Merry Christmas (12/24/12)

Shalom,

 

     Warm and wonderful Christmas greetings to all.  I hope and pray that your celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior is beautiful and spiritually enriching.

 

     In every age people ask the same question: Why doesn't God prove he exists through some powerful demonstration?  Every Christmas season, Yahweh reminds us what his answer to that persistent question is: His transforming power appears in ways that confound our expectations.  The Son of God came as a frail baby in a smelly stable among the common folk of his day rather than as a crowned king in a palace.  Our Creator does many things in unexpected ways because he wants people to know him by faith.  The day of Jesus' birth wasn't a holiday, it was a happening.  It's something no human earned and one we definitely don't deserve.  It's something like our loving heavenly Father often does, a gift of grace.

     That's what it was for those shepherds so long ago.  After a hard day of tending sheep, they're sitting around the fire swapping stories - telling lies most likely - as men are prone to do when they talk about themselves.  Suddenly the night is ablaze with heavenly light and they find themselves immersed in the glory of the Lord.  Out of this glory an angel appears with a startling announcement: "I bring you good news of great joy..."

     It's important to note that there's nothing at all in this account to suggest anything religious was going on around that campfire.  Nor is there anything in the Scriptures to lead us to believe that these shepherds did anything to bring about this angelic visit.  In truth, there's not a shred of evidence to indicate that they were in any way special; nothing to suggest that there was anything in their spirit or nature or lifestyle that would have earned them the privilege of this angelic announcement.

     I believe this is precisely why Yahweh chose them.  In first century Judea, shepherds were basically outcasts.  Respectable people simply didn't socialize with them.  They were the lowest class in that society, and to our way of thinking, they were the least likely to receive a supernatural visitation.  I believe this is a core message of Christmas.  It begs us to wake up and realize that the holy doesn't just happen to religious people, but many times to undeserving people the world over.  It could be lepers or lunatics, shepherds or Samaritans, or even a woman taken in adultery.

     Sometimes our heavenly Father comes to us as he did to the shepherds, through a mystical experience, a vision or a visitation.  More often than not, though, he reveals himself in much more ordinary ways - like "a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."  He may come as words of encouragement spoken by a friend in an hour of sorrow or in a child's smile or even in the words of a sermon.  Our Creator God often confounds our expectations because he doesn't think like we do.  We want big supernatural events to prove who he is.  He often does much more common things.  Remember Elijah waiting for Yahweh on the mountain?  Our Almighty One True God didn't appear to him in the big profound things like Elijah expected, the big wind and earthquake and fire weren't what he used.  The Sovereign Lord God spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper.

     Christmas invites us to pause in the mad rush of living and meeting expectations.  It calls us to examine our lives, to see if we've missed something important in the quietness where our Father often speaks to us in a gentle whisper.  As we do, more often than not we belatedly realize that the presence of the Father, Son, and Spirit is with us; that he's been there all the time, even when we paid him no mind, even when we were sure he was nowhere to be found.  Most of the world missed an amazing supernatural event in Bethlehem because it was too wrapped up in its own expectations.  Most of the world missed the coming of the King of Glory because he showed up in such ordinary trappings.

     Don't miss out on the joy of Christmas: the Savior born to us.  Listen a little harder to some of the second, third, and fourth verses of those carols we love.  The Gospel is strongly and plainly proclaimed.  Jesus came to us, an ordinary yet extraordinary child sent by his Father in response to our need.  Don't let the traditions keep you from seeing that.  It's really sweet to sing Silent Night as we hold the candles on this night, but the hard fact is the Light of the World has come and many missed it.

     Enjoy your Christmas celebrations with new eyes.  Look at the amazing thing our Lord God Almighty did.  Praise Jesus for setting aside his divinity and living among us.  Praise the Father, Son, and Spirit for giving us what we needed instead of what we expected.  Remember what the angel said: "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL PEOPLE.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, he is Messiah the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11).

 

     Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Mike