John Fischer The Catch

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new glorious morn

It created a shudder through the galaxy — a breaking story that rocked all worlds. It rippled through the stars and slapped against the edges of the universe. It was The Event time was waiting for. Hush. It’s about to crack the sky and spill out onto a Palestinian hillside, only to seem wasted on a handful of shepherds; the only ones invited to the party. We wouldn’t have even known if they hadn’t told us. But who can trust the words of a few lowly sheep herders? God could have orchestrated anything, and He chose to do this. He’s always been somewhat secretive. It’s His style.

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Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; 
The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail,
With peace on earth, goodwill to men.”
       – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We finally wrestled the Christmas boxes down from the attic, put the ornaments on the tree, the wreath on the front door and garlands around the front door frame, and now all over the house, little Christmas knick-knacks we have collected over the years grace window sills, the fireplace mantel, the coffee table, the dining room table and even the backs of the dining room chairs. And there are bells everywhere.  The picture above are the bells on our front door. I can’t sit down at the dining room table without ringing a bell. We even have little sleigh bells from a few Christmases ago that you can wear around your wrist. Bells to go.

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How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift was given
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin
Where meek souls will receive Him still
The dear Christ enters in

Fixing ourselves is way overrated. Just ask Moses. Moses was the guy who brought the Ten Commandments to earth only to find that before he could get down the mountain with the stone tablets inscribed by the very finger of God, the people he was leading had already egregiously broken the first one.

Our inability to follow the laws of God was captured for all of us on the face of Moses in the form of a veil with which he hid his face for the rest of his life. Its original purpose to protect the people from the bright glow from being with God was soon usurped by the somewhat devious plan to keep them from seeing that the brightness didn’t last (2 Corinthians 3:13). In other words, he might as well have been saying all along about the law, “This isn’t working for me.” And indeed, it wasn’t. It was never supposed to. All the motivational sayings in the world cannot penetrate a veil that we all wear of inadequacy about the law and self-improvement.

The only hope for us in this regard is the hope that came to us that first Christmas. Christ Jesus, God’s Son, came to earth that He might be born into the hearts of all who believe. This is the part of Christmas you don’t hear that much about. You hear about His coming as the savior of the world, but not so much as our enabler, but that’s what He is. He is not born in us just so we can be buddies, but to enable us to do His will. It’s called the new covenant, the old one being forever hidden by failure and coverup behind the veils we wear, like Moses. You and I with unveiled faces are being transformed into His image by the Spirit who lives in us (2 Corinthians 3:18). He does what we can never do, and He does it through our human flaws, just as we are, so His grace can be easily detected as the source of the transformation (2 Corinthians 4:7).

So this Christmas, focus on Christ being born in you. Maybe that’s why He was born the first time into a smelly stable. Not that much different from being born in us.

O Holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born in us today

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
         – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The concluding stanza to this poem, and indeed, the statement that resolves the conflict the writer created is a truth you and I believe, though all around us indicates something else. This is, indeed, what faith is — something you believe against all odds — something you believe, not because you are exerting a great deal of mental and moral fortitude, but because you have been given the ability to believe. Faith is self-evident. You believe because you believe.

The skies opened, the undeniable words were spoken: “Peace on earth, good will to men,” and then the skies closed and all was just as it was prior to the angelic announcement. The sudden silence must have been as deafening as the choir. So did Jesus bring peace on earth? Where is the evidence of it?

Indeed, just two years after this child was born there was a massacre of all Jewish male two-year-olds by King Herod, fearing that a King of the Jews had been born that would challenge his kingdom. “Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more’” (Matthew 2:17-18). Peace on earth? Where? On what earth? Certainly not this one. This child didn’t bring peace; He brought death and destruction on His  entire nation.

But Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. He (and we) are not vying for political power. Peace is a real thing; it’s just that it’s a personal peace. Jesus brought peace with God. He destroyed the enmity that was between God and us because of our sin. And He brought His kingdom to earth, and it’s an invisible kingdom. All of the things Christ brought to us are spiritually experienced and understood. “My kingdom is not of this world,” He told Pilate, and Pilate and many others since then — even some Christians — have been unable to grasp that.

So “Peace on earth; good will to men,” is something we have already, and something we are living out every day in spite of whatever the world around us shows us. Christ brought it to us, and we carry it out to the world through His Spirit who lives in us. We are Grace Turned Outward. We are peacemakers because we have His peace, and we are bringers of good will because we are living out the life of Christ through His power, bringing kindness and good will to those around us.

So this Christmas, focus on Christ being born in you. Maybe that’s why He was born the first time into a smelly stable. Not that much different from being born in us.

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How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin
Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in

Jesus was born into straw poverty on a silent night because that’s the way He continues to come into the world again, and again and again. He quietly steals His way into the straw poverty of our souls — no fanfare — only angels notice and sing. (The Bible says the angels make a pretty big deal of it when even one sinner comes to Christ, but, of course, we don’t hear that.)

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