12 DEC 2012
Hijacking Christmas
Starbucks sells an advent gift box. 25 little pockets stuffed with treats designed to fill your heart with Christmas cheer. I have no doubt there are countless blogs, Facebook posts, 140-character tweets and even entire books and movies out there lamenting the hijacking of Christmas by consumerism. I don’t aim to write more of that.
But Starbucks’ fun little gift box intrigued me because it got me thinking about the fact that Christmas is so much more than the 25th of December, no matter if you celebrate greed or giving on that day. It got me thinking about advent. Advent means ‘the Coming’. That sounds both vague and grandiose for a concept we know only by calendars of various size, shape and theme all sporting little doors behind which hide verse snippets, flannel-graph style Bible characters, or if you’re lucky, chocolate. I looked it up. That’s what’s in the Starbucks advent box. Sorry to spoil it for you. So I ask myself, Self, what do 25 tiny chocolates in 25 miniature boxes have to do with this grand Coming?
Perhaps more than first appears. Advent is an old liturgical tradition. Like communion and dousing babies and lent. That must be Starbucks’ deeply spiritual connection – if I gave up chocolate for lent, they will return it en masse in this celebration season! Anyway I guess before electric guitars, churches had to think outside the box to come up with ways for the congregation to engage in worship services. In all seriousness, these traditions were specifically designed to be an outward action representing an inner conviction. Baptism = washing your heart clean. Fasting = desiring God more than earthly pleasures. Advent = anticipating the Advent of Jesus. The Coming. The Arrival. The white-horse fiery-eyed people-floating-in-the-sky coming of Jesus.
Pastor and worship leader Glenn Packiam reminds us, “worship routines – or, if you prefer, ‘spiritual rhythms’ – are how we reinforce a desire for God.” That makes a lot of sense to me, because if Christmas is about remembering to celebrate Jesus then advent is a good way to hijack Christmas back from Macy’s and Wal-Mart. If I shop ‘til I drop from Black Friday to Cyber Monday to Day-After-Christmas Blow Outs then Christmas feels like it’s about presents. Pausing on Christmas Eve to sing Silent Night while hot wax drips through the little paper wax-catcher-thingy to burn my fingers just isn’t enough outward action to solidify my inner conviction that Christmas is about Jesus coming to earth. Taking the 24 days before Christmas to anticipate him coming again sure does help!
But that’s the new advent. The 2nd Coming. The advent anticipation of Christ started earlier than 500 B.C. Isaiah wrote about it. Jeremiah wrote about it. “In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth,” (Jer. 33:15, NASB). We do well to remember old Simeon and Anna, whose entire lives consisted of advent anticipation. Read about them in Luke 2:25-40. To know what life on the earth was like before the hope of Christ was a prayer away would sure put a pep in the step of our Advent longing. To yearn for Christ the way Jeremiah did as he lamented the destruction of Israel and Judah by their own sin would give Christmas a whole new meaning in our hearts!
The song “O Come O Come Immanuel” has often puzzled me. Either it was written a long long long time ago, or the author got the tense wrong. “Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to thee O Israel.” Shall? News bulletin: it’s Christmas because Jesus already came! But while singing it in church last Sunday it began to make more sense. For a moment we are back in ancient Jerusalem. Under grey skies fire engulfs the walls, the palace, the temple. An eerie silence quivers over the city as a distant wail makes its way to our ears. Entering Solomon’s temple courtyard we see a lone soul standing among the bodies of slain temple prostitutes. Strewn among them are a multitude of toppled idols. The large stone image of Molek stands off to the side, his outstretched arms still holding the charred remains of this morning’s sacrifice: an 8 month old boy given in hopes of a successful battle. One thought pervades all – this is not what was meant to be! As we draw nearer the lonely figure standing before the central alter, a whisper escapes his lips. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” He looks up to the eaves of Solomon’s great temple, itself a flaming sacrifice to make some small atonement for the sins committed within her walls. Pulling a scroll from within his cloak he unrolls it and begins to read flatly.
“Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered!
Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;
propose your plan, but it will not stand,
because Immanuel. God is with us.”
A surrendered disappointment engulfs his deep grey eyes. As tears well up, the Weeping Prophet begins to gently sing.
O come, o come Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
As he sings, a slight smile begins to break across his face, tears streaming freely now. In full voice he continues,
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to thee o Israel!
