People tend to do religion quite differently than God does. You probably know that the word "religion" means to "reconnect." That in its own right is provocative to me. Reconnect to what? To whom?
Well, Christmas gets to the core of Christianity. You might say that wrapped up in those swaddling cloths, IS the core of Christianity. Here we have neither abstract theologies or philosophical debates. We have no denominations and spats about free will or ways of baptism. Here we have, quite simply - what is real, what is alive, what is relational, what is human, what is God. What could be more real, more present, less debatable, than a baby lying before you? This is how God chose to do it. It's not theological, and yet it's the highest Christian theology - Jesus Christ, God's son, a newborn. What could be more normal than a baby? What could be more everyday than a baby? You try changing diapers and getting up in the middle of the night. What could be more life than a baby? What could be more miraculous than a baby who is God's son? Here you go, in a manger, the normal and the miraculous. Two words that describe the ways of God.
How would you have done it if you were God? How would a transcendent, awesome God who wants a relationship with us, show himself to us without scaring the pants off of us? So God, the one whom all the "religion" is about - chose to do it this way: a baby. It makes me think -
Where religion drifts toward the intellectual, this is personal.
Where religion gets into debate, this is about relationship.
Where religion gets philosophical, this is actual.
Where religion can be distant, this is present.
Where religion gets institutional, this is human.
Where religion gets abstract, this is quite simply, God.
Six words for Christmas: personal, relationship, actual, present, human, God. I hope all six saturate your soul. That'd be quite a gift.
