Good News Sense

A Sonnet to God’s Loving Providence

by J. Roger Wilson, December, 2008

Behind us lies another year of progress and of pain—

Lingering thoughts of joy for some, of sadness mingled through;

Enduring loss, of grief, goodbyes, of seeing fortunes wane;

Some seeing growth in wealth or love—by these, time crept or flew.

So what of things beyond our power to stop or to control?

Elections, crimes, and “acts of God” have touched our lives before.

Doubts assail our confidence, experience plays a role;

Now fears of dark uncertain days seem all we have in store.

Everybody knows that sin marks each and everyone;

We’ve failed in oh so many ways; we all deserve the worst.

Yet God does not reserve His grace; none earn what Christ has done.

Escape we all if Him we trust, who were in Adam cursed.

A brand new year begins in hope, in love He’s promised good;

Rely on Him, invest His gifts, and live as faithful should.

Something in us craves the chance to start over, to begin again, and to leave the past and its disappointments behind. The custom of making resolutions is part of that desire; we feel if only we could overcome our worst shortcomings, then things would have to get better. At least, if we make the effort, we think we’d feel better. More often than not, we fail and become disillusioned.

We are all marked by failure; Paul reviews the problem shared by our entire human family in Romans. We fall short of our own ambitions and ideals, let alone the high calling of our righteous Creator. Being surrounded by sinners, some who are powerful, we easily blame our losses on them or even God. Our lives then become places of despair, from which many grumble and complain but do little to make things better. Rather than lift each other up, we tear each other down; we criticize the failures of others, feeling superior in our own self-righteousness.

God has already given us the “clean slate” we want; it is ours to use over and over again, every single day. In love, He has gifted us to enable us to serve him creatively, and He has placed us in a community, in a family, so that we need not work or even fail alone. That is the blessing of a new year, one that holds everything we desire, if only we tap into God’s tender mercies and His unbelievably amazing grace! It is in this sense that I pray you will have a blessed new year.

“ ‘Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la la la la la”–Really? No holiday is so filled with songs and traditions as Christmas, and no holiday is prone to more sadness and depression, for some anyway. On the one hand, Christmas is associated with powerful memories—sights, sounds, and even scents–recall happy childhoods that live only in memory. Sentimental stories and music tug at heartstrings creating idealized notions of the perfect Christmas that fill us with regret for a past that didn’t measure up or with fear that yet another season will pass without achieving a perfect celebration.

Merchants begin offering Christmas decorations with the sense that money will buy happiness. Many realize the lie in this commercialized approach, but they play along anyway. The idea of generosity is lost in children asking for the latest fad and in making sure that no gift received is unmatched by an equally valuable gift given in return. Television especially seeks to offer more sentimental stories drawn from the archives with a few new productions promising the genuine “spirit of Christmas.” The mythology of Christmas easily overshadows the true Christmas story.

Many who might otherwise enjoy the season face overwhelming burdens. The poor and those facing unexpected financial reversals cannot afford an expensive celebration that is the norm for many families. Some are caught in the midst of illness or unexpected death that make fun impossible, and others have lost the joy of Christmas in the memory of past tragedy and loss. Countless people find Christmas unbearably lonely—divorced, never married, widowed, elderly, or alienated from loved ones. The portrayals of happy families and gaiety only exacerbate the sadness they already feel.

The irony is that most of this has nothing whatever to do with the birth of Jesus that it purports to celebrate or that, at the least, was the original reason for the holiday. Biblical concepts that once fostered some of the traditions are either forgotten or only recalled in a token effort to make a connection back to the Christ of Christmas. Serious Christians strive to hold on to the day that commemorates the birth of their Savior, while some reject the holiday completely, saying it isn’t even the actual day of Jesus’ birth (which no one really knows).

In recent years, multiculturalists and anti-religionists have worked hard to remove any semblance of Christianity in what once was a Christian holy day. Some suggest that Christmas decorations with any religious connotation may offend non-Christians, and a few such people have willingly stepped forward to pronounce their offended sensibilities. Over-zealous teachers and others bend over backwards to take anything religious out of school activities and public displays, trying to turn Christmas into some “happy holiday,” stripped of meaning.

So what is its meaning?  “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” This is the awesome truth that Christmas celebrates, or should!  This is nothing precisely “jolly” about the incarnation.  The “joy” of Christmas is that God injected himself into the history of the humans he created to rescue them from the very loss and despair that many feel more sharply at the holidays but may face year-round.

“And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” This is far removed from the commercial sentimentality so prevalent at this season. The shepherds were scared, and later they were most likely puzzled. They had surely seen angels and a baby that was supposedly the Messiah. Yet we have no further testimony from the shepherds.

This remarkable event was God’s unspeakable gift, perhaps more than any other, that is, until the cross, where Jesus Christ completed his mission of divine rescue. While I think it is the greatest honor than nearly the whole world celebrate his birth, whether they acknowledge it or not, a personal response appropriate to the “holy day” need not be one of tradition or giddy happiness. Faith in the Savior who came and quiet joy in the salvation that comes by faith is more than enough. For those with burdens almost too great to bear, the real celebration is yet to come, when all suffering, sorrow, sadness, and sin will be gone forever!

