Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas as Breaking and Entering


God should be thrown in jail. “For what?” you may ask. For breaking and entering. In American law I think that’s more than a misdemeanor when you enter and then actually take something-which he clearly did, eventually. Let me make my point.

We are at the season when Christians everywhere celebrate this breaking and entering; God’s felony. That’s what Christmas means. God broke in—to our world. He came in uninvited. The whole Christmas story of the baby in the barn with the angels and all that is about the start of God’s heist, about his breaking and entering (which leads ultimately to a murder but I’ll talk about that in my Easter post). Most Westerners seem out of touch with the crime. I’m not sure why. I’ve had someone break into my house, and believe me it gets your attention. But in the US, it’s almost as if it didn’t really happen. And anyway, we replace what he stole pretty quickly because we just go out and get more stuff. We don’t even miss anything.

But today when we celebrate this crime, I’d like to offer one thought: in this break-in we have revealed to us the true nature and character of God. He could have broken in by smashing down doors or breaking windows or making a big scene. He didn’t. He could have come on a white horse or in a motorcade or in a tank or something like that. He didn’t. He snuck into our world looking like a snotty nosed kid who cries and poops in his pants, like every other kid. The break in was a farce on the outside, but ultimately it became an inside job. Word has it that the thief looked sort of like the picture on this post!

He broke in because we locked him out. He broke in because we’d bought a bill of goods about who he was and who we are what the future holds for humankind. Some really old writer, who seems to know what he is talking about, said that we preferred stolen fruit with our significant other to sweet friendship with the sovereign creator (Read Genesis 3 to get the full story). There were eternal consequences to our choices. So he broke in, showed up, and revealed himself to woo us back and to demonstrate clearly to everyone, even those who don’t really like him, who he was and what he was about. And, he did this in a way that no religious figure on earth has ever done.

This is what makes Christianity so unique and frankly, it is why I celebrate Christmas. And what did he ultimately steal? Our faults and flaws and sins and mistakes and everything that ruins our lives! But there is more to it than that. God’s break-in was a Robin Hood Christmas. He stole from us, who thought we were rich (when we were actually impoverished) and gives us back something much greater, if we are willing to have it. He offers us back our hope, our lives, and our true selves when we, by faith in what he accomplished through the break-in, reject our false selves, along with the sin that goes with it, and trust the criminal God (Jesus) with our lives. Trust a criminal with my life? It’s an insane idea! But, it’s Christianity. I hope anyone who actually reads this post will ponder this and celebrate the crime with joy! I plan to.

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