Merry Christmas

The Christmas story is the story of what God has done with the brokenness of the world. In the  midst of sin, pain, grief, suffering, loss, brokenness, God intervened. God disrupted what had been going on. This is a story that goes back to the very beginning. 

As it says in  Genesis, the first book of the Bible, “In the beginning, God.” God created the world and everything in it. Simply by speaking, God created the entire cosmos. It is the very theater of God’s glory, the kingdom over which he reigns. 

The pinnacle of that creation was when God made humans in the image of God. God created us to be in relationship with God and with one another. It was paradise in the Garden of Eden. It says in Genesis that God would come and walk with the man and woman, Adam and Eve, in the cool of the evening.

And then a catastrophe happened. Brokenness. The fall. Humans were tempted and led away from our good beginning. It got so bad that God was sad he had created humans at all. So God destroyed humanity and started over. But as soon as things got going again, all the problems with humans started over too. The humans after the Great Flood turned out to be no different than the humans before the Flood. 

So God decided to work towards regaining the paradise of the original creation in a different way. God began working with humans. God chose a people, the Israelites, to be his special people to help redeem the world. And God gave them a land of their own. But the people, as humans, continued to be unfaithful to God. They continued to mess up and create havoc and brokenness in life. So God punished his people by taking them out of their land into Exile. 

God’s people wondered when God would save them, put things right. Life was messy. Not just for individuals – that has always been the case. But for all people.  The goodness, the paradise of God’s original creation was long gone. It was only a dream. 

But the Israelites continued to believe they were God’s chosen people and that God would act in the near future to bring his kingdom. But life was hard. They lived under the oppression of the Persians, then the Greeks, then the Syrians, and finally the Romans. Still, Israel clung to the hope that God would intervene to cleanse and renew his creation. They waited for a Savior, a Messiah. 

They waited for four hundred years, hoping for a Messiah to save them and usher in God’s renewed kingdom and creation. They thought the Messiah would be very, very powerful: a king with the heart and strength of a warrior and the holiness of a priest. That probably makes sense. After all, they thought this Messiah would save them from the Romans and topple the empires of the world. 

And then it happened. Quietly. A baby was born to Mary and Joseph. And God’s angel announced to the shepherds: “Do not be afraid. I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people: your Savior has been born today.” 

Instead of a warrior, priestly king, we got a baby. 

500 years ago, Martin Luther, said: When God speaks to humans, God always speaks in baby talk. That is, God humbles himself and comes down to our level. 

This is what we celebrate at Christmas. This is what the Christmas story in Luke 2 means. That God loves us so much that he came to be one of us in Jesus. He became human so he could live with us and talk with us. And that is how God is making the world right again, renewing his creation, ushering in his kingdom. 

And so, entering life on our level, bending over into this playpen we call home, God again spoke, coming as a baby, as one of us. In Jesus, has God come to us. 

The 19th century philosopher and theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, told a parable about a great king who fell in love with a lovely servant girl. He wanted to tell her of his love, but he wanted to approach her in a way in which she might freely, willingly love him.

As a high and mighty king, he would overwhelm her. She would perhaps fear him, or respect him, but could she love one so high and so remote from her and her world?

So the king devised a plan. He took off his royal robes and dressed as a poor peasant. He slipped away from the palace, descended into the village below, and took up the life of a poor peasant. There he wooed the young woman. Making her acquaintance, he gradually got to know her and she gradually got to know him. Eventually, she grew to love him. They moved toward marriage. At last he revealed himself to her as king. They live happily ever after in the palace, recipients of true love.

In many ways God attempted to reveal himself to us. Now, God has been revealed to us as a Son, word in the flesh, God with us. 

“In many and various ways God spoke of old to our ancestors by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb. 1:1-2a). 

Merry Christmas!

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