The Goodness of God

Christmas represents the tension between the vastness of God's grandeur and the lowliness of the Christ's birth. Jesus was born to a working family, in a shed, surrounded by farm workers. He's also the Lord of all creation, the divine word, who built the underlining foundation of all things. We welcome an infant born to a brave, faithful, and average young woman. This baby is God among us. This tension means to invite. You should see yourself in Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds and see that you belong in God's family.

The New Testament works at a way different scale than the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, we work at the scale of nations, kings, prophets, princesses, emperors, and generals. We mostly remember the high and mighty. The New Testament is largely about teen moms, fishermen, lepers, tent makers, a few rich homeowners, and a bunch of shop keepers. The story of Christ's birth focuses on a godly, brave, and loving carpenter who turns out to be the perfect earthly father for Jesus. Joseph's might doesn't come from his position or social standing. Instead, we remember him purely because of how faithful he turns out to be.

Mary is extremely brave. She risks at lot and at an young age, yet she greets all of this with joy. The Magnificat, Mary's beautiful song at the beginning of Luke, boldly declares exactly what her soon to be born child means and excitement and amazement at the whole thing. Mary gets it far earlier than anyone else in the New Testament, more so than the Disciples, or anyone else who met Jesus in his earthly life. May we all gain Mary's clarity and joy at the birth of a savior.

From the Root of Jesse's tree (AKA the House of David) will come one who makes all things well. When Isaiah spoke these words, the king who arrived made things better, but they didn't stay better for long. Destruction and exile eventually came. These words of the prophet point to what a messiah, a savior is and does. They come from the House of David, and they set things right. Some Old Testament kings did that in limited ways and for a while. Christ does it for everyone and for always.

Jesus is actually quite clear about trying to predict the end times. He essentially says, "Don't bother. Even I don't know." Instead, we should focus on being spiritually ready, living our lives with hope, and trust that at some unknown point, God will make all things well. That there is an end point is meant to motivate discipleship - not rampant speculation. We begin each Christian year with an image of the end to remind us of what God has done, is doing, and will do.

Imagine yourself at your worst moment. Picture in your mind's eye being pushed, painfully, to the brink of death. How would you react to the people responsible for putting you in that situation? How would you treat those around you? This is the context of Jesus offering forgiveness to persecutors and to the penitent thief as he hangs on a cross. Jesus is actively and painfully dying and spends his remaining breath offering forgiveness to the guilty. This is the brutal hope of God's grace. It's forgiveness that can contain the breadth of human brokenness.

The ending of Isaiah projects a beautiful image of the world made right. Jerusalem restored. People live to an advanced aged. The lion eats straw. The serpent is not longer a problem. For a people deeply traumatized from the experience of exile and now returned home, there are probably images that felt both comforting and true. There world, once rocked and destroyed, had massively improved. However, it was not yet the perfection described in Isaiah's vision. Indeed, that level of perfection still eludes us. So, we find trust in the promises already kept to find hope in the promises still out there to be fulfilled.

Purity Culture is a thing - quite a thing. It was all the rage in youth groups across the nation and fed in part by Joshua Harris's I Kissed Dating Goodbye. It put an extreme focus on saying literally everything until marriage and turned pre-martial sex (particularly for young women) into a kind of uber sin, a sin that there's no coming back from. Good news! None of that's in the Bible, and Joshua Harris has disavowed his own book that he wrote at the age of 21 (the age where everyone always has it all figured out).

Contemplating the meaning of life is one of humanity's eternal challenges. We want there to be meaning - to have our existence be more than simply a set of memories that evaporate with us. Our relationship with God hold the answers to these questions and fears. While our earthly life does end, God does not, and when we invest our lives into our relationship with God and with others, our existence and relationships go on forever. It's not just that our work and efforts out live us. It's that cease being a part of what God is doing - eternally.