Christmas Music & Questions
Matthew 1:23 (New International Version)"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."
Tonight I turned on the Christmas music for the first time this year. Normally I remember sneaking a peak of some of my favorite holiday songs in June, then September, but this year I did not. If I had to rate the Christmas music I have, first place would be easy: "Carol of the Bells" by Steven Curtis Chapman. It is a completely instrumental version with lots of acoustic guitar and full orchestra. Second place... Some bad ass version of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel". I don't know if such a "bad ass" version exists- I wanted to denote a difference between my liking for the song and my distaste for organ music!
During the fifth tune of the evening I realized something about the music had eased my mood. Coming home from work I was very restless about life, money, and myself. So much has been happening lately but the happenings have almost avoided cash flow and self understanding like they were pelages. If I am honest with myself I believe so strongly that God is working and moving. You see him freeing your world little by little and bringing healing to broken things. The "to fix" barrel always seems to be full though. From my vantage point there are always many more things to heal or find or fix than are healthy, found, or whole. To my ears, Christmas music affirms this.
If you listen closely music remembering Christ's birth also remembers a longing for the savior. There was something of a great chasm between old testament and new testament activity. That is a quick way of saying take the feeling you have when God doesn't answer for a day, month, week, or year, multiply that by 2,000 or so, and you will find how restless God's people were having sat in silence for many generations. I believe that the longing was not met with Jesus to be quenched but rather fueled. If you think about that belief biblically or in terms of what you know from sermons it is right on. However, if you think about the sheer lunacy of egging on desire past the point of what it was when Jesus entered the world... Did God really want to do that?
I believe Mel Gibson's "The Passion" depicted something very interesting. Numberous time during the movie Chiaphas the chief priest is encountered. Each time he is mean and manipulative, just like everyone always portrays him. However, at the cross I saw in his eyes, fits, and decaying teeth bitterness, something I never directly associated with his character before. What if bitterness drove the hate of countless public encounters, closed door death plots, and a long night of trials that ended in Jesus' death? Bitterness that God was not coming-- He was not going to show up. That is a valid feeling after 2,000ish years of silence from The Creator. And what if bitterness, a practical type of distance from God, was that real to you... would Jesus showing up cold turkey for three years change your mind about God? Who Jesus change your mind about what happened to your Father? Or your Father's Father? Or your distant family who heard from God daily and then one day He stopped talking?
What I am trying to poke at is my (and our) desire. What if Jesus didn't hit a reset button when He was born and we are still in the middle of a holy longing to see His Kingdom come? What if Jesus' death, life, and ascension changed everything but ended nothing? What if we are still called to search, seek, travel, hunt, and pursue something that is lost in the haystack of this world? What if the Kingdom is still on the narrow path?
Anyways, these are questions I am asking. What questions are you currently asking of God?
posted by Simon Yost @ 9:56 PM
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