A Tale of Two Stories

That is the story we should be talking about. That little light that came into the world. That ministry of hope and reconciliation. That is the story. A different story. A better story. But that is not the story that dominates the headlines. That's not the story that controls our Facebook feeds. The story that informs our conversations with people. No, the story that we hear all around us centers on fear, on safety, on anger, or on revenge.

Every crazy and disturbing comment you read on Facebook, every discouraging conversation with someone who claims to be a Christian, and every brazen refusal to obey Jesus you encounter comes because that person has bought into a false narrative. People think that this false story is the godly story. That God approves of this story. But God doesn’t. We’ve misunderstood the story and as a result, we have lived wrongly. Our job is to tell a different story, a better story—the story of God coming in the flesh and beginning the process of restoration.

People have just bought into a wrong story. They believe an Orwellian idea that peace comes about through force. That love is weak. That evil must be used to overcome evil. We share a different story.

As we're entering the Christmas, it's as appropriate a time as any to talk about the Incarnation. The story of the Incarnation is the story of the Bible. Incarnation is the embodiment of something in another form. It's the churchy word for God coming down in the flesh as Jesus. Because God the Father really has no normal physical form, at least that we know of. He is a spiritual being and doesn’t look like anything until He becomes incarnate in another form. A burning bush, fire on top of a mountain, lightning and thunder. God comes on the scene, appears in some form, and incarnation happens. We don’t always understand it—how it happens—that’s why it is a mystery. But we understand why. God appears and manifests himself in order to make a difference.

The story of incarnation is the story of restoration—God coming into our midst and making things better. God did it in the story of Adam and Eve, when he empowered them to be fruitful and multiply and fellowshipped with them in the Garden. God did it with Abraham when he appeared and blessed Abraham so that Abraham and his offspring could bless the entire world. God did it with Moses, when he appeared in a burning bush and said he had heard the cry of the Israelite slaves and would break their chains. God did it when he appeared on top of Mount Sinai and gave the Law so that they could worship him and love one another. God did it when he aided the Israelites in their efforts to enter into the Promised Land and set them up as the people of the land. Every one of those was a response to the sin that had marred the world. Every incarnation of God was an attempt to restate the Divine Story that had been ignored, forgotten, and rejected. They are attempts to restore things to their perfected state. And in everyone of those stories, people failed to do their end of the bargain. They lacked faithfulness to God causing things to remain broken.

And the same thing happened when the Kingdom of Israel was established. They did not live in their purpose. They looked to idols and other gods for safety and security and prosperity. They sold out their story. And so God sent the prophets to convict and indict in the hope that they would be restored back to him.

This was true in the time of Isaiah and God spoke through him to address it,

The LORD has said to me in the strongest terms: “Do not think like everyone else does. Do not be afraid that some plan conceived behind closed doors will be the end of you. Do not fear anything except the LORD Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you fear him, you need fear nothing else. He will keep you safe” (Isaiah 8:11-14a NLT).

Then he contrasts the way things should be with the way things are:

And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?  To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.  They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.  And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness (Isaiah 8:19-22 ESV).

There is no dawn. That's sad. I don't know how they keep their dishes clean.

Seriously, it's amazing how timely and pertinent those words are. They are applicable today just as much as they were 2,700 years ago. In a world of turmoil and distress, everyone is looking for answers. Answers that will calm our fears. Assure us of the future. And because we have believed the false story, we go to all the wrong places. In Isaiah’s day instead of going to God, they went to mediums and necromancers. Now, mediums and necromancers aren't all that prominent. But we also have our places that teach things contrary to God. We may got to politicians or celebrities for hope. And the principle is that if we go to a place that isn't teaching the things of God to learn the basic principles of how to live our life, then we will be living our life out of step with God. Because the only thing to be found in the wrong places is more darkness. They have no dawn as Isaiah said. There is no light in them.

And while it is not terribly helpful to set up an “us vs. them” mentality, it is even more destructive just accepting everything that the world tells us is right. Swallowing the fear that the world wants us to have. Kindling the hate that they want us to have. The reality is, our thinking is contrary to their thinking. Just like it was for God's people in the days of Isaiah. We don’t think like everyone else does. We don’t fear the things the world does. We don’t revere the things the world does. We don’t look for solutions the way the world does. We are to be different than the world, so we don’t react and retaliate the way the world does. Because you won’t find a happy ending in the story the world wants us to live. They have no dawn.

Martin Luther King Jr. said,  "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

And faced with a world that has a story that really doesn't bring hope, it's in the Incarnation that we find an alternative story. A way of light and love in the midst of all this darkness.

John begins his Gospel by telling this story:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:1-4, 14 (ESV)

Just like God had done numerous times before in the days of the Israelites, God showed up to clean up our mess. The light entered into our darkness. God wrapped himself in flesh and came down into our world. And the reason was the same as it was during every incarnation before—to restore all things. To bring the wayward child home. To give us hope and a future.

Ronald Wallace in Elijah and Elisha describes our situation with the following:

 "We need not despair when we see great movements of evil achieving spectacular success on this earth, for we may be sure that God, in unexpected places, has already secretly prepared His counter-movement...Therefore the situation is never hopeless where God is concerned. Whenever evil flourishes, it is always a superficial flourish, for at the height of the triumph of evil God will be there, ready with His man and His movement and His plans to ensure that His own cause will never fail."

When everything looked dark; when all hope seemed to be lost; when the story was almost forgotten, God stepped in. Galatians 4:4 says that at just the right time, God sent his Son. God’s solution was wrapping his divinity with humanity in the person of Jesus.

God wanted us back. God wanted to restore things to the way they used to be. When God created, God loved it all. He declared it good. God loved us. Life ran perfectly. We were in a perfect relationship with him and one another. We had perfect purpose. Perfect provision. Perfect protection from anything bad. It was even perfect in that we had a choice to keep it that way. But humanity chose poorly then and we choose poorly now. It’s not at all like it once was. We're starting from a fallen state this time, but God wants to set it right again. That’s the process of restoration. And that is the goal of incarnation—for God to reconcile people back to Himself. To take us out of the darkness. To show us what it means to really live—free from fear, free from slavery to sin, free from hate. The incarnation is a story of passion. Jesus took on flesh so that people could see God as he really is and see how God wants us to live.

