Making the Old New

The events of this past week have put a cloud over this years Christmas festivities.  As I watched TV last night the lights on the Christmas tree seemed a little bit dimmer, I longed to hold my adult children, I prayed for my grandchildren.  I wondered why it is easier to buy an semi-automatic weapon then it is to get an appointment to see a mental health professional.  I have never owned a gun but have always been a supporter of the Second Amendment, however I wonder if our founding fathers had the Bushmaster 2 (the weapon used in the recent school shooting) in mind when they wrote the Bill of Rights.

I am also reminded that part of the Christmas story that is always left out of the children's Christmas program is the story of the killing of the innocent children by a tyrant King on the rumor that a King had been born in Bethlehem.  I have always struggled with this part of the Christmas legend.  Why would a loving God who came into the world in the form of a baby allow the deaths of innocent children.  Where was the legendary angel Michael, God's warrior angel? Why didn't God send ol' worrier Mike down to defend the innocent boys of Bethlehem?  God sent an angel down to warn Joseph to get Mary and the baby Jesus out of town.   No, as the story goes, he didn't, humans sinned, innocents died.  My hope has always been that this part of the story is a literary tool by the author to link Jesus with Moses and the Passover and the death of the first born children of Egypt.  

We are reminded this Sunday in the reading from the book of Hebrews that Jesus came to make all things new. The author of Hebrews looks at the past to see the future.  Once upon a time God required sacrifice as a sign of out obedience.  At Christmas we begin a journey that will lead to the cross.  The legend of the manger, Wise Men, shepherds and their flocks by night,  will lead to the reality of the cross, the singing of Silent Night, Holy Night will lead to O Sacred Head Now Wounded.  During these difficult days that seem to take on mythical proportions we needed to also be reminded the sacrifice of the cross, and that the singing of O Sacred Head Now Wounded will change, as if in flash of light to, Christ the Lord is Risen Today.  From the myth of Christmas to the reality of the empty tomb, in Christ all things are made new.