“Messiah”: A Christmas Poem

Cindi and I didn’t send out a Christmas letter this year.  We enjoy the ones we get from others, but so many people send them that we usually don’t feel like adding to the mix.  Two years ago, though, we took the opportunity to both write a Christmas letter as well as send out a poem that we hoped would magnify Christ and encourage our brothers and sisters to have a weighty, Christ-centered Christmas.

I’m not a trained poet, so I just have to work off of instinct.  When I have the time and the inspiration to write something, I often like to take a passage of Scripture and put it into poetry.  That way, I know that what I’m writing is true.  Plus, it doesn’t take as much creative juice (although it still takes a lot, at least for me).  My desire is to combine truth with beauty, adorning already-stunning truth with lyrical garb that (hopefully) serves to impress it upon the heart in a unique way.  Telling someone that “God is creative” is a clear way to communicate that particular truth.  Telling someone that “God is creative” while pointing at a deep-orange sunset lighting up a hundred clouds in the western sky is a clear and powerful way to communicate the same truth.  This is one of the many reasons why I am grateful for poetry.  It helps us to see that truth is more than propositions.

I’m usually rigid when it comes to rhyme and meter, because I like the cadence of it.  I also appreciate the discipline that it takes to write with rhyme and meter.  But that’s really neither here nor there.  This isn’t a post about poetry, which I know very little of.  It’s about Christ, whose glory shines infinitely brighter than poetry and prose and every other genre of literature.

With the aim of exposing that glory, I’ll be posting “Messiah” in four parts.  ”Messiah” is a loose paraphrase of Isaiah 53, which is poetry itself.  Isaiah 53 has twelve verses, so each section of ”Messiah” contains the content of the corresponding three verses in Isaiah 53.  Lord-willing, I’ll post one part each day, ending with Part 4 on Christmas Day (each day I’ll post the previous parts before the new part in order to maintain the flow).  I pray that those of you who enjoy poetry will be able to see the brilliance of Jesus Christ through some amateur writing, and that those of you who don’t will find other ways to enjoy and magnify Him through Christmas Day and beyond.  He is not just the reason for the season.  He is the Lamb of God who gave Himself to be butchered in the place of living, breathing sinners.  He did not die to be ignored.  He died to be honored.  And so we honor Him.  It is our joy to do so.

UPDATE 6/1/06: I wrote this post on my old blog and transferred it here later.  Because this poem can already be accessed on Raw Christianity under “Poems,” I’m just going to give a link to the whole poem instead of dividing it into four parts over the course of a few days.

Three-Year Anniversary

Tomorrow I will have been married to Cindi for three years.  To quantify the blessings of her companionship would be an exercise in futility.  To qualify the gift that she is to me would be similarly vain.  The worth of an excellent wife is only comprehensible to the men who have one, and even then all calculations fall short.

From the day we were married (and before), it has always been our prayer that the overpowering love of God for His people and the covenant love of Christ for His church would be reflected in our love for one another.  This is no small task.  It is a deep and lasting pleasure, but the job is hard and the stakes are high.

In light of that, I thought I would share what we put on the front of our wedding invitations a little more than three years ago.  This is still our passion and our heartbeat.  God has been gracious to us to sustain it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   – Romans 8:38-39

Dear Father, we have been convinced
That neither death, nor life, nor prince-
palities, nor angels, nor
The things that are, nor things in store
For us, nor powers, depth, or height,
Nor anything made by Your might
Can quench Your love which paid love’s cost
And still burns brightly from His cross.

So let our love now be a flame
No floods can drown nor waters tame,
As love between You and Your Son,
Not two together bound but one.
And let our fire be fueled by grace
And by the seeking of Your face.
And let Your glory, worth, and fame
Be magnified by love’s pure flame.

Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor will rivers overflow it.   – Song of Solomon 8:7

Church on Christmas Sunday?

A lot of internet ink has been spilled recently on the issue of whether or not churches should have normal services on Christmas Day, since Christmas falls on a Sunday this year.  I'm not going to spill any more of it, and not just because I think that internet ink is a valuable commodity.

There is enough going on during the weeks surrounding Christmas that we barely take the time or spend the energy to focus on Christ in a substantial way even in years when Christmas falls on a Thursday.  And my observation is that this particular debate isn't helping very much anymore.  I do think that the topic is worth discussing, and that the decision for each local church is not a simple one.  I don't think that the topic is worth all the press it's been getting, though.  I realize that we have to consider and discuss issues when they come up, and that if we didn't take the time now to discuss this matter along with all its presuppositions and implications, we wouldn't solidify our thinking on it as we should.  But I think it's being overdone.  Because I don't care what you're talking about — if you eclipse Christ, you need to stop.

This is not a holier-than-thou post, as though I'm taking the approach that "I'm going to just focus on Jesus while all the unspiritual people continue to debate the church-on-Christmas issue."  Not at all.  Rather, it's a simple call to redeem the Christmas holiday not only from materialism and marketing but also from endless peripheral discussions.  This one has been profitable while it's lasted.  But it shouldn't last much longer.  We're not celebrating Churchmas, because this was never about the church.  We're celebrating Christmas, because this has always been about Christ.

The decisions have been made.  Your local church is either having a service on Christmas Day or it's not.  It's time to worship Christ.  Not the crying baby but the majestic King.  Not the infant but the infinite.  Not wearing a diaper but a crown.  Not alive from the womb but alive from the dead.

This is our Jesus.  Let earth receive her King.

The Lord’s Name

It makes me very sad when mature Christians I know speak the name of the Lord lightly.  I feel like I'm hearing it more and more.  I know that there is scholarly debate over what it actually means to take the Lord's name in vain, but mentioning God flippantly and referring to Jesus jokingly really eats at me.

He is our Lord, our Savior, and our King, and He has done so much for us.  I can't comprehend why we would treat Him as an object of humor.  Even occasionally.  There are times to laugh, and there are lots of things in life to have a good laugh about.  But why Him?

The ability to trivialize the name(s) of God reflects a lack of spiritual sobriety, a lack that we don't need any more of.  I honestly don't feel angry about it right now (although at times I do).  I just feel disappointed, disillusioned, and sad.  Jesus Christ and His Father deserve so much more from us.