God is still doing the same thing through you, through me, and through all who believe and follow the divine story.

Twenty years ago, when I was in college, the WWJD bracelets were all the craze. Everyone would wear them. The concept behind the bracelets was a good thing. It was a constant reminder to do what Jesus would have us do. Of being a light in this dark world.

The incarnation does not end with Jesus. It continues through us as we embrace the story of light. Jesus was sent not just for salvation, but as Dallas Willard has said, “Jesus teaches you to live your life as He would live your life.”

And this is the point of the incarnation. This is the point of us surrendering to Jesus. We echo the words he said in the garden before His suffering, "Not my will but yours be done."

Even on the cross he showed us a different way when he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34a ESV).

He taught us, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9 ESV).

And one of the more challenging teachings: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:43-44 ESV).

He's setting up a different story.

The world says to not forgive. The world says to retaliate. The world says that blessed are the conquerors. The world says to hate our enemies. But Jesus gives us a different story. Which story are we going to buy into? Which one are we going to live our lives centered on?

There always seems to be this flirtation in Christianity with an easy faith. You raise your hand, say a prayer, or get baptized and you have given your life to Jesus. But that just isn't the totality of it all. Sure, raise your hand and proclaim your faith. Say a prayer and ask for forgiveness of your sins. Get baptized as a joining of you in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Those are good things, but those things in themselves don't make us Christians. We are Christians because we have decided that Jesus' plan for our lives and this world is better than the best plans we can come up for ourselves. His story is better than our stories. Being a Christian, means loving the people that Jesus loves. It means living the way that Jesus wants us to live. It means buying so much into Jesus' idea for this world that we sacrifice our own lives - our own plans and desires-  our time and our energy - we sacrifice it all to follow Jesus. And we don't let the modern-day mediums or necromancers who may be talking heads on the television, scholars who have written books, a well-intentioned yet misguided friend, or anyone else steer us away from passionately pursuing the things of Jesus over the things of this world.

If you haven't done that, surrendered your life to the plan of Jesus, then I invite you to do that today. Don't hesitate if it is something you want.

Because here is the thing. Satan and this world is going to try and destroy us. There is a false narrative thriving around us. Fear, hatred, greed, selfishness - the list of sinful traits goes on and on. But what I see is that they become commonly accepted after events like the attacks on Paris. They peep their abscessed, boil ridden head out of their dark, damp, and musty hole at times like these. And for some reason, many are convinced that the freak of nature is beautiful when all that it brings is death and destruction.

At the core of this tension there is a conflict between the false story of the world and the story of restoration in Jesus. There is a tension between two kingdoms: The Kingdom of God and the Kingdoms of this world - America in our context. The Kingdom of God teaches us to love strangers and protect ourselves. The Kingdom of America tells us to protect ourselves. The Kingdom of God teaches us to leave vengeance to God. The Kingdom of America tells us to take things into our own hands. Which story do we live buy? Times like these really challenge us on whether we are willing to follow Jesus even when we don't want to.

When I first planned this piece, it was going to be much different than what you just heard. It was going to be a nice story about the incarnation. About God in flesh. About how we need to be more like that with a lot of good, touching, and hopefully inspiring stories. But that was before 43 people died in a suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon a week ago Thursday. This was before as many as 129 people died in those nearly surreal attacks in Paris a week ago Friday. And even Friday, our town had a young man kill himself. During these times, we struggle to make sense of things. This other message was before people I know to be Christian cried out for blood and revenge on their Facebook pages. This was before I talked with friends who I thought shared my values; values derived from this story we have talked about here today. These friends are giving into their fear and have turned their backs on refugees who are crying out for help, suffering from the very violence we are disgusted by. Many people are following the wrong story at a crucial time in our history.

I had a nice, encouraging piece lined up to start the Christmas season. But that was before the story of life took a twisted turn. It was before all these events combined to testify against us. To convict us of selling out our true story—the story of the incarnation. Of buying into some tall tale, some fable, some flight of fancy that somehow takes the divine image away and replaces it with the idol of self. A story where it is more appealing to be practical than faithful.  Like Adam and Eve we have bought into a story that lies causing us to have these destructive yet timeless thoughts: “Did God really say that? You can’t be serious. God can’t be serious. Love your enemies? Pray for those who persecute you? That’s stupid. It won't work.” From the beginning of time, there has been a little voice in our head that whispers this message: "You don't really need to be incarnational - to be like Jesus. You actually don't have time, and it won't work anyway. So just go back to your own life and try to survive as best as you can." And even when we fall prey and believe it at times, God is faithful when we are not and continues to seek restoration. 

We need to reclaim His story - our ultimate story. The story of the incranation. It is God in us. It is God coming into the world, bringing light, bringing hope, and bringing restoration. If our story is anything other than that, if we let anything else other than that dictate our thoughts and actions, then we’ve been deceived. We’ve bought into a false narrative—a false story.

We need more people like Antoine Leiris who lost his wife Helene in the violence that shook Paris. He penned a poignant tribute to his wife on Monday, publishing it on his Facebook page:

“On Friday night you stole the life of an exceptional being, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you won't have my hatred. If this God for which you kill indiscriminately made us in his own image, every bullet in the body of my wife will have been a wound in his heart.

So no, I don't give you the gift of hating you. You are asking for it but responding to hatred with anger would be giving in to the same ignorance that made you what you are.  You want me to be afraid, to view my fellow countrymen with mistrust, to sacrifice my freedom for security. You have lost.”

I don’t have all the answers. And I won’t trivialize this crisis by suggesting that there is some easy solution. This is one of the most complex and complicated geo-political situations in my lifetime. And it is the responsibility of the elected leaders to figure out a solution, to enforce laws, to keep order, to look out for the general welfare of the constituents. But it is my job, your job, and every Christian’s job to reconcile people to God. To be God in the flesh to all we encounter. To love people. To pray for people. To be a light in the darkness. Our world desperately needs to come out of its dark thinking and neverending cycle of violence. In this depressing, dark existence, our world needs light--the same light that entered our world some 2000 years ago. The words of Isaiah can be repeated about our generation, "They have no dawn." Yet Jesus came into the world to shine a light and he continues to shine His light through us because we are the image of God.

