He Is Not Here? Well, Then Where Is He?

One of the things you will quickly find out on a trip to Israel is what you think of the Christian tradition. I am not talking about the whol of Christianity but the idea of traditions, of the legacy behind to us by the past saints, and how authoritative it is for how we live.

Personally, I like tradition a whole lot. I like going to traditional sites, like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, that have been visited for centuries and are gaudy looking with lots of gold, mosaics, and images everywhere. (I’m sure if you could translate Latin, you would like it too)

However, for those who don’t like the tradition with all its antiquity and flashiness, you can go visit a separate ancient tomb called the Garden Tomb, which is pretty much a Protestant equivalent to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. You will get an informational tour of why this tomb is a good candidate for Jesus’ real burial place based on being in a garden, near a mountain face that looks roughly like a skull. Even if Jesus wasn’t ever buried here (which he probably wasn’t), it is still a neat little place. I’ll throw in some pictures below so you can see what its like.

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The reason I bring this up is that in this Garden tomb, inside the tomb, is a quotation from the Gospel of Luke:

“He is not here; for he is risen!”

I love the resurrection, the defeat of death and the promise of eternal life and the renewal of all creation. In this one moment, God’s story had culminated in a surprising way and inaugurated a whole new vision of the world. After the resurrection, things are different!

But as I looked at this Protestant prayer site, with its bare stone walls and a stone rolled away, I couldn’t help but ask myself: if Jesus isn’t here, where is He?

Some quick answers come to mind: He’s in your heart, he’s in the gift of the Spirit dwelling in you, he’s seated at the right hand of God, he’s acting as head of the church, he’s among the least and the lowly. All are correct and seem supported by Scripture. But in the heart of Palestine/Israel, the Holy land, where is Jesus?

Having met and talked to several different people in the area, Israeli and Palestinian, one can’t help but be overwhelmed by the immensity of the conflict occurring in the land. People on both sides have died over the land. The bst advice I was given during my time there was never to side with one side or the other, neither needs more enemies. Rather, one should work for love and justice in the land as a whole.

Which is why raising the question of where Jesus is is so important, if I really believe he is among the least of these. Yesterday, a fellow Christian posted a very ill-informed article on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the blanket statement, ‘I don’t care who you are, Israel is a state and its sovereignty should be respected and supported.’  I almost became one of those people who blow up on someone’s wall with anger and attack a position from multiple fronts, starting an argument that last 40+ posts. But that’s not where Jesus is. He’s not in the opinion column or the political polls or the hot button issue debates.

No, Jesus was somewhere else.

As I walked the streets of a Palestinian refugee camp, I heard stories of Palestinians who were arrested without cause, children who were shot at as they studied in their school, families that went for weeks with out water. I heard stories of Palestinian artists trying to spread the message of their cause, practicing civil disobedience against these injustices, and Christian pastors proclaiming the whole gospel even at the cost of persecution.

That was were Jesus was. He was no longer in the tomb, but was at work in the lives of those who were working to make his name known through acts of justice, love, and mercy.

I’ve been home for two weeks now, as of tomorrow. It hasn’t taken long to get back into my routine, letting the testimony of the saints, both living and dead, experienced in the Holy land become a whisper of a voice amidst all the other things I hear. It hasn’t taken long for the resurrection to become just another doctrine, just another theological hook to hang my seminary hat on, just another bible passage to exegete.

God, where are you in my life right now? How can I live the resurrection in the throes of seminary, the chains of America? I pray my willingness to serve you will be met with the grace to obey when you call.

 

Caesarea: In Retrospect

Giant thousand seat amphitheatres showing the best performances. Circuses with chariot races so exciting one couldn’t help but place a bet. Giant bathhouses where everybody who’s anybody hangs out. A massive palace with its own pool fed by the Mediterranean Sea. Beautifully paved streets flanked by Corinthian columns. Indoor plumbing.

