Blog:FOREST LAKE TALKS

In a conversation with one of my grown daughters, we agreed that for most of our nation, the decorations that are everywhere are only a cultural, economic, and seasonal reflection. Christmas is about lights and presents and parties. December 25th becomes only a deadline for buying and delivering presents (a very effective way to encourage us to spend more and more to “beat the deadline!”).  Unless you and I make some intentional choices, it is so easy to celebrate ONLY the holiday season.  The roots of the celebration may be Christian, but it does not occur to many that the name of the season is CHRIST-mas.  In fact, you and I celebrate for very different reasons than the merchants and children who worry that Santa might “know too much!”

Christians celebrate this season as the time in the history of the world when God came to earth in human form.  The Incarnation – God made flesh – is an audacious, wild, and bizarre claim.  This belief is only, ever a faith stance, because it makes no sense otherwise. 

If God did not come to earth in human form – if Jesus is not fully God and fully human – then what we celebrate is only about lights, decorations, parties and presents.  But if God did come to earth – entered history taking on all the limits and suffering of humankind – then our celebration is much more universal and life-changing.  If Jesus is the “image of the invisible God,” (Colossians 1:15), then we are not alone in the world! If Jesus is God incarnate, then God is not absent, unconcerned, or cruel. If in the birth of Jesus, God acted definitively and decisively to let us know who God is and what God is like, then we have reason to hope even when the world falls apart around us.  If Jesus is fully God and fully human, then in him we have a blueprint or a model for what it looks like to be fully and truly human. 

Incarnation may sound like an obtuse theological term.  But incarnation means that we can know God in the here and now.  So, the holiday is not about presents, but because Jesus came to earth we celebrate, share, sing for joy, and love everyone that God loves. I don’t personally have any trouble wishing someone I don’t know a “happy holiday.”  But I want my own heart to be focused on celebrating the incarnation of God – a life-changing belief.  Come and worship that God with us this CHRIST-mas season.

See you in worship!