The other day I set out on a spontaneous road trip to Austin to visit a friend. By the time I arrived in San Antonio I had made it through my favorite songs on most of my cds and remembering that I had a Christmas album in the console of my car, I decided to pop it in the cd player. As I listened to the music, I was struck with how profound the story of redemption truly is. Here is a sampling of what I heard afresh.
The Lord God said when the time was full
He would shine His light in the darkness
He said a virgin would conceive
(Is. 7:14)
And give birth to the Promise
For a thousand years the dreamers
dreamt
And hoped to see His love
But the Promise showed their wildest
dreams
Had simply not been wild enough...
The Jews had been awaiting a Messiah who would save them from the oppression of their enemies. As Philip Yancey points out, "Audacious as it may be to dream that a tiny province wedged in among great powers would produce a worldwide ruler, nonetheless Jews believed just that. They staked their future on a king who would lead their nation back to glory." But even this wasn't wild enough. God had a plan that would prove to be much more difficult for people to wrap their minds around. God coming to earth as a baby? Anyone who has been around a baby for any amount of time knows how vulnerable they are, how dependent they are upon others for their very survival. This is one of the reasons child neglect is such a horrific crime. Leave a child to itself and it will die. And yet God entrusted Himself to the womb of a peasant girl. Like any other baby, He derived his nutients from the umbliical cord of his mother. Like any other baby, He had to be nurtured and cared for. He needed to be comforted when He cried. He needed affection to feel secure. He needed to be taught proper manners. No wonder He was overlooked by so many as the Messiah.
And to whom was the arrival of this baby Messiah announced?
Shepherd's watch, listening to
lamb's bleat
Tired backs, worn out and cold feet
All life long living like outcasts
All life long, longing for life
Again, Yancey helps me see this scence stripped of the romance of Christmas pageants and greeting cards:
"For just an instant the sky grew luminous with angels, yet who saw the spectacle? Illiterate hirelings who watched the flocks of others, "nobodies" who failed to leave their names. Shepherds had such a randy reputation that proper Jews lumped them together with the "godless," restricting them to the outer courtyards of the temple. Fittingly, it was they whom God selected to help celebrate the birth of the one who would be known as the friend of sinners."
The song continues with the angels telling the shepherds to not be afraid and giving the announcement that their Savior has come and that the sign to identify him will be that He is "wrapped in rags, asleep on the hay." The music builds and every time I have heard this song I have been touched at this point, but this time I found myself unexpectedly moved to an even greater degree.
And all at once the air filled with angels
Glory shone, of holiness they smelled
"Glory be to God in the highest
And peace on earth to all those He loves."
"Lord, You cared about the Shpeherds!" I found myself saying. Of all those He could have announced the birth of the King of Kings to, He chose a group of dingy men in a field. My heart was stirred witht affection for a God who would show such tenderness and compassion to those who were outcasts of society. He acknowledged those who had been treated as insignificant. He raised them up and allowed them a very special glimpse into his plan for the world. Think about it. It would be like going out into the street and inviting the crack addicts and prostitutes to come into the hospital room as you are holding your firstborn for the very first time. New parents are usually very concerned with sanitation when it comes to their newborns and aren't afraid to ask visitors to wash their hands. I wonder if the shepherds held Mary's new baby. Interestingly, I really don't think God would have minded if they had. I wonder if any of them were there the day He was nailed to a Roman cross.
These are some of the thoughts that were going through my mind as I listened to songs celebrating the themes of Christmas. Removed from the typical context of "the most wonderful time of the year," I could hear them not as songs that accompany a season of commercialism, but as reminders of the kind of King that I follow and the Kingdom that He has inaugurated and is continuing to bring to fruition.
So what will be your answer?
Or will you hear the call?
Of Him who did not spare His son
But gave Him for us all
On earth there is no power
There is no depth or heaight
That could ever separate us from the love
Of God in Christ
Immanuel
Our God is with us
And if God is with us
Who could stand against us
Our God is with us
Immanuel.
Jesus is God with us. All the time. So, maybe you could dust off your Christmas albums and listen to them in the middle of the summer. Better yet, you could open the Bible (it's okay if you have to dust it off too...or even if you have to go buy one. Half Price books is great for that!) to one of the Gospels and think about who Jesus is and what that means for you. If you haven't grown up in church, you actually have the advantage of imagining for the first time what the birth of Jesus must have been like. If you have grown up in the church and the reality of Jesus seems to have become lost in religious activity, I encourage you to go to the Gospels and start fresh. Try to think through how your faith has become shaped by the culture around you...even your church culture. If following Jesus has become dull to you maybe you're trying to follow someone else's version of Jesus. Let Jesus shape how you see him. Let him shape how you live. He'll meet you there. He is Immanuel.
