This year Advent and Christmas impressed upon me the restfulness of biblical faith and Christmas. Have you noticed that often we feel a burden of making Christmas as impressive as we remember it or as impressive as we think it should be? I notice pastors and others struggling to say something new and powerful about Christmas, as if Christmas itself is fading away.
But it is not.
All truth and wonders of God’s creative and redeeming work always depend on God, not on us.
When you visit the ocean or listen to songbirds or see a redwood tree, do you feel a burden of being impressed? Do you feel like you have to get yourself excited or grateful or that you have to keep yourself that way? Or, do we simply feel the enduring power of God’s work? You can just rest by the ocean or near a redwood or a singing bird and soak it in. You may even doze off and then wake up again in the beauty of your surroundings.
The birth of Jesus comes with its own power to impress and keep us impressed. We can read the narratives again and again, maybe a little more slowly each time to let the details and magnitude soak in. The good message of God that regenerated our soul in the first place rejoices that soul every time we hear it. And at the same time, the good message is bringing relief for fear, grief, guilt, worry, and all the other troubles we are burdened with.
This Christmastide, what if we take time each day to read or think through the Christmas texts, picturing in our minds what is going on? Or we could study a nativity scene or other sacred art?
Be at rest with the Word, knowing that the Word and Spirit of God are doing God’s work in you.
Below is a partial list of Bible passages that speak of Christmas (you may also refer to all the readings for Christmas in all four series of the church year in the front of the Lutheran Service Book).
Genesis 3:15
2 Samuel 7
Isaiah 9 and 11
Micah 5:2
Matthew 1:18 – 2:23
Luke 1:1 – 2:52
Galatians 4