Jesus became flesh to add an exclamation point to His perfect, divine story that we are supposed to be part of. He came to kickstart the process of reconciliation. We have a tendency to think of change through a top-down approach. In that framework, it is believed that the politicians or the powers that be need to be convinced of the change that needs to happen in our society for it to come about. But Jesus had a different story. He brought change from a bottom-up approach. Through humility rather the worldly instruments of power. He never once tried to grasp earthly reins of power. Instead, he tried to change the hearts and the minds of the people around Him. 

But if this world is going to be reconciled with God. If it is going to have its heart changed, that reconciliation must start with us. In us. The way we live. The way we express ourselves. Following Jesus isn't easy. Sometimes it is really difficult because the current of the world's story is trying to pull us under. But Jesus wants us to give Him our all. Jesus wanted to change the world and He does that by changing the way we live our life day in and day out.

God became flesh and came to dwell among us as a baby in a manger. God is the master of creating compelling story. Eventually this led to the cross. He was willing to go through all of the pain and suffering of life to reconcile this world to Himself. He was telling a different story. Because God turns crucifixions into a resurrections.

Restoration is the goal of the incarnation. Jesus wrapped himself in flesh to put an exclamation point on the story of restoration. We then turn around and do the same in our world. To our neighbors, to strangers, even to enemies. We let God wrap us in himself. And through us, God wraps His love around others. We exemplify a different story by the way we live. Our humility and living the way God wants us to live is the way the Incranation becomes real today and changes our world. It's light in the darkness. It's the broken being repaired. It's restoration. This is our story, and it's not over yet!

**

This piece was co-written with Samuel Long.

Christmas Humility

In case you are living in an isolated bomb shelter 100 miles under the earth without any form of communication the last few days, I am going to take on the role of Captain Obvious and point out that Christmas is tomorrow. However, the reason for celebrating Christmas doesn’t so obvious. Suppose you are an alien visiting earth with the intention of writing back to your home planet about our culture, you would be able to observe this madness we call Christmas and have a very good chance of not even realizing what we consider the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas would appear to be about shopping, about giving and getting presents, about getting together with family, about being stressed out and traveling all over the country, about overeating, about festive lights and trees decorated with shiny balls and other assorted things. But the true reason of Christmas is not among the obvious.

Like the way American culture sometimes misses on the true meaning of Christmas, we also have the tendency to miss and ignore one of the key traits that Jesus modeled for us to follow.

If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care - then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth - even those long ago dead and buried - will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, 11 and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father (Philippians 2:1-11 MSG).

One trait made the first Christmas possible, Jesus’ humility. I like to use illustrations from television shows, novels, and movies in my articles. When it came to humility, I struggled trying to find an illustrations in our culture of entertainment. Humility is not a trait that our culture exalts. We exalt individualism, vengeance, materialism, and independence. Just like our culture does with the meaning of Christmas, it does a good job of hiding humility.


Although there is Spider-Man. In Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker struggles with being humble. He gave up his role as Spider-Man, threw his costume into the trash, and walked away thinking that he would never look back. But then came the villains. They forced him to either decide to let people suffer or to give up his plans for a normal life and return to the life of the hero. He had to put aside his own dreams of what he wanted out of life and do what was intended for him to do. He wanted to be a good college student, hold down a steady job, and win back the love of his life. There's nothing wrong with any of those goals; however, they were not what he was intended to do.

Spider-Man is an example of humility, putting aside your selfish dreams and aspirations - no matter how noble they might be – for the benefit of those around you, even when doing what benefits those around you isn’t particularly for your personal best interests. Spider-Man shows us genuine humility.

Yet Spider-Man is not real. It’s up to you and me to turn the fictionalized humility of Spider-Man or the genuine Christmas story showing the great humility of Christ into a living reality to those around us. We need to put our own dreams and aspirations aside, notice the needs of those around us, and act to meet those needs.

C.S. Lewis described humility in his book Miracles:

In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity...down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created.  

But He goes down to come up again and bring the ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulder… 

In this descent and re-ascent everyone will recognise a familiar pattern: a thing written all over the world. It is the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into something hard, small and deathlike, it must fall into the ground: thence the new life re-ascends….  

So it is also in our moral and emotional life. The first innocent and spontaneous desires have to submit to the deathlike process of control or total denial: but from that there is a re-ascent to fully formed character in which the strength of the original material all operates but in a new way. Death and Rebirth--go down to go up--it is a key principle. Through this bottleneck, this belittlement, the highroad nearly always lies"

Humility is a tough concept to grasp. Examples of it are not exalted in our culture. It's even tougher to live out. But the perfect example of humility was shown to us on Christmas morning over 2000 years ago. God, who has all power and knowledge, emptied himself of those things and took on the flesh, skin and bones of people like you and me. He humbled himself and put his security in the arms of Joseph and Mary. He lowered himself to our level in order to exalt us to His. That is the beauty of Christmas.

Jesus came so that people like you and me can become what we were intended to be. We can give up our selfish and fruitless dreams and aspirations, replacing them with the humility that Christ began to model on that Christmas Day thousands of years ago. If we want to make the Christmas story come out of hiding in our society, then we need to take the first steps as followers of Jesus and swaddle ourselves in His humility. We cannot grasp hold of what God intends for us and those around us if we continue to hang on to our own goals and desires.

So let us, those who claim to follow Jesus, not fight for the world to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas in the ways that it is currently being fought. Let us not argue in courts for or against certain nativity scenes. The world celebrating the true meaning of Christmas will be a natural byproduct of the people around us seeing and deciding to follow Jesus. Instead, let us fight against our own selfishness and pride so that the world may actually see Jesus' love and humble example in the lives of those who claim to follow Him. Not just at Christmas, but during every day of the year. It's the least we can do in response to the great love of God and His mindshattering act of humility that we celebrate during this season.

