Blessed be the Lord
Christmas Eve, Monday, December 24, 2018
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior. In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us. – From Luke 1
It’s not like Jesus was the first, the only, or the last Messiah wannabe. There were dozens. Scott Hahn says, “That’s a remarkable number of saviors to appear in a land the size of New Jersey, whose population was probably just a fraction of New Jersey today.”
But Bruce Springsteen won’t call himself Messiah. This is just a different time. If you’re audacious enough to call yourself the Christ, they’ll be coming to take you away.
So when this particular Messiah is born, tonight, his birth is in the middle of hope and expectation. The same men and women who preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hahn says, “sketched out strategies for the battles in which their messiah would lead them to reconquer their lands.”
Even great generals have to be born. But Jesus at birth, Jesus at baptism, Jesus on every given day did not tend toward military. His Father, as Isaiah and the other prophets beat the ground before him, sends Jesus to die, but not kill. And in time, the wolf will lie down with the lamb. The Garden of Eden was a place of peace, and will be a place of peace again.
There are plenty of violent metaphors in Jesus’ speech. He knows his message will divide the legalists from the lovers of God. Jesus looks past those battles to the Kingdom of Heaven, our souls restored, where we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. He knows whereof he speaks. He’s God’s son, calling us to be his sisters and his brothers.
Most (all?) of the renegade false messiahs were killed, usually after they had killed their own fair share. Jesus didn’t kill anybody, did he? He struck down hypocrisy and heresy in the temple, he castigated the Pharisees and most of all he destroyed the evil of Satan in the minds of men. And then with no hesitation, he gave himself up to BE killed.
Jesus’ days were filled with healing and wholeness, words followed by works, works followed by words. His listeners really could imagine Isaiah’s wolf and lamb together, licking each other, sleeping side by side, tight in, fed and feeling fine. The earth would be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Jesus told stories like the parable of the Good Samaritan, so his listeners could realize the Samaritans COULD be good. The Sultan and the Saint is a story of the fifth crusade, when Francis of Assisi, not yet a saint, and al-Kamil, already a sultan, met in 1219 for a weeks-long “exchange of faith” in the midst of bitter war that seemed unending. The Muslims, Christians thought, were “beasts.” The Christians, Muslims thought, cared little about God.
Being together proved both theories wrong. Realizing this, both men encouraged ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD to pray for each other. This is the way of our Messiah. This is the way of Jesus.
This is what we do tonight. With Mary, Joseph and the shepherds, with this baby Jesus, we can pray for all the people of the world. Freed from fear, we can trust our savior Jesus as he leads us forward into what God made us all to be.
O Lord, shine on us, we who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and guide our feet, Lord, into the way of peace. (from the words of Zechariah)
Scott Hahn, Joy to the World, 2014, pp. 40-41
The Sultan and the Saint, 2016, filmed by Unity Productions Foundation, narrated by Jeremy Irons, shown on PBS, 2018
http://www.davesandel.net/category/advent-and-christmas-devotions-2018/
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archive.php?year=2018
