Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy Birthday to JESUS CHRIST –
The Spiritual SuperStar!!!
…Rev. LaDana Clark
For many, the holiday is a joyous time: Families gather, music in the air, light-draped trees and lampposts; presents are exchanged; blessings are shared.
But Christmas can also be a hard time for the lonely, the poor and the imprisoned. Let us take this time, to recall the real meaning of Christmas.
Christmas is literally the mass for Christ, marking the birth of Jesus. He was born under occupation. Joseph and Mary were ordered to go far from home to register with authorities. The innkeeper told Joseph there was no room at the inn. Jesus was born in a stable, lying in a manger, an “at-risk baby.” He was the son of a carpenter.
He was born at a time of great misery and turmoil. Prophets predicted that a new Messiah was coming — a King of Kings — one who would rout the occupiers and free the people. Many expected and hoped for a mighty warrior — like the superheroes of today’s movies — who would mobilize an army to attack Rome’s occupying legions. Fearing the prophecy, the Roman King Herod ordered the “massacre of the innocents,” the slaughter of all boys age two and under in Bethlehem and the nearby region.
Jesus confounded both Herod’s fears and the peoples’ hopes. He raised no army. He was a man of peace, not of war. He gathered disciples, not soldiers. He began his ministry by quoting Isaiah 62:1: “The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”
We will be judged, he taught us, by how we treat “the least of these,” by how we treat the stranger on the Jericho Road. He called us on to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to care for the sick, to offer aid to the refugee.
It’s an extraordinary story. Jesus was a liberator, but by his words, not by his sword. He converted rather than conquered. He accumulated no worldly wealth. He threw the moneylenders from the temple. During his ministry, he owned no home, no land and had no regular paycheck. His time with us was too brief, and he was crucified for his ministry.
And yet, he succeeded beyond all expectation to transform the world. The Prince of Peace, he taught us that peace is not the absence of violence; it is the presence of justice and righteousness.