Grmps
12-23-2017, 02:53 PM
The Light Shines in the Darkness
DECEMBER 23, 2017 BY JOHN M. BUCHANAN
https://jmbpastor.wordpress.com/2017/12/23/the-light-shines-in-the-darkness-2/
I’m finding it difficult to be hopeful this Christmas. The slow, steady, daily attacks on what I hold dear and what I cherish about my country are eroding my spirit, even the week before Christmas.
My government is….
– loosening regulations designed to protect my grandchildren from the effects of environmental degradation,
– lifting restrictions on mining and drilling that will endanger wildlife and reduce the precious areas of stunning national beauty every president before this one, all the way back to Theodore Roosevelt, regarded as national treasures to be protected and preserved,
-alienating long-time traditional allies, asserting “America First” at the expense of the welfare of all people and all nations,
– turning away from empirical science about climate change and human responsibility for global warming which the vast majority of scientists, and even the Pentagon, regard as real threats to life on our planet,
-attacking any information it doesn’t like as “fake news”, which means an attack on truth itself.
In a recent essay in the New York Review of Books Marilynne Robinson said, “A society is moving toward dangerous ground when loyalty to truth is seen as disloyalty to some supposedly higher interest. How many times has history taught us?”
I worry about that most of all, that ideology replaces empirical data, that truth is flexible and may be bent and twisted to serve political goals.
And so I am not as buoyant as I usually am the week before Christmas. I’m still loving the music, the warmth of a season that emphasizes giving and brings out the virtue of generosity, the tree decorated with well-worn and much-loved ornaments, the aroma of fresh pine. But it is all a little dimmed by what is happening around us and to us. So I am driven back and thinking about the basic story.
The birth in Bethlehem, romanticized in myth and ritual, not to mention the absolutely wonderful Christmas Eve Children’s pageant, was actually a pretty difficult and dangerous ordeal. What was happening around Mary and Joseph was anything but warm and romantic. They were essentially homeless the night Mary gave birth. They were soon to be refugees, immigrants fleeing a murderous threat to their child’s life. I love the shepherds and the angel choruses as much as anyone but the reality of the first Christmas was not cozy and warm.
And yet that birth has inspired the most amazing thing – an outpouring of human love and generosity. Again, Marilynne Robinson: “The cliches about Christmas are so utterly weary and worn that it is difficult to mention them even to attempt to be rid of them…The reality of the phenomenon is this – people mob stores looking for gifts to give other people…It is really inflamed generosity. All those people are thinking about what someone else might want, need, look good in, be amused by….Christmas reminds everyone that there is joy in it.” (The Givenness of Things, p. 281)
So Christmas comes again in the midst of this unique moment to remind us that there is true joy in giving, that hope actually is born in the midst of despair, that love ultimately overcomes hate, that generosity is better than greed, that peace will one day supplant war, and that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome the light. And never will.
Merry Christmas!
DECEMBER 23, 2017 BY JOHN M. BUCHANAN
https://jmbpastor.wordpress.com/2017/12/23/the-light-shines-in-the-darkness-2/
I’m finding it difficult to be hopeful this Christmas. The slow, steady, daily attacks on what I hold dear and what I cherish about my country are eroding my spirit, even the week before Christmas.
My government is….
– loosening regulations designed to protect my grandchildren from the effects of environmental degradation,
– lifting restrictions on mining and drilling that will endanger wildlife and reduce the precious areas of stunning national beauty every president before this one, all the way back to Theodore Roosevelt, regarded as national treasures to be protected and preserved,
-alienating long-time traditional allies, asserting “America First” at the expense of the welfare of all people and all nations,
– turning away from empirical science about climate change and human responsibility for global warming which the vast majority of scientists, and even the Pentagon, regard as real threats to life on our planet,
-attacking any information it doesn’t like as “fake news”, which means an attack on truth itself.
In a recent essay in the New York Review of Books Marilynne Robinson said, “A society is moving toward dangerous ground when loyalty to truth is seen as disloyalty to some supposedly higher interest. How many times has history taught us?”
I worry about that most of all, that ideology replaces empirical data, that truth is flexible and may be bent and twisted to serve political goals.
And so I am not as buoyant as I usually am the week before Christmas. I’m still loving the music, the warmth of a season that emphasizes giving and brings out the virtue of generosity, the tree decorated with well-worn and much-loved ornaments, the aroma of fresh pine. But it is all a little dimmed by what is happening around us and to us. So I am driven back and thinking about the basic story.
The birth in Bethlehem, romanticized in myth and ritual, not to mention the absolutely wonderful Christmas Eve Children’s pageant, was actually a pretty difficult and dangerous ordeal. What was happening around Mary and Joseph was anything but warm and romantic. They were essentially homeless the night Mary gave birth. They were soon to be refugees, immigrants fleeing a murderous threat to their child’s life. I love the shepherds and the angel choruses as much as anyone but the reality of the first Christmas was not cozy and warm.
And yet that birth has inspired the most amazing thing – an outpouring of human love and generosity. Again, Marilynne Robinson: “The cliches about Christmas are so utterly weary and worn that it is difficult to mention them even to attempt to be rid of them…The reality of the phenomenon is this – people mob stores looking for gifts to give other people…It is really inflamed generosity. All those people are thinking about what someone else might want, need, look good in, be amused by….Christmas reminds everyone that there is joy in it.” (The Givenness of Things, p. 281)
So Christmas comes again in the midst of this unique moment to remind us that there is true joy in giving, that hope actually is born in the midst of despair, that love ultimately overcomes hate, that generosity is better than greed, that peace will one day supplant war, and that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome the light. And never will.
Merry Christmas!