As I’ve been preparing services for our Advent series called Peace on Earth, I’ve discovered all kinds of peaceful images that portray our Savior’s birth.  

		A bright, happy star lights up a silent night.
		Animals smile over a baby tucked so snuggly away in a manger.
		Three wise men traverse across rolling hills under a calm and cloudless sky.

I end up wanting to transport myself back to that night—to bask in the glow of the star, huddle in the warmth of the stable, and take in the music of a chorus of angels.  Everything seems so beautifully calm and bright.

Then I read the story of Jesus’ birth in my Bible.

I get a completely different picture from Matthew Chapters 1 and 2.  Instead of serene surroundings, the biblical account shows a man struggling with the perceived unfaithfulness of his bride.  It shows a king so hungry to hold onto his power that he orders every baby and toddler killed.  It shows a man and a woman running for their lives, forced out of their home, and afraid of what might happen next.

After reading the actual story, I’m not so sure I would want to find myself in the middle of such a mess.  In fact, as a husband to the woman I love, father of a bright-eyed one-year-old, and first-year homeowner, just imagining those circumstances is difficult and downright frightening.

These thoughts are frightening because we are painfully aware that we live in the middle of a mess.  When the chorus of angels announced Peace on earth, it wasn’t directed at a world where all was calm and all was bright.  All is not calm.  The angels proclaimed God’s peace into a world that knew nothing of peace.  And maybe that sounds a little bit like your world.

The story of Christmas is not really about Jesus being born on a peaceful and well-lit night.  Christmas is better described as God coming into a world full of chaos, tension, hatred, and darkness—a world marked by tyranny, infidelity, anxiety, and fear—a world that’s an absolute mess.  On Christmas, Jesus came to overcome the mess that sin and evil have caused both in us and all around us.

When we read the story in Matthew, we realize that it is directly into our mess that the message of Christmas speaks.  We need the peace the angels proclaimed.  We need the light of Christ to break through the darkness in our lives.  And so we call out, O Come, O Come, Immanuel.  Come and redeem our broken and weary lives.

This Advent, I am thankful that I find a Savior in the middle of such a mess.

Posted 12-08-11