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While this could be the description of any Roman city in its heyday, it just happens to be the landscape sprawled out before me at Caesarea, the capital city and harbor built by Herod the Great. It was here that Paul spent several years in prison for his proclamation of the gospel (Acts 23-26). This was the capital of the king, while another king, Jesus of Nazareth, was preaching among the Jews. Caesarea, with its allure of greatness, with its colossal architecture making a powerful claim: look at all of this wealth, all of these public works. They are the gift of the king, provided you continue to obey him.

Every circus race, every theatre performance, ever statue of the traditional gods or the Caesars demand certain obedience, or at least an apathy toward change. Peace will be kept, the pax Romana, provided you just stay in line.

It’s amazing that the impact of this message that can still be felt when you walk the streets of the Roman city, when you stand in its massive structures. And yet, the Christian message called all of this into question by calling the world to recognize that its true Lord and King was Jesus, the Messiah, the one who died on a cross and was raised again. This message breaks through the numbing effect of the city and created a crisis. It demands a choice. Who is Lord, Caesar or Jesus? In which city will you live, the city of God or the Roman city?

While one’s allegiance should never be divided, navigating how to live that out was never that easy, never simply an all out acceptance or rejection of the world. There are times where the lies of the Empire need to be rejected, where their ethics fall silent to the truth of the gospel and its claims. On the other hand, Paul is willing to recognize what might be kept, as he states in Philippians 4.8:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

But as I stood in the midst of the city, I have to admire the early Christian testimony, how so many stood faithful to witness to Jesus Christ, to raise a small voice of truth that challenges the screaming messages the Roman city declared. These are the saints who have gone before us, the fathers and mothers of our faith, the living stones built on the foundation of Christ

I can’t help but wonder how my Christian witness is being raised in the messages of our world. With politicians spewing hatred at one another, with the deafening messages of sex, wealth, and selfishness, with the centrality of entertainment in every perceivable form electronic and otherwise, with violence so prevalent that a neighborhood shooting seems normal, with religion being used to support every perceivable agenda, what does it look like to proclaim Jesus, the crucified one, as Lord?

God help us find our voices and lifestyles to proclaim Christ like those who have gone before us. Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven

Amen.

Return from Israel

As many of you know, I was in Israel for the past two weeks or so. I am working on getting some more content specific reflections up about the trip as I process through it, but I wanted to go ahead and start the posts with a brief synopsis of some of the key insights I gained on the trip and a few pictures. There is more to come, consider this an appetizer.

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This trip was full of wonderful experiences that can best be described under three headings: pilgrimage, Christian fellowship, and challenge to faithful living. The pilgrimage sites were all that I hoped they would be. During my time in Israel, I was able to visit many of the places Jesus walked that have been visited by Christian pilgrims for generations. I got to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, take a boat ride along the stormy waters of the Sea of Galilee imagining how Jesus would have calmed the storm, and enter the tomb of the resurrection within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. As I journeyed throughout the land, the stories of the Bible came alive in a new way and reinvigorated my passion to study the Bible. Moreover, I felt God working in my heart, opening my eyes to an even greater appreciation of the glory of the Incarnation, where God became man in Jesus Christ. How awesome is it that the very God of the universe walked on earth in so many of these places in Israel!

If all of those opportunities weren’t enough, I also was privileged to share in a 7 day conference with Methodist leaders from several nations across the world, getting to hear the story of what God is doing in their ministries. Whether in the conversation with several UK church planters who are finding ways to welcome atheists into their churches through food banks or learning about the ministry of an older woman from the Congo who now cares for the orphans and single mothers in her community, I was greatly encouraged to hear about all God is doing worldwide and blessed to be a part of such a great Christian fellowship. During the conference, we worshipped in several different languages and prayers were offered in every dialect, acting as a foretaste of the day when all nations will be gathered to Christ. One of the pictures is of the smaller discussion group I was in during the conference, where we shared our faith journeys and prayed for one another. I am sure I made friends that will last a lifetime!

