BEING PART OF THE PICTURE

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you ... so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.(Colossians 1: 9a, 11-14)

There is an awful lot of spectacle involved in our modern celebrations of Christmas. Pagents, music events, lights, decorations. It is very easy to sit back and enjoy the sights, to be observers. To be passive, in fact.

But that is not what God had in mind for us.

Paul tells us that we ought to be walking in a way worth of the Lord, bearing fruit in our work. He reminds us that we were rescued from the "domain of darkness" and transferred to the kingdom of Christ.

Now there's a thought. Instead of sitting in the darkened movie theater, watching everything up on the screen, we've been transfered into the picture itself, in all its color and motion and light. Instead of sitting passively watching, we are called to be moving about and doing things, doing them well.

When I was growing up in Michigan, the choirs of many of the churches in the community would join together to form a massive chorus in order to perform the Christmas section of Handel's Messiah. It was usually the adult choir members that took part in the chorus. My mother was a church musician (organist and choir director), and I not only could read a score, I could sing well. For two years, I had been intrigued by my mother and older sister going off to the special rehearsals in the weeks prior to Chirstmas. I forget how old I was when I first got to join the chorus, but I was far younger than anyone else there. I sang soprano. Over the course of the next several years, I took part in the Messiah chorus, reaching the point where I knew all the choruses for the Christmas section by heart. And I'd heard the solos often enough that I knew them as well.

Taking part in the event became an important aspect of the season for me. I didn't quite realize how much until after we moved to Texas, and it was no longer as much of a factor. Oh, the choir in our church in Houston certainly did sing some of the choruses for services (so many churches do!). But it wasn't quite the same thing.

When I look back on it now, I vaguely remember the years before I joined the special chorus, attending the performances, sitting with my father, but being restless. (I was occassionally a fidgety child.) Because so much of the meaning of that musical work is in the words, perhaps I fidgeted because the words didn't fit together in a way that reached my young brain. But once I was in the chorus, and spending the weeks learning the word, learning how the voices fit together, my connection to the performance changed greatly.

I was no longer a spectator. I was a participant.

The Advent season unfolds so much spectacle for us in the story of the birth of Jesus. We sit back and watch it. We let our thoughts dwell on the meaning of the season, the coming of Christ into the world ... while sitting comfortably on our sofas or lounge chairs.

Are we remembering yet that we were rescued from the domain of darkness? That we are now citizens of the kingdom of Christ? That we are called to walk and do things in that kingdom?

We're part of the picture. We're not the audience.

A GOD WHO TAKES ACTION
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of David His servant--
As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old --
Salvation from our enemies,
And from the hand of all who hate us;
To show mercy toward our fathers,
And to remember his covenant,
The oath which He swore to Abraham our father,
To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
(Luke 1: 68-75)

Once upon a time there was an older priest in the temple in Jerusalem named Zacharias. He and his wife Elizabeth had been childless during their long marriage. They'd basically given up on having kids, and were (he thought) past the age of having children. So one day he was chosen to burn incense at the altar, something that would happen only once in the life of a priest, and while he was doing this sacred duty, the angel Gabriel appeared to him, to inform him that he and Elizabeth were about to become parents to one who would be the forerunner of the Lord. And they were to name the child John.

You would think that a priest would know better, especially when confronted with an angel, but no. Basically he responded by saying "You're kidding me! My wife and I are too old to have children!"

Gabriel didn't have a whole lot of patience with this. I suppose when you are an angel and spend your whole existence standing before the very presence of God, uncertainty never enters the picture. He told Zacharias there would indeed be a child, but because he doubted the message, Zacharias would get to spend the next nine months unable to speak.

When the child was born, Zacharias was finally able to speak, and the first words out of his mouth were the above verses: a celebration and praise of the Lord God, for doing those things He promised His people he would do.

I can sympathize with Zacharias' reaction to Gabriel's message, though. We get so very used to the way things "usually happen" that when we get a message that something extraordinary is going to happen, even when it is something we've greatly desired (just as Zacharias and Elizabeth desired children), we still fall into that "I don't believe it!" reaction. Very few of us have the angel Gabriel delivering messages to us. But we are promised in many places in scripture that God watches out for us, that He will provide for us. He promises these things. And yet we still shake our heads, disbelieving.

God must be very patient with us. Very few of us are literally rendered speechless for nine months just because we didn't immediately get on board the good ship Lord's Promise.

And yet, when I think about it.....

I'm dealing with tough circumstances right now (as many people are - and some of them friends of mine). Anxiety has been nibbling at my psyche for months. Fear has prowled around the edges of my awareness. But I have gone through difficult times before, and the Lord has never dropped me. Yet, I let those anxieties stifle my voice, definitely stifle my praise of the Lord. I have fretted and doubted. And kept silent. Oh, I had many sessions of pleading with God, but I kept a lot of it to myself.

