Dear Trekker,
I have a confession to make… there is nothing I enjoy more, particularly, more deeply in my spirit, than interacting with my own mature sons on the deepest issues, e.g. life’s meaning, what we believe, and how we live it out and pass it on to each succeeding generation. Recent discussions with oldest son Jim, and with his encouragement and contributions, comprise this month’s MEN newsletter. Read and enjoy!
Let’s set the stage. Exactly fifty years ago a Christmas song was written ostensibly as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile crisis. The song describes how word of the birth of the baby Jesus is relayed to higher upon ever higher authority. The Night Wind (the Spirit of God “blowing where it desires”) whispers to a little lamb, the lamb reports the message to his shepherd, and the shepherd conveys the news all the way to the king. The king (unlike King Herod) then speaks the Good News to the “people everywhere”. This song, “Do you Hear What I Hear”, carries additional queries such as, “do you see what I see”, “do you know what I know”, even an admonition, “listen to what I say!” And what are we to listen to… “The Child, the Child sleeping in the night; He will bring us goodness and light.” Indeed, He did! And that is what Christmas and life is all about!
Notice the progression of the song… from creation which man so seeks to understand, to an animal creature, to a man, then to highest earthly authority. They all are convinced and accept responsibility to carry the message, “He will bring goodness and light.” He, Jesus Christ, will always be the ultimate Gift of Christmas!
Frankly, I have to chuckle at the foolishness of debating “if Christmas should be a religious holiday”? To quote a very popular idiom of recent days… what “malarkey.” The Spirit of God is written all over Christmas; it can never be just a holiday season. The Spirit of God (theologians correctly also call Him the Holy Spirit) initiated Christmas just as He had initiated the creation of life. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty; darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit was hovering over the waters.” Then with the Spirit hovering, God said, “Let there be light.” Yes, the Spirit brought light into the world, twice. Creation… and the second time when the angel answered the Virgin Mary’s question, “How will this be”… “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the son of God.” Luke 1:34, 35.
No wonder the Apostle Paul said to the believers in Ephesus, a couple of generations after the birth, death, resurrection and universal giving of the Holy Spirit to all believers, “God can do anything, you know, far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams. He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Glory to God in the Church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all the millennia! Oh yes!” (The Message translation, Eph. 3: 20, 21.)
Now trekker, “listen to what I say.” If you “get it”, you and I do possess the Spirit. We are the carriers of “Goodness and Light.” Indwelt by the same Spirit that gave us the Messiah and raised Christ from the dead, He gives life to our mortal bodies! Earthly (dust) and heavenly (spiritual) bodies become one; we now in the Spirit also penetrate the world’s alienation, “bringing goodness and light” to a dark, drifting, disembodied world. For we have always been “in the heart of God” to be His and do His work.
Trekker, I hope this Christmas we endure and wait “in the Spirit”, not anxious about anything. We believe, we act decisively, we move out swiftly. Interceding for others, we feed the poor and speak for those who have no voice. We extend grace to all; we do not give up, or get off into little eddies of effete human speculation. We possess light as we walk in it; we walk in the Spirit because we are indwelled by the Spirit of Light. And then all things are possible; in God we trust!
Trekker, this is an appeal not to dabble in little puddles, the controversies of “right and wrong”. The Spirit of all law is the Spirit of God, of Light, of Hope, of New Birth. “Walk in the garden” with God daily… and “greater things we will do than even He did” because the Christ child became a man… died and rose again and went back supernaturally to the Father. (John 14:12) We only can fulfill the Spirit of all hope and law when living in the Spirit of Christ. Faith is not of the flesh… it is the ultimate presence of God. Divine power is now available to all humanity, as the Spirit in Christmas is the beginning and end of all history.
One last caution, trekker. Remember when the disciples said, “Why could not we heal this boy”, the Lord said, “This can only be done by prayer” (some translations add fasting, but fasting is not in the original Greek, Mark 9:14-29) Matthew’s version says the disciples could not heal because their faith was so weak. (Matthew 17: 14-21). The lesson… as carriers of light, our abilities become supernaturally unlimited, but only as we maintain the constancy of the Spirit through intimate prayer and trust in His power alone! Will you walk boldly with Christ this Christmas, and throughout the New Year? You surely should and can!
This Christmas season, trekker, don’t sweat the petty details! Of course Christmas is all about Jesus! But more than that… Christmas is all about the Father giving His son, the child then dying as a man, and the Spirit resurrecting Him and us all, beginning now! Yes, joy to the world, once and for all. Believe it trekker, personally; live the Christ life boldly; proclaim the Spirit in Christmas endlessly, till death do us part…and then forever with Jesus.
Hope you “see what I see”,
Jim Meredith
