I'm having a hard time with Christmas this year.
"Booty Shakin' Santa" - $19.97 at Walmart.
A ceramic Nativity with baby Jesus' hands outstretched toward heaven - .97 cents
Silent night?
No crying He makes? (Have you ever been around a newborn?)
Chubby naked baby angels telling shepherds not to be afraid? (Maybe they'd tell the shepherds not to laugh at such a ridiculous sight.)
I think that Hallmark may have ruined Christmas. Or maybe Consumerism has.
I think it's very, very easy for people to subtly distance themselves from the original Christmas story to such a degree that they can't relate to what it meant for the very first readers. What chapter in Luke do we find the elves and candy canes?
Peace? Joy? Celebration?
Christianity never has to sanitize and fluff up reality in order to find peace or joy. True joy and peace are found when we plow right through difficult situations and trust (God) that there is something better on the other side.
So, why do we bother to sanitize the scene? Did cute little angels spray Lysol on the hay before Mary laid the newborn down? Were there bugs in the hay?
Frederick Buechner wrote "in the night among sweet breath and steaming dung of beasts…"
Shit, people. Poop. That's hardly the scene Hallmark projects. That's hardly the scene 99% of the churches present.
Ever wonder why there was no room in the Inn? Maybe Joseph's relatives can count to nine. Nine months of pregnancy – obviously Mary and Joseph didn't "Wait" (like True Love does).
Luke set's the stage by telling us that Augustus was in power. Augustus considered himself divine and ruled through power, conquest, control, and through fear. Matthew set's the stage by telling us that Jesus was born in the time of Herod. Herod ruled through murder, oppression, accumulation of wealth, and manipulation. Both writers confront us with the question, "Who's your king? Who will you serve?"... or probably better stated, "Which Kingdom do you operate in?"
Frederick Buechner: "those who believe in God can never, in a way, be sure of Him again. Once they have seen Him in a stable they can never be sure where He will appear or to what lengths He will go or to what ludicrous depths of self humiliation he will descend in his wild pursuit of humankind.
Christmas is a story that tells us that there is NO PLACE that God's power and presence will not go in His wild pursuit of mankind.
If God is willing to be born in a barn, then there's no safe place that we can hide from God. There is no place that we can escape His power to re-create the human heart.
It's a story that pits two kingdoms against each other. Is it going to be the Caesars and Herod's of this world or will it be this new King that's on the scene? It's a story that tells us there is a new way to be human. Instead of operating through power and conquest there should be love and compassion. Instead of accumulation, there is generosity. Instead of running from failures, we can now let God forgive and let Him re-create our hearts.
Before the Christmas story can mean anything to us, we must connect with what it meant for the first readers. Then, this story can become ours.
HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE:
Herod's kingdom is a pile of rocks. The Caesars are a bunch of guys in togas in our history books. But we're here celebrating Jesus kingdom. Apparently the writers of the Christmas story were on to something.
1 comments:
Excellent thoughts!
Love the descriptive title!!!
What is so amazing is how the Kings of this world clung to stay in their opulent palaces and positions of dominance...
while Jesus forsook the most lofty of places, the throne of Heaven, to be born as a fragile, needy child to unwed parents in a shit-filled manger (I love that you used this word) situated in the lowest slums of Bethlehem.
In contrast:
The ascension of humankind.
The descension of Christ.
Both with gain in heart, mind, and soul. Our selfish desire for gaining power, wealth, and pleasure at the expense of our own soul; and God's selfless desire for saving our lives from that deadly disease!
Christmas is about a spark of light in the darkest midnight of human situations. It's about a thousand-year dead corpse's heart beginning to beat with life for the first time.
I think that much of the American church no longer identifies with the horrid conditions and personalties of our faith-history... including that of Christ. Many of us are uncomfortable with the reality that they stank, they were dirty, they were poor, they were lower-class, they were "ruffians", they made huge mistakes, and they lived below contemporary culture. It's like we're embarassed of the second cousin who has a mental illness or something...
We tend to cherish "nice things". We like to put on that we have it all together, nice and neat in an attractive little package. An image that everyone can buy into.
We traded our "real" God for an "image" that mainstream would like and accept. Clean-shaven, well groomed, mild-mannered, average, white, clean, good-looking Jesus.
WHAT?!?!?!???
When will we (the American church) realize that we are lying to people about God! That we are helping to say with the rest of our consumerist culture, "Image is everything!" --- and people's real lives (the lives they live at home and at work) are deteriorating because they can't keep up with the "image" of God we sell every Sunday. (and every Christmas)
And we wonder why so many lives are still broken in our churches, why there's still divorce, why there's still affairs going on, why there's still abuse happening, why there's still abortions, why there's kids still rebelling, why there's still people leaving in droves, and so on...
We're afraid to be really REAL because we won't be accepted by the mainstream church. It's a unnoticed social pressure to be ideal; and those who strive to be real either join the crowd, risk feeling isolated or marginalized, or leave the church to be accepted and loved for who they are.
I often think that the American church has gotten so off track in this regard, that we wouldn't even recognize Jesus had he come in our time. He wouldn't fit the "ideal image" we made of Him. He wouldn't say the "ideal messages" we like to hear. He wouldn't want to hang out with us or call us His disciples... and that shock would probably make us very angry! (sound familiar...?)
Ludicrous depths of self humiliation...
in the name of love...
with a holy passion...
Can it be any more meaningful?
Can it stir any more emotions?
Well said, my friend!
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