But what kind of gift could I give? A DOWNLOADABLE ONE!

Four years ago, before I got heavy into blogging, I started to work on a book. But life took some unexpected turns after a personal financial crash in which my wife and I had to move in with my in-laws (not my proudest season). My personal space was a small room that hardly fit a bed. No office. No desk. No nothing. Three years. During that time my books were in storage, my dad passed away, my family fractured and other personal matters all combined resulting in the removal of my manuscript from the top of the stove completely, and to the back of some metaphorical closet somewhere stuffed behind the metaphorical toilet paper.

Yet this manuscript, I think, represents some of the best stuff I’ve written. Way better than anything I’ve written here. I’d like to share it with you. But I have a few requests first that I would ask you to honour.

1) Please don’t share this post. I know this type of request is counterintuitive for bloggers, but while I trust you to respect the rest of these requests, unfortunately I probably can’t trust everyone to do so.

2) Please don’t use the material in the manuscript. I’m quite proud of it (though after reading it you might wonder why) and one day I may attempt to complete it and get it published, so respect my ownership of the material.

3) Please keep in mind that it is only about 25% complete and totally unedited.

I know I’m babbling like Nimrod, but a few more notes are in order. Reading it over there are many things I’d change. Ignore, for example, the phrase “to rectify” in the opening line. Ugh. It says “copyright 2011″ because earlier this year I attached a title page, but trust me when I say it was written in 2007/08. Given the amount of books that have been published in the past three years that emphasize the gospel as narrative or story, I feel like I was both ahead of my time and, regrettably now if I ever get it published, a late comer to the table. So if I ever get it published I may reword the subtitles some. Also, a comment about my sources. Often in a typing frenzy I would add a footnote with a specific reference in mind, but rather than break up a typing roll I would drop a footnote simply listing the author and book with the intent of returning to fill in the details.

Finally, without further ado, here is my Christmas gift to you:

Download You Are Here

*** I’d be interested in your “mini-review” of the manuscript in the comment boxes below, good or bad reviews welcomed. Your take will help me out in the long run.

Merry Christmas!

Is December 25^th about the triumph of Christianity over paganism? Historically that can be disputed. Some would suggest that the complicated context seems to indicate more of a merger of the two than a triumph. But I think the whole discussion is rather moot because “Christianity” is filled with people who do not actively subscribe to God’s Kingdom. Christianity is a religion; God’s Kingdom is about allegiance. So one of the areas I think I would modify in Birds article is less focus on “Christianity” and more focus on “the King”.

Of course Bird means that. When he said, “Christmas means that the unconquerable god of the Romans just got conquered” he’s using what I would call “Kingdom of God” language.

We sometimes think that the point about Christmas is that God became a man or that Jesus died for the sins of the world. This is what was emphasized in the early Christian Creeds, but the Gospels place the emphasis elsewhere. Yes, of course all of those things are true. But the real message of Christmas, the point of N.T. Wright’s recent book Simply Jesus and, I surmise, of his forthcoming book too, How God Became King, is that God is King and was in fact becoming King from the Nativity of the Messiah through to his glorification.

But the point of insisting that Christ remain in Christmas is to insist not that God became a man or that Jesus’ died on for the sins of the world (however true those points may be). Rather the point is to say, Here is the King! Here is the triumphant One! Declare allegiance to Jesus the Messiah! Declare allegiance to Jesus the King!

Christmas is about how God became King. If we miss that while getting teary eyed about a baby in a manger or a substitutionary death, then we’ve missed the point entirely.

So to that end December 25^th is about the triumph of God over paganism. But more than that, it’s actually about the triumph of God over everything.

But has it ever occurred to you that for all of our effort, strategy and hype, we are actually insulting Africans?

In 1984 Geldof pulled together some of the worlds most talented voices to sing a catchy song titled, “Do They Know It’s Christmas” and recently, according to Hayibo.com, a talented group of African musicians and singers pulled together to write a song of their own titled, “Yes We Do”.

The opening line of the article reads, “After 28 years of silently tolerating it”. They “tolerated” Band Aid’s s article ong that was created and used (still to this day) to help feed Africa. Some people might see this as sort of a biting of the hand that feeds you. But they don’t seem to see it that way. Rather they seem to see Band Aid (for all the good they do) as patronizing and dehumanizing. The composer of the new African song, Gundane, said:

“Or was he just saying that Africans were stupid? Of course we knew it was Christmas… Just because we don’t have Boney M or Christmas advertising in September doesn’t mean we are oblivious to it.”

The article goes on:

When asked why the ensemble of African musicians, who have called themselves Plaster Cast, had taken so long to come up with a response to the Band Aid song Gundane said it had taken a while for them to realise that it wasn’t actually an elaborate joke.

