Advent IV - God claims your ragged edged life

One of the features of the Christmas story is how God takes ordinary things of life and turns them into serendipities of divine glory.

The story begins with Joseph and Mary taking a journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem on a donkey. A donkey? A beast of burden? Donkeys do not fare well in the Hebrew Scriptures. The most famous one is used by God to make fool of a man who is supposed to be doing God’s work. This story is famously known as “Balaam’s Ass.” A few years ago, my uncle, Rev. John Schmidt, wrote his life story. He titled it, “The Lord’s Donkey.” God uses a donkey to carry the Lord of heaven and earth to his place of birth.

The Christmas story ends in a smelly stable used by a family to keep their animals safe from the Palestinian weather. A stable? Who gives birth to their child in a stable? Why does the God of heaven choose to enter human history in the humblest of circumstances?

Maybe God could use you, a person who society makes fun of, calls crass names, ignores or throws their wares on to bear the Good News. Maybe God could use your humble home, your old car, your humble workplace as a place to show up and display his glory.

Christmas is God’s story of how God specializes in identifying with those whose lives are on the ragged edge. Maybe you think you are not anyone that would be acceptable or useful to God. God want to claim your life and circumstances to reveal his glory. Christmas is God entering into your ragged-edged life.

Ronald Friesen © 2016

Advent III - God lives on the ragged edge of life

The Christmas story challenges many stereotypes of who God will use for God’s work in the world.

Many people offer various excuses why they believe God would never choose them. “I am not a good speaker.” “I could never be forgiven.” “I am too young.”

A common excuse is “I am too old.” The Christmas story puts to rest any attempt to use age as an excuse. Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, became pregnant with John at an old age; past her child-bearing years according the Gospel of Luke. At the age of 84, Anna sang a song of worship at the circumcision of Jesus.

Christmas is God’s story of how God specializes in identifying with those whose lives are on the ragged edge. Maybe you think you are too old to be acceptable to God. Christmas is God entering into your ragged-edged life.

Ronald Friesen © 2016

Advent II - God lived your ragged edge life

One of the struggles many of us have is dealing with our family past. I have heard it said that everybody has a horse thief in the family tree. Think about the other kinds of people some us may have in our genealogy. Some of us have murderers. Some of us have slave owners. Some of us have people who participated in brutal genocide. If we take a moment to think about it, we may find that our roots grow deep into the soil of human evil.

God understands our struggle. 

The family tree of Jesus includes an adulterer (King David), a murderer (King David), a prostitute (Rahab), a woman who seduced her father-in-law by playing the role of a prostitute so she could have a child (Tamar), a foreigner – illegal alien (Ruth), a schemer who lied about his relationship with his wife (Abraham, Jacob), and a man who banished his son and his mother to the desert (Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael).

What are we to make of this list of questionable people in Jesus’ family tree?

The Spanish proverb says it well, “God writes straight with crooked lines.”

In the late 1970s, I was a pastor in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. One day I was making pastoral visits in the community surrounding the church building. Visiting one of our regular attenders, my hostess, Sarah, began telling me about her neighbor, Rachel. "Who know she is?" I nodded, "Yes, I know." "Well, you know what she does for a living, right? Men came and go from her place all times of the day and night." We talked about how God loves all of us including her prostitute neighbor. I encouraged her to think about the possibility that her neighbor might some day might be sitting in the same pew at the church with her. She shared her skepticism with me. A few weeks later I walked onto the altar and stood behind the pulpit. Looking down on the congregation, I saw Rachel sitting next to Sarah. 

Christmas is God’s story of how God specializes in identifying with those whose lives are on the ragged edge. Maybe you think your history is too soiled to be acceptable to God. Christmas is God entering into your ragged-edged life. 

Ronald Friesen (c) 2016