Finally, my trip took me deep into the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as I heard the stories of the Jews during the tragedy of the Holocaust in the Yad Yeshem museum as well as the stories of Palestinian Christians who now live under the Israeli oppression. While the conflict is very complex, my trip to the Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem, where the bullet holes of Israeli soldiers were left in the doors and walls of UN schools and Christian organizations (see picture) reminded me of the need to work and pray for peace in this difficult land. Indeed, the conference brought in speakers who called Christians around the world to work for the good news of peace to all nations, whether that is the occupied Palestinians or the persecuted Nigerians (several of whom couldn’t come to the conference because of persecution).

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A Salute to a Lost Era of Rock: A Playlist

I remember very vividly less than two years ago reading in a Rolling Stone magazine about the trends in music from 2000-2010, and how they talked specifically about the rise and fall of certain genres of rock music (specifically emo and screamo) in this decade. It really shocked me because, having sought to be a rock star for most of my junior high and high school years, the majority of the music I listened to fell in this range of bands. These were the guys I wanted to be like, and whose sound I still really enjoy.

Fast forward to New Year’s Eve and I am hanging out with a friend, waiting to party the night away, and I begin playing through some of these fantastic rock tracks. And, like all music, the powerful thing it can do is transport you to the time you first heard it, how you felt, what you were like, what you wanted to do with your life. These songs in this supposedly ‘dead’ genre deserve a bit more credit for being really awesome when I was growing up. I imagine people will scoff at my musical taste, but it was cool back then to wear chick pants, lots of black, eyeliner, and randomly placed sweatbands.

So as a New Year’s salute and a shout-out to a friend’s request for this playlist, I give you my “High School Rock Star Wannabe” playlist. Enjoy.

1. Car Underwater by Armor for Sleep

2. Honestly by Cartel (first song I ever bought on iTunes)

3. Ohio Is For Lovers by Hawthorne Heights (emo stereotyped)

4. Anthem of Our Dying Day by Story of the Year (a band about two years too earlier with their sound to make it big)

5. Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy (cliche? yes. catchy, most definitely)

6. Swing, Swing by the All American Rejects

7. Last Train Home by the Lost Prophets

8. Memory by Sugarcult

9. Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional

10. The Adventure by Angels & Airwaves

11. The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage by Panic! At the Disco (an example of obnoxiously long titles popular at the time)

12.  Helena by My Chemical Romance

13. Face Down by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

14. An Honest Mistake by the Bravery

15. Shimmy Shimmy Quarterturn by Hellogoodbye

16. Hair by the Early November

17. Pressure by Paramore (they made it into 2011, but have since floundered)

18. Four Kicks by Kings of Leon (this was the cool thing to do, “I knew them before they were popular.”

19. Paris in Flames by Thursday

20. I Caught Fire by the Used

21. Existentialism on Prom Night by Straylight Run

Now within this plethora of one hit wonder bands (for the most part) lay an equally as inspiring assortment of legitimate rockers who also happened to be Christian. Here are a few wonderful tracks from them…

1. Walls by Emery

2. Phoenix with a Heartache by Kids in the Way

3. Change the World by Anberlin

4. Reinventing Your Exit by Underoath

5. Down Here, We all Float by Sullivan

6. Oh! Emetophobia by Showbread

That is all for now. Hats off to you, you wonderful rockers who put out some great music regardless of how Rolling Stone wrote you off as a dead genre. You still inspire me.

 

The Four Friends Everyone Should Have

Christmas break is over and my time back in small town Illinois was pretty great. I got to spent some quality time with people I’ve been around since I was old enough tot remember. If you’ve never been in a small town, you are missing out on some really great stuff. Granted there’s lots of dumb stuff  and boredom too. But who’s keeping a tally. Anyways, I digress from the point which is really all about friends, and the four friends everybody should have in life. I hope you have more than four friends, and I am sure friends should never be pidgeon-holed into one of these ‘types.’ But true friends, and I use that word broadly, will eventually act in these four ways to help make you a better person.

