Is there anything more hilarious than a child's Christmas pageant?
The nose picking, the mistakes, the forgotten lines, the improvised props, the enthusiastic children singing off-key at the top of their lungs while having no self-consciousness, the desperate adults trying to stage manage a heard of cats, the children with the dear-in-headlights...
Years ago I went to a church that had a live donkey in their pageant....which was fine, until the orchestra and choirs started in with their anthem, at which point it seems having a trained handler to manage the understandably terrified donkey would have been a wiser decision. I'm sure if I polled my readers you would have equally amusing recollections of well intended but epic failures at these kinds of events.
And who can forget that scene from the movie Love Actually, where the pageant includes children dressed up in lobster costumes arriving at the manger. Which at first seems a bizarre historical inaccuracy, but at second glance reminds us that all of creation would likely have come to this event given the chance.
But beyond their sheer entertainment value - and there is plenty of that no doubt - why do we drag our children into these things?
I think it might have to do with the fact that deep down we know that there is a need for each of us to participate in this story of Christmas. That it's not enough just to read about it, or contemplate it from afar. Really good stories need to be lived.
There's the story of the headstrong child who wanders off to pursue what seems will make them happy, only to find themselves returning to their family having learned the hard way. It may be one of Jesus' great stories he tells, but for most of us at some point we live out this story in our lives.
There's the story of the parent who wants so desperately to protect their child who seems to wander and make bad decisions and can only wait for the day when they return to us, when we too will run to meet them and return them to the family. Many have lived this story too.
And what about all of the stories the scriptures give us of redemption, of being lost and found, of having suffering transformed into something beautiful and good?...These are the kinds of stories we all want to live deep at the core of our being.
As I watched my own children this week in their roles as sheep at a manager scene, this struck me: When we participate in pageants that recreate the Christmas story we are celebrating by putting ourselves, especially our children inside the central story of how God relates to humankind.
God relates to us by becoming one of us.
Sometimes in our familiarity with the story we lose sight of how revolutionary this idea about God joining us really is. In the ancient world gods were distant authorities who needed to be appeased. Even ancient stories about gods taking on human form were never about a god doing so because they loved their creation. This idea that the Jewish god Yahweh decides to come be one of us as the highest expression of love marks a monumental turn in the history of human beings.
So how do we enter into this story - beyond the humorous yet heartwarming low-budget theatrical recreations of the gospel accounts of Christ's birth?
What if metaphorically speaking we viewed our lives as a kind of Christmas pageant - a daily recreation of this story in which we participate and show others the mystery of the incarnation?
How would our days look different if we lived as people whose lives and world are filled with God all around us? A god who is present and loving, not distant or angry?
You probably even have a jack-ass (donkey?) or two hanging around your scene! Although I suspect you are short an orchestra or any applause even when you forget your lines. But remember this: we are not here to impress the world with our excellence in recreating an historical event. Rather we recreate this story because it is the one in which light breaks through darkness. We recreate this story daily because it brings such joy to the world.
P.S. There is no room in this story for complaining about what Starbucks does or does not put on their coffee cups. The light of the world shines so bright that nobody would even notice what their coffee cups look like. Neither does this story care about whether or not it's competing with Santa Claus outside city hall's light display. It's such a revolution of love it has no need to cling to its own interests or preferences. And it certainly doesn't have any time for jamming down other people's throats the "real reason for the season" because it's too busy recreating in daily practical ways the beautiful mystery of incarnation.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Mercy Part 6- God uses Mercy to save the world
“For some time, I have been saying that Muslim immigration into the United States should be stopped until we can properly vet them or until the war with Islam is over. Donald J. Trump has been criticized by some for saying something similar.”
- Franklin Graham, December 8, on his Facebook page
I think I only have one thing left to say about mercy - although I suspect I have started on a lifelong journey with coming to know and live mercy.
A rabbi I heard recently said something like this:
"If you think about life as a journey, even a small change in the direction you're headed can make an enormous difference over a great distance. Changing your heading by 2 degrees might not seem big in a day or a week, but over a lifetime, brings you to an entirely different destination."
