'Twas the day after Christmas
And all through the store
There were clothes put on clearance
From ceiling to floor.
At home in the living room
Where worn wrapping paper was laying
Parents uncovered kids' gifts
While they were outside playing.
Around the decorated tree
Lay boxes for lights
To be stacked in the closet
Tucked away out of sight.
We'll do it all again next year
Perhaps beginning in November
But starting now until then
His birth we'll barely remember.
Christmas has become a celebration of holiday meals, gift giving, and family photos. And we find ourselves year after year trying to create a more pleasurable experience with more tinsel and lights and family games and tacky sweaters.
Is it possible that we have found ourselves going from one scene to another hoping that our pleasures will be outdone? One relationship to the next? One job to the next? One city to the next? One social circle to the next? All to be satisfied! But only for a moment!
Not only have we forfeited many opportunities to actually enjoy life because it was simply ordinary but in many instances we as Christians have forfeited moments to find real purpose and meaning because we've reduced our lives to those momentary pleasures that left us reeling for something more.
It's sad to think that we have reduced Christmas to a holiday garnering social media hype and advertising of various brands. The birth of Christ was never meant to be neatly packaged by candlelight services, Christmas carols, or a nativity scene on our coffee tables. His birth was the catalyst for transformation. While the star pointed some to His birth, His birth pointed us to true life.
So, before we pack up all our decorations maybe we can take a moment to reflect on that first Christmas morning; the day of His birth. To remember that the first Christmas wasn't all glitter and glam. It was grimy! It was certainly not what any of us would have imagined.
Christianity isn't all for putting on smiles and attending mass or a candlelight service. It's not Santa Claus or family photos. It's not receiving gifts or even giving them away. Christianity is seeing that Christmas accommodated His arrival that led to the climactic scene of His death and resurrection.
You and me? Well, it requires a response. A response that we will declare with our lives for the next 365 days. We either believe He came or He didn't. And if He came and lived and died the way it's told, we cannot simply celebrate with the exchanging of gifts. We must exchange our life for His!
Monday, December 26, 2016
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Not So Silent Night
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
While that familiar tune is one of the most oft sung Christmas carols in the world, it's not the way most mothers tell the story of their son being born.
There wasn't anything silent or calm with her newborn baby frantically screaming; certainly, it was far from a holy night given the pains of childbirth (I read somewhere that childbirth was more like a curse).
Back to that familiar Christmas nativity for a moment. We've serenaded many a congregation with those lyrics of Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and Angels We Have Heard on High. And while they create a festive mood for this time of year, perhaps we've romanticized the story slightly more than it was ever meant to be.
Seriously! Think about the characters of this story for a moment.
A Jewish teen named Mary conceived a child by way of a miracle. Her fiancé Joseph was informed of her conception through a dream. Star gazers, called magi, from the east followed a specially named star to bring gifts to the child. Shepherds in the field were serenaded by heavenly hosts.
That sounds almost unbelievable.
While it does sound a bit make believe, Disney-like to be honest, it has most definitely made a profound impact throughout the entire world.
But what happens next is amazing in and of itself; it's the not so silent night!
It was during the reign of Herod that this other king, this savior if you will, was born. Herod was an egomaniac whose power was threatened by the reputation of a newborn. So he decided to slaughter all the male babies in the region. Let's just say he was the Hitler or Stalin of Jesus' day.
So, Mary and Joseph and Jesus fled. And all the while God was working behind the scenes, just as He often does, to secure His plan from being thwarted by inhumane human behavior.
And for thirty years Jesus walked the streets, treating others with grace, meeting physical needs, building relationships, forsaking his own means of gratification, forgoing any material gain. For what? One more not so silent night!
The night of His betrayal, He heard the screams of His accusers, the denial of one of His own disciples, and most certainly the cries of His mother. And in those moments of His crucifixion, surely, it was a 'not so silent night' as He screamed in anguish and torment upon that Roman cross.
You see, when we consider the lovely story of Jesus lying in a manger, that was simply the prologue for a story of death. The plot line takes many twists and turns from the cradle to the cross. But inevitably, He came to die. And His death requires a response.
All too often we dress up the story of Jesus in the manger as being something lovely. But His birth is meant to point to the cross. He came to die! And it cannot remain a silent night for you and me.
We must choose to believe the story of Jesus and completely surrender our lives to Him or, like Herod, feel the pressure of having our very own kingdom threatened by the coming of the Promised Messiah!
All is calm, all is bright
While that familiar tune is one of the most oft sung Christmas carols in the world, it's not the way most mothers tell the story of their son being born.
There wasn't anything silent or calm with her newborn baby frantically screaming; certainly, it was far from a holy night given the pains of childbirth (I read somewhere that childbirth was more like a curse).
Back to that familiar Christmas nativity for a moment. We've serenaded many a congregation with those lyrics of Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and Angels We Have Heard on High. And while they create a festive mood for this time of year, perhaps we've romanticized the story slightly more than it was ever meant to be.
Seriously! Think about the characters of this story for a moment.
A Jewish teen named Mary conceived a child by way of a miracle. Her fiancé Joseph was informed of her conception through a dream. Star gazers, called magi, from the east followed a specially named star to bring gifts to the child. Shepherds in the field were serenaded by heavenly hosts.
That sounds almost unbelievable.
While it does sound a bit make believe, Disney-like to be honest, it has most definitely made a profound impact throughout the entire world.
