I've spent every Christmas of my life in the same nation. My understanding of the celebration is culturally American. My biases are from a lifetime with one set of traditions. The last few years, I've used the phrase "commercial Christmas" with friends and family to describe the mainstream American Christmas habits and attitudes. But my heart is longing for a different, simpler set of traditions.
I love the cards that trickle in all December long, updating us on the lives of dear ones. I love the lights and ornaments, turning dreary nights into sparking wonderlands. And I love the time with friends and family, the good food and the good drinks. That's American Christmas, to me.
Christmas is about God re-writing the course of history.
We love our family too much to make Christmas be about our family. The celebration shifts to the restoration of a larger family, the Church. The coming of Jesus to earth changed everything. We don't need special foods or Amazon boxes to remember the scandalous arrival of the King. Our little family of three has used every dark December morning to read the Bible and wait.
We wait for a King who has come already and is coming again. We wait with the tension of "already" and "not yet." We rejoice in hope. We mourn with those continuing to suffer. We fight for freedom from the darkness. We claim the victory of the Light.
Perfect celebrations don't happen on Earth. So, here in the not yet, we'll go to local church tomorrow and again on Tuesday. We'll spend days with family and eat good food as we look forward to the reunification of God and the Church. We pray, we wait, we serve, and we love. We know that God wins.
That's how I want to celebrate Christmas.
Whatever traditions you use to celebrate Christ's arrival, preach this hope. However you spend Tuesday, worship the King. Rejoice! The God of Abraham made a way for the poor and oppressed. You are spiritually poor. You need this Savior. And if you're not physically poor, you can help those who are. You can be one who shares Light, too. You can be one who speaks Hope. You can be one who spreads Peace.
Friends, I'm tired of the Church wasting Christmas. I'm tired of American Christ-followers ensnared in political arguments. Stop living like we're from America. Start living like we're from Heaven. Please, Church, spend Christmas living like our King. Please love our God. Please love your neighbors.
Saturday, December 21, 2019
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Ephesians 5
Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. But among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints. Neither should there be vulgar speech, foolish talk, or coarse jesting – all of which are out of character – but rather thanksgiving. For you can be confident of this one thing: that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light – for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth – and find out what pleases the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For the things they do in secret are shameful even to mention. But all things being exposed by the light are made evident. For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says:
“Awake, O sleeper!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you!”
Therefore be very careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise, taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil. For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise by understanding what the Lord’s will is. And do not get drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but be filled by the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for each other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church – he himself being the savior of the body. But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one has ever hated his own body but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is great – but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
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