Don't Kill the Baby Jesus

            My uncle is a pastor. A few years ago, on Christmas day after sharing an enormous meal and opening all our presents, I asked him what he had thought of our Christmas service.  His reply stuck with me.  "It was good, other than the fact that they crucified the baby Jesus. You don't kill the baby Jesus."

            At the time, I thought he was stupid for making such a silly comment.  How could you talk about Jesus without mentioning the most important part of the story, namely his death and resurrection?  What was wrong with reminding people of the fate of baby Jesus? I thought my uncle was overreacting, but after having seen baby Jesus crucified over and over again, I think he was onto something.

            Christmas is one of those rare times in the year when people feel obligated to attend church.  So church attendance spikes every Christmas Eve and pastors and preachers usually, and rightfully, want to capitalize on the many fresh ears in the audience by proclaiming that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, effectively snuffing out death like a candle. Pastors and preachers then talk about the baby who came to die.

            While there is nothing wrong with this sentiment, we are, in essence, cutting and splicing the story of Jesus such that his conception, birth, life, and ministry is the trailer to the main feature of his death and resurrection. And when Jesus' birth is nothing more than a snapshot of what's to come, we miss out on the richness and beauty of his incarnation.

            That God was not born in a palace, or a beautifully exotic land, or to the parents of wealthy aristocrats.  No, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords chose, made a free choice, to be born to a poor carpenter in a stinky, smelly stable.

            That the creator, sustainer, and provider of all living things was completely and utterly dependent on his parents, such that if they neglected to care for him, he would have died. God was cared for by regular people.

            That God did not view our humanity as something to be despised but honored our very existence by becoming like us, by clothing himself in blood vessels and veins, muscles and bones, sinews and synapses. God with skin on.

            That God did not remain distant and unattached from his creation but entered into it as Emmanuel, God with us.  For in Jesus, as a helpless, weak, and crying baby, God was and is, with us.

            The Incarnation is an incomparable and indescribable event that actually happened.  The two thousand plus years since its occurrence are still not enough to fully plunge the depths of its greatness and beauty.

            So please, when you talk to others about the real meaning of Christmas, don’t kill the baby Jesus.

There's room in the stable.

It’s been 7 days since Adam Lanza opened fire on Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 children and 7 adults before taking his own life. These past 7 days have been filled with memorials and tributes, tears and laments, as our nation grieves in solidarity with Newtown, Connecticut.  Kenzie and I have been deeply (and rightfully) impacted by the shooting and have tried to make sense of it in light of Christmas. If Christmas is a joyful day to celebrate the coming of our King wrapped in swaddling clothes, how can we rejoice when we are immersed in such painful circumstances?

I've noticed that most of our re-tellings of the Christmas story tend to focus on Luke’s narrative, leaving out many of the details in Matthew’s account. It makes sense why we do this, for in Matthew’s story, King Herod, feeling threatened by the birth of Jesus, slaughters all male children under the age of two in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph, upon receiving divine insight into Herod’s intentions, flee to Egypt to escape the brutality. With Jesus’ birth came the death of many innocent lives.

I imagine the pain Mary and Joseph experienced knowing they were leaving behind numerous murdered children is similar to the pain we feel as a nation over Sandy Hook. I wonder if Mary and Joseph ever told Jesus what had happened.  Did he ever question what they were doing in Egypt when they obviously weren’t Egyptian? Did Jesus ever ask his parents to tell him about his birth?  What did they say?  Did they include the horrific details? If Jesus ever returned to Bethlehem, would he have noticed there were no boys his age? I have a hard time imagining Jesus was unaware of this part of his story.

Jesus was truly a "man of sorrows, acquainted with grief" not just because of his innocent death on the cross but because of the many innocent lives lost following his birth. Jesus is intimately acquainted with the intense pain that many families are presently living. God is not distantly unconnected with the ins and outs of life, the ups and downs of humanity, and the crippling impact of pain and sorrow.  God lived these things in Jesus.  He knows them first-hand. 

 This story, the Christmas story, is hope for all who are suffering- not just those in Newtown. In this story, we are reminded that, though there was no room in the inn, there is plenty of room in the stable for our laughter as well as our tears, our pain as well as our joy, lamentation alongside exultation. Our sorrows are not silenced on Christmas day, but find solidarity in the cries of the newborn infant. This is the story people need to hear.

So may we be faithful to tell the story, both in word and deed, now more than ever before.

Hello, Blogosphere!

Recently we've been impressed with the reflections of our friend's blogs and thought we'd toss around the idea of starting our own. With Calvin's constant reflection on what he's reading and his gifted writing skills plus Kenzie's wit and gift of gab, we think we've found our match! We thought a blog would be a great venue to process our thoughts, share our updates, and house our narcissism.

After much thought & perceived pressure of creating a cute...er witty...blog name, we've settled on Nothing New. Our words and ideas are nothing novel, we're merely re-telling the story of God's redemption as He weaves it in our lives and those around us. Plus, writing a blog is indeed nothing new, it seems to be the outlet for writing these days. Ironically, as we tried to find an available domain name, pretty much every variety of Nothing New was taken...Indeed, here is to Nothing New!