|
|
|
| December 2009 | Volume 58, Issue 7 |
From the Pastor's Desk
A Mysterious Thing
Christmas is a season of . . . mystery. You might think that a surprising statement. After all isn’t Christmas about joy, about peace on earth, about a baby laid in a manger and angels and shepherds and wise men. Of all the things we might say about Christmas, why would I use the world mystery?
I use the word mystery because the birth of Jesus, the incarnation (to use a churchy word) is something that defies our expectation when we consider what has taken place. It all seems a bit much, from a young girl who is visited by an angel with the news that she will bear a child although she is a virgin to a call to poor shepherds minding their flocks to wise men traveling hundreds of miles to see the child. Yet the most astounding thing for us to consider is that the baby who is laid in a manger is God and yet a human being like you and I – talk about a mystery
Some are more comfortable demystifying the story. They might argue that Mary was not really a virgin. The shepherds just wandered by. The wise men are metaphors for gentiles who would become believers. Jesus was just human endowed with gifts but no more divine that you or I. While it might be easy to dismiss all we read in the narratives of Jesus birth as simply stories meant to teach a broader point, for me to dismiss the stories as metaphors or allegories is to miss the astounding thing that God is doing for us.
Consider what sort of God we have who would humble himself and become human for our sake and for the sake of our salvation. Consider the worth that every human being has when we consider how much love God has for us to do this thing. Consider who much we can learn about what it means to be human by looking at how Jesus lived. Consider how we might really live through good times and bad times knowing that Jesus lived as we do yet without sin and still calls us brothers and sisters. Consider the cross; consider the empty tomb and then you will understand what we celebrate when we relate the miraculous story of Jesus birth; this mysterious thing that God has done.
And along the way we get to meet ordinary people who welcomed this miracle that God is doing, Elizabeth (the mother of John the Baptist) and her husband Zachariah (who was a bit of doubter himself), Mary who welcomed what God was doing through her with great faith and Joseph who rejected the mores of his world to remain with Mary despite the scandal; those poor shepherds who heard the good news and came to worship the baby and lastly those wise men from the East who came to pay homage to the new born king.
This Christmas season take stock in what God has done in the incarnation; this mysterious and loving act. Celebrate the child and worship him that you might welcome the good news into your heart and affirm the blessings of this gift not only on Christmas but forevermore.
Pastor Bob
