The more I’m in ministry, the more I find myself so thankful for people who say, “yes!” “Yes” to making a dozen of cookies for the Messiah Sing. “Yes” to serving on the coordinating board. “Yes” to helping lead our children’s ministry> “Yes” to the stranger stranded on the side of the road. And “yes” to tent city community that wants to break camp in your church’s parking lot.
The reason I find myself even more thankful than I’ve ever been for these people, is because I know how easy it is to just say, “no”. Because I find myself saying it more often than I’ve ever said it before! In my heart of hearts, lately, my 62-year-old body and mind say “no” way more than I say yes, and, to be honest with you, this new me frightens and disturbs me!
Look, I know we all need healthy boundaries. I know that a good solid “no “usually means that there’s a good solid “yes” being said somewhere else. I get that! We can’t do everything. We need to say “no” sometimes.
I’m all for a good hearty and healthy “no”!
But what scares me about myself, is that I’ve started to say “no” to things that I think most people would say are good for me. Things like “my child-like imagination”. Things like hope against hope. Things that are at the very bottom line of who I am and whose I am!
For instance, when Will, our music director, challenges our choir with a new piece, or a piece that forces us to go “out of our comfort boxes”, my first inclination (don’t tell Will this) is to say “no”! “Just give me one I know!” “Can’t we just do a song in English?” “Does this one really fit the Christmas season?” My doubt flag is so ready to be raised these days…why? This is a serious problem!
And the reason I’m writing about it this afternoon, is that Christmas is just 3 days away. And if Christmas is about anything at all, it certainly isn’t about saying “no”! Indeed, at the heart of Christmas is a soft and tender heart willing to say “yes”! At the heart of Christmas is a heart willing to hope against hope. Is a light willing to be lit in the darkest times! Is a song of peace willing to be sung when nation after nation is still at war.
Christmas is all about a group of people who were willing to run with their doubt in check long enough for belief to kick in! Christmas is all about a group of people who were willing to suspend their “well let’s just wait and see” flag for just enough, so that their other flag, their “let’s just run with it, and go to Bethlehem and see!” flag, had just enough time to catch the winds of faith.
Read the story! The real miracle in this story isn’t just a loving God willing to say “yes” one more time to a stubborn group of people (all of us) who just didn’t get it. It’s also a story of Mary, who amid the confusion of being visited by an angel, who when asked to do the impossible (carry God’s own child), didn’t say “can you give me a minute” but instead flung open the portal to her heart and shouted, “Let it be so!”
It's also the story of Joseph, who is all about putting the pencil to it (he’s a carpenter after all). All about weighing the decision carefully. All about calculating the pros and the cons. And so, when the Angel visits him, he brings out the pencil and weighs it carefully. Of course, he does! He’s Joseph after all! And when he does, the decision, in the rational sense, is easy. Break off the engagement! Not for you, but for Mary. It would be the right thing to do. Quietly end it. The ledger doesn’t lie. He had his decision already mapped out. “No” was the obvious choice! But what does he do? The fool opens the portal of his heart wide open, and yells louder than Pete Carroll after the Seahawk win Monday night, “Yes! I’m going to let love win! Yes, I’m going to say “no” to that pencil, and “yes” to my amazing bride to be! I don’t care what the world thinks…I choose to say “yes” to Mary and who she is carrying!
Christmas is also a story about the shepherds! They are tending their sheep in the middle of the night, and a host of angels interrupts them with “tidings of great joy!” And what do they do? They don’t worry about the sheep! They don’t say they’re too tired! They don’t send a scout out ahead to see what is really happening! They drop it all and sprint to the manger because they’re hearts are just bursting with a sense of curiosity and wonder! They don’t decide to go…they just can’t “not go!” They don’t even let the “no” enter the playing field…they let God’s “yes” fill their child-filled hearts and they just run! When is the last time you let that child in you run with that kind of wonder in your heart!
Think of all the people who say “yes” in this story! I’ve mentioned some but there are more! The innkeeper! The Magi, the donkey, and countless others who, when asked, chose to answer with a warm and heart-felt “yes” without having to know all the details!
I know the Christmas stories (each gospel story tells it just a bit differently) are challenging for those of us in the post-modern Western world. We want to get out our scientific research manuals and tear each of them apart. But, in the end, the Christmas stories aren’t about truth as in “fact” as much as they are about a greater truth. A truth that is at the very heart of what it means to be human. And in order to let the Christmas story enter your heart, you first have to let this thing called “love” out of it’s cage! You first have to let the wonderful and marvelous child deep inside you out and unleash her, he, or they!
There’s a star in the East, don’t just google it…get on your camel and follow it!
There’s an angel asking you to carry the light of love across a dark and difficult desert. Don’t wait until it extinguishes …get on your donkey and bring that torch to Bethlehem!
There’s a host of angels singing about a babe born in Bethlehem. Don’t wait until morning and then decide…run! Run with every ounce of the life you have left. Run like a six-year-old child whose just been told that there’s a strange red light up in the sky moving this way, and it looks to be pulling a sled!
It’s Christmas, my friend! It’s a time to let the impossible love of our great and magnificent God of light into your heart. It’s not a time to bristle up and back away. It’s a time to bend and bow and let your heart follow the impossible and humble love of a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in lowly manger, and desperately pleading with you to say “yes”.
Come on! It will do your heart so much good! Come on! Run with me! Bend with me! Believe with me!
Your friend and pastor, up on the roof looking for Rudolph...and down in the manger bending toward the Light of the World, Brook
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