It is something of a crazy passion of mine. I love the decorations, the smells, the sense of community, the kindness... it's just a great time of year! Of course, Christmastime is also synonymous with the antithesis of those things as well- busyness, shopping, deadlines, craziness, fatigue, family, etc.
How can one Holiday inspire yet frustrate? Songs are written in its honor yet somehow the "best time of the year" can also burden us.
This past Christmas a friend and mentor of mine, Rick Shurtz, gave a series of talks about "Unwrapping Christmas (listen here)" at our community at Gateway. The first illustration that Rick made in this series stuck with me the rest of the Christmas season and I still find myself relating to the story.
Rick told of a typical drama that gets played out during Christmas all over the United States. He told it a little like this:
Scene 1- At some point as Christmas nears a parent (Mom) will walk into their home carrying bags and their child will inquire about the bags. Mom will respond that she won't tell because the bags are for Christmas and this sends the kid into a frenzy of questions. Mom doesn't give into the questioning and continues on her way.
Scene 2- Mysteriously, presents start appearing under the Christmas tree and the child goes crazy wondering what is in the boxes. The child inevitably singles out a box and surmises that THIS box is exactly the size of a particular toy that they must have and they HAVE to open it now. Insanity ensues.
Scene 3- The child starts analyzing the box- shaking it, holding it to determine the weight and peeling back a small corner only to find a brown box lies underneath the ornate wrapping.
Scene 4- Christmas Eve.
Scene 5- Christmas morning. The kid wakes up the parents in hot anticipation and rushes to that one particular box. The child tears apart the wrapping, destroys the brown box and to their wonder they find... socks.
Socks. ((sigh))
Rick proclaims that socks are a gift of need and not a gift of want. We don't want socks. Man, I opened a lot of socks when I was growing up and my parents didn't even try to disguise them in a box. I can identify with this story, can you?
I thought about this a lot as I started to open my gifts this past Christmas. I got some "socks," figuratively speaking. I also got some cool gifts (like my new Gears of War sleepwear pants).
Anyway...
In my last two posts, I started a dialog about the invitation that Jesus made to all of humanity and the offer that He made to all those He invited. Well, that got me thinking about the gift that He brought with the offer and the invitation.
Jesus made claims that He came to bring us life and that through Him we would have this new life forever. He claimed that if anyone believes in Him for this life then they would have it and therefore be made right with God.
Who cares, right? So what? What is this life that Jesus was referencing and why does it matter? I am alive so why do I need life from Jesus?
I guess to understand this we must go back. We must go back to when God started this conversation with humanity.
When God was first engaging humans it was through His "chosen people"- the Israelites. They were special because through their lineage Jesus would be born. God had a plan for them and us. At one point in the Israelites history God interacts with their leader, Moses, and informs the Israelites that they now have a choice when it comes to life and death; blessings and curses. God instructs them to choose life... but he still leaves that choice up to them! God then goes on to say that He wants them to choose life because HE is the source of life (read it here).
Paul, a first century church starter and pastor, went to Athens. Athens was viewed as one of the top cultural epicenters for modern thought, philosophy and theology. Paul had a chance to share with them the message that Jesus had been proclaiming about life in God. I could paraphrase what Paul said, but here, read it for yourself:
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' (italics added; source)"
Cruel, huh? I mean, why doesn't God just make us choose life? Why is the choice between life and death left up to us? Why does God allow us to choose? Kinda' narcissistic don't you think?
If you look closely, you'll see it.
Love.
To clarify, in order for love to exist, free will must exist. We can't make people love us. We can tell them to love us. We can order them to love us. In the end, love is a choice that we all must make. It isn't a rational or logical decision. However, it is a decision that we all make of everyone that we meet. Everyone we encounter. In one way or another, our capacity to give and receive love controls the relationships that we have with each other.
There's another element to this story. When Jesus starts declaring what God is like and how to practically live out a life that is pleasing to God, Jesus defines it with two bold statements- Love God, Love people.
You may be thinking, "Ok, so love wins... I get it. But what does love have to do with God. I thought you said that God was our life?"
He is... but He is also our source of love.
John, one of Jesus' closest followers (covered in the dust of His sandals), wrote, "God is love." In fact, John wrote quite extensively about God's love and our relationship to His love. John write this so that we can understand that God is the source of all love (4:7-8); God models what genuine love is (4:9-10); and God commands us to love each other (4:11-12). Having said that, read the following:
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (source)."
Read this version too:
"Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us (source)."
God is love.
God is our life.
So, how does this relate to a gift? Glad you asked.
We are all messy, imperfect people. I am not perfect... far from it! Every time I choose my will and my way and my desires, I am not choosing God's will and God's ways and God's desires. This is called sin and sin results in death (read it here and here). So how do I earn God's favor? What must I do to experience His love and life?
Nothing... I cannot earn it. God's love and life is a gift. All I must do is accept His gift. I am given God's love and life through trusting that Jesus' death paid the debt for my bankruptcy of sin choices. I must confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that what Jesus proclaimed was and is true.
This seems too good to be true, huh? That's because while we didn't deserve any of this God in His love and goodness decided that we were worth Jesus getting killed on our behalf so that we could enter into a right relationship with God forever. This is called grace... and that is the gift that God gives us.
This gift is a gift of life, love and community with God through Jesus that is initiated by trust and characterized by hope and love. This is not a gift of socks but a gift that all of creation was waiting in great anticipation to receive. This is the message that Jesus declared and the good news that He wanted all who were willing to listen to hear.
How will you respond to the invitation, the offer and the gift?
