Merry
Christmas to our brother and sisters in the orthodox Church, who celebrate
Christmas today. According to Russian News agency Itar-Tass, 87% of
Russians will celebrate Christmas today, with only six per cent having already
celebrated on December 25. According to
Russian Orthodox tradition, Christmas is preceded by a 40-day fast which
excludes meat and dairy products. The fast is broken on Christmas Eve with a
dish of sweetened cooked grain followed by a full-blown feast the next day.
In Russia, home to 39% of the world’s Orthodox Christians, people enjoy more days off over Christmas than any other country in
Europe, starting on New Year’s Day and carrying
through to Orthodox Christmas day today. Praise the Lord for Christmas that is
celebrated all over the world with diverse traditions, diverse music, diverse
foods and customs, yet all centered in the birth of Jesus our Lord. Indeed,
"Love in any language is fluently spoken" everywhere Jesus is worshipped and
celebrated.
We are still in the celebratory default. Most
of the Christmas trees in the parsonage are fully decked. (After all, they went
up a little late this year.) The real tree is still alive and well. Alice and
I are always very reluctant to dismantle the "Christmas house". We will not
meet for out Wednesday Evening Gathering this evening on account of the extreme
cold, so we all can stay home this evening and celebrate Christmas vicariously
with our brothers and sisters from the Orthodox Christian
tradition.
I have been reflecting on Herod
the Great, who missed Christ of Christmas. Herod loved power and he loved
possessions. However, he was extremely insecure. Herod the great ruled over
Judea for 40 years. Things were secore in Jerusalem under his rule. Yet Herod
was very insecure. He was possessed by the green-eyed monster, "jealousy". So
it was that he missed the one who came to set him free. The inn keeper also
missed the Christ of Christmas, as did the religious leaders
and scribes.
Everybody loved what Herod the
Great could do, but everyone hated what he cost. The Jewish historian Josephus
tells us that when Herod knew he was dying, he arrested the elite citizens of
Jerusalem and ordered that they be executed at the moment of his death—just so
someone in Jerusalem would be weeping when he died. The people both loved and
hated Herod the Great.
In the words of Dr. Craig Barnes of
Princeton, "In every life there is a Herod that has gained some power over you.
You are seduced into calling it "great" because it does things for you. It
helps you feel secure. It helps you cope. It's been around for a long time.
Herod is the name of whatever it is that offers you something you crave at a
cost you cannot afford. You love what it does; you hate what it costs. But as
taxing as it is, you just keep paying."
" For some of us, Herod is our
workaholic addiction to success. For others
Herod is the name of an old hurt to which you have become addicted. You didn't
deserve the hurt. Maybe it happened a long time ago and perhaps you have tried
to forget about it, but the hurt just keeps hurting. You can distract yourself
from it for a while, but it's always waiting for you, especially when you're
tired. In order to gain a little freedom from the pain, you've tried to forgive
the person who hurt you, but you haven't succeeded, because the hurt's been
around so long that you don't even know who you are anymore without it. Every
time you try to get rid of it, it isn't long before you invite it back into your
heart. Hurt makes it impossible for you
to trust people, makes you cynical about all authority figures. It sabotages
many of your relationships. Your Herod
may be the alcohol that abuses you. It may be the spouse that has abused you.
It may be the job that abuses you day after day. But you can't let it
go."
In the Christmas event, the wise
men entered Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the one who has been born the king of
the Jews?" Mathew 2 tells us that not only was Herod frightened by their
question, but all of Jerusalem was frightened. The city did not rise up with
joy at the announcement that a liberator-king had just been born. People have
always preferred the misery they know to the unknown. It doesn't make sense,
but it is our human nature. Just because you know you are addicted to how
things are doesn't mean you want to be delivered from that addiction. The
people of Jerusalem were no different..
Jesus is our liberating Savior. He did not come just to give a holiday from Herod, but to establish a whole new kingdom. This that means he came to liberate us. No one could have understood that more clearly than Herod himself. He knew that to have Christ born in your life means freedom from Herod.
The Herod that controls some part of our lives will do all he can in the days ahead to extinguish this hope from our hearts. He knows that Jesus came to free us to enjoy the blessings we have in our lives, but are too addicted to appreciate. He knows that Jesus will free us to forgive so we are no longer driven by hurt. He knows that Jesus will free us to allow our own hearts to be filled with passion—even to break over the pathos of the world and the many things that break God's heart. The liberating Savior will free us to live as we were created to live—fully alive.
With Christ, the King, God is
opening up his arms to us. All we have to do to find the freedom he offers is
to embrace the birth of hope. We will see that the hope will grow, just as the
child grew and became a man—a man, Jesus, who lived our life, who felt our hurts
and our hungers, and who witnessed our lousy addictions. He offered us another
way: a whole new kingdom so threatening to those who had grown accustomed to
Herod that they killed this Jesus. But he rose from the dead and ascended on
high, because this is a kingdom of God's establishment, and you cannot kill this
hope. It will come. The gates of hell cannot prevail against it. It will
come.
In Christ,
Brown
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