At Christmas time, the story of Jesus should cause us to face a moment similar to that of Spider-Man. We can look around us and see that this world desperately needs Jesus. And the story of our Lord and Messiah in a manger over 2,000 years ago should tweak our hearts to realizing that we need to humble ourselves in whatever way necessary. We need to put aside our own dreams of what we want out of life and do what God calls us to do. This world needs us to live out the humbling nature of the Christmas story every day of the year.

Which Who Are You? - The Grinch And Our Spiritual Lives

Which Who are you? 

Cindy Lou Who is passionate, seeking love in a world that doesn't quite exhibit the love she knows that we should be showing each other.

Lou Lou Who, Cindy's father, knows the right thing to do but is timid in doing it.

Mayor Augustus Who is old, in control, and doesn't want to change.

And the Grinch, who hasn't experienced true love because he was treated unfairly as a child, by Mayor Augustus Who himself, and has since isolated himself from those who may hurt him. And in the loneliness, he has grown a hard, cruel heart that needs changed.

Are you Cindy Lou Who, then Jesus has a message for you.

There are two types of Cindy Lou Whos among us. Those who are zealous despite their age, and the kids among us, who seem naturally passionate. Unfortunately, both types of Cindy Lou Whos run across parents and other Christians who train them to not be so passionate and steer them to focus on the wrong things. Instead of encouraging the Cindy Lou Whos to be radically loving, the world tries try to tame them down.

But Jesus' message for the Cindy Lou Whos is to keep it up. Don't be disheartened by the opposition to your passion. Don't let age stifle your zeal. We have a tendency to lose our passion as we age. As we grow further from the point at which we surrendered to Jesus. To lose our zeal. To let the pain, suffering, and disappointment of our experiences to convince us to give up pursuing the ideals.Yet we can't allow that to happen. We miss out when we let the discouragements and disappointments of this world to destroy our zeal.

I always hear people say that the children are the future of the church. That saying always baffles me. Because children aren't the future of the church; they are a significant part of the church. Right now. Today. Despite their age, children play a role in every church.

Paul wrote to Timothy and said,

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity (1 Timothy 4:12 ESV).

And there is a story about Jesus:

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people,  but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”  And he laid his hands on them and went away (Matthew 19:13-15 ESV).

I remember when we started doing walk up communion at our church and children just started taking the communion as if that is what they were supposed to do. The leaders gathered together to talk about whether this is something that we should allow or not. And we came back to this passage: "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them."

Whether you are an older Cindy Lou Who or a child, if your heart is in the right place, your joy cannot be taken. This world, though it may try, cannot remove Jesus' love from your heart.

When we try to tame the zeal of a child or a radical fellow Christian--when we stifle their passion, we are doing a disservice to the kingdom. We must let the passion and the zeal of the Cindy Lou Whos among us change who we are.

Which leads us to the next Who.

Are you Mayor Augustus Who, then Jesus has a message for you.

Mayor Augustus Who is the Who who made the Grinch want to leave Whoville. He's like the Christian who causes some to leave the church. The zeal stifler. The tradition holder. The passion stealer. They try to stifle the Cindy Lou Whos because they don't want to be challenged to change. Because being challenged means that I am currently wrong. And Mayor August Whos do not like to be wrong. They make fun of the Grinches and stifle the zeal of the Cindy Lou Whos as a defense mechanism to avoid seriously considering something different. 

Mayor Augustus Who was hateful, scared of change, and set in his ways.
And if not for Cindy Lou, he would remain that the rest of his days.

These types are the worst, for they think they are right.
Instead of showing  love, they just want to fight.

The writer of Proverbs says,

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses (Proverbs 10:12 ESV).

Mayor Augustus Whos need to learn to love, not divide. And to give, not just receive.

As it is recorded that Jesus taught:

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35 ESV).

Mayor Augustus Who is like the Christian who thinks that church is about them. Instead of the church being about God's kingdom and furthering His will here on earth, it becomes about their enjoyment that they have had for years and keeping things the way they want them.

So Jesus' message to the Mayor Augustus Whos, who none of us would like to admit that we are, is to love, is to give. To stop looking out for one's self and to start looking out for others. Stop hating and start changing. Don't stifle the Cindy Lou Whos, but let the Cindy Lou Whos change you.

Are you Lou Lou Who, then Jesus has a message for you.

Lou Lou Whos have a passionate person around them, and they know the passion is right. They feel the pull to be the same way, but they are struggling with whether to be on Cindy Lou Who's side and be passionate or to be on Mayor Augustus Who's side and hold her back.

Lou Lou Whos know that if we take the side of the mayor, we will be accepted. A Lou Lou Who may gain some power themselves. We won't stand out. We will fit in and be part of the crowd. It's comfortable. It's appealing.

We fall prey to being Lou Lou Whos when we forget that we have been saved for a purpose, and that isn't to maintain the status quo.

Paul wrote:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV).

That was Paul saying we have been save to do good works. But if the good don't do the good, then are they really good?

There's a popular quote from Edmund Burke:

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

And the stark warning of Jesus:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21 ESV).

Lou Lou Who.
He knew what was good.
He knew what was right.
He just didn't have the strength to put up the fight.

But Jesus is saying to the Lou Lou Whos among us that God saved us for something. Not just to be saved. But to do His works. Jesus is saying to do the things that He would do if He was here living among you. Even if it will make us unpopular, uncomfortable or any other "un."

Are you the Grinch, then Jesus has a message for you?

Despite what the Mayor Augustus Whos may say, Jesus came for Grinches like me and you. He came to seek and save the lost. The outcasts and those who have been tossed aside.

God has better plans for us than we experience when we are living away from Him and His community. And he pleads that we would not reject him because of the Mayor Augustus Whos, but that we would seek him.

The prophet Isaiah wrote:

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.  What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? (Isaiah 5:3-4 ESV).

God did everything He could to make His people the people that He wanted them to be, yet they failed time and time again. So God is saying to not judge Him by His people.

I want to be able to say to people, "Look at our church and see what God desires. Love overflowing. Truth transforming. And the Spirit alive."

