Happy Birthday, Jesus

This Christmas season, I've been asking Jesus what it really means that He came to earth. I know, I've been told since I can remember that He came because He loves us... to die for us... but several interactions with people lately make those reasons sound a bit flat to my own ears. I am on a journey of re-discovery, and perhaps I am about to enter the Kingdom of the One who simply tells us, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind... and your neighbor as yourself."

I wonder if anyone ever had to tell Mary to love her Lord with all her heart, soul, strength, and mind. She carried Him in her body for nine months. He was as near to her as her own heart. All her physical and emotional strengths were bent toward bringing Him to earth in human form, even as she wondered at the mystery of Immanuel, God... with her. Is this what it means for us to love Him as well?

In loving my neighbor as myself, do I actually engage in Jesus' ministry of reconciliation? The angels who announced the advent of the King of Kings didn't intend their message of peace on earth to dissipate in the Bethlehem night air.  Unless it compels us to befriend and engage living, breathing people who need forgiveness and love as much as we do (but are more honest about it), the God who is glorified by justice ["care"] served to the broken is only glorified by our annual singing. Weak incense. From where did the church learn that it is more Christian to hurt those who hurt others than it is to forgive them? The news coverage of the "balloon boy hoax" intrigued me, particularly a profound and shocking comment made by Mr. Heene's attorney:

"That's where this society has come; vengeance and justice are one and the same in the minds of many people." -David Lane

I would add that the vengeance=justice ideology is made more lethal when coupled with religion... one reason being that people can act almost without reason when they believe their actions are sanctioned... another being that the Jesus who raised eyebrows by talking to (and going home for lunch with!) outright sinners and forgiving people convicted of crimes deserving of death is portrayed as a carbon copy of the Pharisees He rebuked. Maybe it seems pointless to decide how the Heenes' case should have been handled, but the fact remains that the views we form shape us... and increase or decrease our love for the people around us who might be annoying, disruptive, and even destructive. Kinda like the rest of us, you know?

This evening, for Bible Study, my youth group carried candles to an inn where we were told there was no room for us... and on to a bitterly cold stable to worship the One who came to be with people just like us... in the company of goats that pee and horses that chew on clothing. I was overwhelmed by the how deeply the Father loves His delinquent kids, how lost this delinquent kid would be without Him, and how much this delinquent kid wants to love her Father with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength... and her neighbor as herself.







"Kyrie", a Christmas confession by Jonny Baker

Kyrie eleison
Christe eleison
Lord have mercy
Christ have mercy

Holy God, accept our confession. You asked for all of our being - our thoughts and actions, our creativity and expression. What do we give you? We think back two millennia to when the Christ child was born. What would we give the baby? What does the baby ask of us? What gifts did the baby receive?

Gold - a gift for a king. A metal so precious that we have died and killed for it. We treat your creation like it wasn't our home. We've robbed the earth of its riches and left its wounds open to infection. Forgive us for not unwrapping your gift to us in the right spirit. Forgive us for not giving you the best of us. What's the point of giving you our religious bits if the rest is kept closely guarded?

Kyrie eleison

Christe eleison

Lord have mercy

Christ have mercy

Frankincense - a gift for God. The fragrance of worship. God's eau de cologne. Worship - giving God the honor that is due to him. We saw your creation as a dirty thing, that we had to manufacture souls for heaven. Forgive our efforts to worship you only when it's convenient to do so and with the people that we choose - making outcasts of our brothers and sisters. Forgive us when our actions make our words of worship meaningless.

Kyrie eleison

Christe eleison

Lord have mercy

Christ have mercy

Myrrh - a gift for a mortal. The smell of a cover up to hide death and decay. But nothings is hid from you. Forgive us for denying the reality of pain, suffering, and struggle. Do we get angry and shout at God, or do we bury our pain? Forgive us for not giving our pain and suffering to you and for not interceding for others.

Kyrie eleison

Christe eleison

Lord have mercy

Christ have mercy

You ask for all that we are. What do we give? May we take seriously the meaning of your birth and your cross. Amen.

Happy Birthday, Jesus. I love you.