As my PhD-crowned, recently retired bride was baking chocolate-chip cookies this morning, she was bouncing to the “Hey Google” Christmas music of the ‘50s – Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dean Martin, etc. Once in a while, a carol or two would sandwich in there, but it was mostly about the joy of the season or of the moment. Our daughter owns a bottle redemption center; I was wondering how that was going to play out on the 26th and on Jan 2 as the joy of the season settles back into reality.
I am forever sifting through our religious traditions and dogmas to extract meaning beyond the historical moment. We professing Christians refer to Christmas as the “First Advent” of Jesus, the Son of God, brought to earth as fully human to experience our joy and suffering and to sacrifice Himself for escape from the terminal clutches of the sin that keeps all of us from the glory of God and love of each other. We mark it annually on the calendar to remind us to celebrate the appointed day.
“Be Careful What You Pray for!”
Some 40 or so years ago, I was walking one winter evening on Baxter Blvd in Portland, Maine. It suddenly came to me that I was living in the vague hope of a Kingdom of God that seemed infinitely beyond my grasp. So, I said a prayer that falls into the category of “be careful what you pray for”: “Lord, please don’t let me pass from this life without getting a glimpse of your Kingdom!”
I’ve been in a race against time ever since – through two seminary degrees, a half dozen books I’ve written, and 30 years in pulpit ministry. The best that I can extract from the search is that there is something very wrong with a Christian life pinned down by a calendar or even a code.
Is it possible that the First Advent of the birth of Jesus is a moment reborn in the hearts of all who turn to Him as Lord? Is it possible that the widely anticipated Second Advent of His return is the miraculous appearance of the One who already is here but at the moment is beyond our highly-restrained field of vision? 1 John 3:2 would suggest so: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
What About Mary?
Someone asked me recently, “Why was Mary chosen as the mother of Jesus?” Believe it or not, I’ve never been asked that question before. My quick answer was, “She was chosen just as you and I have been chosen – people without credentials that might be pointed to as privilege.” By that reasoning, and aside from her prophesied lineage to King David, Mary may have been chosen because she was wholly without religious merit within her community. You and I have been chosen as Kingdom Kids for the same reason. God finds favor with the unexpected, the unprepared and the unlikely.
The very same could be said of the shepherds, vagabonds unwelcome in the Temple, but chosen above Temple stalwarts to announce to the world the birth of the long-awaited Savior. So, what is it going to be – eternal Holy Night or yesterday’s holy calendar marking tomorrow’s celebration?
Fighting a Battle Over Nothing:
That question goes to the root of the great conflict we are experiencing in our nation today. Calendrical evangelical American Christians and the political secularists are at war with one another over a dead Christianity. One insists that the Bible is foundational to the American republic. The other counters that Christianity stands opposed to an American bedrock principle, freedom of religion. When the war is over, however, only the rubble will remain calendrical, while a re-emerging Holy Night will give rise not to revived nationalism but to renewed hope in the present, dynamic, triumphant Kingdom of God.
An often-ignored 3rd verse of the Carol, “O Holy Night”, speaks to that hope:
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love, and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
With hymns of joy in grateful chorus rising,
Let every heart adore His holy name!
Christ is the Lord! With saint and seraph praising,
His power and glory evermore proclaim!
The mystery of the Kingdom of God that stands as a bulwark against the empty political intrigue of winning at all cost, then, is the message from the manger: “A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!”
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