Christmas season invites us to do some attitudinal adjustment. I’m not speaking of that which comes from a bottle, although I know spiking the eggnog is a Christmas tradition. But the season should give us a very different boost.
Matthew and Luke, the writers who record the Nativity of Jesus, did not foresee our celebration.What they wrote about Jesus’s birth was serious. Seriousness can be upbeat and hopeful. It can take the form of a dream of what could happen, of potential and possibility. Matthew and Luke offered us a hopeful seriousness for Christmas. Matthew and Luke wrote out their hopes in a narrative form. John offers a quick, straight-forward summary: “What came to be through Him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:3-6). Life and death, light and darkness: that’s serious stuff. That the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it: that’s hopeful seriousness.
Everyone’s life has periods when the darkness seems to eclipse the light. We can say the same for history. Believers in our God, however, should maintain a hopeful attitude. God is the source of goodness, the source of truth, of beauty, of life. God is love. And God is all-powerful. But God’s plan has not always produced positive results. Here’s why. From the beginning of creation, the Bible says God planned a partnership with humankind. The partnership begins in the first chapter of Genesis. God makes us in God’s image and likeness. And God gives us dominion over all creation. He blessed humankind saying, “Fill the earth.” “Subdue it,” Then, before taking a day off, God said it’s “very good.” God expected us to flood this earth with goodness, to relate to each other in kindness and compassion. We know that the plan did not always work out.
The second creation story in the first book of the Bible starts at Chapter 2 verse 4. God makes the heavens and earth. The author writes: “There was not field shrub on earth and no grass of the field had sprouted, for the Lord God had sent no rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the ground” (Gen. 2:4/5). In that second story, God designed the partnership with us to make the earth bloom. Again, the plan did not work out, but that was the design.
We must conclude that we don’t have the knowledge or ability, or the will to make everything right. And all too often in history, some people believe they benefit from the darkness. For the past three thousand years, believers have had a problem: On what do we stake our lives? Do we wager on God’s goodness or on those who bring the darkness? Theologians calls this choice the fundamental option. It’s the primary, elemental, foundational decision each person must make—whether the light or the darkness. Happily, for three thousand years, some believers re-constituted the partnership. Because of those believers, the goodness of God, the beauty of the earth, the wonder of humankind always outshines the darkness.
In the Advent run-up to Christmas, we read one of the most evocative dreams to boost our hopes. The prophet Isaiah lived in dark times, but he took a risk on the light. When the Messiah comes, human interaction changes. He wrote: “He shall judge the poor with justice and decide fairly for the land’s afflicted….Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips” (Isa. 11:4/5). Then, harmony saturates this world. The prophet wrote: “The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them” (Isa. 11:6). Isaiah knew darkness, but he kept the right attitude.
Matthew and Luke’s writings are about restoring the partnership. Some parts of their writings inspired dogmas—the Virgin Birth or Jesus being fully human and fully divine. They became dogma because they are the best examples of the divine-human partnership. Look at all these people around the Nativity: Zechariah thought it was impossible that his aging wife Elizabeth would give birth to John who grew to become the Baptist. Mary, a virgin, also thought it was impossible. She mothered the Messiah. Joseph who learned about it in a dream, believed it even if it seemed crazy. Joseph worked as a partner of the Almighty. Somehow, they all came to believe the Divine Plan; they risked their futures on God’s goodness.
Each year all the dreamers of our 3000-year-old religious tradition reach across time to ask us to adjust our attitudes: Do you still believe that the light came into the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it?