I realize this looks like a dumb Seventeen article or something. And, if I’m honest, it is probably subcnsiouly inspired by that form. But it is also a shout-out to those awesome friends from Illinois, and college, and all other walks of life who have been the best group of people to be around and grow up with. Thanks you crazy kids.

1. The “Remember Back in the Day” Friend

This is the friend who knew you way back in the day, back when you had braces and terrible acne, back when you dated that dumb girl (or guy). They saw you grow up and every time you get together it is a great re-hashing of old stories and memories you thought you had lost. But this is more than just glory-daying, more than a run-through of every high school or college reunion you will ever go to. Rather, these friends remind you of your roots. They make sure you no where you came from, lest you try and escape the past. They help you stay rooted, making sure you recognize that whoever you want to become, whatever you are journeying towards, is grounded in the place from which you came. You can’t have an end, or even a journey, without a beginning. And these friends remind you of that.

2. The “That’s a Dumb Idea” and “Don’t Be Dumb” Friend

In a world where people rarely give you honest feedback (unless its a jerk boss, the really attractive girl who will never date you, or the teacher who is a tool), this friend has your best intentions in mind when they constantly reject your dumb ideas or force you to honestly examine how immature or irrationally you are acting. It takes a really special, loving person to rebuke you. Only a true friend will do this and be there with you as you either follow their suggestion, or reject it to your own detriment. When you pick up the pieces of your dumb life, they will be there beside you with a smirk that says ‘I told you so’ but enough love to get you back on your feet. This is the friend everybody needs, especially in those times where tough decisions need to be made. Love, unlike most popular notions, also has a rough side which this friend, this true friend, is able to fully share with you.

3. The “You Can Totally Make That Jump” and “Stop Being a Wuss” Friend

While there is a friend to point out how dumb you can be, this needs to be counterbalanced by that crazy friend who motivates you to do the craziest things. This friend helps you keep your life exciting, perhaps to the point of your own welfare. Now, this friend is not a distorting peer pressure that simply wants you to do dumb things to fit in with the crowd. Rather, this friend knows that you need to have fun in your own ways and will help you do that, even when you aren’t feeling up the challenge. Moreover, this friend provides that added confidence boost by showing their confidence in who you are as a person. When it comes to getting ready for a job interview, or asking somebody out, or wearing a crazy outfit, this person (in moderation) will support you the whole way through, even if things go sour. This friend keeps life exciting and pushes you to a more fully expression of what it means to be you.

4. The “Let’s Grow Old Together” Friend

The final friend is a bit more nebulous. Your friendship begins with a deep faithfulness, a willingness to stay in touch even when it seems impossible. You seem to have been through it all together, even though you weren’t together for some of it. When you get together with this friend, you just kind of jive-sure there is catching up, but you always seem to be at similar places in life. I suppose it could be some sort of mystical connection, or perhaps it is a shared personality type. But what is key is that this is a person you can grow old together with. Perhaps this is what marriage looks like (I’ll let you know if I ever get married) but it goes beyond just growing old together. There is a sense in which this person shares who you are in a profound way and your lives are so linked that despite distance or difference in life situations, you are together. Maybe this is what it means to be a best friend, something that is bigger than how much you life each other. Whatever it all amounts to, friends like this need to be held on to though I imagine if this makes any sense to you, then you are already united to one.

There it is, some cheesy reflections on friendship that nevertheless get at some deep truths about what true friends look like. Hopefully this cuts against some of the cheap and dumb distortions of friendship that social media has created. Surely friendship is, and must be, more than this reoccuring status I read today:

“a good friend will bail u outta jail…a great friend will b sittn next to ya sayin damn that was fun!!!!”

A real friend is so much more than this dumb phrase. Give them a little credit.

Christmas Movies. Are you even paying attention?

