Joy to the World - the Lord Is Come

Scotty Smith post:  A Prayer for Christmas Day

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11

Dear Lord Jesus, a most glorious and praised-filled “Happy birthday” to you! Though you’ve existed forever in rich, joyful, pleasure-filled relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit, today we celebrate your coming to us and for us. You are the long-time-promised and much-longed-for Christ—the Messiah. Every promise God has made finds its fulfillment—its unequivocal “Yes!” in you. Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

With brothers and sisters throughout the world, and those presently in heaven, we rejoice in the day angels “harked,” shepherds ran, and Mary pondered the very good news which fills our hearts this morning. What a blessed and beloved people we are—a people upon whom God’s favor rests, in whom he greatly delights and over whom he sings with great rejoicing!

We praise you for being born in Bethlehem, the “house of bread,” for we were a famished people, binge eating at many empty buffets, spending our money “for that which is not bread” (Isa. 55:2). But you came as the Bread of Life, and you’ve brought the feast of the gospel to our souls. Now we are truly satisfied, as with the richest of fare and the finest cuisine—with the nourishment which stirs within us our longing for the day we will see you again—Bridegroom to Bride! Oh, hasten that glorious Day of banquet and beauty!

Indeed, we praise you for entering our world in the town of David, Israel’s beloved shepherd-king. For what King David could never be, you’ve become for us—the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep; and now you care for us with relentless tenderness and persistent kindness.

And as the King of kings and Lord of lords, you are presently reigning over all things and working in all things, for your glory and our good. Hallelujah, many, many times over! No other kingdom is everlasting but yours; no other King is as loving. Knowing these things to be true, we have a peace which passes all understanding, mercies which cannot be measured, and grace upon grace upon grace!

Oh, for the Day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that you are Lord, to the glory of God the Father! Happy birthday, indeed, Lord Jesus. You are so easy to love and so worthy to be adored. So very Amen we pray, in your matchless and merciful name.

Freed from the Law of Capability

Tullian Tchividjian post:  He Came ... You're Free

I hope and pray that today is a day of restful reorientation for those of you who are weary and heavy laden, for those who feel the weight of trying to “make it” on your own.

For those who feel the acute pressure of thinking you have to change your spouse if you’re going to be happy, that you have to be on top of everything if you’re going to make it, that you have to do everything right with your kids if they’re going to turn out OK, that you have to control what others think about you if you’re going to feel important, that you have to be the best if your life is going to count, that you have to be successful if you’re ever going to satisfy the deep desire for parental approval, and so on and so forth…Christmas is for you.

The Incarnation frees us from what Paul Zahl calls “the law of capability”–the law, he says, “that judges us wanting if we are not capable, if we cannot handle it all, if we are not competent to balance our diverse commitments without a slip.” Because of Christmas, we are now endowed with the strength to admit that we can’t make it on our own–that we’re weak and needy and restless. Since our identity is now anchored in Jesus’ strength, our weaknesses don’t threaten our sense of worth and significance–our security. We’re now free to admit our faults and failures without feeling like our flesh is being ripped off our bones.

The Incarnation of Christ serves as a glorious reminder that God’s willingness to clean things up is infinitely bigger than our willingness to mess things up. The arrival of God in the flesh sets us free from the pressure we feel to save ourselves from loneliness and lostness, despair and dejection.

In short, Christmas is God’s answer to the slavery of self-salvation.

Whether it’s by trying harder or giving up, being good or bad, pursuing wisdom or foolishness, sacrificially giving or selfishly taking, we suffer under the weight of looking to ourselves for life’s answer.

Christmas celebrates the glorious truth that no matter how hard we try, we can’t do it. Apart from the Incarnation we are left to our own devices. But Jesus came to liberate us from the pressure of having to fix ourselves, find ourselves, and free ourselves. He came to rescue us from the slavish need to be right, rewarded, regarded, and respected. He came to relieve us of the burden we inherently feel to trust in ourselves in order “to get it done.” Because Jesus came to secure for us what we could never secure for ourselves, life ceases to be a tireless effort to establish ourselves, justify ourselves, validate ourselves.

Because of Christmas, we have nothing to prove or protect. We can stop pretending. We can take off our masks and be real. We hold the wining hand. We have nothing to lose.