For when that happens, the Grinches will notice. Just like the Grinch noticed the singing that he thought shouldn't be there on Christmas morning. The Grinches may steal all our presents, thinking that is what makes us who we are. Yet if we continue rejoicing in the Lord despite the circumstances, they will notice the peculiar celebration that, logicially, should not be happening.

Dr. Seuss wrote:

It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes, or bags! Maybe Christmas, he [the Grinch] thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!

Christmas is about more than stores, packages, ribbons, and feasts. This the Grinch learns. Christmas is about Jesus the savior being born.

Lee Strobel, the author of Case For Christ and other books was a journalist for the Chicago Tribune before he became a Christian and a pastor. He has a remarkable Christmas story. 

The Tribune newsroom was eerily quiet on the day before Christmas. As I sat at my desk with little to do, my mind kept wandering back to a family I had encountered a month earlier while I was working on a series of articles about Chicago's neediest people. 

The Delgados – 60-year-old Perfecta and her granddaughters Lydia and Jenny – had been burned out of their roach-infested tenement and were now living in a tiny two-room apartment. As I walked in, I couldn't believe how empty it was. There was no furniture, no rugs, nothing on the walls – only a small kitchen table and one handful of rice. That's it. They were virtually devoid of possessions. 

In fact, 11-year-old Lydia and 13-year-old Jenny owned only one short-sleeved dress each, plus one thin, gray sweater between them. When they walked the half-mile to school through the biting cold, Lydia would wear the sweater for part of the distance and then hand it to her shivering sister, who would wear it the rest of the way. 

But despite their poverty and the painful arthritis that kept Perfecta from working, she still talked confidently about her faith in Jesus. She was convinced he had not abandoned them. I never sensed despair or self-pity in her home; instead, there was a gentle feeling of hope and peace.  

I wrote an article about the Delgados, and then I quickly moved on to more exciting assignments. But as I sat at my desk on Christmas Eve, I continued to wrestle with the irony of the situation: here was a family that had nothing but faith and yet seemed happy, while I had everything I needed materially but lacked faith – and inside I felt as empty and barren as their apartment.  

I walked over to the city desk to sign out a car. It was a slow news day, with nothing of consequence going on. My boss could call me if something were to happen. In the meantime, I decided to drive over to West Homer Street and see how the Delgados were doing. 

When Jenny opened the door, I couldn't believe my eyes. Tribune readers had responded to my article by showering the Delgados with a treasure trove of gifts – roomfuls of furniture, appliances, and rugs; a lavish Christmas tree with piles of wrapped presents underneath; carton upon bulging carton of food; and a dazzling selection of clothing, including dozens of warm winter coats, scarves, and gloves. On top of that, they donated thousands of dollars in cash. 

But as surprised as I was by this outpouring, I was even more astonished by what my visit was interrupting: Perfecta and her granddaughters were getting ready to give away much of their newfound wealth. When I asked Perfecta why, she replied in halting English: 

"Our neighbors are still in need. We cannot have plenty while they have nothing. This is what Jesus would want us to do." 

That blew me away! If I had been in their position at that time in my life, I would have been hoarding everything. I asked Perfecta what she thought about the generosity of the people who had sent all of these goodies, and again her response amazed me. 

"This is wonderful; this is very good," she said, gesturing toward the largess. "We did nothing to deserve this – it's a gift from God. But," she added, "it is not His greatest gift. No, we celebrate that tomorrow. That is Jesus." 

To her, this child in the manger was the undeserved gift that meant everything – more than material possessions, more than comfort, more than security. And at that moment, something inside of me wanted desperately to know this Jesus – because, in a sense, I saw him in Perfecta and her granddaughters. 

They had peace despite poverty, while I had anxiety despite plenty; they knew the joy of generosity, while I only knew the loneliness of ambition; they looked heavenward for hope, while I only looked out for myself; they experienced the wonder of the spiritual while I was shackled to the shallowness of the material – and something made me long for what they had. Or, more accurately, for the One they knew.

The Delgados are an example that helped change Lee Strobel's life for Jesus. I find it extremely ironic that a man who went on to write books on apologetics after coming to the Lord was touched by the love of an impoverished yet faithful servant of Jesus. We don't change the world by being like the world. We change the world by being the light of the world, a city on a hill, the salt of the earth, a royal priesthood who are different.

So no matter who we are, or which Who we are, at this time of year, Jesus wants to wake us up. And not just to be a good Christian at Christmas when it is fun to give, but to live all year  round, passionately doing His works. Jesus came so that we could have so much more than this. And that's what makes Christmas merry.

A Sacrificial Christmas

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like without you?

Through the mistake of another, George Bailey was going to lose his business. He had hit rock bottom. Despair crept in. He wondered what the world would be like without him

In his despair, as we sometimes feel in despair, George Bailey went to that bridge intending to kill himself because he thought the world would be better off without him.

I once heard the story of a man who was contemplating committing suicide like George Bailey was. But instead of killing himself, he decided to smuggle Bibles into China. If he was caught and killed, that would be fine with him. But instead, through the process, he found meaning in his life.

I don’t know if that story is true or not. It may just be a modern parable, but it illustrates the point that we truly live - we find meaning in our lives - when we die to ourselves and begin to live our lives for Jesus. For when we surrender to Jesus we start living the life that we were made to live. When we despair and everything seems to be crumbling around us, we should commit ourselves or recommit ourselves to picking up the shards of our dreams and letting Jesus put them back together as we head into the future. To find our true destiny, we should surrender our will to God’s will and live for Him.

We impact the world one way or another. The question is whether we will impact it for good.

When Jesus was asked what the most important teaching was, he replied that God is one, that we should love Him with every bit of who we are and to love our neighbors like we love ourselves.

Shane Claiborne shares an old story from the early church. Christians were spread throughout the desert and lived in little clusters of communities. Someone had brought one of the communities a bundle of grapes as a gift. That was quite a delicacy, maybe sort of like giving someone chocolate truffles today. They got so excited, and what happened next is fascinating. Rather than devour them all, they didn’t eat a single one. They passed them on to the next community to enjoy. And that community did the same thing. And eventually, those grapes made it through every community and back to the first community without being eaten. Everyone simply wanted the others to experience the joy of the gift....As Shane says: “The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away.” (edited from an excerpt from Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical 167-168).