Well, its Christmas Eve at the Thompson residence, and it just so happens that my mother is a Christmas Nazi. I mean than in the best way possible, but seriously, my mom is obsessed with Christmas. She collects Santa statues, has a separate iPod of just Christmas music, and has a massive electronic sign out front of our house that counts down the seconds till Christmas. A bit over the top.

***All of that being said, she also runs the local Angel Tree for all the kids in need, so she isn’t completely consumed by the secular Christmas.***

She also have something like 50 or so Christmas movies, which we have been watching non-stop since I got home. In the midst of watching all the Christmas foibles that occur in these super commercialized and often over the top films, I have begin to see, embedded deep within several of them, some powerful critiques of the secular Christmas and some powerful Christian truths. Some of these movies are, upon further reflection, so challenging that I wonder if people are paying attention at all. These movies are so convicting that they leave me wondering how Christmas still remains so twisted if we actually WATCH them all.

So in honor of the season and my mother’s passion, I thought I would pass them along to you with a few reflection.

1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (with Jim Carrey)

Dr. Seuss is well known for its profound messages buried deep within his children’s books. This classic staple, reinvigorated and rather liberally added to by Jim Carrey and Director Ron Howard, offers a strong critique of the materialism of Christmas. The deep longing of Cindy Lou Who for the true meaning of Christmas amidst a town where it is all about the pomp and circumstance only fully blossomed when all of the trapping of Christmas are removed. Although this leads to a profound conversion experience for the Grinch, it is important that the true meaning of Christmas is only grasped by everyone when all the commercialism is stolen from them. This is really a sharp critique of the obsessive gift giving obligations of our holiday season.

2. It’s A Wonderful Life

Such a classic movie, that for me really captures the beauty of the small town that all comes together in the end to support George Bailey in his hour of need. This movie, whose plot looks oddly like a Christmas Carol, really captures the importance of virtue ethics and one’s character. Throughout his life, George Bailey makes decisions based on the character of an honest and loving man, growing in the virtues that allow him to help all those in need. And in his hour of need, the virtues seems to teeter and he considers his life ruined. But in the end the character has not gone unnoticed and the town rallies around him in light of the person he has always sought to be. For George Bailey, every little decision in his life made him the man he was in the hour of need. That’s how virtues work. In light of our microwave culture that is always concerned about what needs to happen now and getting results now, George Bailey’s story is a powerful challenge. Moreover, his life of self sacrifice (of dreams, of wealth, or success) that leaves him stuck in a small town in a rickety business raises questions about the American dream. Is it about what you’ve done or is it about who you? Who you are every moment, your character, gives rise to how you live.

3. Miracle on 34th Street (old or new, I suppose)

So this is more of a stretch, but the whole premise of the court scene in the newer version (the old has a similar ploy) is that belief in Santa is something that falls beyond the pail of black and white laws. In the older version, Santa is justified when the government delievers letters to him, officially recognizing him as the real St. Nick. Conversely, though, the new version has Santa justified in court because the government includes ‘In God We Trust’ on their currency, showing their support of faith regardless of proof. In both situations, one sees a clear blurring of Enlightenment lines between the state and religion, belief and  fact. Indeed, that seperation has always been a lie, and the scandal of this Santa exposes that in a pretty powerful way. Try reading the birth of Christ in this collapsed political/religious divide. A new king born in a manger while the current king kills all the infants looking for him? God’s angels announcing peace on earth before of the Christ child while the Emperor Augustus offers the same thing? Every religious belief has political consequence, just as every political stance betrays religious convictions. Life is not black and white, and the absurdness of a court trial of Santa offered by these movies illustrates just this.

