11-28-22<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was with friends for Thanksgiving, and one of the activities after the dinner was the teens getting their violins, violas, and cellos out, to play some Classical music and hymn tunes. Musical scores for choruses from Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em> were passed out \u2013 one of the area churches will be performing it at Christmastime \u2013 and singing that supernal music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hmmm, I thought; not typical American teens, nor typical playlists of youth today. Another box checked in my mind: maybe there is<\/em> hope for America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But a thought came to my mind about that great oratorio Messiah<\/em>, which I know quite well. I am like many people who know it and love it: we tend to play it, and hear it in malls, or on radio stations, or at church concerts\u2026 around Christmastime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet Georg Friedrich H\u00e4ndel composed it (and Charles Jennens wrote the lyrics, incorporating Scripture) about the entire life of Christ. (In 45 days, be the way. A miracle on its own!) Not just His birth, but the prophesies. It closes not only with His death on the cross, nor the Resurrection, nor the Ascension, but promises of believers\u2019 salvation, and the Millennium. The entire life of Christ; the entire scope, and point, of the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of which would make it appropriate to listen to Messiah<\/em> at Easter, too, or in August. In fact I sometimes think in these messages of posting some Christmas carols in Springtime or around the Fourth of July. Why not? Easter hymns around New Years!<\/p>\n\n\n\n My point is that the story \u2013 the Truth \u2013 of Jesus\u2019s Incarnation is vital for us to think about every day of the year, not what Hallmark says. Even more, the Message of the Cross, and the power of the Resurrection, is essential to our faith, and should be in our thoughts every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This mode of thinking is really a plea for us as Christians, and also as citizens, to stop compartmentalizing everything in our lives!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christianity is more than holidays!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Citizenship is more than elections!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parenting is more than rules!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Education is more than quizzes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Charity is more than tax deductions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n A profession is more than a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marriage is more than a handshake!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Love is more than sex!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Life is\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, here, more than any other word in or out of the Bible, love has meanings, and nuances, and definitions, and suggestions, and poetic allusions, even more cynical aspects, than almost any other word. I cherish Henry Wadsworth Longfellow\u2019s reflection:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Life is real! Life is earnest!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And the grave is not its goal;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dust thou art, to dust returnest,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Was not spoken of the soul.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To me, the point that suggests itself here is that we ought to appreciate everything we can in their larger contexts and fuller implications:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember that Jesus\u2019s suffering, death, and Resurrection were not merely His duties, or His assignments\u2026 but so we don\u2019t have to bear the penalty for our sins.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Martyrs of the Faith died not only for their beliefs\u2026 but so that we don\u2019t have to suffer persecution as they did.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In an American context, those who have gone before \u2013 patriots and soldiers \u2013 sacrificed their \u201clives, their fortunes, their sacred honor\u201d\u2026 for us. People they never would meet, to live as we do today..<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 to live as we do today? Is America worthy, today, of those sacrifices? What would those patriots and military servicemen think of the America they died for? Corruption, crime, abuse, drugs, deviance, consumerism, selfishness, hate, abortion\u2026?<\/p>\n\n\n\n America\u2026 is more than that.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Martyrs of the church suffered persecution, torture, and death, so that the post-Modern church can distort Scripture to please sinners, instead of converting souls to salvation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Christianity\u2026 is more than that.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus died on the cross so that humankind can <\/em>be saved. He offers <\/em>salvation, yet we can reject it, and millions, sadly, do. The Message of the Cross, and His Resurrection and Ascension, are not squares on calendar pages. Except when they prompt us to meditate upon these things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n