Christ Was Born For This!

Christ was born for this! Christ was born for this!

[Good Christian Friends, Rejoice; ELW 288, LBW 55]

Oddly, this refrain from a sprightly medieval Christmas hymn came to mind in mid-November as I watched, through tear-blurred eyes, the press conference of Ed and Paula Kassig, the parents of Peter Abdul-Rahman Kassig, after they learned of his brutal murder by ISIS. The press conference was held in the narthex of the family’s United Methodist church in Indianapolis.

“Our hearts are battered,” Paula said, “but they will mend. The world is broken, but it will be healed in the end. And good will prevail as the one God of many names will prevail.”

“Please,” Ed asked, “allow our family the time and privacy to mourn, to cry – and yes, to forgive – and begin to heal.”

Battered…will mend. Broken…will be healed. Allow us the time…to forgive. God will prevail.

Unexpectedly, oddly, my heart began to sing, quietly, slowly, barely audible in my own consciousness: Christ was born for this. Christ was born for this.

One commentator on this hymn has said that its “catchy melody bounces along in a triple rhythm that is easily sung and danced.” There was neither singing nor dancing when it came to my mind. It was more like the voices of the Kassigs, weary, broken, trusting, hopeful: Christ was born for this, even this, especially this. Christ will not let this deep brokenness, this savage evil, this unbearable pain have the last word. It will take time, but we will be healed, we will forgive; the world will mend, God will prevail. Christ was born for this.

One of the unusual traits this hymn has picked up as it has echoed its way to us from the 14^th century is a brief, strange mid-verse change in meter. In some versions (preserved, for example, in some United Methodist hymnals), the phrase “News! News!” is inserted at then end of the second line in each verse. So, verse two of the hymn reads like this:

Good Christian friends, rejoice with heart and soul and voice;

Now ye hear of endless bliss: News! News!

Jesus Christ was born for this!

He has opened heaven’s door…

This odd interruption reminds me of a newsboy standing on an old, cold December street corner holding up the special edition newspaper just released, beckoning to all who pass by, “News! News!” Perhaps a contemporary image of this might be those intrusive pop-ups that appear on our computer screens to let us know that an important email message or news report has arrived and demands our attention.

As we move through the challenges of our days, Christmas interrupts our rhythm, breaks our stride, and disrupts the doldrums of our days with the cry: News! News! Christ was born for this!

The tinsel, bright lights, and beautiful wrappings of this season cry out, too, with the good news that all our struggles, pain, anguish, doubts, fears, and most desperate aching for peace and joy, forgiveness and new life find their home in the manger, in the child of Bethlehem who enters deeply into this troubled world to break its stride by rising from the tomb.

I can hardly wait to sing this wonderful hymn this Christmastide. Thanks to the Kassigs, it might even move me to dance (or at least to sway a bit; I am Scandinavian, after all), resting the world and my own travails in the sure and certain promises that come wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Christ was born for this!

Exact Imprint of God's Being

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He is the reflection of God’s glory

and the exact imprint of God’s very being,

and he sustains all things by his powerful word.

[Hebrews 1:3, NRSV; appointed for Christmas Day]

This verse from the first chapter of Hebrews is appointed by the New Revised Common Lectionary for reading on Christmas day.

It’s a great Christmas announcement. It’s not as poetic as the song the angels sang to the shepherds. It might be a bit wordy to fit on a Christmas card. But it pretty much says it all. And it reminds us that all the Advent waiting was worth it.

Here, in this manger – nestled amid dust and dung, straw and struggle, animals and animosity – here in this meager manger is the very reflection of God’s glory.

This little one – not yet weaned and soon to be hunted by the murderous madness of a power-hungry king – this restless little one is the exact imprint of God’s very being.

This child – swaddled in the protection, nurture and life-giving love of others – this vulnerable little kid is the one who sustains all things by his powerful word.

That word, this child, is Emmanuel, God with us, God with the world.

As he accompanied a friend in her battle with lung cancer theologian and author Gerhard E. Frost realized at one point that all he had to give his friend was his middle name, which he had disliked as a kid: Emmanuel.

“What do I know about life?” he wrote. “What do I know about death? I affirm that God is with me. ’Emmanuel’ is the only reason I dare to grow old.”[1]

This child, this Jesus, this Emmanuel, is God’s gift to us, God’s gift to the world, blessing the mangers of our days with the shimmering light of God’s glory.

This child, Emmanuel, is God’s gift to us. He will walk through the world marking apparently God-forsaken people and places with the imprint of God’s very being.

This child is God’s gift to us. He will gather up all the woes, and wounds and weaknesses of the world – including yours and mine – take them to the cross and leave them on the floor of an empty tomb to sustain us and the world with the crucified and living Word of hope and new life, Emmanuel, God with us…ever and always.

To us, to all in sorrow and fear,

Emmanuel comes a-singing,

His humble song is quiet and near,

Yet fills the earth with its ringing. [2]

May the deep and abiding joy of Emmanuel accompany and lead you and yours these Christmas days and all throughout the new year.

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[1] Journey of the Heart: Reflections on Life’s Way, Gerhard E. Frost. Augsburg Fortress, 1995, p. 116.

[2] “Awake! Awake, and Greet the New Morn.” Marty Haugen, Evangelical Lutheran Worship #242.