Indeed, it is the small changes, accumulating over time that make an enormous difference in where we end up. I might be tempted to think of mercy in the big and dramatic terms like: how should we in western world respond to the recent terrorist attacks? And while these are good questions to wrestle with, those aren't things I have much control over. On the other hand the seemingly smaller day to day interactions I have with my wife, my kids, my friends, my neighbours, and the people in the community I worship in - these are all opportunities to be tapping into the flow of mercy and practicing in my own life, towards myself and others. How would life be different if I engaged in even one deliberate act of mercy every day for the rest of my life?
How might the world be different if mercy was a practice more of us engaged in on a regular basis?
So in a week when the world is trying to make sense of terrorist attacks, and Franklin Graham (yes, the son of Billy) is one-upping Donald Trump in vitriolic rhetoric about Muslims, here's my audacious suggestion to you all:
I think mercy is one of the things God is using to save the world.
Since mercy is an expression or form of love, I dare to believe that mercy is a force so revolutionary it can and will be the way God rescues and restores shalom in the world.
The violence we see in Syria, Iraq, Paris, and San Bernardino is only a mirror to the violence that lives in all of us and between all of us. Maybe I'm not the only one that cringes to hear Jesus say that if we have lusted or been angry then in our hearts we are the same as adulterers and murderers. I'll admit it, when I read Franklin Graham writing like a commentator for Fox News, anger, not mercy is my first response. But these words of Jesus about me being just like a murderer are also an opportunity for hope. For if mercy can change us, murders and adulterers that we are, it can certainly change others. We all know names like Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Ghandi, Desmond Tutu and the like because they are our most renown examples of public mercy. But there is an entire world tapping into the flow of mercy. Partners in marriage who have been wounded by each other. Parents who have lost children to senseless accidents forgiving the perpetrators. Communities opening their doors to refugees and sharing their resources in spite of their fears.
God give us the strength to engage in the practices of mercy in small ways on a daily basis. Help us to join You in using mercy and love to change our stories, and to change the course of human history.
- Franklin Graham, December 8, on his Facebook page
I think I only have one thing left to say about mercy - although I suspect I have started on a lifelong journey with coming to know and live mercy.
A rabbi I heard recently said something like this:
"If you think about life as a journey, even a small change in the direction you're headed can make an enormous difference over a great distance. Changing your heading by 2 degrees might not seem big in a day or a week, but over a lifetime, brings you to an entirely different destination."
Indeed, it is the small changes, accumulating over time that make an enormous difference in where we end up. I might be tempted to think of mercy in the big and dramatic terms like: how should we in western world respond to the recent terrorist attacks? And while these are good questions to wrestle with, those aren't things I have much control over. On the other hand the seemingly smaller day to day interactions I have with my wife, my kids, my friends, my neighbours, and the people in the community I worship in - these are all opportunities to be tapping into the flow of mercy and practicing in my own life, towards myself and others. How would life be different if I engaged in even one deliberate act of mercy every day for the rest of my life?
How might the world be different if mercy was a practice more of us engaged in on a regular basis?
So in a week when the world is trying to make sense of terrorist attacks, and Franklin Graham (yes, the son of Billy) is one-upping Donald Trump in vitriolic rhetoric about Muslims, here's my audacious suggestion to you all:
I think mercy is one of the things God is using to save the world.
Since mercy is an expression or form of love, I dare to believe that mercy is a force so revolutionary it can and will be the way God rescues and restores shalom in the world.
The violence we see in Syria, Iraq, Paris, and San Bernardino is only a mirror to the violence that lives in all of us and between all of us. Maybe I'm not the only one that cringes to hear Jesus say that if we have lusted or been angry then in our hearts we are the same as adulterers and murderers. I'll admit it, when I read Franklin Graham writing like a commentator for Fox News, anger, not mercy is my first response. But these words of Jesus about me being just like a murderer are also an opportunity for hope. For if mercy can change us, murders and adulterers that we are, it can certainly change others. We all know names like Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Ghandi, Desmond Tutu and the like because they are our most renown examples of public mercy. But there is an entire world tapping into the flow of mercy. Partners in marriage who have been wounded by each other. Parents who have lost children to senseless accidents forgiving the perpetrators. Communities opening their doors to refugees and sharing their resources in spite of their fears.
God give us the strength to engage in the practices of mercy in small ways on a daily basis. Help us to join You in using mercy and love to change our stories, and to change the course of human history.
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