and long for the promises to be fulfilled. That Jesus arrived and died is only half the story – we long for his returning and for our resurrection. We long to see him face to face, for our faith to be made sight. We love him, but not because we see him or touch him, but because he loved us and died for us.
The Gospel of Christmas does not tell us to ignore the shortcomings of this world, but to call out to God in the midst of them. It invites us to tell God how we feel. It also demands us to move beyond this world, and to the praise of God. In the midst of our shortcomings, in the midst our of complaining that the world is not right and people don’t treat us right – it is only there that the Gospel confronts us. The Gospel is more than a confrontation, though. It moves us within our troubles to a place of transformation – to a place where we are willing to lose everything, that God might one day make it all right. Here, we will be able to give God the glory that is really due to his name – the glory he deserves, the glory he created us to give him.
Without the messiness of life the Gospel wouldn’t exist. Let’s stop pretending we’re ok – that we’re fine – that we are exactly where we always wanted to be. Let’s allow the Gospel to make us uncomfortable. Our lives are so messed up that God had to not only become a man, but take on the sins of the world and die a brutal death for us – we should feel uncomfortable. We should feel guilty. We are guilty. The Gospel tells us that God has done something about it. Jesus’ last cry “My God my God why have you forsaken me?” was answered three days later by his resurrection from the dead. Let’s allow the Gospel to push us to praise. And let our praise spring from the hope that God has not left us in our shortcomings and guilt, but has provided us with another chance to lift up our lives before him and begin a new journey. It will not be perfect, and it will sure enough have its own other shortcomings, but it will be marked by our praise – something that I’m sure makes our Father delighted.
Worship a Jesus this Christmas that is not a pretty little baby stuck in a pretty little manger, with pretty people standing around looking mystified and nostalgic. Remember what Simeon said to Mary about her baby Jesus, “This child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” So buyer beware – Jesus was appointed to reveal your heart. How will you respond? Unless you begin with honesty, I think you’ll have trouble ever getting to true praise.
Andy
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