Advent 2020

Today, the first Sunday of Advent: This year we need Advent and Christmas more than ever. The year 2020 reminds us that even our best laid plans often fall apart in the face of disease, death, and danger. Advent joins us to the common experience of God’s people: a longing for things to be made right. A desire for God to fix things. Advent prepares us for the astounding news that the very presence of God is our remedy. Whether we know it or not, Christmas is the common man’s favorite holiday because it celebrates the mysterious reality of the transcendent God taking on human flesh here on earth. The light from heaven breaks into our cold dark world. The story of Christmas seems so distant and yet so close at the same time. A mysterious, yet oddly familiar reality infringes upon our winter. There is something about candles, Christmas lights, evergreen trees, and carols. Sometimes it gives us great joy. Sometimes it causes our heart to break. Either way, our hearts are responding to piercing reality of the transcendent God coming to ordinary people as a babe in a manger. Christmas is the wonderfully disorienting notion that the baby we would defend with our lives is actually the God who has come to give his life to us. Even in 2020 – especially in 2020 – Advent gives us the opportunity to lift our voices with the ancient church and sing for Immanuel to come and deliver us in our captivity.

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Christ the King

Such is the state of our politics is that it is not enough to vote for a candidate and hope he wins. We have become so invested our politicians that we have trouble seeing any way forward without them. Even if you don’t believe the election results are legitimate, surely you can at least believe there is hope either way. In the midst of the political chaos of 2020, today is Christ the King Sunday, a day observed by churches who follow the Christian calendar. When we state that Christ is King, we our stating that:Our ultimate loyalty is not to any man who clamors for power. Instead, we kneel before the one who emptied himself of his divine privileges.Our ultimate fight is not for control of the White House or Congress. Rather, we follow a King who paradoxically defeated his enemies by his own death.The promise of a post-COVID life sounds nice, but still inadequate. We are longing for resurrection, something already in the works, thanks to the risen Christ.While the form of government we have in the U.S. is the best form ever devised by man on earth, we find the best rule comes from one who has ascended to his throne in heaven.We find no security in the promises of government hand-outs, retirement, state guarantees, or other forms of “financial security”. Instead, we find freedom in the one who gives us our bread on a daily basis.While we are tempted to addictions, depressions, and despair, seemingly without answer, we take hope in the one, who does not give us formulas, platitudes, and speeches, but rather gives us himself.Christ is King with a lifetime appointment. And he has already defeated death.

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Veterans Day

Thank you to all the U.S. veterans who have served. Both of my grandfathers were WWII veterans like so many men of that generation. They fought against the war machine of evil ideologies. The evil ideas that inspired Hitler to attack his whole continent were born of the notion that all men are not created equal – basically the exact opposite idea of America’s founding. He was a madman who believed that Germanic peoples were superior to all others and was ready to do destroy anyone and anything who stood in his way. The WWII veterans did stand in his way. Many sacrificed their life in making the stand. But ultimately, they were victorious. In the generations before and since, American veterans have stood against the forces of evil.

As we thank them for their service, let us not fail in own civic duties. If we thank them for defeating evil across the seas, we must not turn a blind eye to it in our own midst. If we honor them for their disciplined bravery, we should not fail to hold our institutions, leaders, and ourselves accountable. If we praise their selflessness, it seems like we should not adore ourselves. If we are grateful that they fearlessly fought for us to speak, worship, and gather freely, we dare not say that creeds and principles do not matter. If we honor them for defending liberty at the cost of their life and limb, we must not trade it away for comfort, popularity, and security. As they say, “freedom is not free”. Our veterans have paid a steep price. We must not give it away.Thank you, veterans, for your sacrifices. Thank you for your example. May we not forget.

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Alan’s big 4-0

Today my brother Alan would have turned the big 4-0. He was an unlikely man of hope. He had his share of emotional lows. But he always was looking for hope, for a way to do something impossible. He didn’t run around with a bubbly smile all the time, but he did always get up from his falls with the determination to do something the next day. And with the whit to make everyone around him laugh. That seems to me to be the essence of hope. Not a naïve optimism, but a realization that if God is good enough to allow us to exist today, he is giving us a glimmer of light for tomorrow. Either light from the sunrise or light from God’s face.

G.K. Chesterton wrote: “Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all… As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.” This is a good word for 2020, when more than once, things have appeared hopeless. It is in these moments that we need that glimmer of hope. It is in 2020 when hope actually becomes hope. In 2020, maybe we can’t smile about our circumstances, but maybe we can at least remember the grins of the saints who have gone before us. Maybe we can laugh that our 2020 vision is such we can see no farther than the end of our nose, and yet we can see the end of the path a little more clearly.Rest in Peace, Alan Haley. One day I will laugh with you again.

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Election Rejection

I think I’m about done with political posts, but here is one last one for a while: It seems to me that election fraud is a very serious crime. And to make allegations of a serious crime is a serious matter itself. It also seems to me that if there is evidence of systemic voter fraud, President Trump should simply bring this evidence to light. Otherwise, it just looks like he is being a sore loser. It’s not the outcome I wanted, but it is also not that hard to believe that he lost given his extreme style and some of the ridiculous things he has said. If we believe in the rule of law, we must accept the legitimate results of this election. If the results are not legitimate, then by all means, the President should do whatever he can to rectify the situation. But people lose credibility when they cry fraud without substantial evidence. Maybe I am missing something, and I am happy to be corrected. At this point, conservatives should focus their political efforts on retaining 51 seats in the senate. A conservative senate with a liberal president will not get much accomplished, but it will at least hold Biden in check, and prevent court packing / court expansion. It is not about a man. It is about our country.

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