The Incarnation is God’s shout: “You’re free!”

As Everything, he became nothing so that you–as nothing–could have everything.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Adore Him

Wonderful and Mighty

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Most Wise

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer about the Magi and the Way of Wisdom

     When they [the Magi] saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.Matt. 2:10-11

     My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col. 2:2-3

Dear Lord Jesus, whether they were kings, magicians, or astrologers and whether there were two, three, or seventeen of them, it makes no difference. The Magi were wise men, and they show us the way of true wisdom because they lead us to you—Wisdom incarnate, the treasury of all wisdom and knowledge.

Indeed, Lord Jesus, you have become wisdom from God for us—”our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). How we praise, bless and adore you for such unparalleled condescension, measureless generosity, and liberating provision. From cradle to cross, resurrection to return, wedding feast to eternal bliss, you are alone worthy of everything we have and are.

In fact, you’re the real seeker in the story of the Magi. Promises of your coming, an irrepressible calling, a providential star, a Spirit-generated joy—how we praise you for drawing men and women to yourself from every period of history, every family of humanity, and every segment of society. Come Herod or high water, those you’ve come to save will come to you, Lord Jesus.

May the gospel continue to do its work in our hearts that we might bow quicker, lower, and with more joy than ever before you—our majestic King and merciful Lord. Open the eyes of our hearts a bit wider to behold the great hope to which you’ve called us in the gospel.

Deepen our adoration of you, Jesus, and loosen our grip on our so-called treasures. What do we have that you have not given us—whether it’s gold, frankincense or myrrh, or a warm bed, gas in the tank or daily bread? Continue to free us for a life of caring and generosity. So very Amen we pray, in your most wise and worthy name.

Grace Transforms

Mike Cosper post:  Law and Grace in 'Les Mis'

Victor Hugo's Les Miserables was considered a literary powerhouse long before Alain Boubeil and Claude-Michel Schonberg wrote their musical based on the story in 1980. But that production, translated into English a few years later, has been a powerhouse on Broadway and London's West End for the better part of three decades. On Christmas Day, it will come to theaters as a major motion picture starring Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, and an all-star supporting cast.

I don't say this sort of thing often, but here it is: go see it. Les Miserables lives up to the hype.

Or, it will. Full disclosure: I haven't actually seen the movie, but I've seen the musical multiple times. And I say that as someone who doesn't love musical theater.

The Story

Les Miserables is an intertwining story of characters living in the turmoil of 19th-century France. It's a story of poverty and affluence, broken dreams, love, and redemption.

The story branches out into a variety of lives: a corrupt innkeeper and his family, a group of young would-be revolutionaries disgusted with the oppression of the poor, street kids, and young lovers. People who watch the musical say it's like a "religious experience" and leave the theater emotionally exhausted. Early screenings of the film have enjoyed equally effusive praise, with one Hollywood veteran saying it might be the greatest movie he's ever seen.

Here are a few things to watch for when you see Les Mis.

Broken Dreams

Every character in the story experiences the weight and tragedy of our fallen world. They all face inevitable disappointments. Jean Valjean leaves the work house hoping to start afresh, only to be haunted by his past at every turn. Fantine sings of a life of love and hope, even as her life spirals apart, sending her begging in the streets, selling her hair, and selling her body. She is sick and dying as she sings:

I dreamed a dream in time gone by,
When hope was high and life, worth living.
I dreamed that love would never die,
I dreamed that God would be forgiving . . .

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living,
So different now from what it seemed . . .
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed . . .

Other characters feel it too. Young Cosette sings of a "castle on a cloud," a dreamland where life is sweet, and she isn't working like a slave for her foster parents. Eponine sings of lonesome, unrequited love in "On My Own." A group of young students are disgusted by the oppression of the poor, and they dream of a revolution that sets the people free.

There's a grinding, heartbreaking kind of tragedy that threads its way through Les Miserables. You can't help but feel the sting of our fallen world. That feeling of relentless heartbreak sends the characters to God and to one another wondering if there's any relief, any hope, any way out of the darkness.

Law Vs. Grace

The answer to those questions plays out most tellingly in the contrast between Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert.

As the story begins, Valjean is being released from 19 years on the chain gang, paroled back into the world but shackled with his conviction, which keeps him from being able to start over and make a new life. In despair, he returns to a life of petty crime.