But then I turned myself around. Not just in the sense of talking with others, but admitting that God has never forgotten me in the past, and isn't likely to do so this time either. Feebly at first, but each day a bit more, I remind myself to speak of all God has done. As I open my fear-clenched hands, God has started putting things in them. Things not just for myself, but also to help others. Zacharias said that our rescue will enable us to serve the Lord without fear. For me, even though still in need, I now think of things I would like to do for others.

I am trusting God to provide for my own needs. I am hoping that His bounty will give me the freedom to be generous to others who are in need. But in the meantime, I've also realized that those around me have more than material needs. Everyone needs an encouraging word, an assurance of their own value in God's eyes. This doesn't cost even a penny. All it costs is a moment to step outside myself and see the person in front of me.

The Lord has visited us with His salvation. No kidding. And He does deliver on His promises. That's worth talking about.

AN ANSWERING GOD

From You comes my praise in the great assembly;
I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise the Lord.
Let your heart live forever!
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the nations will worship before You.
For the kingdom is the Lord's
And He rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship,
All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep his soul alive.
Posterity will serve Him;
It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
They will come and will declare His righteousness
To a people who will be born, that He has performed it.
(Psalm 22: 25-31)

When outsiders, non-believers look at the Christmas celebrations of believers, what do they see? What is it that we are showing them?

Black Friday, a super-commercialized day of consumerism, following on the heels of a day of thanksgiving? A day when everyone is greedily out to get those bright, shiny objects we desire for ourselves? Is that the celebration we communicate? The getting of the things we desire?

The giving of gifts has been woven into our celebration of the coming of the Lord, but for a very specific reason. We are supposed to be giving gifts to others because God has given us so much. Because He is a God who brings us what we need, so that our hearts may "live forever". He has given us so much of Himself, that He became flesh to be among us.

Non-believers look at the Christmas story and, at best, say they see a mythic tale that isn't much different from other myths that are all equally improbable if not down-right impossible (at least in their way of thinking). In their minds is the question, "If there even is a god, why would that divinity do this? What logical purpose would it serve?"

I'm not sure how to answer those questions, at least not in a way that would satisfy someone who doesn't even believe in the existence of God.

For me, I have always had a sense of the presence of God, an Otherness that was always with me, but outside me. Was this merely the indoctrination that came from being born into a believing family? A paternal great-grandfather was a pastor, and his daughter, my great-aunt was a missionary. My maternal grandfather was a pastor as well. Church activities were a regular part of our schedule. My mother was a church choir director and organist. But I am also by nature a rationalist and logician, so "indoctrination" by itself does not explain my internal response. There was always something beyond the physical world, Someone who listened and responded. A presence that was experienced, not imagined. You don't "imagine" a presence when it is inconvenient to your present activities and desires. And that was the sort of Someone Other that I experienced.

For me, the story of the coming of Jesus is real. It is spiritually real, telling of how God chose to come close to us. But I also believe it to be literally true. And by that, I mean that there indeed was a child born into the Middle East in a particular year, a year when the Romans required a census of the residents of Judea and Israel. I do realize that the pinning of this event to the winter solstice of the northern hemisphere was a later thing -- but that of itself does not make the event untrue. I don't think the early Church was blind to the fact that they were making a symbolic choice by placing the celebration at the solstice. When else would you chose to celebrate the coming of the Light of the World but at that point when the world is at its darkest? The real point is not when in the year that Jesus was born, but rather that he was born.

That is what I celebrate. That is what I want to tell to "the coming generation". The Lord God promised to answer our needs. He promised to come to us. And he did.

NEEDING THE LORD IN ADVENT

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.
Yet You are holy,
O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You delivered them.
To You they cried out and were delivered;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed.
 (Psalm 22: 1-5)

2011 has been a challenging year for me. Some of the challenges are just circumstances, some of the challenges have come from folly on my part. Lately, I have been in a season where I really am reduced to relying totally on the Lord. And there have been days when the opening of this Psalm have been exactly what I have been feeling.

Usually, Christians associate this Psalm with the Crucifixion, recognizing that Jesus was crying from his very heart the words recorded centuries before. "O my God, why have you forsaken me? Why am I not delievered from this anquish?"

So why am I beginning Advent with these verses?

I'm doing it because God is indeed holy, and He has indeed delivered His people when they trust in Him. And that is the point of Advent. It is the season of a promised deliverance of salvation.

I want to rejoice in my soul. I want to celebrate God's love for His children, regardless of what lies ahead for me personally. Yes, I want to be delivered from my anxieties, I want these problems to be addressed with God's bounty. I want to trust in the Lord and not be disappointed -- in a worldly sense, I admit it. I want my daily needs to be provided for with abundance.

But even if that is what is happening inside me, it is my choice to celebrate the Lord, whatever may come.

That is why I will begin this Advent season admitting to my own frailty and fears, and yet why I will look toward the throne of God with praises. For the Lord is coming, and has come, to be among us.