December
Some years ago I told you about a Christmas pageant that ended with an unscripted and wonderful surprise, and I thought it would be good to hear it again. An author's pastor friend told him about the pageant and the author describes what happens like this...
The
manger was down in front at the chancel steps where it always is. Mary was
there in a blue mantle and Joseph in a cotton beard. The wise men were
there with a handful of shepherds, and of course in the midst of them all the
Christ Child was there, lying in the straw. The nativity story was read
aloud by my friend with carols sung at the appropriate places, and all went like
clockwork until it came time for the arrival of the angels of the heavenly host
as represented by the children of the congregation, who were robed in white and
scattered throughout the pews with their parents.
At the right
moment they were supposed to come forward and gather around the manger saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men," and that
is just what they did except there were so many of them that there was a fair
amount of jockeying for position, with the result that one particular angel, a
girl about nine years old who was smaller than most of them, ended up so far out
on the fringes of things that not even by craning her neck and standing on
tiptoe could she see what was going on. "Glory to god in the highest and
on earth peace, good will among men," they all sang on cue, and then in the
momentary pause that followed, the small girl electrified the entire church by
crying out in a voice shrill with irritation and frustration and enormous
sadness at having her view blocked, "Let Jesus show!"
And I can think of no better cry in the midst of the Christmas season than that: Let Jesus show!
The strange irony of Christmas is
that it is the one time of year, of all the times during the den from view.
In the season that proclaims God's presence with us in Jesus, it is the absence
of God and Jesus that seems the most real.
And what hides Jesus from us?
For many of us, perhaps, it is the expectations and exhaustion, the demands and
money worries and all the rest. For others of us it may have to do with
the endless emphasis on family and friends gathering in good cheer - an emphasis
that only makes sharper the emptiness and pain we feel at the thought of family
and friends who have died and can't gather with us any longer. Of course
the little girl was in church when she uttered her cry and sometimes churches
themselves hide Jesus from view - crowd him out with business and busyness and
more.
Let Jesus show! And it's what
we seek, I think, more than we might realize - to see Jesus, to glimpse
something of his light in a dark and dangerous world, to experience something of
the healing and hope and peace only he can give. It's why we decorate
trees with glimmering lights and glittering ornaments and hang wreaths and light
candles and give gifts. We do it all, I think, in the hope of Jesus coming
near enough to us to grace us with what we long for and can never quite give
ourselves.
Let Jesus show! And the truth
is that if Jesus is to be seen in this often violent and uncertain world, then
it will have an awful lot to do with you and me. It will have to do with
letting Jesus show in our own lives, in our believing and trying to believe, in
little acts of kindness and compassion, in remembering those who are far from
joy, in giving life and hope to those who need life and hope by ourselves to
them. And it will have to do with our looking for Jesus day after day in
unexpected, ordinary places and people - something like the very places and
people in and through which he once came to birth - looking for him even in
emptiness and pain and confusion.
Let Jesus show! So that no
matter where we may be in our lives, this season will truly be a season of God's
presenceand a time to rejoice in Christ and know something of the hope and peace
and gladness that can come to birth in our lives because of him.
God be with you,
Jeff