This kind of love doesn't seem to come natural to us. To love others as we love ourselves. But it is the kind of love we are called to. Actually, Paul makes it a little more sacrificial than just that.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,  complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:1-11 ESV).

This is the Christmas story. God emptied himself and took on the likeness of us. When we refuse to allow the true story of Christmas to be drowned out by all the noise and busyness of this season, we see that this example of God becoming flesh was done to teach us how to live.

But as the Philippians passage shows, there are some obstacles to living the life Jesus lived. Paul shares two obstacles to love.

Obstacles to Love:

- Selfish ambition.

- Conceit.

Abraham Lincoln had a neighbor who was drawn to Lincoln's door one day by the sound of the crying of children. He saw Lincoln passing by with his two sons, both crying lustily. "What is the matter with the boys?" asked the man. "Just what is the matter with the whole world!" answered Lincoln. "I have three walnuts, and each boy wants two. (—London Christian Herald)

But our world teaches us to be selfish. The CEO and Opportunity Shaper at Now Possible says, "Let's get real. If you want a great career and wonderful life, you need to be spectacularly selfish..." We're taught that greed is good. Our society sometimes seems like a bizarro world compared to the teachings of Jesus.

These thoughts go directly against what we were made to be. And if we buy into them, we miss out. Our world misses out. Life isn't about the homes, the cars, the gifts, or whatever physical thing we make it about. Even when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, instead of seeing the culture inundated with profound acts of self-sacrifice, which would be more appropriate in celebrating the birth of Jesus, it's about consumerism, gluttony, Black Friday, and shopping.

Yet Paul unlocks how we can do this. We need to have a new view of ourselves.

New view of self:

- In humility count others as more significant than yourselves.

- Look to the interest others, not just our own.

You may have heard humility described as "Humility isn't thinking less of yourself, its thinking about yourself less." Preachers like to come up with these witty sayings. It's catchy, yet I think that disagrees with the teaching of Paul. It makes humility more palatable, but who said humility had to be palatable? Who says we need an easy faith? We're supposed to respond with surrender, with sacrifice. And in our desire to make the faith more appealing, we cheapen the lofty humility that Paul teaches us to have, a humility exemplified in the Christmas story that we celebrate this time of year. God emptying Himself of all his deserved privilege and taking on the form of a baby. 

It's tough to follow in His steps and consider others better than ourselves. That word, "better" in the original language has to do with something of surpassing or exceptional value. It's the same word Paul uses in Philippians 3:8 when he says, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." This is a radical teaching. Jesus had the attitude that we were better than He was. Jesus viewed us as better than Himself. But that's what love is. And Paul calls us to have same view toward other -- an attitude that cherishes one another; that extols the value of one another; that looks for the best in one another instead of the worst. When we do that -- when we start to love others the way God loves them -- it will be much easier to be humble and sacrifice for them.

Then Paul moves on to two characteristics that Jesus exhibited that we are to adapt to our lives.

 Self-sacrifice:

- Be willing to empty ourselves for others.

- Be obedient to God even in the hard stuff.

"Mary Brenner was a twice-divorced mother of eight children when she began doing volunteer work for the poor in Mexico in the 1960s. She had been active in charity work in California while she was married," living a comfortable life in Beverly Hills "but her devotion intensified after a priest led her to La Mesa state penitentiary, which housed convicted murderers, gang leaders, rapists and other serious felons."

She was faced with a call to self-sacrifice. Or to continue living her comfortable life. She was in her 50s, yet she still decided to heed God's call.

'Mary began providing for inmates’ basic needs, giving them aspirin, blankets, toiletries and prescription eyeglasses. She sang in worship services....If a prisoner died, of illness or in a gang fight, she prepared him for burial."

But this is the amazing part. She didn't just minister to the prisoners at La Mesa. She asked to move in and then actually moved into a cell to live alongside those she was called to minister to. A woman, moving into a male prision because God called her to it.

"Inmates told how Mary once walked into the middle of a prison riot while bullets flew and tear gas filled the air. When the inmates saw her, fearless in her habit, the fighting stopped. She never seemed to stop smiling."

Sadly, Mary Brenner passed away this October. Will you help fill this gap? (quotes on Mary Brenner from Antonia Brenner, ‘Prison Angel’ Who Took Inmates Under Her Wing, Is Dead at 86)

Self-sacrifice makes love real. There is love. We can say we love prisoners all we want. Or we can say that we love so and so. All words without sacrifice. But these proclamations of love are abstract and meaningless to the one we proclaim to love until our words are connected with self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice makes the love we have toward someone become real to them.

Yet we sometimes do a disservice to sacrifice. Stories like Mary Brenner's story are amazing. Yet we can then fell defeated and unable to accomplish such lofty tasks. Maybe that's what you are feeling right now. "I can't possibly go and live in a male penitentiary like she did. They wouldn't even allow me to."

Your sacrifice does not have to look like hers. If each of us are committed to following God, He will orchestrate us all into a symphony. We will be living out our faith in the places where we need to. Our self-sacrifice may be giving time to make a meal for someone, visiting someone who is lonely, taking care of a sick loved one, or whatever it is you that you sacrifice your own life so that you can give to others. Those acts of love, when they are in response to God and intermingle with the Holy Spirit, are just as meaningful as moving into a prison and ministering to those prisoners. God has this amazing way of meshing our meager sacrifices together to bring Himself glory. One sacrifice at a time, we are being used to create a song of love.

See how this all works.

We are so often, as Christians, focused on receiving the blessing, whether it is a blessing from God or someone else. We may hear people complain about not getting something out of a church's worship gathering or that the church isn't doing this or that. But God is saying, "Stop being the kid at Christmas; it's time to give the presents."

Christmas is about being reminded of the sacrifice God made to live as flesh among us. It's about him emptying Himself of all the privilege and honor that He rightfully deserves to be a blessing for us. We often miss the beauty and majesty of this story and respond by getting hung up on the being blessed part.

