A Priceless Collection

           What do you collect?

            I used to collect sandcastles. Not the ones high tide washes away. The permanent ones you can buy in shops on the boardwalk. Every summer on vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey, I carefully chose another sandcastle to bring home.

            Now I collect teddy bears. Most of them spend most of the year in plastic bins in the basement or attic, but they move to the living room in December. They are my Christmas bears, dozens of them. And my Hanukkah bears, three or four of them. And a few assorted non-bears like sheep and dogs and even a moose. But mostly bears. I often can’t resist adding to my plethora of bears; I especially like rescuing cast off bears from thrift stores.

A fraction of my bears

            Does Jesus collect anything?

            Today’s devotion in the Secret Place surprised me. Author John A. Fischer points out that we are God’s gift to Jesus. I had to read that sentence twice. And underline it. “…God has given us to Jesus as a gift.” I’m used to thinking of Jesus as God’s gift to me, but I never thought of myself as God’s gift to Jesus. And yet there it is in John 17:24, a sentence in Jesus’ prayer the evening of his arrest, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”

            Jesus collects people given to him by his Father. He loves and treasures them. Even though he has a plethora, many sets of ninety-nine, Jesus searches for the ones who are cast off and ragged. (See Luke 15.)

See the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15.

            Who would have ever thought a girl from Park Ridge, New Jersey would become part of a priceless collection? And yet I am. And you can be, too.

Untangle

Don't get tangled in holiday lites,

Deafened, bedazzled by sounds and sights.

Don’t get mired in merry-making,

Overheated by cookie baking.

Don’t get wrapped up in gifts from a store;

God’s Christmas presence is so much more.

Take a breather from the Yuletide race

And savor the swaddling of God’s grace.

© 2017 Roberta Tucker Brosius

Christmas Unplugged

You may have read this before in December 2013. Now you can read it again.

CHRISTMAS UNPLUGGED

If they took back all the presents
And boarded up the malls,
If they unstrung all the popcorn
And undecked all the halls,
If they snuffed out every candle
And unplugged every light,

We’d still with awe remember
That holy, silent night.

If Santa weren’t coming
‘Cause Daddy’s out of work,
If Mommy burned the cookies
And undercooked the bird,
If chestnuts never roasted
And all the carolers ceased,

             Still we’d kneel and worship
             The newborn prince of peace.

If all the tinsel vanished
Along with mistletoe,
And TV Christmas specials
Were canceled, as was snow,
If reindeer never landed
On the roof above,

We would still have Christmas
‘Cause they can’t unplug God’s love.

© 1999 Roberta Tucker Brosius, published in The Secret Place, Winter 1999-2000

How Chanukah Made the World Safe for Christmas

After Alexander the Great died, his kingdom was divided between four dynasties, one eventually leading to Antiochus IV. Wanting to continue Alexander’s dream of one-world culture, and feeling particularly cranky because he had been ordered by Rome to stop fighting Egypt, Antiochus decided to wipe out Judaism.

Antiochus enforced these laws in Israel:

·            Don’t circumcise your sons.

·            Don’t celebrate Sabbath and other Jewish holy days.

·            Don’t read or even own a Torah scroll.

·            Build altars to Zeus and sacrifice pigs.

·            Worship other Greek gods.

On the 25th day of the Hebrew month Kislev, 168 B.C., Antiochus IV invaded the Temple in Jerusalem, set up an image of Zeus on the bronze altar, and sacrificed a pig to Zeus.

How did the Jews react?

Some caved. They obeyed the new laws and embraced Greek culture. They took Greek names, studied Greek literature and philosophy, and participated in nude sporting events at the new Greek gymnasium in Jerusalem. Some Jewish athletes even had surgeries to hide their circumcisions.

Other Jews resisted and were tortured and murdered. Thousands died.

Mattathias, a resister, and his five sons escaped to the hills around Modin, a village northwest of Jerusalem. He gathered other rebels and for a year they attacked Syrian outposts, and destroyed pagan altars and idols.

Before his death a year later, Mattathias put his son, Judah Maccabeus, in charge of the rebel army. By the end of two more years, the Maccabees had defeated the immensely larger Syrian army and occupied Jerusalem.

The rebel soldiers cleaned up the desecrated Temple and built new furnishings:  the lampstand, showbread table, and incense altar. They also built new doors and replaced the altar of burnt offering.

Exactly three years after Antiochus IV’s desecration, the Temple was re-dedicated to the God who had promised Abraham, "...all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."  (Genesis 12:3) Thanks to the Maccabees, the practice of Judaism and worship of the one true God were restored in Israel.

So a young carpenter, Joseph, could be described as “faithful to the Law.” (Matthew 1:18)

So his betrothed, Mary, could say to an angel, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:38) 

So the promised Messiah could be born. “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Luke 1:21)

Thanks, Maccabees!

Some information was adapted from Hanukkah, The Festival of Lights, written by Bruce Scott and published by the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.

Santa, you've been rewritten.

 My husband took a fun song and turned it into a true song, with help from the internet, the Penguin Rhyming Dictionary, and me.

There’s no need to fear;

There’s no need to cry;

There’s no need to doubt.

I’m telling you why:

Jesus Christ is coming to town!

There’s no need to check

‘Cause you’re on his list.

It’s all been worked out;
You’ll never be missed.

Jesus Christ is coming to town!

He loves you when you’re sleeping

And when you’re awake,

And when you’ve been bad or good,

So be good for Jesus’ sake!

So put on a smile;

Get rid of that frown.

Spread the Good News to those all around.

Jesus Christ is coming to town!

Incarnation and Resurrection

            Yesterday’s praise and prayer time at church was heavy on the prayer side. So many needs were expressed as the microphone traveled through the congregation. Cancer. Nursing home admission. An inoperable tumor in a five year old. Shingles. An infant with lung complications.

            People struggling with Christmas because they’re missing someone who’s passed away.

            I felt heavier and heavier as these concerns were voiced, and the very un-seasonal thought came to me:  Life is terminal. The death rate is 100%. Nobody gets out of here alive.

            Then in his sermon, the pastor reminded us of the collateral damage at the first Christmas. In his attempt to kill Jesus, Herod ordered the slaughter of Bethlehem’s sons two years old and younger. With a population of around 1000, it’s estimated that 200 boys were murdered.

            All the candy canes and twinkle lights at Wal-Mart can not compensate for the sorrow felt around the globe and in our own churches and communities.

            Even the Incarnation, the coming of God the Son in the flesh at Bethlehem, doesn’t outweigh the trouble. We need the Resurrection and Ascension to tip the scales.

            The first chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke need the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians, because, as Paul writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (17 – 19).

            If Christ has not been raised, then the holiday might just as well be about snowmen and trees and Santa Claus and excess.

            Thank God, Paul goes on to insist, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him” (20 – 23).

            Thank God, the Resurrection reminds me life isn’t terminal after all. The Resurrection doesn’t just tip the scales; it demolishes the scales. Because of the Resurrection, I can celebrate December’s coming holy day with all its secular and sacred trimmings, in spite of the world’s troubles and my own (hopefully) temporary frailty.

            Merry Christmas and Happy Resurrection.