December 24, 2008
A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16)
At the candlelight service tonight the pastor, inevitably, dwelt on the disconnect between the gift-giving extravaganza that is the modern Christmas and the deeper meaning of what we celebrate. But I am always struck by the appropriateness of the symbolic deed to the event in question. For what is Christ if not a gift, His greatest gift, from God to us.
A couple asides. Took the In-Laws up to the Hospital for lunch with The Wife yesterday. She and her mother were on line at Au-Bon-Pain and a woman at the front of the line realized she didn't have her wallet. The guy behind her told the cashier just to add it to his order and he'd pay. She thanked him profusely, but he said: "Just do the same for someone else some time." Similarly, the Father-in-Law was at his garage and a soldier in full regalia came in to have his car looked at. The service manager asked the Father-in-Law to step outside to discuss something and an older guy approached and asked to be allowed to pay for whatever service the soldier required. The service manager asked if he could at least tell the kid what was going on and the guy said he'd rather it be anonymous. Two stories that remind us that, in ways big and small, we do things for one another, even for strangers, and give gifts every day.
On Christmas though we recall the most extraordinary gift, the full import of which we can lose sight of. For while it is the Birth we commemorate and celebrate, God gave with knowledge of the Death to come. Indeed, it is His embrace of that Death that constitutes the gift.
One reads of how much trouble missionaries had explaining to heathens why they should worship a God who can die, but we're so used to the idea that its radical nature eludes us. The Old Testament tells the convoluted tale of God and His contentious relationship with the troublesome creatures He Created. We are constantly surprising, perplexing, and disappointing Him, but He keeps giving us chances and even entering into covenants with us in attempts to bring us into line, even as we keep letting Him down.
Then, in a turn of events so unlikely, so moving, and so beautiful -- so aesthetically perfect -- that it can not help but be true, He chooses to incarnate Himself in order to finally understand our incapacity to do as He bids. And incipient in this becoming human is the certainty that He will have to die, and not just that but die in such a manner that His faith will be tested in an extreme enough manner that He will comprehend the despair and despond to which all men are prey. Yet, He, who need not, gives the gift freely to us, who can hardly be said to deserve such a bounty.
What a gift...for it is through this medium, through the Son, that we will be reconciled to Him and this despite the terrible way in which we will reject, repudiate, and revile the gift. God gives us the Son, in order that we may Crucify Him. This is a love of mankind that truly surpasses human understanding. This is gift-giving on a scale that humbles we who have so much to be humble about.
So if a holiday that is structured around giving--whether that was its original form or not--allows us to enact some dim reflection of the great gift-giving, then all the crassness and commercialism and consumption is very much beside the point. What matters is that we do turn to those we love--family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc.--and we give to them, no matter what it is we give. We are rather conspicuously not God, nor even gods, and our gifts can not be measured against the Gift, any more than we can measure ourselves against Him. Yet it is easy to imagine that He finds it pleasing, takes pleasure in us, when we at least try give of ourselves to others.
No, sorry, we didn't get you all gifts. We do offer you our thanks though. Thank you for frequenting, or visiting, or accidentally stumbling upon Brothers Judd. Thank you for reading, for commenting, for sending stories, for buying us gifts, for your kind words, for your criticisms, for all the ways that you help us to make this a better site and a more enjoyable experience.
May you all benefit from the spirit of the Season and may you all have a great 2009.
Merry Christmas everybody.