This is a difficult issue because being blessed is typically a byproduct of the Christian life. People's lives are often transformed and improved, even by the world's standards, when they become a Christian. But being a follower of Jesus can never be about the blessings. We have this tendency to explain Christian teachings through the framework of selfishness to appeal to the selfish people around. Even to our own selfish natures. But we shouldn't. We have to remove our selfishness to be who God wants us to be.

And this goes against all modern sales methods. In sales, the salesperson tries to show the potential customer a product or service and convince them that their lives will be improved if they just use that product or service. The door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman tells us how his vacuum will pick up dirt that we didn't even know was there. The gadget manufacturer convinces us that our lives will be better if we have this or that gadget in our pocket. Selling is all about the benefits.

And we fall prey to that tactic as Christians. Being a Christian becomes about getting to heaven. Or the temporal blessings in this life. And we, the church, have made the gospel of Jesus all about the benefits.

But that is not what being a Christian is about. Being a Christian is about following Jesus. And we follow Jesus, not because of the blessings - although the blessings at times are great and the eternal blessing is worth living for - but we follow Jesus, not because of the blessings, but because He is worthy to follow.

We must empty ourselves of our selfish ambitions and vain conceit and just follow Him. And we do that, by doing what He did. He viewed others as better than Himself and looked to their interests, not his own. He was obedient, even when it got hard.

We follow Jesus because His vision of the world is the right one. We follow Jesus because He is worthy to follow. Forget the blessings. Those are just a byproduct of faithfulness. And even if they don't come, we know that we are following the One who is worthy to be followed.

Jesus did not come to be blessed. He came to be a blessing. Likewise, we live not to be blessed but to be a blessing.

On January 13, 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River near Washington DC., tumbling into the icy river in the middle of a snowstorm. All but six passengers were killed. Some 20 minutes later, a helicopter arrived to rescue the survivors.

After getting one man to safety, the helicopter threw a life ring to Arland Williams. He immediately gave it to the passenger next to him. They threw two lines down and Arland helped to strap it on to other passengers who were struggling more than him in the freezing water.

When the helicopter came back a final time, Arland was gone. He had slipped under the water. He’d used his last ounces of strength to save complete strangers. Sacrificial love.

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like without you?

In the end of It's A Wonderful Life, George Bailey was able to see all the lives that he had touched.  And they reciprocated that love and helped him get his business back. It's beautiful.

It's a Hollywood ending. We like it. It's what makes It's A Wonderful Life one of the most popular Christmas movies of all time.

It's stories like this that makes us say to people when they suffer, "It will get better." Because when George Bailey suffered, it did get better.

But Hollywood isn't where we should get proper doctrine.
It may be unpopular, but things may not get better. Many of you know this all too well. Someone who has alzheimers. It's not going to get better on this side of the grave. Or a debilitating disease that you or someone you love is going through. It's not going to get better on this side of the grave. Some of you have experienced tragedy all too much. I have been in too many ICUs and done too many funerals. Things don't always get better. Sometimes they may get worse. Tragically worse. It's true that it may get better, but I don't think we're implying when we say "It will get better" that we may have to die to receive that "better."

We want the better. And we want it now. We think we deserve the better, especially if we're trying to be faithful to Jesus.

The idea that "things will always get better" just shows how inundated we are with concepts like the health and wealth false gospel in Christian circles. But the truth is that it may not get better. I may be the only person to tell you this because everyone is trying to build a facade around you, but the situation you are currently struggling with may not get better. You may be sick, and it could lead to death. You may work hard and not prosper. But even if we don't get better, even if we don't get wealthy, we still serve a worthy King.

We don't worship God because of the presents; we worship Him because He is worthy. When things are going well, we celebrate. We know things won't always be this great, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't ruin the good moments by worrying about their end. Celebrate the moment of beauty if that is what you are experiencing. Celebrate it without worrying about tomorrow.

And for those of you who aren't living in a moment of celebration, remember that He is there with you. Offering you comfort and peace where there should be no comfort and peace. Even in our darkest valley, God is still worthy of our worship.

Being a Christian and following Jesus, isn't about things getting better for us. That may happen. It often does. I've seen crazy, unexplainable blessings come to people who start giving and are blessed in return. God does seem to bless radical faithfulness. But we serve a savior who was executed, along with most of the apostles who followed Him. Being a Christian is really about humbling ourselves and serving others, being Jesus' hands and feet in this world because His hands and feet were nailed to a cross for us. It's about being Jesus to everyone around us. It's about following the example that Jesus set and living for others. That little baby born in a manger in Bethlehem was going to face a lot of pain, discouragement, obstinate people, and a disgraceful death in His days here on earth. Who are we to think we deserve differently?

"It will get better." That's the false gospel of Hollywood, happy endings, and many Christians. The message of Jesus is to humble yourself. To love God and to love others. Arland Williams was doing God's will and it didn't get better for him. The early Christians who gave away those grapes were doing God's will and didn't taste the pleasure. Mary Brenner, imprisoning herself for Jesus, was doing God's will. Jesus, emptying Himself, being born as a little baby, and living a life of suffering for us, was doing God's will.

If you're just focused on life getting better for yourself, then you will be unable to live the life of self-sacrifice that shows the love of Jesus to our world. You will be out of step with the song God is performing.

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe one of the children asks one of the beavers about the lion named Aslan.

"Is he safe?"

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

When we teach that things will always go well for Christians, we make it difficult for those who are having tough times. In our bad times, our bad theology makes us ask, "Am I right with God? If I am, why all this pain, suffering, and sorrow? Do others think I am a bad Christian because I am suffering?" The truth is that you are still right with God, even if things are going bad. Even when you think you are a small star, alone, suffering in the darkness, Jesus came to show you love. This is Christmas.

So when we see someone suffering and feel the need to utter "It will get better" to give encouragement, recognize that it may not get better for the person we want to comfort on this side of the grave. But for you--following in the steps of Jesus--you should be willing to follow the teaching of the Christmas story, sacrifice yourself to make it better for them. Jesus was in the form of God yet did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Instead, he emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of us. Being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

It may not get better, but like Jesus, we need to be willing to remove our self-perceived loftiness - not self-perceived in His case - , be willing to get dirty, and make it better for others.

