No Room for Reindeer —Helene

No Room For Reindeer

Today the world is getting me down.  Outside are the terrorists. Inside we have people who react to the violence of a few by hating the many. There are sorrows closer to home - loved ones with cancer, believers who seem to be slipping away, evangelism that failed, and divorce and marital strife among those I care about.   I didn’t want to plan Christmas posts.  I didn’t want to think about December.  My mood is black.  There is no room for reindeer.

I suspect I am not the only one suffering so.

Yet Christmas is around the corner.  Does the holiday have anything to say to us, those who are struggling to find the spirit of the season?

Oh yes.

Think about the story of Jesus birth.  He wasn’t born into a world of light.  Roman occupation weighed heavily on the Jews.  A former nation of slaves, they longed to once again be free. The local king of the Jews, Herod the Great, had proven no friend.  Although he spent a fortune rebuilding the temple and establishing himself as a Jewish King, he was in fact a paranoid dictator, murdering a number of family members in a rage including his wife and brother-in-law.  This world of darkness was a place where Essenes escaped into caves and Zealots plotted the downfall of Rome. 

This is the world where a hugely pregnant Mary traveled with Joseph south to Bethlehem to be taxed.  In poverty, they waited with the cows for her first-born son to come into the world.  It was here where Angels appeared to shepherds in the night and proclaimed this:

“Do not be afraid; for behold I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

It was into that darkness that these bold words were spoken by the armies of heaven. 

“Glory to God in the highest, 

And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

Jesus did not come into a world of peace, grace and civility.  In his day, leaders were corrupt and morally bankrupt, the people were oppressed, and the religious factions battled each other rather than convert the lost.  Jesus came in a world just like ours.  The angel’s good news of great joy remains: Jesus is light, hope and life for our darkness too.

I may not be ready for reindeer, or blinking lights, or jingling bells.  Reality might intrude on the fantasy that is all things “Holiday” in America.  Yet I am ready for Jesus.  I am ready for the one who is light in the darkness, peace in the midst of strife, reconciliation among enemies, and love that defeated hate in death.  I may not be ready to “Deck the halls with boughs of Holly” but I am ready to join the herald angels in song. 

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Helene

PS.  In an effort to focus on Jesus this Christmas I wrote a series of meditations on his arrival into the world.  Join us next week for all four!

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

“A child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;”   When my husband and I got married, we knew that the chances of us having children of our own was very slim.  We were resigned to the idea of a tidy life without the joys that child-filled Christmases bring. So when despite all medical powers of prediction, we discovered we were pregnant with our oldest child, we understood what joy could be in the words “A child will be born to us.”  

In some amazing and powerful way, Israel was pregnant (Revelation 12:1-6).  She would eventually give birth to the much longed for son.  This was the child of promise the people had been waiting for since God promised Abraham “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (Genesis 22:18). 

We mustn’t read over the words too quickly.  This baby had been longed for not for 10 years but for thousands.  He wasn’t coming to complete an ordinary family but the numerous-as-the-stars-family of Abraham.  He is the longed for son not only of Israel but all the nations. Isaiah sends out the world’s most joyful pregnancy announcement-“For a child will be born to us!”

Helene

Do you hear what I hear? —Melissa

2000 years ago, some shepherds heard a message. 

Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. (Luke 2:10-12)

The lowly shepherds believed it was good news and did what the angels told them, finding the baby savior and then sharing what they knew. 

Not long after, a king heard the same news, but his response was very different.  When the mighty Herod the Great learned that the Messiah had been born, instead of rejoicing for the Savior, he felt threatened by the idea of another “king of the Jews.” He didn’t worship the newly incarnated son of God; he tried to have him murdered(Matthew 2:12-18) .

Fast forward about 30 years.  The baby Savior is now grown to a man, and news about him has spread all over the land.  He is best known as a teacher, and his lessons are about the coming kingdom of God. Remarkably, the responses to his message haven’t changed a lot.  Some choose to come and see what he’s all about, become his disciples and then tell others. Fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, Zealots, prominent women, soldiers, even a few religious leaders.  They are a diverse crowd, but they all have one thing in common.  They knew their need for a Savior, and they heard his message for hope.  One and all, the lowly ones knew they couldn’t be good enough for God and reached for the man who told them they didn’t have to be. 

The priests, scribes and Pharisees heard the same message, but like Herod, they felt threatened.  Jesus turned over tables in the temple, spoke of the temple being destroyed, and called them all a brood of vipers.  He pointed out their hypocrisy and implied in parable after parable that the lowly ones following him were greater than they (Luke 18:9-14, Matthew 21:28-41, Luke 14:16-24).  When he told them that it is the sick who need the doctor, they were tragically unaware of how ill they were.  So with the help of the Romans, they did what Herod was unable to do and murdered Jesus.  Of course, they were only able to do so because Jesus sacrificed himself in order to save all who would follow him. 

That’s the good news we have today, the message that you and I can respond to. 

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

Today, Jesus’s message is the same.  He brings us good news of great joy about a kingdom that he wants us to be a part of.   We have the same choice that Herod and the shepherds, the disciples and the religious leaders had.  We can hear his message of good news and come to him humbly, knowing how much we need a Savior.  Or we can feel threatened, knowing that we have to give up self and sin to follow him, and reject him and his message.

So my question to you in this Christmas season is simple: Do you hear what I hear?