Reflections on the Nativity Narrative
I feel compelled to share part of my personal journal reflection on the coming season. It is not uncommon for His Spirit to come upon me as I journal, and an illumination from beyond me occurs. I was pondering the exposure that Christ has been receiving in our Western culture over the last few years, and seems to be building. This included things like The Passion of the Christ (and the controversy surrounding that), The DaVinci Code (and the controversy surrounding that), and The Nativity Story (sans controversy ... and publicity). I was reflecting on past messages I have heard and readings I have read. I was meditating on the idea of 'story', of the narrative, of ‘The Christmas Story’ - and wondering: is it isolated? or is there possibly more than meets the eye?
From my journal ...
Sunday, Dec. 3, 2006
Here we are again, the first Sunday in Advent. To prepare ... prepare what? for what do I prepare? To make ready ... what should I make ready? To anticipate ... what is there to anticipate now? In the 21st century? Advent - an archaic Church tradition that probably no one knows what it is all about any more.
I bet almost no one knows that 'Advent' is actually an example of 'religious sycretism' - {from Wikipedia: Religious syncretism is the blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new system, or the incorporation into a religious tradition of beliefs from unrelated traditions. Basically, it is where Christianity borrowed from the culture of the place and time with which to connect the Gospel. A common example - Christmas being chosen for Christ's birthday celebration. A more uncommon example: the term "Son of God" - actually a Roman phrase borrowed to share with the Gentiles of the time how their 'son of God' (aka Augustus Caesar and other Caesars were the son(s) of previous Caesars or 'God') was dead, and how the Jewish 'son of God' was very much alive.} Advent was a Roman celebration from the time of the Caesar Augustus – a 12 day celebration to inaugurate his coming as the 'son of God', where youth choirs sang praises to him for his eternal reign of this ‘son of God’ coming to earth for universal peace and harmony. I love how the Christian faith has taken aspects of other cultures, found God’s truth within and made it glorify Him!! (Fabulous incredible message: http://www.willowcreek.com/service.asp?servid=10 – Rob Bell at the bottom.)
So, here I am – thousands of years later. Beginning a season that has now become part of Church history. Perhaps a season that many churches have neglected to even mention today, but what a beautiful season it is!! How do I connect? To a child born so long ago? Is it just a story? A story of a time when God put His fingerprint into a point in human history? Or is there something more?
I remember my pastor speaking years ago about how we need to take this time, the Advent, to prepare … to make room for our Lord to be born again, to be birthed anew within, to prepare and anticipate and make room for the birth of this unexpected small, meek, humble, weak infant - God incarnate - to be born again within each of us. You see, we live lives that are full of ‘noise’ and ‘stuff’ ... with all sorts of Western 'stuff' and perspectives and religiosity. We think we think we have all the answers; we think that we've 'arrived'. Our culture and our religion impose such upon us. In honesty? We don't - what arrogance to think we have it all figured out! Here then becomes our challenge: to set aside our arrogance and pride and make room so that when God comes along, there is a humble, meek, compassionate space for Him to 'move into the neighborhood'? (Jn1:14 ~ The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.); that when He doesn't look like what we expect, we can set aside our cliché answers to truly SEE and open our hearts to what this great gift is really all about? Oh, I pray that it can be so … within me, within others!
There is a movie that has been released in the last week – The Nativity Story, A quiet little story, with none of the violence of The Passion of the Christ. They say that this story is the prelude to the other. A The Passion of the Christ ~ Part I. But what if it didn’t start then? What if “In the time of Herod, King of Judea" wasn’t the beginning of the story? What if it was – like John says? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”?? … what if the beginning was really Gen1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”?? … “He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” Now, how does this fit? Or does it???
Look at the Christmas narrative in the context of the big story of human history and see how it brings into focus something that so is easy to pass over. I know everyone talks about how surprising it is that God would come in the form of a child, born in a manager, without the pomp and circumstance we might think should accompany such an entrance to the King of Kings. The “I AM” that met with Abraham (plural I) became the “I AM the way, I AM the truth, I AM the good shepherd, I AM the door … all plural again!
