Advent 4a – We're Almost There ... And Where Is That Exactly?

Christmas Eve is still seven days away, yet this is part of our lectionary reading this weekend. Since Advent is about preparing – as in “Get ready! He’s almost here!” – I suppose it makes sense. Still what are we to make of this, today?

My thought is that since it takes a bit of effort to wrap our minds around the  Christmas story, let’s start early. I mean, with an angel saying, “You’re going to have God’s son”, the whole virgin getting pregnant thing, and an engagement almost called off but for heavenly intervention... Then, there are foreign visitors following a star, an evil king, genocide, more dreams and angels, and this is only one gospel-writer’s input!

I love Christmas and I love Advent. But I’ve wondered how much of the stories we treasure are products of the gospel-writers’ minds and hearts, as they put their all into  conveying to their readers that Jesus’ life – birth through death, and beyond – was of God. Entirely. 100%.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m Christian – except perhaps by fundamentalists’ standards – and I fully accept that Jesus’ life was dedicated to showing God’s Way to everyone who’d pay attention. And whether or not Jesus was King David’s 28th generation grandson (which seems suspect when Luke claims 42 generations between them and with different names, to boot) …or Mary was a virgin or Jesus looked a lot like Joseph … or magi actually gave gold, frankincense, and myrrh are, while interesting, just not the point.

What matters, what Matthew was trying to communicate, is that Jesus was faithful – in the manner of David and some others in that royal lineage. He came from God, the whole of his life was dedicated to living for God, and he was worthy of being hailed as king. Indeed he is our Lord.

If all the miraculous language works for you, if your Christmas or your faith would be shaken without it, then by all means accept it. Treasure it even. But please practice grace with those others for whom it doesn’t work. Because if we take away the miraculous that for some people is actually a deterrent to faith, we still have One who is worthy of dedicating our lives to follow. We still have our Lord.

That’s part of the awesomeness of God’s action through Jesus. Even if we strip away the miracles, we’re still left with One who followed God all his days, even to the point of execution, all so that we’d come to realize how very much God cares for us, and how important it is for us to live in God’s hope of wholeness for the earth God loves so much.