He is caught by the police after stealing silver from a church, where a bishop had offered him shelter. But when the police bring him back to the church, everything changes. The bishop denies the charges, insists the silver was a gift, and gives Valjean the most valuable silver candlesticks in the church.

Valjean deserves judgment and condemnation, but instead, he receives grace. Not just forgiveness for his sins, but an abundant, over-the-top gift. This act is the heart of Les Mis. Grace transforms Valjean.

He sings:

My life was a war that could never be won . . .

Yet why did I allow that man
To touch my soul and teach me love?
He treated me like any other
He gave me his trust
He called me brother
My life he claims for God above
Can such things be?
For I had come to hate the world
This world that always hated me

I feel my shame inside me like a knife
He told me that I have a soul,
How does he know?
What spirit comes to move my life?
Is there another way to go?

I am reaching, but I fall
And the night is closing in
And I stare into the void
To the whirlpool of my sin
I'll escape now from the world
From the world of Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is nothing now
Another story must begin!

The priest responds:

. . . By the Passion and the Blood
God has raised you out of darkness
I have bought your soul for God!

Valjean disappears from the world, breaking his parole and creating a new identity as Monsieur Madeleine, a factory owner and mayor. He's resolved to live a better life, to make a difference in the world, and to help everyone he can, but he's haunted by his past.

And he's hunted.

Valjean's nemesis is Inspector Javert, whose life is marked by a ruthless commitment to the law. Javert says:

Mine is the way of the Lord
And those who follow the path of the righteous
Shall have their reward
And if they fall
As Lucifer fell
The flame
The sword . . .

And so it has been and so it is written
On the doorway to paradise
That those who falter and those who fall
Must pay the price!

There is no mercy for Javert. There is no grace. He wants only to capture Valjean and bring him to justice---back to prison for breaking his parole.

The contrast of Javert and Valjean is deliberate and clear. Valjean is determined to live a life worthy of the grace he's received, and his sense of calling leads him to radical sacrifice for the sake of others. Javert, on the other hand, lives with unflinching loyalty to the law. His confidence in the law makes him utterly certain of both his own righteousness and also Valjean's sinfulness.

The story sets these two on a collision course, a head-on crash between law and grace. Just as grace saves Valjean in the beginning, it is ultimately grace that he must count on in the end. As Javert pursues him, we see the effects of grace on a sinner, we see the oppressive power of both the law and someone's past, and we see the incomprehensibility of grace to a life ruled by the law.

Story That Resonates

This story resonates for two reasons. First, the audience can identify with a world of tragedy and disappointment. We all feel that sense of grinding sorrow, and wonder if there's any hope for those who are sick, who suffer injustice, and who long to start anew. We're all discouraged by the constant onslaught of bad news, and we dream dreams of places where hope is high, life is worth living, and God is merciful.

Second, Les Miserable answers those doubts with hope for redemption. There is a way to start afresh. There is a grace that surpasses, that sets us free from the burdens of our past, and that leads us home to God.

And while Les Miserables provides a vague answer, how beautiful that it's releasing on Christmas Day, when that grace is announced to the world so clearly! Jesus endured the grinding struggles of the world, born in a stable, hunted by evil men, and suffering alongside (and ultimately for) us. He not only announced a hope for redemption, but he also single-handedly accomplished it for us.

In the light of the gospel, a story like Les Miserables isn't simply uplifting; it's a call to remember how great a salvation we have.

There's Something About

Ray Ortlund post:  A dangerous book to all who hold power

“Have you ever heard of anyone in history being imprisoned or executed for distributing copies of Grimm’s fairy tales?  What would you say if you’d heard that copies of The Iliadand The Odyssey had been banned in Saudi Arabia and North Korea?  Imagine people trying to smuggle copies of Hans Christian Andersen’s works into China?  Such ideas are comical, but the Bible, which has been called a mere collection of myths and fairy tales, has suffered all of these fates.  Throughout history and even today, copies of the Bible are banned and burned, and those possessing it are persecuted and imprisoned.  There’s something about this ancient book that threatens and frightens those in power, especially those who use power to oppress people weaker than themselves.  And they have every reason to be frightened.”

Eric Metaxas, Everything You Always Wanted to Know about God (Colorado Springs, 2005), page 155.