We sacrifice so that life is better. Like George Bailey did when he gave up his own plans and stayed in his small town to make it better. Like the people around George Bailey did when George needed loved back. Sacrifice makes the world better.

At this time of year, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. His humble arrival to this world. And this world will not be the same, especially when those who claim to follow Him model his humility and life of sacrifice. You were called to make this world better for others by sacrificing yourself. 

A Season Of Hope

Like Buddy being excited for Santa and then only seeing a fraud, we also experience tremendous letdowns when we have placed our hope in things that cannot deliver. We may hope in a friend who betrays us, a philosophy that proves itself empty, a job that leaves us, or a family member that dies. Hope in anything other than Jesus cannot deliver.

Because hope is only revealed to be authentic hope when hope is actually needed. If it isn't found in the despair, in the rubble, in the darkness, then it isn't really hope. It's just happiness disguised as hope. For hope is found in the death of things.

It is to the sick and sinners that Jesus came to bring hope. And this is a message that we, those who are greatly blessed often forget. We think Jesus is contained in the lives of the righteous and worthy.

"The hope of Jesus is heavy and hard. It contrasts sharply with the cheap and cross-free hope of the wealthy who have plenty. Hope is easy and flimsy for those who already have richness, fullness, and laughter now, but hope is hard for those who are denied the riches, prevented from fullness, and have no reason to laugh." (my changed version of Bruegammann, Prophetic Imagination, 104) 

The truth is that our righteousness is but filthy rags. We get our fill of the Proverbs or some modern self-help Christian teacher and begin to think that we live in such a way that we deserve the blessings that God gives us. Our pride prevents us from recognizing the truth that we are not worthy of the blessings we receive. We are not deserving of the grace that comes through Jesus. We are sinful, spiritually sick, and in need of a savior. We are but bones in a grave wasting away. And our pride prevents us from recognizing how blessed we really are.

The most disgusting thing in the world is a self-righteous, self-proclaimed Christian who acts like they are right with God while living a life devoid of loving those who Jesus came to love. They read their Bible and they pray. They're religious but not a follower of Jesus. A self-righteous, self-proclaimed Christian who isn't willing to sacrifice their blessings so that others may see Jesus. The solution to this problem is to recognize our sinful state and the role that Jesus plays in our lives.

For God emptied Himself of all of His privilege and became human when He came to earth as Jesus. That is the beauty of the Christmas story. He who is worthy of all worship became a servant to those unworthy. He became a vulnerable, fragile, little baby to save people like you and me. He gave up all that He deserves to give us that which we don't deserve.

Jeremiah wrote,

Thus says the LORD: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.  There is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children shall come back to their own country. Jeremiah 31:16-17 (ESV)

Like the Jews in the Old Testament, in Christ, we can always look expectantly for a better tomorrow. We can have hope for the future. The deliverer and king has come.

Yet He came differently than expected. He came in a manger. Being removed from that culture and having been inundated with the Christmas story since birth, the meaning of this element of the story may have lost its significance to us. But to the people of the time, especially to the poor, it had a significant meaning. Jesus was born in a barn. God's grand entrance if you will. He came down to earth to live with us in the flesh, and He slept in a feeding trough for animals. He became the least for you and me, so that in Him the least would have hope.

If I were God, I would have planned it so that I arrived into a rich family, lived in a palace, and slept in a crib lined with gold with nannies meeting my every need. I would grow up with all of the comforts of this world. Leisure, entertainment, and toys. But I'm not God. And God was trying to teach us something in the way He came. He came through the poor and powerless. He came in a manger, setting his tone for his ministry. The first will be last. If we want to be His followers, then we need to give up what we feel we deserve and serve others.

He came differently than the Jews were expecting. The Jews were expecting a Messiah to save them from the Roman rule. Actually, not just to save them from Roman rule, but to establish  Jerusalem as the ruler of Rome and the rest of the world. Yet Jesus came differently than expected. He came and died on the cross. He didn't come to rule in the traditional ways of the world. True, he still wants to be our king, our master. True, He established a different sort of kingdom, the Church. But He came differently than the world expected. He came to serve rather than to be served. His weapons were love and truth, not swords and war. And He wants his followers to do the same, to serve rather than be served.

He also came in love - not might, not strength, not power. The world falsely believes that the things of this world are what's important. We see this in Black Friday. Some think that toys, gadgets, and entertainment devices will bring them happiness. They hope in them. But then, a month after the gifts are open, life is still the same. The gadgets, toys, and entertainment didn't change us. Without Jesus, we are still the same hopeless person we were before all the gifts.

We keep ourselves busy with false fixes. We place our hopes in the wrong things, time and time again. All this time wasted when the real solution is readily available. Jesus is the real solution. He's not the solution in some impractical "spiritual" yet non-political, non-physical way. We like to keep Him locked up in a prison we call "spiritual," so that He can stay there and not mess with our "real" lives. Our thinking is that if we keep Him spiritual, then He doesn't have to mingle with our marketplace life, our physical life, our political life, or any other aspect of our life. Yet Jesus wants all of our life.

He always was and still wants to be practical. He may have been born in a humble manger, but His teachings caused the powers that be to execute Him in a disgraceful fashion. For He wasn't just spiritual. He was upsetting the status quo. He was literally changing the world. And the powers of the time didn't like that. The spiritual answers that Jesus provides aren't just to give us spiritual guidance; they're supposed to change the way we live and the world we live in.

Our spirituality is not supposed to be just some personal, self-reflective wonderland. In every issue we face, whether politically, personal, at work, in the community, or at home, we need to follow Jesus' example that we are reminded of this time of year and serve others. Instead of force through government or in being someone's boss, we serve. Instead of all of the ways of power in this world, we worship the One who has true power and surrender to Him. God works in strange ways. He always has. The question is whether we will accept his strange ways as our real solution. He came in a manger. The world tells us that we need to be strong; God teaches us to be weak and depend on Him. Then we will be strong in His way, a strange yet amazing way.