4. Christmas Carol (most version, but particularly the animated one with Jim Carrey)

So, Charles Dickens was a profound Christian writer, driven by social justice in the Victorian era, and his story (since turned into countless movies) is one of the most crushing attacks on a consumerism, as well as wealth held in the face of the poor. Despite the fact that this story is set in Christmas, its message runs so much deeper. The chains of business man were forged in a life of exploitation of the poor, of failure to care for humanity? Scrooge’s cry that the poor should die and decrease the surplus population. This book, and its movie expressions, should challenge most Americans who are willing to spend something like 85 billion dollars on Christmas while the rest of the world sits in relative poverty. I am not sure how I have watched this movie for so many years and not recognized that the silly gifts I squander money on every year are not becoming a ball and chain binding me to the pits of hell. I am not sure how this movie has become an American classic and still not provoked change in the hearts of its viewers.

5. Home Alone

Finally, and perhaps most surprisingly, is the first Home Alone film. Besides being filled with awesome one-liners and great booby traps that I use to emulate as a kid, I was floored when I watched it this year as it laid bare some real, honest, Christian community. In the scene where Kevin is in the church with the old man who is supposedly crazy, the dialogue that ensues is a powerful example of vulnerability and personal challenge and encouragement that puts most Christian churches to shame. (I have included part of the scene below). Both Kevin and this old man are bluntly honesty about their failures as individuals, both having harmed family relations. Their is no hiding or cowering behind fake facades. The adult doesn’t feel the need to hide his emotions and is even willing to be rebuked by an 8 year old. The kid is willing to be honest as well, and is not told to shut up or written off as silly when he goes off on a tangent about Christmas sweaters. Indeed, their dialogue is one of the best examples of accountability I have seen, with both sides offering encouragement and challenge to live better lives. And they are really COMPLETE STRANGERS. May all of our Christian communities look like this.

 

So there is a Christmas Eve present for you, my deep reflections and wrestling with the season. May Christ open your eyes to see him in the most unusual places this Christmas season. In the line at Wal Mart. In the terrible Hallmark movies. In the face of familiar traditions. In the manager. Amen

Where is Christmas Happening? A Sermon

Now Advent is a Christian season, a time of waiting for and expecting the birth of Christ. It comes from the Latin adventus, or coming to, and is a four week season that culminates in Christmas. One of the things that is remarkable about being a Christian, is it brings with it a whole new way of viewing the world that includes how we structure time around Jesus; birth and death. The Advent season is characterized by longing and waiting. Of silence and contemplation. It isn’t a fully blown celebration but is a time of longing for God and looking God in unexpected places until you behold him in the manger. There is a real sense in which the expectation of Advent is wrapped up, then, in a certain type of lifestyle of how to go about looking for Christmas to happen.
You see, the funny thing about expectation is that it isn’t just a feeling or a waiting room before the actual celebration but it brings with it a whole state of being. For instance, when a family is expecting a new child, they go through all the hub bub of preparing. There is a baby room to prepare, stuff to be bought, names to be picked out, Lamaze classes to take. When some is quite literally expecting, there is a certain lifestyle that it brings with it.

Moreover, there is a sense in which, if one is not waiting properly, you might miss out on what you were waiting for entirely. If one does not plan accordingly for a birth, the dad might be out of town or you might be stuck in an elevator. Proper expecting, then, is not only a mindset but it is an entire state of being  which reflects what it is you actually expect to happen. What I really hope for you all to see today, is that when we begin to wrap our minds around where Christmas is happening, we begin to see the type of lifestyle it takes to be a part of Christmas.

The question where does Christmas happen, then, becomes wrapped up in what it takes to be people who wait for Christmas.

So where do we begin when we start talking about looking for Christmas? The problem is that often people go straight to Jesus, to the manger and the wise men and the sheep and forget all about what has gone on before that moment. It is like walking in on the last five minutes of a TV show. To start with Jesus in the manger or even the promise to Mary is to miss the much larger story laid out in the Old Testament. It is there that we have the background for the Advent season and begin to grasp the longing of the Jews for their deliverance. We don’t have anything that quite compares at all. The best example I have of waiting is waiting for something great to happen-a birthday, perhaps, or a vacation. There is joy, but it is fleeting, There is longing but one still manages to go about daily life as usual. But when we talk about the waiting for God to act for deliverance, we are talking about hundreds of years of waiting. Waiting for God to act, trying not to give up hope. Perhaps the best way to talk about this is to look at some of the songs we sing at Christmas time.