But what happens next is amazing in and of itself; it's the not so silent night!
It was during the reign of Herod that this other king, this savior if you will, was born. Herod was an egomaniac whose power was threatened by the reputation of a newborn. So he decided to slaughter all the male babies in the region. Let's just say he was the Hitler or Stalin of Jesus' day.
So, Mary and Joseph and Jesus fled. And all the while God was working behind the scenes, just as He often does, to secure His plan from being thwarted by inhumane human behavior.
And for thirty years Jesus walked the streets, treating others with grace, meeting physical needs, building relationships, forsaking his own means of gratification, forgoing any material gain. For what? One more not so silent night!
The night of His betrayal, He heard the screams of His accusers, the denial of one of His own disciples, and most certainly the cries of His mother. And in those moments of His crucifixion, surely, it was a 'not so silent night' as He screamed in anguish and torment upon that Roman cross.
You see, when we consider the lovely story of Jesus lying in a manger, that was simply the prologue for a story of death. The plot line takes many twists and turns from the cradle to the cross. But inevitably, He came to die. And His death requires a response.
All too often we dress up the story of Jesus in the manger as being something lovely. But His birth is meant to point to the cross. He came to die! And it cannot remain a silent night for you and me.
We must choose to believe the story of Jesus and completely surrender our lives to Him or, like Herod, feel the pressure of having our very own kingdom threatened by the coming of the Promised Messiah!
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Should I Stay or Go?
Who, in their right mind, would leave their pregnant wife?
Yet, given the circumstances, who in their right mind would stay?
There he was, making an attempt to stay faithful and pure, and here comes his bride with news that certainly rocked their relationship to the core.
"I'm pregnant!" Talk about an emotional appeal!
Those words have the power to bring anyone to tears. Tears of joy surrounded with much anticipation. Or tears of anger crowded around thoughts of betrayal.
And there he was. With a decision to make. Stay or go? Public or private? Hold a grudge or choose to forgive?
And just before he finalized his decision to "put her away quietly," the unimaginable happened. Something like a supernatural being appeared to him in a dream.
You see, in this culture driven by laws and traditions, it was well within his right to have her publicly humiliated even stoned to death for her unfaithful and hideous behavior.
But this heavenly being, this angel if you will, made a serious appeal for this man to place his initial response on the backburner of human logic and receive this divine interruption as a major twist in the story line of redemption.
So this couple, Mary and Joseph, just two ordinary individuals drafted into God's grand narrative, chose to say yes to His invitation without requiring a detailed explanation.
In a culture where they were certain to be ridiculed and ostracized with heavy words that would wound their most coveted relationships, they found more solace in the unveiled promise of Emmanuel than the weight of accusations and public opinion.
No doubt "God with us" had been attributed a great cost, but they realized the reward of their obedience far outweighed the cost of any amount of disobedience.
Mary could have fled amid the fear of being "caught" in the bout of her mysterious conception. Joseph could have convincingly won any argument of her unfaithfulness and abandoned his bride. Yet they vowed to believe the unbelievable. To see the impossible made possible. To see the darkness overwhelmed by the light.
And now today, because they chose to believe the miraculous and did not abandon the supernatural, we celebrate the birth of their son, God's Son, Emmanuel, God with us.
What we never could have conceived on our own was conceived in faith by trusting Him and His plan to reconcile us back to Himself. And it all began with a Jewish carpenter and his teenage bride saying yes to the greatest invitation in the world; giving birth to the Savior of the world!
Yet, given the circumstances, who in their right mind would stay?
There he was, making an attempt to stay faithful and pure, and here comes his bride with news that certainly rocked their relationship to the core.
"I'm pregnant!" Talk about an emotional appeal!
Those words have the power to bring anyone to tears. Tears of joy surrounded with much anticipation. Or tears of anger crowded around thoughts of betrayal.
And there he was. With a decision to make. Stay or go? Public or private? Hold a grudge or choose to forgive?
And just before he finalized his decision to "put her away quietly," the unimaginable happened. Something like a supernatural being appeared to him in a dream.
You see, in this culture driven by laws and traditions, it was well within his right to have her publicly humiliated even stoned to death for her unfaithful and hideous behavior.
But this heavenly being, this angel if you will, made a serious appeal for this man to place his initial response on the backburner of human logic and receive this divine interruption as a major twist in the story line of redemption.
So this couple, Mary and Joseph, just two ordinary individuals drafted into God's grand narrative, chose to say yes to His invitation without requiring a detailed explanation.
In a culture where they were certain to be ridiculed and ostracized with heavy words that would wound their most coveted relationships, they found more solace in the unveiled promise of Emmanuel than the weight of accusations and public opinion.
No doubt "God with us" had been attributed a great cost, but they realized the reward of their obedience far outweighed the cost of any amount of disobedience.
Mary could have fled amid the fear of being "caught" in the bout of her mysterious conception. Joseph could have convincingly won any argument of her unfaithfulness and abandoned his bride. Yet they vowed to believe the unbelievable. To see the impossible made possible. To see the darkness overwhelmed by the light.
And now today, because they chose to believe the miraculous and did not abandon the supernatural, we celebrate the birth of their son, God's Son, Emmanuel, God with us.
What we never could have conceived on our own was conceived in faith by trusting Him and His plan to reconcile us back to Himself. And it all began with a Jewish carpenter and his teenage bride saying yes to the greatest invitation in the world; giving birth to the Savior of the world!
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