I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. Tolkein. The
three books are not only exciting adventure stories but also demonstrate what
it means to be the people of God. The third book of the trilogy, The Return of
the King, always reminds me that we are living in that “between” time right
now, the time between Jesus first appearance on Planet Earth and the moment of
his return.
Sam and Fredo, the two hobbits of the trilogy know they must
leave the safe comfort of their Shire to become revolutionaries for good.
Against their better judgment and peace loving, risk averse nature, they set
off for the evil land of Mordor, risking hearth, home and even their very lives
to move against the forces of darkness. In one particularly bleak moment deep
in the enemy’s territory, Sam is able to spot a single star shining out of the
darkness above the heavy clouds of Mordor.
Sound familiar? “The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John
1:5) Even in the darkness the true light has come into the world and the
darkness can never eradicate it.
Within the Church, especially in the past century, we have
reduced Christmas to pageants, presents, candle lighting and carol singing. We
converted Saint Nicholas into Santa Claus and then rolled both into our picture
of Jesus. We have memorialized the birth of the Savior through fun yet expensive
family Christmas traditions and familiar watered down comfortable Christmas Eve
worship services instead of following him into battle against the kingdom of
darkness. We forget, or ignore entirely, that we are to be kingdom operatives,
like Sam and Frodo, serving as Christ’s revolutionaries of hope in the world.
This year, let it be a different kind of Christmas. Instead
of simply preparing for Christmas, prepare for Jesus to do a new thing in your
own life. Instead of spending all of your time and energy preparing your house for Christmas, prepare your heart to be the manger where Jesus can be born anew. The miracle of Christmas looks
nothing like the materialistic Christmas of our culture. Instead of getting
sucked into the false promises of wall street advertising, be drawn into the
real miracle, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:
14)
Expect the miracle, be the miracle, share the miracle, until
the return of our King and the full restoration of his Kingdom, until his will is done in you and on Planet Earth as it is in heaven.
Peace,
Rick