Oh, how in the big story, this all fits so nicely! Because God has always been about invitation, and never about power or force! He has always called us forward to Him, bidding us to ‘come’, and never pushed us from behind. He called Abraham as the archetype of humanity, not to build an empire but to leave what he knew, place his faith in the Almighty and journey toward toward God. He chose the nation of Israel, not because they were powerful but because they were weak to become the medium for His blessing on the world. God has never used the tools that we might prescribe for His mission. If it were up to us, God would come in power and strength, with authority and might, with a sword and an army and battle all that is wrong. Instead, He came in the form of a baby! Weak, powerless, humble, innocent. The mission of God has always been to demonstrate love instead of control and service instead of authority. His first sermon: blessed are the meek, the humble, the merciful, the peacemakers. Truly the medium has always been the message!! He has always taken the way of humility, of truth and grace, because to do anything else would have justified everything He sought to free us from!! Oh, how I love that the origins of the word ‘Truth’ do not have to do with what is right or wrong but find its meaning in the authenticity of relationship!!
Please, may it be that those who watch this story and hear the familiar words, experience the Christmas narrative in the light of the Big Story calling each of us to remember God’s gracious act of salvation; salvation of not just me, but the world and the world not just as a collection of individuals but as a society and people. He came to redeem His beloved Bride, the Church, back unto Him. He came to undermine the systems and structures that have taken us away from Him and demonstrate a path through His love and sacrifice for us to find our way back. When we look into the manger this year, may we look past the cliché flannelgraph Sunday school answers, past the commercial influences of the season, to the Advent of the Christ-child, continually coming to us. Here - unwrap that 'gift', look beneath, and connect to and engage with what is given to us, calling us into a new life and new relationships, where grace and love are the framework
"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. What is love? Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end." ... It is a gift of LOVE ... and Love is about the relationship, and not about being right. THIS is TRUTH!!!
"There are no great things done - only small things done with great love."
The Jewish nation was looking for a Messiah to come in power and authority, to obliterate those who had oppression over them, to come with sword and army and battle, to set things right. Instead ... look what happened! They prayed for a Messiah, but they could not see Him when He came. He loved us so much that ... even in our sinfulness, He is faithful! How much love is that! He did not set things right, but reconciled us unto Him - a restored relationship. I have said before, and I'll say it again - I believe that this Word becoming flesh is the BEGINNING ... not the end. Our salvation is not the end of the race … but the beginning!! The Trinity – the perfect number. The First Testament: God foretold His coming. The Second Testament: He came. The Third Testament: He is alive and well, here today. We are called to participate with our Lord … We are invited to become the Third Testament – Christ alive within me ~ part of His grand narrative, that began “in the beginning” and continues today.
May the empty places from this Advent become pure capacity for the Christ-child, the Messiah, the I AM, to be born again within. Full of grace and mercy, compassion and love.
I am reminded of a quote from a favourite movie: "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse." That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?
As you join the story, what will your verse be? As I join the story, what will my verse be?
Emmanuel is with us. Come. Join the story.
From my journal ...
Sunday, Dec. 3, 2006
Here we are again, the first Sunday in Advent. To prepare ... prepare what? for what do I prepare? To make ready ... what should I make ready? To anticipate ... what is there to anticipate now? In the 21st century? Advent - an archaic Church tradition that probably no one knows what it is all about any more.
I bet almost no one knows that 'Advent' is actually an example of 'religious sycretism' - {from Wikipedia: Religious syncretism is the blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new system, or the incorporation into a religious tradition of beliefs from unrelated traditions. Basically, it is where Christianity borrowed from the culture of the place and time with which to connect the Gospel. A common example - Christmas being chosen for Christ's birthday celebration. A more uncommon example: the term "Son of God" - actually a Roman phrase borrowed to share with the Gentiles of the time how their 'son of God' (aka Augustus Caesar and other Caesars were the son(s) of previous Caesars or 'God') was dead, and how the Jewish 'son of God' was very much alive.} Advent was a Roman celebration from the time of the Caesar Augustus – a 12 day celebration to inaugurate his coming as the 'son of God', where youth choirs sang praises to him for his eternal reign of this ‘son of God’ coming to earth for universal peace and harmony. I love how the Christian faith has taken aspects of other cultures, found God’s truth within and made it glorify Him!! (Fabulous incredible message: http://www.willowcreek.com/service.asp?servid=10 – Rob Bell at the bottom.)
So, here I am – thousands of years later. Beginning a season that has now become part of Church history. Perhaps a season that many churches have neglected to even mention today, but what a beautiful season it is!! How do I connect? To a child born so long ago? Is it just a story? A story of a time when God put His fingerprint into a point in human history? Or is there something more?
