1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5
The tide of Christmas ebbs slowly
around our house. Our tree stays long, and Christmas music lingers. I find it
hard to let go of the season. Fortunately, Christy does not hurry Christmas out
the door; but, eventually we defrock the tree, putting away the ornaments
carefully packing the old and cherished ones. The lights come down. I return to
my regular music of jazz mixed with some older rock. Our lives return to a more
normal routine. Each season, I pause and ruminate over the figure of the infant
Jesus in our nativity set.
Once the gifts are opened, the
holiday feasts consumed, and traditional movies watched, what do we do with
Jesus? Do we pack Him away until the next Christmas season? Do we wrap Him up
in tissue-paper and stuff Him inside a box with the wise men, Mary, Joseph, shepherds,
sheep and angels? Do we find His light a little too stringent for daily
consumption? Do we want to keep Him contained, easy to deal with, a small ceramic
infant lying on a resin bed of hay? Or perhaps we can choose another course.
Like the Maji and shepherds from
so long ago, we might come to rejoice and worship. We might allow the light of
the world to shine into our lives. Of course, letting Immanuel in to shine His
light around entails risk. His light illuminates those seedy dark areas of our
lives needing attention, and that’s the problem. We cherish the infant Immanuel.
After all, what’s threatening about a baby? A baby cannot hurt anyone, and they
need us for everything, food, warmth, and shelter. But, babies grow up.
Immanuel doesn’t stay in the
manger. He grows. He learns. He comes into His own. His light shines into our
darkness and our darkness cannot overcome it. That’s the challenge of
Christmas. The wise-men came, bowed, worshiped, and gave gifts. Herod reacted
in alarm and loathing, destroying all the young male children under three in
the process. I fear that most of the time we simply pack Jesus away, not
wanting to deal with the impact of Imanuel, God with us. Outside of the box,
free to roam about and influence our lives, Jesus is too dangerous, His light
to intense. A babe inside a box is much easier to contain or ignore. A God
standing next to me, rubbing shoulders with me in my messy humanity presents
too much of a challenge. The meek and mild infant did not stay that way.
He grew into a man who challenged
all our preconceived ideas of what right looks like. He refused to conform to what
we thought our religion ought to look like. In fact, like Herod and the other
beautiful people of the first century, we often do not recognize Him. We want
to wrap Him in tissue paper and keep Him in a box until next year. We may not
understand or even recognize Him, but He remains. His light shines into the
darkness. The darkness cannot quench or understand Him. The only question is,
will we let Him out of Christmas into the rest of our year. Will we let Him
have His way with us?
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