IN THOSE DAYS.....IN THESE DAYS

There is something so normal, so comforting and so divine about the three words that begin the story of our Lord’s birth - “In those days...”. In those days of Caesar Augustus, and censuses, governors and villages God chose to fulfill his promise to send to the world what was needed to bring humanity back to wholeness – Jesus.
The story of our savior’s birth does not begin “Once upon a time” as if it were some sort of fantasy beyond the realm of human experience or human hope. It does not speak of imaginary places, events, or things that could only forever be imaginary. Rather it begins with a statement of fact. In history, at a point all creation can point to as real-- in a real culture, a real situation, and a real world torn by the effects of sin — at just the right time God’s own son was born.
It might be better if it had started with “ Once upon a time.”. We could just sit back and enjoy the details, the drama, and the story as it is often presented in our media. We could pretend that Christmas is all sweet and nice with presents, parties and trees aglow with lights. If Christmas is only pretend then we can set aside dealing with the issues it raises, like world problems, poverty, human suffering, human sin, mangers, soldiers, violence and simple human vulnerability before the evil of the world, the devil and our own human hearts. With a fantasy Christmas we can settle for a fantasy Jesus and rationalize away all about God’s love for us as something only for children, to be set aside for more immediate things, like consumerism, when we become adults. But it doesn’t begin that way.
In those days God acted and when we face that fact we cannot read what follows without being challenged to the depths of our beings. We see that this same God, who became flesh and dwelt among us in the mystery and grace of the first Christmas, died and rose again on Easter, and who reigns now and forever is also the one we turn to “in these days” where we need the comfort of a saviour as urgently as that first Christmas so long ago.
The power of Christmas is that into these days God still is savior at a time when the events of these days have so clearly challenged all our fantasies about our society, our security, our economy and yes, our false and comfortable fantasies about God. Jesus came not to provide empty holidays but a whole heart. He came in a manger to challenge us to see our own poverty of life and faith so that we might cherish, with wonder, that he has come to be our strength in the struggles of everyday life.
At Concordia each day is one in which I see the power of Christmas, not as fantasy but as reality. In these days, of wars, recessions, lost jobs, exams, family deaths, personal trials, broken hearts and broken lives Jesus is real. It is in knowing the nearness of a loving God that we can stop, with shepherds, wisemen, Mary, Joseph and the angels of heaven, to marvel at such love, so powerful, and so strong, in those days and all the days to come. God’s blessings this Christmas season 2011.