The reason we sing Oh Come Emmanuel, in its solemness, in it longing, is to capture this spirit of waiting. “O Come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lowly exile here.” Israel had been exiled, taken out of its homeland, the temple destroyed. And when they return and rebuild the Temple, nothing has happened. God is not present like he use to be. And they are still oppressed, and the world is still chained to sin. There are still poor people, still death, still sadness. All they have are promises.  Promises like Isaiah 9. That someday God will have a son to reign forever, he will rule over the whole world. There will be peace, security, all will be made right. That’s what the Jews were expecting. But as they waited and clung to these promises, their became many different ways of waiting that reflect quite different types of expectations. These different ways of waiting point toward the various options often presented to Christians during the Advent season and help us begin to recognize where Christmas is really happening.

 
Roman Empire and the Shopping Season
The first option presented to the Jews around the time of Jesus’ birth was to give up their hopes and longings and accept the rule of the Roman Empire.
As the years passed and they didn’t see the promises come true, they were under the rule of the Roman Empire. Now, the Roman Empire is oppressive, it crucifies those who stand up to it. But on the other side, it offers other saviors. Kings who promise peace and security if you pay them taxes, Caesars whose reign is often announced as the good news. And some of the Jews jump on board. We can forget the promises and join the winners. Clearly, God has abandoned us, and maybe God’s now on the side of the Romans. Josephus, a Jewish historian at this time, actually argues just this.

This is not unlike the battle we have for Christmas with the secular world. Their push of consumerism, of Santa Claus as the center focus. The constant need to buy and buy, to always be on the go. Or better yet, to transform Christmas into a warm fuzzy Hallmark movie, where all that is important is family or not being a Grinch. Of enjoying one’s self. The promises of God have been lost, buried under gods we make for ourselves, under the pressure of consumerism.

So what is the expectation of this group? Romans don’t expect anything from God and as a result are living lives based on whatever they want. Similarly, the full blown secular Christmas has its own god and has abandoned the expectation of God for self gratification.

 
Keep ‘Christ in Christmas’ and the Zealots
But there is another branch of Judaism at the same time. Those who see the promises, and are so fervently devoted to them that they move beyond living in expectation to bringing the expectation. The thinking is quite simple and makes a lot of sense, actually. If God made these promises and they aren’t happening yet, maybe its because we Jews aren’t doing enough. Maybe we need to make them happen. So during the intertestamental period, you have revolutionary fervor building up. Hanukkah, actually, is the result of military uprising against those who were ruling over the Jews, forcing them out of power and out of the temple. These people were often called Zealots, those who were so zealous, they make God act

You might be thinking to yourself, I am so glad we don’t have people like that around Christmas time. Or do we? Has anyone listened to the ‘so called war on Christmas’ campaigners-those who are so adamant about keeping Christ in Christmas, of making Christmas happen in schools and in government, that they have declared a rhetorical war? I remember working at Family Christian one Christmas season while still in college, and a lady came up and purchased a $500 dollar nativity set but said she was unable to give to children in need. She couldn’t afford it. She was so adamantly about keeping Christ in Christmas with this nativity set that she had forgotten Christ altogether. What does this group expect? God to act on their behalf, to do so with military might, crushing the oppressed and proving themselves right. They are so convinced they know what God wants that they no longer expect but act out of pride and really end up abandoning God.

