Domes - Our Monthly Newsletter
Dunbar UCC
December 16, 2007
Isaiah 35:5-7
Matthew 11:2-11
Mmmmmm....Good Fruit
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This is a confusing time of year. Those of us who practice the Christian faith celebrate the birth of a poor and homeless child by spending hundreds and thousands of dollars. We mark the event of God becoming human by spending and shopping and going crazy with activity.
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And 2000 years after his birth, we’re still trying to figure out who he was, and how to follow him. Was Jesus really the human expression of the God? -- or should we be looking for someone else.
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There is confusion and irony this season. In my own memory, through the 53 years I’ve been here -- there have always been trees and lights and presents. There have been special meals -- feasts! Every one is celebrating his birth, yet, once we get out of church -- few people actually talk about Jesus Christ. At the family Christmas dinner, I doubt he’ll be the topic of conversation. Or when we open the gifts -- what does that have to do with the Sermon on the Mount? I got Maria a computer, but I doubt she’ll learn much about Jesus on “My Space.”
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The irony of all this is that it’s so expensive to celebrate the birth of a poor, homeless person. We call him the prince of peace -- but there’s not much peace at the malls, or on the highways. Or even at home. At a recent holiday family dinner, my mother slumped down in a chair, exhausted, and looked at me and said, “I’m too old to be doing this.”
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Is Jesus really the one we want to be following, or should we be looking for someone else? That’s an old question -- and people much better than I have asked it, like John the Baptist. John said: “Jesus doesn’t follow the laws of his Jewish religion. How can he be God’s “chosen” if he eats with outlaws and then breaks the law himself?” Jesus was kind to criminals, generous toward his enemies, and critical of his leaders. So John wanted to know -- was Jesus God, or the devil? John was in prison and about to be executed and he needed to know before he died if he’d made a huge mistake. So he sent his disciples to Jesus who asked: “Are you the one?”
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And like a politician, Jesus didn’t answer the question directly. He said: “Tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” For Jesus, religion was like farming. But instead of growing tomatoes, our faith helps us grow peace and love and joy. With God’s help, we could grow some of those “fruits” this Christmas.