How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of a messenger
who proclaims peace,
who brings good news,
who proclaims salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God rules!”Isaiah 52:7 (CEB)
I lay there in amazement for a few moments thinking, “Wow! I can fly! I can really fly! I want to do that again!” And suddenly sadness set in. I had been dreaming.
It was a rare Sunday afternoon that I got to take a nap – an actual, intentional nap on our bed, not the dose off in the chair nap where I wake up with a neck ache. It was not more than an hour and a half, but it was enough to experience what is probably the most vivid dream I have ever had with an exhilarating sense of flying. Actually it was more like skating through the air as that was the motion I was making to fly high above and around the hospital where Micah had been born with a birds-eye view. But I awoke grounded.
Today we continue a celebration that started last night, a celebration: of angels appearing, speaking, and directing lowly shepherds to witness a child’s birth; of shepherds finding their voice and joyfully telling of this birth; of a bright star in the sky directing foreigners to find that child when so many of his own people failed to notice.
But we wake up and wonder, “Was it all a dream?” Though we are told that the world has changed, the world really doesn’t seem all that different than before. There is still meanness, hatred, fighting, ignoring, obscuring, greed – just to name a few of our ills. It’s all so short lived. Even an Elvis Christmas song asks, “Oh, why can’t every day be like Christmas?” Things seem so cheery and perfect for a fleeting moment, and then it’s back to normal. Where is the good news?
“How beautiful . . . are the feet of a messenger. . . .”
On this day, we tend to focus on the birth of a child. We focus on God’s gift to us. But how often do we focus on the gift of invitation to us that comes from this birth, this gift? Do we realize we are invited to be messengers as the angels, shepherds, and magi were? Do we see that Jesus came not simply do to things for us but to invite us to into a way of life in which we follow him with our cross (Luke 9:23), doing the same works that he did (John 14:12)? Jesus offers us the Cup of the Covenant, and covenants always place obligations on all parties.
One of my favorite songs by blues singer Lowell Fulson (sometimes credited as Fulsom) is “Sleeper.” “Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream,” he sings. It’s time to wake up and get to work. It’s time to live into God’s dream for the world. God invites us into the work of making God’s dream come to fruition, working with God so we all become the people – as individuals and communities – that God created us to be. I believe that it is in this beautiful work that we find our joy, joy that can last all year long.
Merry Christmas!
