some christmas irony

Let me preface this by saying that we all really love our Pasadena church. The services are worshipful and energetic; our small group is friendly and supportive; the preaching is scriptural and challenging; the kids' Sunday School programs are exciting and loving. We had a great sermon today and I won't give you a blow by blow description, but I did want to share some of it with you because I thought it was really profound.

Erwin has been aiming for nontraditional Scriptures to use this year and he has done a pretty good job of it. However, since the Incarnation (etc.) is key to our faith and beliefs, I might point out that probably any Scripture might somehow point to it. I say might, not does. So it's probably fun to look for verses that aren't related and then find the threads that connect. But I digress. This week's verse was about Herod's murder of the innocents, a story guaranteed to wring any parent's heart. If you're not familiar with the story, here's a synopsis: the wise men come to Herod (under Roman rule, king of the Jews) saying that they want to worship the child who has been born the King of the Jews. Herod is naturally threatened, but plays cunning and asks them to return to him to tell him where the baby is so that he, too, can go and worship. The wise men see Jesus and worship, but are warned by God not to go back to Herod, so they take the long road home. When Herod realizes that he's been outwitted, he orders the death of every Jewish baby boy under the age of two. Every single one. Jesus escapes because Joseph runs to Egypt with him and Mary.

So part of the point today was that so often, we treat Christmas as this beautiful, tender, lovely story. Sweet pregnant Mary, loving husband Joseph, happy animals sharing what they have with the newborn Lord (oh wait, did you not read that picture book??), and of course, the little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes. Yeah, right. Let's skip that part lest I digress again and I will stick with what Erwin was talking about. What we fail to remember is that behind Christmas lurks this angry red dragon (Revelation 12), aching to murder Jesus as a helpless infant: although this attempt on Jesus' life fails, the Jewish parents of the day are left desolate ("Rachel weeping for her children"). Jesus was born into peril from the very beginning. Christmas is beautiful--remember, we have been invaded by God himself--but any enemy will retaliate against an invasion, especially one intended to strike at his very heart. The light of that star at Bethlehem shines in the shadow of a darkness of evil.

That's all from me... now for the ironic part. Two things: the sermon followed right on the heels of a "rousing" rendition of "Away in a Manger" (possibly my least favorite Christmas song--could anything be more sacchariny sweet??); each of my children came home from Sunday School with very cute, happy nativity pictures. Complete with smiling animals.