“We kept waiting for them to laugh,” he said, “But the punch-line never arrived.”

Gundane said he hoped that his involvement with the song would turn him into an expert on British politics and economics in the same way ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ had turned Geldof and Bono into the world’s leading experts on Africa.

“If I’m not sharing a platform with the Queen and David Cameron by this time next year; or headlining at Glastonbury, then I will have done something very wrong,” said Gundane.

I still have not heard the song, but look forward to doing so.

Yet I think there are some redeemable qualities to a commercialized holiday season.

1) It keeps the economic engine running.

Since I’ve worked in retail my eyes have been opened to the fact that if it weren’t for Christmas I would not have a job, plain and simple. In fact, from talking to friends in the industry from clothing stores to T.V. commercial producers I’m told it’s the same across the board. Most (if not all) retailers and those businesses that depend on them simply would not survive the year without a commercialized Christmas season. Thousands, maybe millions across North America would lose there jobs. The crash in the housing and auto industries would be nothing compared to a retail-implosion.

And how can an impoverished people help feed and clothe an impoverished world?

2) It feeds and clothes the world.

I can’t really put my finger on why it is and I’m not sure if studies have been done to explain it, but during the holiday season people give like no other time of the year. Walk in any mall or outlet centre and you’ll be sure to pass a bell ringer for the Salvation Army with a donation box stuffed to the hilt with bills. You’ll probably also pass kiosks set up with attendees recruiting people to sponsor children from Compassion International to World Vision or any number of other type of child donation programs. My friend is a pastor of a really small church and just the other day his wife was telling me that the church members donated an unprecedented $3000+ to support missions overseas.

The statistics I have show that (and this is specifically in the USA) 50% of all donations given throughout the year are donated between the USA Thanksgiving weekend and New Years Day. That amount (at least during the 2005 holiday season) was $260 billion dollars.

My guess is that there are three reasons why people give so much at Christmas:

1) Christmas reminds us of God’s ultimate sacrificial gift. We are then motivated to give.

2) We spend so much money on frivolous stuff during the holiday season that we feel guilty and attempt to alleviate that guilt by giving to charitable causes.

3) We expect to drop money like flies during the holiday season. It’s much easier to drop it in a donation box with that mindset than at other times of the year when mediocrity has set in.

The commercialization of Christmas helps feed the world and it helps me put food on the table for my family.

And here’s a great song: Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas Time 1984 in HD

… a season of nostalgia, of carols and candles and firelight and happy children. But that misses the point completely. Christmas is not a reminder that the world is really quite a nice old place. It reminds us that the world is a shockingly bad old place, where wickedness flourishes unchecked, where children are murdered, where civilized countries make a lot of money by selling weapons to uncivilized ones so they can blow each other apart. Christmas is God lighting a candle; and you don’t light a candle in a room that’s already full of sunlight. You light a candle in a room that’s so murky that the candle, when lit, reveals just how bad things really are. The light shines in the darkness, says St John, and the darkness has not overcome it.  -  N.T. Wright, For All God’s Worth, p.3

This Christmas let the reason, the light, shine. For that to happen we need to remember that the world is full of darkness. Christmas is a joyful event because a world in exile, a dying world, was in need of a savior. And he came.

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.” (Psalms 25:1-3 NRSV)

Several years ago, I began thinking of Psalm 25 as a Psalm for the waiting time. There are lots of Psalms — and other passages of Scripture — like this, but I hadn’t always seen Psalm 25 this way. Many times in the Hebrew scriptures we are exhorted to “wait on the LORD” — and we are told the advantages of such an approach to life. “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalms 27:14 NRSV) “For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.” (Psalms 37:9 NRSV) “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope….” (Psalms 130:5 NRSV).

Now check out Psalm 25:1-2 again — in whatever translation you have at hand.

In his commentary on the Psalms (1983: Word Biblical Commentary), Peter C. Craigie translates these opening two verses this way:

“Of David.

For you I have waited, O Lord.
I will lift up my soul to my God.

In you I have trusted — let me not be put to shame;
Let not my enemies exult over me.”

This translation assumes a conjectural reading in which the translator has supplied a form of the verb qāwāh, (to hope in; to hope for, wait for, look for) which also appears in verse 3 and verse 21. The verb is supplied to give better sense to the sentence as it stands. (See Craigie’s commentary, page 216 for more details.)

The benefit of this translation for me was that — when I first encountered it many years ago — it brought out the emphasis on waiting and hoping. I might otherwise have missed it. The Psalmist alternates between this theme of waiting, and his repeated expressions of confidence in God.

