Christmas E-mail '03

This past year the world of youth ministry lost one of its greatest warriors. On October 30th Mike Yaconelli, co-founder and owner of Youth Specialties (publisher of thousands of youth ministry resources) died at the age of 61 in car crash. If you are unfamiliar with whom Mike is you wouldn't have been able to tell him apart from the person that served you your double latte caramel macchiato at Starbucks this morning. Mike would have liked that. For those of us that have heard the calling to invest our lives into young people, Mike was a profound source of encouragement. Because of his bluntness with the truth, passion for reaching teenagers for Jesus with a “whatever the cost attitude” and with the ability to encourage others in that same direction; for Senior Pastors all over the world, Mike could be a profound pain in the backside.

I had the honor of speaking with Mike two years ago at the National Youth Workers Convention in Dallas. During our forty-minute conversation I found him to be both lovingly humble and confidently strong. These are the same characteristics I see in Jesus. But unlike Jesus, Mike wasn't perfect. The fact that he would be the first to admit this is what I admired about Mike the most. In a speech to youth workers Mike once said, "I hope you realize when Jesus comes, he comes to people like you and me. Who make mistakes. Who don't do it right. Who screw up. Who do the stuff that maybe other people wouldn't do who had more sense."

That's me. I mess up. I miss opportunities to empower the volunteers in my ministry so that they can be all God longs for them. I push people out of my life because I have a tendency to hold others in contempt. I snap at my children when trying to rush them out of the house because I'm late. I don't turn my socks right side out before I put them in the laundry basket. Worst of all I consistently fail to show my wife that she is the love of my life.

I can hear some of your thoughts now, "Thanks for sending me such a joy filled holiday email.”, “I guess Roger is having a blue Christmas.”, or “Do me a favor and take me off the list for next year." In Mike Yaconelli’s book Messy Spirituality, Mike makes a great point that our messes are God’s opportunities. So what better time of the year then Christmas to remind ourselves of the hope that can be found in our messiness?

Let’s break down the messy Christmas story found in Luke 2. To start, there was no Red Roof in Bethlehem. More than likely, Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem for the Roman census only to find every aunt, uncle and fourth cousin occupying all the rooms of Joseph’s ancestral home. The original manuscripts of the New Testament were written mostly in Greek. The English word “inn” found in scripture today was translated from the Greek word kataluma. Like most ancient languages, words had multiple meanings. The only other place we find this word used in scripture is in the descriptions of the Last Supper (Luke 22:11 and Mark 14:14). In both of these accounts, the word kataluma is used to describe a large “guest room” found in someone’s personal home. So, in Mary’s condition, why didn’t they make a place for her in the guest room? I’m sure if you have a pregnant relative come visit with you this holiday that your family will openly show concern for that mother to be. She will be given the most comfortable seat in the house and will be waited on hand and foot. Not so 2000 years ago. Mary was a woman. A very young woman. Even though she was pregnant and about ready to give birth, Mary did not hold any priority over the older men in the family to earn her a place in the kataluma.

So this is when they got sent to the stable? Not exactly. The word stable or barn is never mentioned in scripture. We would expect to find a manger in a barn or stable these days, but in the ancient world small amounts of flock animals were kept inside the home. They didn’t have refrigerators or freezers so the meat was kept fresh by keeping the animals alive until it was mealtime. By storing the animals in one of the ground floor rooms it protected them from the elements and theft. Also the heat produced by the animal dung would rise up through the floor to heat the second level living quarters. So, after traveling four or five days in the sun and having to stay in the nastiest place in the house, Mary finds herself getting ready to give birth to the savior of the world.

Just when Mary was thinking how this could get any worse some shepherds show up. These ragamuffins claimed they had been given the good news of the Kings’ birth by a host of angels. During this time shepherds were a marginalized people. Think of a job, the worst job you can possibly imagine doing for a living and that’s how people looked at the task of shepherding.

How do you think Mary was feeling at this point? Her relatives treated her like junk, she had to give birth to her baby in substandard conditions and now a bunch of Shepherds were hanging around gawking at her baby. One might feel bitter, angry and frustrated, but not Mary. Luke 2:19 describes her reaction like this, “. . . but Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often.” Engulfed in so much mess, all this young girl could think to do was to be humble.

Recently my family and I gathered around the TV to watch Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause 2. While watching this movie it struck me how incredibly lucky we all are that there is no Santa Claus and we aren’t relying on him to bring us presents. You see, the bad toy Santa was right, we have all been naughty and all deserve coal. None of us can make the “nice list” because at some point during the past year we have all fallen short of the glory of God. Mike Yaconelli said, “What landed Jesus on the cross was the preposterous idea that common, ordinary, broken, screwed-up people could be godly! What drove Jesus’ enemies crazy were his criticisms of the “perfect” religious people and his acceptance of the imperfect nonreligious people. The shocking implication of Jesus’ ministry is that anyone can be spiritual.” God’s gift to each of us is a department store gift wrappers worst nightmare. The truth about Jesus is not perfectly packaged in gold lame paper with a pretty red bow. The present of Jesus’ unconditional, forgiving love for us is wrapped in the most common, messy birth of a little boy and delivered to us through His brutal death on a cross. And the Good News is no matter how messy or broken we think we are; this present is available for us to open all year round.

Have a Messy Christmas and a Broken New Year!