We live in a world impressed by big things, the bigger the better.  Is there any limit to this world’s confidence in earthly power?  With what has been happening in Washington, recently, one wonders.  Yet, at the same time we see so many putting their faith in human power and human leaders, we also see frightening possibilities of failure on an equally enormous scale.

When I was in college, students talked about feeling insignificant, being only a number amidst the ever-growing population of students, especially at large universities.  Of course, the population of the United States now exceeds 300 million, and the earth’s population has grown to 6.7 billion, numbers almost impossible to conceive.  The national debt is now 11 trillion dollars.  In the midst of these huge figures, how important is the effort of any one of us?

Here’s a strange bit of information.  I just Googled the phrase “change the world,” and I got 9 and half million hits!  Without the quotation marks enclosing the phrase, I got 148 million hits, but nearly 10 million items on the Iternet refer to changing the world.  Is the world filled with 6.7 megalomaniacs?  Or perhaps it’s merely 9.5 million of them.  If one individual is so obviously insignificant, how can anyone imagine we can change the world, short of a nuclear weapon or the insane behavior of a Hitler or Stalin?

I have long thought that one person can make a difference.  Of course, the impact of an individual is greater among those with whom he or she has contact and credibility.  Have I used “change the world” language?  I’m not sure, but I am humbled by what I have observed.  In reading Andy Crouch’s book, Culture Making, I have found a wiser context to put these thoughts, and it comes down to this, “Little is Much When God is In It!“  God is the world-changer, but he dares to work through us, the creatures he made in his own image, with his own creative inclinations, and gifted with talents that we not only may use but should use as he intended.

Given the concerns that seem to be piling up around us, threats of terror and economic disaster, we do have power, his power, and power we should use.  In a commentary just published, John Whitehead reminds us that what people did in the past people may still do today…and should!  Those of us blessed with abundant material wealth, and many Americans still are, we can make a huge difference for others who do not.  Those of us who have little, well, even the widow did a great thing with a little bit.

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, know that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who was given to us.”–Romans 5:1-5

Our lives seemed filled with troubles—inside troubles, outside troubles, spiritual troubles. We don’t need the news to tell us that we have problems. Sin, sin’s effects, and temptations to sin are hard to miss. For some, the answer is to deny sin. If there’s no right or wrong, then there can be no violation. Our problems are just psychological and sociological problems that education, science, and medicine can fix. Yet somehow, the more we know the more troubles there seem to be. People may deny it, but sin and sin’s effects remain; philosophers call it the problem of evil.

Sin is rebellion against one’s Creator. Philosophers ponder “man’s inhumanity to man;” clearly, humans cause the worst human suffering. I find that a strangely comforting proof of what sin is really all about. Those who deny sin’s reality seem “hell-bent” on a solution that makes things even worse. Giving greater power into to fewer people, whether in a socialist government or an ever more powerful United Nations, guarantees that the worst sorts of “inhumane” people will seek that power, and not for good.

Where is the good news in that? You might say, “God’s got it covered!” For our personal sin, he justifies believers by faith and gives us peace with Him. The root problem’s solved, but that’s only the beginning, an “introduction” Paul says because, by faith, we stand in His grace. No matter what appears to be happening around us, we stand firmly in His grace, now and forever. Have you ever “exulted in hope in the glory of God?” Maybe you’ve felt that way in a worship service, but all the time? Even so, have you “exulted” in your tribulations? That’s even harder.  Think about the daily worries we hear on the news; nobody is exulting in those troubles, except perhaps the very few who have figured out how to profit from them.

The good news here is that He even has a plan for the troubles we face, you might say a 5-step plan. It runs from tribulation to perseverance into character, from character to hope and finally to experience the very love of God, poured by the Holy Spirit. This world and, let’s be honest, we too, would prefer to take a shortcut straight to love; but it just doesn’t work that way. The path to authentic love is through a rigorous character-building process that requires a certain amount of pain and suffering.

You’ve heard the stories. Maybe you have one to tell. Men in combat, neighbors who survive a tragedy, or victims of a horrible crime are often bonded together. There’s something that shared hardship produces that is sweeter and dearer than many of the paler emotions that we think we value in the good times. The love of God is with us all the time, of course, but the process of growth through the difficult moments, moments that often seem to last much longer, produces something remarkable, not unlike that clam’s annoying grain of sand that becomes the heart of the pearl. As I read recently, it gives a wholly different perspective on those “pearly gates,” as our entrance to heaven, doesn’t it?

Indeed, our Savior’s suffering, represented by those pearly gates and by a wooden cross, is both the price and the proof of his love. He didn’t suffer merely to prove it; he suffered to make our redemption possible. As unpleasant as it is, trouble is a glorious thing when it demonstrates and sanctifies love. In that great news, we can exult!