These are the options available for waiting for God’s promise to come true for the Jews. You can either fight back against the Empire or you can live with the Empire. These two options seem to dominate our view of Christmas: either get consumed by the secular Christmas with Santa and its trappings or become a militant keep Christ in Christmas spokesperson, declaring war on all secularization. But today’s gospel passage (Luke 1:26-28) points us somewhere else…

The gospel texts takes us to a whole different understanding of where Christmas happens
-It happens in the midst of the Roman Empire, during the reign of Caesar Augustus during the time of taxation and census taking…but it is not among the Romans, not among the powerful…
-It happens during the revolutions against King Herod, among the zealots who are fighting to keep the Temple pure, but it is not  zealotry, it isn’t forcing God to act….
Rather its in the backwater town of Nazareth, the middle of nowhere where a teenage girl is waiting to be married
And the angel appears. “You will give birth to God’s son, the one who is going to rule the world forever. The coming King. One who is better than Caesar, one who the zealots are trying to make come back, one who will teach the Romans a lesson. He is coming, he is your son.”

This is where Christmas is happening

It shatters everything we know. It challenges how we are to wait and what we are looking for. There is the obvious shattering of are ability to comprehend what we think is possible. How can a virgin give birth?
But there are other things it shatters: how can a king come from the middle of nowhere? How can power come in the midst of humility?

And there are the questions about Mary: why a small frail teenager? Why Nazareth, the middle of nowhere? How is she suppose to make him a king? What will Joseph say? What will the neighbors say?

Need I remind you that a woman pregnant out of wedlock would be subject to persecution, and possible even death.

Yet somewhere, in the plethora of shattered expectations, and questions, the concerns, the doubts, the anxieties. Mary’s voice sheepishly speaks forth, quivering in fear.

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

And we begin to see the connection between the expectation and the attitude. The expectation mirrors the response. It is in Mary’s willingness, despite the risk of shame and fear and doubt, to be a servant of the Lord. In the midst of this thing that makes no sense, she is willing to take the risk, the leap of faith and follow God’s plan.

And we begin to see where Christmas is happening and how it is we are to be expecting. Christmas is happening outside of the powerful-beyond the zealous and the secular. It is happening among the weak and among those who are servants. If you want to experience Christmas, you must have the attitude of the servant and be willing to look in unexpected places.

You see, Christmas is happening the same place it always happens:

Before there was Santa Claus, there was St. Nicolas ofMyra. A Greek Christian living in the fourth century who felt called to a live of poverty, selling all he had and giving it to the poor. He was especially known for his giving to the poor children.
A Christian man willing to sell all he had for those in need. That is where Christmas is happening.

Three years ago during my college ministries Christmas party, we were going around in a circle sharing family Christmas traditions. Some talked about opening one present a day early, others about the certain gourmet dishes that had to be prepared, others about what movies they must watch. And finally they got around to my friend , who was a very sweet girl and she was blushing. As we goaded her, asking her what it was she did for Christmas, she finally cracked and said…
“Well, my family doesn’t really do that much. We stopped buying presents for each other a few years ago and on Christmas day we usually just go to the youth center and volunteer for the day as a family. It really is lots of fun, but it isn’t the Christmas you would expect, I suppose.”

A family spending Christmas among those in need, sharing community with the oppressed. This where Christmas is happening

 
You see, Christmas is happening in the same place it always has happened.

In the middle of nowhere town with the terrified teenage girl, pregnant out of wedlock, willing to suffer shame to bring the child to birth.  This is where Christmas is happening.
Its among the migrant workers working long hours in the fields, like shepherds watching their flocks by night, who don’t have time off during the holidays.
This is where Christmas is happening.
Its among those who continual search for meaning in their life, traveling across land and sea, chasing a star with the hope that it will lead them to truth. Like Magi with lost dreams, trying to make sense of what it means to be human. This is where Christmas is happening.
Its in a manager where the faithful servant of God, Mary, who withstood insults and rejection and took the risk to follow God. Its where anyone is taking the risk of faith to follow God, willing to serve.This is where Christmas is happening.
Its on the cross, where the savior of the world, the real King of the universe was killed by the Romans and the Jewish leaders. Where the king becomes the servant…

This is where Christmas is happening.