Our planet currently supports around 7 billion human beings. That's 118 people per square mile. The average life expectancy around the world is 64. The median age is 27.6 years. It is estimated that 110 billion people have ever lived on earth. "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people" (Luke 2:10). This is extraordinary news for a lot of people. And in a world with so many people, all of human history came down to one human. It was one fragile infant born to one girl. In one time in history. In one region - Judea; in one town - Bethlehem. On one night, in one barn. One person born for the sake of all the people. Billions of them.
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I got an early Christmas present. A book. An old school book published in 1822. And it smells like a museum. It's a collection of sermons by Hugh Blair, a Scottish minister of religion, author and rhetorician, considered one of the first great theorists of written discourse. When you open the book, there is this signature, "John W. Lydmons Book, July the 25th, 1834." Set next to the ipad, it's an ancient artifact. Words remain, but the medium is so different. Here's one of the sermons, "On our Life Being in the Hand of God." The occasion: "Preached at the beginning of a New Year" . . . a New Year that was at least 200 years ago. Here's to 2013.
We are a week from Christmas Day. For your preparation and meditation, a poem. Young Mary by Madeline L’Engle.
I know not all of that which I contain. I’m small; I’m young; I fear the pain. All is surprise: I am to be a mother. That Holy Thing within me and no other is Heaven’s King whose lovely Love will reign. My pain, his gaining my eternal gain my fragile body holds Creation’s Light; Its smallness shelters God’s unbounded might. The angel came and gave, did not explain. I know not all of that which I contain. Fury and fear once drove a man to massacre innocence in a small town. There would be no debate over gun control, for it came by the sword. The tyrant king ordered a town's toddler boys to be eliminated. A whole class taken; two-year-old girls left with no counterparts. Boys not yet weaned, ripped from mother's breast. Parent's lamentations heard for generations.
But one boy was spared in this small town horror. (Spared as a boy, but not as a man.) One boy spared to ransom all the world's children. Justice come by tragedy. "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more." Matthew 2:18 WARNING: I may sound like a scrooge in this post. I was reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to my kids last night. Halfway through, I realized that we don't talk a lot about Santa Claus in our house. We aren't the anal Christians who banish Santa because we fear that he's a Trojan horse for rampant consumerism, or a piece of Christian traditionalism turned pagan mythology.
We do mention Santa occasionally, but we just don't make a big deal of him. We did get a picture taken with Santa, but we don't go to great lengths to include him in our Christmas celebration. People ask my kids, "What is Santa bringing you?" Or, "Have you been good for Santa?" I feel sort of bad that they respond with blank stares like, "What are you even talking about?" There are some Christians who practically hate Santa. They omit him from every bit of their tradition. As I was reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas," I realized that our response was indifference. A mild shoulder shrug, as if to say, "I can take him or leave him." They say that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Call me a scrooge, but I guess I don't love Santa. I'm more interested the baby crying in an animal feed box in the barn. As we celebrate the birth of a child 2,000 ago, consider the diminishing birthrate in the United States. "More babies, please," says Ross Douthat in the New York Times. A new study by the Pew Research Center found that the U.S. birthrate in 2011 was the lowest ever recorded, with only 63 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age. In 1990 that number was 71.
An obvious reason for this is the economic downturn. There's something that agitates me about the question, "Can we afford to have a baby?" With three small children consuming my resources, I certainly understand the necessity to provide. (My 5-year-old finished my Honey Nut Cheerios this morning!). I would not advocate irresponsibility. But should finances be the driving force in my family? Should money be the determining factor in how many children we have? Will our family be "missing" someone because we couldn't afford it? Is my standard of living too high? Should we take fewer vacations and drive an older car so we can bring another child into the world? There is a risk with bringing any child into the world. In 2012, one risk is the increasing demand on the family budget. Costly health care and college savings have become necessities. In the Great Depression, it was simply food and a roof. The basic question of provision plays an important role in growing a family. So how many children should a family have? I won't even go there. Every couple must prayerfully consider their own context when discussing family size. I do know that my children have taught me selflessness. Their existence has required me to sacrifice, and I'm a better man because of it. There was a child born to a teenage mother in Bethlehem. She and her husband had meager resources. For a while, they lived in Africa as refugees because of a tyrant king. Yet God's provision was enough for this family. In fact, his provision in the manger has spilled over into abundance 2,000 years later. Throughout Advent, our congregation is tracing the theme of “hopes and fears,” echoing the line from “O Little Town of Bethlehem”: “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” We are identifying specific fears and then confronting them with our hope in the Christ child. This past Sunday, we began with the fear of scarcity.
Scarcity is the fear that there is not enough. We’re afraid we won't have enough, and we're afraid that we'll lose the little that we do have. Hear are some examples:
I was inspired by an article by Walter Brueggemann published in the Christian Century in 1999 titled, “The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity.” In the article, Brueggemann identifies the great fear of scarcity that drove Hitler. He writes of a young German pastor who met Hitler: Martin Nieimoller, the German pastor who heroically opposed Adolf Hitler, was a young man when, as part of a delegation of leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, he met with Hitler in 1933. Niemoller stood at the back of the room and looked and listened. He didn't say anything. When he went home, his wife asked him what he had learned that day. Niemöller replied, "I discovered that Herr Hitler is a terribly frightened man.” Hitler was afraid that there wasn’t enough. So he had to get more. Because he is fearful, he is ruthless. In Luke chapter one, Mary could be the picture of scarcity. This teenage girl in first century Judea does not have enough. She is engaged, but not yet married. She’s still in her father’s house until the wedding day. In and of herself, she has no resources. Her survival lies entirely with her father and her future husband. Gabriel's news could absolutely ruin Mary (Luke 1:31). The angel's message makes her a pregnant teenager. She could well be expelled and ostracized. We are familiar with the stigmas and statistics in our own society. Life for a single, teenage mother is challenging at best. Yet in the midst of this scarcity, Gabriel declares royalty (1:32). "The Son of the Most High." "His throne." "Reign." "Kingdom." Gabriel is declaring an astounding reality. God comes to scarcity with abundance. Abundant power. An abundant plan. Abundant mercy. Scarcity means “not enough.” Abundance means “more than enough.” The contrast is remarkable. Here is a teenager whose life is fragile and tenuous. To her comes a King of worldwide supremacy. Mary is a girl of humble means. Her son is a Savior of abundance. Recognizing the abundance of God in her scarcity, she does NOT respond with fear, but with faith: “I’m here. I trust. Let it be with me as you say" (1:38). And she goes on to sing a song that has survived the ages. Humble and lowly are given abundance. The proud and powerful are brought down and made scarce. Fear of scarcity asks, "Will it be enough? How can I get more? What if I lose what I have?" But the hope of abundance believes there is no limit to what God might do, even with the lowest of means. With this God, there are no limits and there is no ceiling. The scarcity of Good Friday led to abundance on Easter Sunday. The fear of death is obliterated by the King born to a teenage mother. It’s often those who have the least who see God’s abundance the most. God grant us vision beyond the horizon of scarcity. May we see his abundance, even in the scarcest of situations. |
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