Merry Christmas!
Jesus was born into a world of extreme poverty - more extreme, in fact, than at any other time in history. Jesus' face could have easily been on the commercial asking you to adopt a child for $30 a month. Think bare ribs. Imagine ragged clothes. Envision flies. See Jesus. Jesus-as-poor was as important then as it is now. People always assume that worldly success indicates God's blessing. That's a great feeling when we're on top. But what if we're at the low ebb of life? What if we feel like a loser, and everything in our life seems to affirm it? Sometimes we make decisions that land us in the dump - decisions we would love to take back. Things said and done that wound hearts and burn bridges. Sometimes we are the recipient of things said and done by others - we are the damaged goods. Sometimes we discover that the systems we live in have helped create a life without hope - we don't even have a name as far as the system is concerned - it doesn't care - we don't matter. When we read Jesus, we hear words, we see actions, we sense a heart of a man who was truly with us. In our relational, emotional, physical and spiritual poverty. God is with us, he said in his words and actions - don' let the circumstances fool you. God is with us in our suffering - not adding to it, causing it, but to be a redeeming presence in it. God is with us. The incarnation didn't just happen. It happens.
Jesus was a rebel. John the Baptist, undoubtedly a Jewish cynic, was fed up with the way the world was going under the Roman Empire. He was desperately desiring God's Kingdom to break into the world and restore Israel to global power and was certainly okay letting the political powers of the day crumble - including the religious authorities. He spoke of Jesus as greater than himself - a more powerful Jewish cynic. Jesus was. Jesus called out the wrong that he saw wherever it was. He challenged his family, his friends, religious and political authorities alike with the idea that the ways of the world were terribly wrong, and that the Kingdom of God presented a better way for everyone. The Kingdom of God saw everyone as equals - everyone - and treated them accordingly. No more favoritism. The Kingdom of God announced freedom from the tyranny of guilt and shame by proclaiming that God's forgiveness is limitless and free and complete. It cannot be earned or bought. It simply is. The Kingdom of God is also present. It is not something that is to come at some future time, but has been coming, is coming, and will continue to come. In us. Around us. Through us. As we live in the way of the Kingdom of God now, we experience God with us now. We may have to live in the systems we are born into, but we don't have to live by them. Jesus' provocative teaching was that we can experience an abundant, content life in spite of the fact that we live in a world of broken systems. We are not defined by them. Our identity ultimately does not come from the systems here that sort and distort. Our wholeness comes from God with us, from living in the Kingdom of God now. Jesus was a rebel, inviting you to follow him in opposition to the systems that have hurt you and millions and millions of others. Jesus offers another way.
Jesus was more than a rabbi. In his day, Jesus was considered a magician and wisdom teacher. The title rabbi was no doubt a later addition to gain him greater acceptance in the world receiving the Good News proclaimed by the early Gospel writers. This is great news, really, because it simply amplifies God's work in him all the more. God did stuff through Jesus that shouldn't happen - miracles. And he spoke wisdom that was more profound than the all the rabbis before him. Pretty amazing since he wasn't formally trained. All of it combined to point to the fact that God was doing something in and through Jesus that was incredible - in Jesus, the rebel born into extreme poverty (and never left it). God showing up in him means God can show up in us, too. God is with us with incredible potency to help us embrace life in a different way that changes our lives and the lives of everyone we touch.
So this is why Christmas is worth celebrating. Jesus' coming into the world altered history, and it continues to alter history.
Too often, however, we focus so much on God being with us that we neglect a critical question that impacts our experience of God being with us: How are we with God? God being with us is somewhat benign unless we choose to be with God. We can wallow in self-loathing, never experiencing hope, with God sitting right beside us. Why? Because God being with us doesn't do much for us or anyone else unless we choose to be with God. We can be frustrated by the systems that have shaped us with God by our side, but the systems never change unless we choose to be with God in what God is doing to thwart those systems. We can sit and marvel at the wonders of what God can do without experiencing much of it ourselves until we choose to be with God, allowing God's power to work, incredibly, in our lives.
God is with us, but are we with God? The incarnation didn't just happen, it happens. But are we a part of it happening?
If you wonder how we can be with God in order to experience God with us, read the story of Jesus. Where did he show love and grace? What did he say about forgiveness and reconciliation? How did he teach about living in this world? If we start building our life in the Way of Jesus, there's a really good chance we will find ourselves more and more with God, and God with us.
We can also find ourselves with God, and God with us, if we simply take some notes from the Christmas story and build them into our lives. In Jesus, God lived among the extremely poor. How are we invested in being with the extremely poor? We can't all move to Furaha, but we can care for and support them in their life. We aren't called to live in cardboard boxes, but we can care about those who do in Napa. We can't spend our days at Deborah's House helping women and children heal from domestic violence and human trafficking in Tijuana, but we can care for and support them as they do.
We can be rebellious, too. We can stand up to systems that serve to oppress people here and abroad. There are two great forces in the world: greed and God. One will seek to help those who have the power to help themselves at the expense of those who can't or don't. The other helps everybody. Which one are you supporting? We can also rebel against relational systems that are destructive. We don't have to nurse grudges. We can forgive. We can move forward. We can pursue healing and wholeness. We can choose not to add to the relational chasm that conflict creates. We can be peacemakers. These are acts of rebellion.
We can be agents of God's potency. When we are open to God being with us, and choose to be with God, God gives us wisdom beyond our education, beyond our IQ, and beyond our social status. Our touch becomes more powerful when we embrace people with God. Incredible, even miraculous things happen when we choose to be with God in this way. And it is a choice.
As you celebrate Christmas this year, may you be overwhelmed by just how profound God being with us was and is. And may we be moved, then to be with God.
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