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The fact that we are all so familiar with the events of the Christmas story is both a blessing and unblessing. It is a blessing that we know about the historical event that took place 2000 years ago and that we appreciate its significance. It is a wonderful story that we never tire of hearing. But that is also our failing. Our familiarity with the story has made us lose its reality and its drama. We have taken the story of the Christ child, held it before us, and said: "Oh, isn’t it beautiful." We have coddled and sentimentalized it. And when we read it there is a temptation to think that the world of Mary and Joseph was more rosier than ours, where miracles were still possible and God was more active and hope made more sense and evil was stoppable and reality wasn’t quite so harsh. The Christmas story sometimes creates a little of the feeling of the Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy and her dog Toto have been transported by a tornado into the land of Oz, you’ll recall that Dorothy looks around at her surroundings: the little Munchkins, the good fairy, the yellow brick road. Then she turns to her dog and says what has to be the understatement of the years "Toto, I have the feeling that we are no longer in Kansas." Perhaps it’s the same way for us. Mentally at this time of the year we put ourselves in the land of Christmas. The days of Caesar Augustus, Herod the King, angels, shepherds, all in all a nice place to visit each year. But the problem is that we don’t see much resemblance between that kind of world and the kind of 21st century world that we have to contend with every day. The fact is, however, that with just a little bit of probing you’ll discover that our impressions are not true. The Bible sets the story at the time of the first tax registration in the final days of Herod the King. Miserable years they were. Herod was fast losing his grip on his work, his sanity and increasingly on Judea. His boss, Caesar Augustus, was not happy with him, and the people of Israel were stuck in the middle. Without question, there would shortly be Roman soldiers within their midst for the first time in decades. That was Caesar’s style. When things were going well he allowed a lot of latitude, but when problems developed he came down with the hammer. The hammer this time was the tax and the tax registration business was not business as usual. This was a frightening first, and the Jews hated taxes. In short, the story takes place in a time when it was difficult to be optimistic. Israel was facing national instability, a shrinking standard of living, infringement on personal freedoms, a rise in radical groups and a very uncertain future. It was anything but a never, never land of trust and devotion. Isn’t this more like the world in which we live? Let’s face it. Sometimes our choices create the mess. Sometimes the mess just seems to find us. Have you mailed your Christmas cards yet? A story is told of a woman who discovered she had forgotten to send any Christmas cards. Though the time was short, the clock had not yet struck midnight. She rushed into a store and found two boxes of cards already marked 50 percent off. Without reading or even really looking at them, she feverishly began addressing and signing the cards. Dashing to the post office, she shoved them onto the counter just as the clerk was closing. On Christmas day, when things had quieted down a bit, she noticed that one of those last minute cards had been left over. She wondered, What was the message I sent to my friends? Opening the card, she stared unbelievingly at the words: 'This card is just a note to say ... A little gift is on the way. I have a pretty good idea what she was going to be doing on the day after Christmas. Christmas is about God coming to us just as we are! In the midst of our Christmas rush…in the midst of our mess…in the midst of our darkness. Do the messy parts of your life keep you from faith because you find it hard to believe God will love you in the midst of your troubles, your depression, your grief? Presbyterian pastor, J. Barrie Shepherd, tells of a time when Christ came to him in his darkness. "Some seven years ago now I flew out into darkness. It was Boxing Day in Scotland, the day after Christmas Day, and three days after the death of my mother. As the jumbo jet headed out across the Atlantic, the early winter evening settled in, shades were drawn down on the cabin windows, and I was alone with memories and thoughts of all that lay ahead. In the darkest hour of that sleepless night I raised the blind an inch or so to see what I could see...and there was light, the great rippling, towering curtain of the Northern Lights - Aurora Borealis - spread as far as eye could see and changing, ever changing in intensity, color and shape. I was spellbound, enchanted, watching until the light of dawn crept in and took its place. I had seen the Northern Lights before, they are not that rare in Scotland, but had never known their healing power, their life-giving gift until that one impulsive moment - or was it providential -when I raised the blind and saw the light, God's light." |
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12.24.03 - A Story Too Familiar
