Word for Word 12/21/16

We all have our favorite Christmas songs, songs we want to make sure to hear during Advent and Christmastime. My favorite Christmas hymn is What Child is This? I love it for the quiet, meditative tune it is set to, Greensleeves. The music could be described as haunting, I certainly find it sets me in a reflective mood. But of course it’s the marriage of the tune with the lyrics that makes it a favorite of mine.

The song asks the simple, and yet profound question, what child is this who is sleeping on Mary’s lap? Who is this child? What manner of child is he? What does this child mean for us?
This song makes us attend to several important truths of the Christian faith. One of the verses begins, “Why lies He in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding?” We celebrate at Christmas the glorious, good news that God comes down to live with us and for us. And God chose for an entrance into the world to be born into the “mean estate”, the humble and rough trappings of a stable. The Lord over all things, the Word who spoke everything into creation, is born next to manure and less-than-pleasant smells, sharp hay and rough ground.

Jesus does this for love, love of us; as we sing in that same verse, “Good Christian, fear, for sinners here the silent Word is pleading.” The Word who was with God from the beginning comes into the world in an unexpected place, and by his very act of existence is pleading the case for us. Jesus speaks out, shouts out, even as a child, ‘I am here for you! I love you! And I am here for all parts of this world, not just the polished things and the “nice” people, I’m here for those in rough circumstances and those in rude and profane places.’

For those of us who would follow this Christ then, we are called to ask ourselves if we’re willing to follow to those ‘dirty’, less-than-desirable places in the world. Are we willing to associate with smelly shepherds, or in our time with criminals or outcasts? How about living amidst those with tremendous needs or those who might offend us or our neighbors’ sensibilities?

Are we willing to love and defend the refugee? How about someone who’s deemed ‘weird’? Who doesn’t dress, think, believe or act as you do? 

Perhaps a greater challenge, are we ready to have our hearts changed and our vision corrected to realize that those we might look down upon are in fact the ones Jesus goes to first? To realize that we are in fact not ‘better than’, ‘cleaner than’ or ‘more respectable than’ those we might have a low opinion of. To acknowledge that we are those sinners for whom the Word is pleading, and that part of our sin is in demeaning and ostracizing those who are ‘low’ or who live on the margins of our lives.

There’s a line too in the hymn that states, “Come, peasant, king to own Him.” Jesus Christ levels the playing field, and lets us know that we are the ones who have set up high and low distinctions among ourselves that need to be torn down and done away with. If you’re a ‘peasant’, someone who is made to feel less-than, someone who society (or God forbid the Church) looks down on, know that Jesus does not look down on you, and loves you deeply. If you’re a ‘king’, someone in a high position, a president or someone who simply lives in respectable social circles, know that your riches, your power, your respectability are not what saves you, Jesus does. And Jesus loves you too, and calls you to humbly come and enthrone him in your heart, and then go and live with your ‘peasant’ sister or brother, knowing that truly you both are one and equal in Christ.

What child is this on Mary’s lap? This, this is Christ, the King. A King who comes into the darkness and muck of the world and says, ‘This is my home.’ A King who goes to people who are different and who the world calls undesirable and tells them, ‘I love you.’ A King who draws and invites all people, high or low, to recognize our common need and our common standing, and tells us all, ‘I’ve come for you. I’m pleading on your behalf. Love me, and love each other, as I have loved you.’

Rev. Tim Rupert,
Zalmona and Rossville Presbyterian Churches