I remember my pastor speaking years ago about how we need to take this time, the Advent, to prepare … to make room for our Lord to be born again, to be birthed anew within, to prepare and anticipate and make room for the birth of this unexpected small, meek, humble, weak infant - God incarnate - to be born again within each of us. You see, we live lives that are full of ‘noise’ and ‘stuff’ ... with all sorts of Western 'stuff' and perspectives and religiosity. We think we think we have all the answers; we think that we've 'arrived'. Our culture and our religion impose such upon us. In honesty? We don't - what arrogance to think we have it all figured out! Here then becomes our challenge: to set aside our arrogance and pride and make room so that when God comes along, there is a humble, meek, compassionate space for Him to 'move into the neighborhood'? (Jn1:14 ~ The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.); that when He doesn't look like what we expect, we can set aside our cliché answers to truly SEE and open our hearts to what this great gift is really all about? Oh, I pray that it can be so … within me, within others!
There is a movie that has been released in the last week – The Nativity Story, A quiet little story, with none of the violence of The Passion of the Christ. They say that this story is the prelude to the other. A The Passion of the Christ ~ Part I. But what if it didn’t start then? What if “In the time of Herod, King of Judea" wasn’t the beginning of the story? What if it was – like John says? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”?? … what if the beginning was really Gen1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”?? … “He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” Now, how does this fit? Or does it???
Look at the Christmas narrative in the context of the big story of human history and see how it brings into focus something that so is easy to pass over. I know everyone talks about how surprising it is that God would come in the form of a child, born in a manager, without the pomp and circumstance we might think should accompany such an entrance to the King of Kings. The “I AM” that met with Abraham (plural I) became the “I AM the way, I AM the truth, I AM the good shepherd, I AM the door … all plural again!
Oh, how in the big story, this all fits so nicely! Because God has always been about invitation, and never about power or force! He has always called us forward to Him, bidding us to ‘come’, and never pushed us from behind. He called Abraham as the archetype of humanity, not to build an empire but to leave what he knew, place his faith in the Almighty and journey toward toward God. He chose the nation of Israel, not because they were powerful but because they were weak to become the medium for His blessing on the world. God has never used the tools that we might prescribe for His mission. If it were up to us, God would come in power and strength, with authority and might, with a sword and an army and battle all that is wrong. Instead, He came in the form of a baby! Weak, powerless, humble, innocent. The mission of God has always been to demonstrate love instead of control and service instead of authority. His first sermon: blessed are the meek, the humble, the merciful, the peacemakers. Truly the medium has always been the message!! He has always taken the way of humility, of truth and grace, because to do anything else would have justified everything He sought to free us from!! Oh, how I love that the origins of the word ‘Truth’ do not have to do with what is right or wrong but find its meaning in the authenticity of relationship!!
Please, may it be that those who watch this story and hear the familiar words, experience the Christmas narrative in the light of the Big Story calling each of us to remember God’s gracious act of salvation; salvation of not just me, but the world and the world not just as a collection of individuals but as a society and people. He came to redeem His beloved Bride, the Church, back unto Him. He came to undermine the systems and structures that have taken us away from Him and demonstrate a path through His love and sacrifice for us to find our way back. When we look into the manger this year, may we look past the cliché flannelgraph Sunday school answers, past the commercial influences of the season, to the Advent of the Christ-child, continually coming to us. Here - unwrap that 'gift', look beneath, and connect to and engage with what is given to us, calling us into a new life and new relationships, where grace and love are the framework
"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. What is love? Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end." ... It is a gift of LOVE ... and Love is about the relationship, and not about being right. THIS is TRUTH!!!
"There are no great things done - only small things done with great love."
The Jewish nation was looking for a Messiah to come in power and authority, to obliterate those who had oppression over them, to come with sword and army and battle, to set things right. Instead ... look what happened! They prayed for a Messiah, but they could not see Him when He came. He loved us so much that ... even in our sinfulness, He is faithful! How much love is that! He did not set things right, but reconciled us unto Him - a restored relationship. I have said before, and I'll say it again - I believe that this Word becoming flesh is the BEGINNING ... not the end. Our salvation is not the end of the race … but the beginning!! The Trinity – the perfect number. The First Testament: God foretold His coming. The Second Testament: He came. The Third Testament: He is alive and well, here today. We are called to participate with our Lord … We are invited to become the Third Testament – Christ alive within me ~ part of His grand narrative, that began “in the beginning” and continues today.
May the empty places from this Advent become pure capacity for the Christ-child, the Messiah, the I AM, to be born again within. Full of grace and mercy, compassion and love.
I am reminded of a quote from a favourite movie: "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse." That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?
As you join the story, what will your verse be? As I join the story, what will my verse be?
Emmanuel is with us. Come. Join the story.
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