This, I imagine, is what advent means. In the face of all brokenness and despair, rejoice! This is why it’s worth remembering what advent was like before as we embrace what it means now.
Advent has a new meaning for me this Christmas as well. This Christmas I’m looking forward to my own Immanuel coming home. Immanuel, my son. Much the same, I don’t know when he’ll be here.
I hope it’s soon.
Be part of the miracle, donate to our adoption at: https://gifts.betterment.com/babyimmanuel
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God's love is boundless. Nothing can separate us from it. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord," (Romans 8:38-39 NIV). These are things we know and believe. And it's nice to know. It's comforting. But I think the way we process this truth in our minds often falls well short of the reality. Feeling far from God at times, we read these reminders and feel satisfied. It's as though we perceive God saying to us, "It's OK. You and me, we're good." And we go away feeling much better about the situation. He loves us, after all.
God's love never fails. Which means that his love is active, it has goals, and it's actively pursuing them. It's actively pursuing you, and it's not really about making you feel better.
What are the goals of this life-all-its-own love? Relationship, for one. The longing of Father for child, Friend for friend, Lover for faithful companion. That God loves you means that he wills for relationship with you, and nothing can separate you from the fulfillment of that purpose. But not just his relationship with you, also your oneness with his body, the Church. His love intends for you healthy friendships, intimate marriages, and beautiful families.
His love aims for the accomplishment of your dreams and passions "that your joy may be full." His love casts out fear so nothing can hold you back from the greatness he intends for you. If you've felt his calling and dreamed big, rest assured nothing can separate you from going for it with all you have.
His love has a purpose, and it never fails.
6 APR 2013
Love's True Aim
I don't write a lot of movie reviews. I took a film study class in high school - 2 hours of watching movies every week should be a breeze, right? The writing assignments made it one of the hardest classes I ever took! But it did help me to see the art behind the entertainment, and taught me to pull out the 'sermon' the writer/director/producer was preaching. So I appreciate deeply meaningful movies that effectively communicate a message.
42 tells the story of Jackie Robinson's rookie year with the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers. The significance, of course, being that he was the first African American to play Major League Baseball. 'Firsts' are always inspiring to us - pioneers who boldly go where no man has gone before! Amelia Earhart, Sir Edmond Hilary, Neil Armstrong. Their lives are defined in history by the firsts they accomplished. And when the odds are stacked immensely against us, firsts turn everyday people into heroes.
Jackie Robinson becomes one such hero for us in 42. Segregation and Jim Crow laws were at their height in 1940s America, so we see a man who inevitably takes on the world. His humility is his charm because he's not a Martin Luther King Jr. out to change America, he "just wants to play baseball." And play baseball he did. Really, really well. Which reveals to us the sermon behind the curtain.
The story is more or less predictable: Jackie rises through the ranks as insults are hurled, a few people stick up for him, and he ultimately get's drafted to the Majors. It's how he succeeds that makes the movie meaningful. When the insults - and baseballs - start flying at his head he can't fight back.
"You want a player who doesn't have the guts to fight back?"
"No. I want a player who's got the guts not to fight back."
Jackie shows his strength of character in his ability to not stoop to the hatred hurled at him. But that doesn't mean he didn't fight back.
Our pastor recently began a sermon series entitled Ten Times Better, taken from Daniel 1:20, "In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned [Daniel and his friends], he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom." Through this they gained position and influence in a culture diametrically opposed to theirs. Peter explains the value of this in his first letter: "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us," (1 Peter 2:12). The point being that we as Christians are called to be excellent in everything we do, that they can't ignore the influence of God in our lives, we gain influence and he gets the glory. (As a side note, Peter is quoting Jesus here from Matthew 5:16 which interestingly comes right after Jesus said, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me." Peter wrote this to Christians who were being tortured and fed to lions for entertainment of the Romans.)
Perhaps the producers of 42 didn't realize just how well they preached this sermon, but who knows, maybe they did. Jackie fought back not with fists, but by being so good at baseball, they couldn't ignore him. They couldn't force him out and they couldn't beat him. They told him he didn't belong, so he hit home runs. They told him "go back to the cotton fields;" he stole bases and scored runs.
Jackie didn't just become the first African American in the major leagues, he won rookie of the year. He did it not only by playing baseball ten times better than everyone else, but with a character that was ten times better as well.
Have you seen it? What did you think?
13 APR 2013
42: Movie Review