DAY SIX: Getting down to it

Day Six. Catch up if you need to.

We’ve been talking about how God wants to use Christmas introduce us to an alternate reality. I’m actually inclined to believe that His way, His Truth, is the only real thing and what we live in now is more of a foggy, chaotic mess than we realize. But anyway…

I have a friend named Jeff who was in the theatre with me. As a matter of fact, he is now a professor of theatre, and I have always loved the way he THINKS. He directed a play, years ago, that he adapted from a book by a man named Calvin Miller. It is an allegory about God, and when Mr. Miller refers to Christmas, he says, “And now the great reduction has begun…”

One profound way that God demonstrated not only His love for us, but this alternative way of seeing the world, was His choosing to become a man in order to communicate with us – to blaze the trail to real life - so to speak.

Take a look at Philippians with me – another not so famous Christmas book (along with Job). Paul, its author, describes Christmas this way:

5…Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Now this is a fairly significant alternative reality if we understand it correctly. God REDUCED Himself to be a baby. He reduced Himself to be a man.

As funny and obvious as this sounds, you and I are not God. We so live like we are though, don’t we? We rely on ourselves, we follow our own code of life and conduct, we base our decisions on our feelings, we trust our logic. We think we’re in control. And, oh, how we self-aggrandize! EVERYBODY wants to be important, everyone wants to be known. We look for affirmation around every corner, and if we do not get it, we invent things that make us valuable and noticed.

The idea of CHOOSING to be reduced just seems nuts, in a culture that insists that we claim our rights, that we are always satisfied, that comfort and happiness are always the goal. And yet, the God who came to get us chose this path.

What if Christmas is saying to us, “There is a way to be satisfied, but you must dare to see and do everything differently.” Christmas makes every day Opposite Day! When you think you need to self-aggrandize, serve someone. When you have the right of way, yield instead. When you are tempted to think you’re God, choose reduction.

Sounds painful and hard, right? Yeah, it often is. I faced a situation last week where I felt like taking someone’s head off. I quite literally had to remember my Lamaze classes (my youngest is 9) in order to maintain my composure with this woman. In the end, I didn’t tell her off, I didn’t even overwhelm her with words (even though my words would have been true and I am particularly gifted at out-talking people) and I made space for grace to work. Yes, my tongue was bleeding from being bitten so hard. Yes, I had to yell into my pillow after the phone call. Yes, I felt like calling my closest friends to gossip. Yes, I felt reduced.

Yes, I knew I had done the right thing and had no regrets. Yes, I know that God is already working things out for my good. Yes, I represented myself, my family and my God well. Yes, it’s going to be okay.

Here’s that Philippians Christmas scripture in its entirety. It’s not just about the reduction of God, it’s about the reduction of us:

1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father….

14Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16as you hold out the word of life…

Imagine a world without self-aggrandizing, without complaining, without selfish ambition, without arguing. It’s the world that God came to introduce us to. We think December 25 is Christmas Day, but in truth, it’s Opposite Day.

Get reduced for Christmas this year. I suspect it really is the gift that keeps on giving.