And, the point is important one for us. We spend quite a bit of our lives in the waiting times. There are those times between our prayers, our petitions and their answers. There are hopes and dreams within us that remain unfulfilled. And, we wait for answers, re-affirming our confidence in God.

Yes, Psalm 25 is an expression of trust. But, it is raised in the context of unfulfilled hopes and dreams. It can be frustrating to live in the waiting time. Maybe this is why the themes of Advent are so much less popular than the themes associated with Christmas. Advent reminds us we are awaiting something — there is a promise that remains unfulfilled.

But, it seems that the Old Testament writers were able to live in this tension. They remembered prophecies which remained unfulfilled, they held onto Psalms that described a king better than any they ever really knew. It is remarkable to me what difficult and even painful memories the Israelites held onto as the record of their faith journey. They were a people with a clear sense of their own historical failures. They were a people who knew they were awaiting something greater: a greater day than they had ever known, a greater king than they had ever known. They held onto that sense of being a people who were awaiting more.

Today Christians can barely do it for 4 weeks for Advent. We want the waiting to give way to realization. We want everything in the here and now. Not later. Now.

To wait on the Lord is to keep hanging on. We hang on to hope in the midst of contradiction. Yes, it is frustrating to be living in the waiting time. but, these can also be some of the most spiritually significant times of our lives. The frustrating of waiting is often a creative frustration. We don’t give up on our expectations or hopes or dreams or prayers. We look in expectation toward God. “In You I have trusted….”

There is great theological significance to the waiting times of our lives: our faith tells us that all of life is a waiting time. The vision of God’s Reign of peace and salvation and justice and wholeness is larger and greater than anything that we experience in this life. When we pray those words: “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” we are asking and longing for a world better than the one we have lived in up to now. We acknowledge our frustration with the way the world is — and place our hope in God — for what yet can be.

For the Christian, all of life is a waiting time. We live in a between-time. We are not satisfied with the world the way it is. The promises of God point us to the future. Our desire is to see more and more of God’s Will done on earth — and in us! So, we pray for our world, our country, our community, our church: “Lord, your will be done. We don’t see that right now. But, we desire to see it more and more.” We still believe in the worth of people. We still believe in peace. We still believe in justice. The promises of God always point us to the horizon. The God who has been faithful in the past — the God who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ — is the One who promises to bring us into an ever-better future.

“For you I have waited, O Lord.
I will lift up my soul to my God.”

O Lord,
God of the Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
God of the prophets
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

In the midst of my waiting
In the midst of my frustrations with the world the way it is
In the midst of my disappointments with myself,

I will lift up my soul to You, my God.
You alone are my hope and stay.
Grant to me a spirit of trust.
May I find peace and direction in you. Amen.

[Cross-posted here: Commonplace Holiness.]

___________________________________

A modern misconception understands the “X” in “X-mas” as a supplanting of Christ by, literally, crossing him out of the season which – we may say – used to bear his name. I say “misconception” because I came to learn recently that the “X” in “X-mas” has very early Christian roots.

Some Greek and the “X” of History

The name of Christ in biblical Greek is spelt (transliterated) something like this: Christus (Xpistos) (see chart). The first letter, “X“, is Chi (promounced something like “he” – spat like a cat while you say it and you’ll be close).

The “X” was used as an abbreviation for “Christ” in early Christian thought. The first obvious example which comes to mind is the “Jesus Fish” acronym, spelt something like I.X.TH.U.S (see chart). Many people don’t know about the acronym, but that doesn’t stop anyone from sticking them on the bumper of their cars.

The second example is the ancient Christian symbol still in use, mostly in the Orthodox tradition, which combines the “X” with the “P” (rho), to abbreviate “Christ” (again, see chart).

When the ancient abbreviation for Christ, “X“, is married to the ancient Latin Church word “mass“, the end result is “X-mas” or, as we say today, Christmas.

Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. – An Angel

Some Greek and the “X” of History

The name of Christ in biblical Greek is spelt (transliterated) something like this: Christus (Xpistos) (see chart). The first letter, “X“, is Chi (promounced something like “he” – spat like a cat while you say it and you’ll be close).

The “X” was used as an abbreviation for “Christ” in early Christian thought. The first obvious example which comes to mind is the “Jesus Fish” acronym, spelt something like I.X.TH.U.S (see chart). Many people don’t know about the acronym, but that doesn’t stop anyone from sticking them on the bumper of their cars.

The second example is the ancient Christian symbol still in use, mostly in the Orthodox tradition, which combines the “X” with the “P” (rho), to abbreviate “Christ” (again, see chart).

When the ancient abbreviation for Christ, “X“, is married to the ancient Latin Church word “mass“, the end result is “X-mas” or, as we say today, Christmas.

Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. – An Angel