Hidden Christmas

​The Hidden Christmas
Introduction & Chapter One
November 27, 2016
Our first meeting together on the first day of Advent started out on a hopeful note. Timothy Keller is a pastor who dedicates this book to his grandchildren. It gives us the sense of a wise father passing down the gospel to the next generation. This is an approach that invites us to hear what is taught and thoughtfully engage the teachings. Keller’s tone in the book has a smile (at times a smirk when the world acts out in unbecoming manners) because Christmas is a time for joy. It’s a joy because of the incarnation of God in the earth. Joy to the world indeed!
Although Keller’s approach is not casted in the light of Advent, we who are journeying during this time are mindful of the ancient church tradition that inaugurates our church calendar. Keller’s joy though is easy to mistake as incidental happiness that any of us can have if we can get in the Christmas spirit! This appears to where the battle lines are drawn for our study. Christmas is most holy for Christian observance yet, a secular festival of lights. Keller does not take the banal method of criticizing consumerism at Christmas (in some sense for this to remain a secular festival it will ever hold onto the transactional nature of gift giving). No, Keller deals with the issue of sentimentality. It’s this prevailing mood that does no good. The problem of sentimentality is its lack of truthfulness and unrealistic ways of living in this world. The Christian response is one that sees the battle as a clash of light and darkness. It’s not one that is between persons and peoples but in all of our hearts.
To be a Christian is recognize by admitting the truth that I am blind and that Jesus alone can heal us. This is the human condition and none of us are exempt from being malaise with this disease. We want to say as Christians we are in the light (and we are because of Christ’s light) but we still struggle and fight with disordered desires and decrepit ways of being human as a people. Yes we are people called out of darkness into God’s glorious light but this does not mean our battle is over, if anything, it intensifies. It is this admittance of Sin’s power that engenders self-centredness and shows how persistent spiritual blindness can be that gives the Christian a heartfelt sense of joy. You see, we live as Christians, by the hope of God’s light shining upon us and penetrating the stoniest heart to manifest the light within that it may shine through. Our blindness as a Christian would be to say we have no struggle. Listen to Jesus in the Gospel of John:
“For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” (9:39)
Now listen to the offence this created in the ears of the Pharisees (some of whom made Jesus their opponent):
“Are we also blind?” (9:40)
Jesus’ reply is telling:
“If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.” (9:41)
What this exchange means for us as Christians during this time of Advent hopes is this…we are in the dark in desperate need of light. This is not something the new convert simply learns and then goes on his/her merry way, rather, it is the chance to now live as disciples who recognize the profound bankruptcy of our thought life, humanity and spiritual reception of God’s life. We live by the miracle of God’s grace. We don’t have anything that makes it easier or better as we journey into Christ. No! We bear a cross in the hopes of imitating the Master who is our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Advent is a time to come to terms with our incipient nature to not relate to God with who we are on a regular basis. It is a time to discover as the light shines on you, our unpreparedness for the coming of the King. What hope do we have other than that the baby will be born and by otherworldly intervention we will hear and believe! Such is the hope of a Christian community of brothers and sisters who do not deny they are beginning to see but neither denies there is this recurring blindness. Blindness toward what you may ask? Blindness that says we are not blind and is thereby ignorant of our unloving stony hearts in need of a Spirit transformation. We need Jesus Christ more than we think or know. Are you ready to join us this Advent for the weeks ahead? Shalom.

---