Sometimes Jesus makes me uncomfortable (and that’s a good thing)
One of the greatest claims about Christmas is the proclamation that God has entered into our world in a form that we can understand. Through Jesus it is possible to glimpse a bit of the majesty and perfection that is God. In the baby of Nazareth we have been able to get a foretaste of what it means to be a child of God.
Jesus showed up in the most difficult of situations. He overruled the values of power and wealth. He was not part of the structures that prop up the world as it is. Instead, he came to show us an entirely different way of being. That is the beauty of Christmas. Instead of being a child of wealth and privilege, God has chosen to appear to us as the child of a poor, unwed, teenage mother. He could have been born in the palace of Herod, but God’s Son was an entirely different kind of king of the Jews.
That is the reason I struggle so much with applying Christianity to the world in which I live. In so many ways I want to buy into the assumptions and values of the world. I would like to live my life as if the powers and principalities were most important. In some ways it is comforting to believe that if I work hard, earn a good salary, and play by the rules my family is going to be taken care. Doing all of those things should be all it takes to make me an honorable and valuable member of society.
On the other hand, that is not the point of life. It is not the point of the Christian faith. I am not called to be the most powerful, well respected, or wealthiest person that I can be. Herod was seeking those things. He sold his soul to the Roman Empire in order to make it possible. I am called to live by an entirely different set of values. I am called to live a life of faithfulness. I am called follow the real king of the Jews, Jesus the Christ.
Following Jesus is more than simply showing up for worship or saying my prayers. It is an active rejection of the values of the world. It is a daily process of making myself more and more into a disciple. I am called to value the needs of the poor and the oppressed. I am called to see others as children of God. I am supposed to love my enemies and be a peacemaker. Of course, as much as I wish it was otherwise, I do not succeed in any of these things. I am not brave enough to be the kind of person that Jesus wants me to be. The comforts of the world, and the trappings of respectability are just too convenient.
My prayer for today is that I somehow become brave enough to let go of the trappings of the world and commit myself fully to the world-changing story of the Gospel. Jesus’ entry into our reality changes everything, or at least it should. His birth was proclaimed first to shepherds and foreigners. Those clinging to, and benefiting from, the pre-existing religious and political structures largely missed out. As a white, middle class, American Christian this should scare me at least a little. In more ways than I would like to admit, I am closer to Herod than I am to any ancient Palestinian shepherd.
Thank you, God, for the examples of shepherds, foreign magi, and Mary. Please help me pay attention to them this Christmas season.
