An Unexpected Christmas

Here’s a bit of wisdom for you today: Something “unexpected” cannot be predicted. The weather is often unexpected. An honest politician is surely unexpected. Certainly we could confidently say the Cincinnati Bengals sweeping the AFC North Division this year to make the playoffs is entirely unexpected! (I still remain strangely proud of those Bungles.... er, uh... Bengals!)

To this I add, from personal experience, an insight: God is often unexpected.

That may surprise some of you, but I believe it is more true than not. As I follow Jesus I am often surprised – sometimes even shocked – to discover God doing things I never expected him to do, saying things I never expected him to say, or showing up where I never expected him to be.

For example, I recently received an email from a student of mine (I teach a general religious studies class at our local community college) who thanked me for the previous night’s discussion of Christianity. She said, “I just wanted to thank you for tonight's class. This might sound cheesy but class tonight really changed me. I am starting to really understand the message Jesus is talking about. I almost feel foolish about the fact that I thought I understood the Bible and the purpose and tonight confirmed that I have a lot of learning to do.”

I’m not tooting my own horn here. Whatever I said or did – or what anyone else in that class said or did – is ultimately inspired by the Spirit of God. Though I must confess I am very pleased God chose to work through the likes of me!

That may not sound like such an “unexpected” thing, but it really humbled me because I simply did not expect it. Who could have predicted God would actually show up and be working in the lives of students (and their “nutty professor”) in a community college in an “Introduction to Religious Studies” class?

I know I should expect God to show up in that class (and lots of other places too!), but when you get in a routine you often put on blinders just to keep you focused on the task at hand. When anything out of the ordinary happens, it really does surprise you. Or at least it surprises me.

And that’s what gets me: Maybe I’ve become far too comfortable in both my understanding and experience of God. When I go to church on Sunday morning, do I really expect to encounter the presence of the Living God there? When I pray, do you really expect God to move in response to my prayers?

I suppose some of it relates to my perception of myself: ‘Surely God would stoop so low as to spend time with me? Surely he doesn’t consider my needs to be all that important, not when there’s so much suffering around me!’ There’s that old self-loathing again. Lord, have mercy…

Eugene Peterson effectively captures our surprise, perhaps even our shock and disapproval, in Isaiah 53:1 when he says, “Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?” (The Message) The prophet is referring to God’s “servant” or messiah, the anointed one who would rescue Israel from her sin and oppression and inaugurate God’s kingdom on earth.

Christians, of course, look back over these and other prophecies and see Jesus written all over them, but I think we’ve lost some of their shock value. Two thousand years of supposed familiarity will do that. We look back at the virgin birth of Jesus, the angelic visits to Joseph and the shepherds, the star guiding the wise men and we say, ‘Ah yes, the old familiar stories.’ We take comfort in them. We are encouraged by them and find hope in them.

And there’s nothing wrong with finding comfort, encouragement or hope – or anything else that empowers us and equips us to follow Jesus more closely – but if we lose the inherent scandalous nature of these God-stories, then have we missed the point?

A virgin giving birth – to God’s Son no less? You can’t be serious! Sounds like a headline for the National Enquirer. If we skip over the revolutionary repercussions – Where is the King of the Jews born? Hold on! Herod and those political-religious elite like him are quite comfortable without any would-be rivals, thank you very much. If we forget just how audacious these stories are – God became human? Why would he be so foolhardy? Surely we’re not worth all that!

If we do not grasp just how unexpected that first Christmas really was, then we’ve definitely missed the whole point of celebrating all our Christmases now.

Most of what passes as “celebration” during Christmas is not celebration at all, but distraction. Lighted decorations, cards and gifts, snowmen and Santa Claus stories are all fine but ultimately they really do miss the mark - especially if they are not accompanied by the announcement of the Messiah's birth.

Let’s be reminded of the essential reason for the holy day (“holiday”): that the Savior of the world has come to us as a helpless, totally dependent, squalling, fragile little red-faced Jewish baby boy. Born into a world that is either mostly hostile or mostly indifferent to his coming, born into violence and disease, born into suffering and death, born into all the fear and guilt and shame and anger of a world reeling from the immense pain of our sin.

“Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?”

And so he came - and still comes - to give us a gift:  abundant life, life without fear, life free from the guilt and power of sin, life everlasting, life that is “pressed down, shaken together and running over.” (Luke 6:38)

Maybe God is teaching me something about my own gift-getting and gift-giving habits…

Maybe God is teaching me something about my poor expectations of encountering him every Christmas… every day…

Maybe God is teaching me something about being open-minded enough to find him in the most unlikely places mingling with the most unlikely people doing the most unlikely things…

Maybe God is teaching me something about myself and how he loves me enough for me to receive such an unexpected Christmas…

Lord, help me learn these lessons and empower me to mold my life around them so that I am changed at the deepest level of my being in the image of your Son Jesus, this poor, helpless child who gave everything he had so others could be saved...