Caroling, Caroling

As we darkened the doors at the Schiller Park Rec Center for Sunday worship, twenty minutes late and fighting a collective bad attitude, Janelle, Anabelle and I were greeted by the familiar words of an old carol that at the time seemed more fit to mock us than to draw us to worship.

Thankfully, that song didn't include the first-hand account of a fictitious gift-less child percussionist, nor did it make mention of another child whose lack of financial planning and hazy idea of the resurrection had left him just shy of the price tag for a new pair of kicks to get for his fading mother.

No flame-bearing request was made of a mysteriously unknown French maiden, and Thistle Hair the Christmas Bear was mercifully left unmentioned in the Alabama backwoods.

But it was something entirely un-mockworthy in the song we were singing that really rubbed me the wrong way, as we sang out the words: O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant! O come ye, o come ye, to Bethlehem!

If you don't catch where I'm going with this yet, let me clue you in: When you're so hopelessly late for church that you have to put a Sunday morning spat on the back-burner, the last three words that come to mind when you take stock of yourself are, in no particular order: faithful, joyful, triumphant.

Taken at face value, it's almost as if we, the meager-faithed strugglers and stragglers, were being asked to sing a summons to another kind of person: you know, the faithful, joyful and triumphant. It seems like it'd be hypocritical at best, and self-cruelty at worst, to join in a happy chorus seemingly meant for other people--happier people--and yet, I'm never one to leave a carol un-sung.

So, what do we do with those words? Faithful. Joyful. Triumphant.

It seems like we'd be braggarts to call ourselves any of those three words when we're feeling our best, performing at top-notch spirituality and springing out of bed before the rooster crows to cry aloud with David, "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go up to the house of the Lord'!"

But these words seem even more out of place on a day like this Sunday. Would joining in the happy chorus just be lip-flapping hypocrisy? Maybe.

The more I've thought about it this week, though, the more I'm convinced that what my heart needed--and needs at this very moment--is a stout reminder that as I stand and trust in the Jesus I'm summoning myself to adore, I claim His faithfulness, His joy, His victorious triumph.

You see, Christmas isn't a time where we celebrate our own faithfulness, joy and victory, mainly because there is no such thing.

Apart from Christ, we're separated from God, alienated from His presence, strangers to the covenants of His promise, hopeless, godless, powerless rebels who have taken up arms against the King of Heaven, the same King who created us in His glorious image and for His glorious name.

Apart from Christ I have no faithfulness, no cause for joy, and in the end, nothing but crushing defeat. (One great picture of this defeat is found in Revelation 20, where an army led by Satan--an army to which we all belong apart from Christ--gathers and marches to Jerusalem with a full head of steam, only to be immediately destroyed by fire coming down out of heaven).

But because the Word took on flesh and dwelt among us, because of Christmas, and because in dwelling with us, Christ lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died, I who am faithless and miserable on my own am declared righteous and faithful by the very righteousness and faithfulness of Christ.

This is cause for joy in every circumstance, because I know that whether I stand or fall, win or lose, succeed or fail, that God in Christ is for me, and that there is nothing--nothing--that can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord.

That is my reality today and it is my hope for every future tomorrow. No matter what happens, God stands before me and calls me His child, welcomes me into His embrace and into His family.

And there's no better time than Christmas to remember that we are triumphant--more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Because the baby Jesus grew up, died, defeated death in His resurrection and now intercedes for us before the Father, you and I are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

He who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. That means that in Christ, you and I are faithful, joyful, and yes, overwhelmingly triumphant.

So come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

The Forgotten Fruit of Faithfulness

It's safe to say that we live in a culture that prizes the concept of "radical."

We--and I definitely include myself in this category--love to think of ourselves as revolutionary firebrands, as if our generation is the cumulative second-coming of a technologically equipped Martin Luther.

We love to glorify the cowboy, the lone ranger, the wild men who break free from the prison bars of a 9 to 5 and a lawn to mow.

While much of this is attitude can be good and necessary, I think that we as Christians are especially prone to exalt a radical out-of-the-box attitude as the newly discovered chief end of man.

It strikes me as odd--and most of all, humbling--then, that the concept of "radical living" in and of itself is nowhere to be found in the Scriptures. Of course, as Jesus steps onto the stage of human history, He delivers one challenge after another that require a radical change at the heart level--akin to being born again--but you won't find Him calling His disciples to become a group of mavericks who renounce convention as a spiritual act in and of itself.

In fact, what the Scriptures hold up as the the normal and practical context of a Christian living out his or her faith is just that: normal and practical.

Maybe, instead of Christ calling His disciples to merely flaunt convention, He's calling us to a change that is deeper than simply quitting a job or selling a house. You don't need to be given a new heart to figure out that the American Dream isn't all it's cracked up to be, but you do need to be given a new heart if you're going to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

This is the kind of change that will result in that increasingly forgotten virtue known as faithfulness.

Now, if you're anything like me, that may not exactly thrill your heart to hear that, because it seems so mundane and ordinary. Faithfulness doesn't sound all that exciting, but for the believer, faithfulness is a clear sign that God is actively working in our lives, producing the fruit that is to be characteristic of His people.

The forgotten fruit of faithfulness is what my friend and former boss, Tim, reminded me of this past year. Tim had originally hired me at Concordia, and I worked under him for a year before he moved onto a different position at the school.

I have all the respect in the world for Tim as a godly man and a leader, and so when I came upon hard times in the past year, I went to him for advice.

After listening to my situation and helping me to think through a couple of different issues, he said something so simple that I was almost tempted to pass it by.

He said, "Jay, God is not calling us to do anything heroic or to be liked by everybody, but He is calling us to be faithful. With His help, I think it's a pretty achievable goal."

A few months removed from that conversation, I'm still getting a bit choked up just remembering those words and the deep, lasting consolation the Lord delivered to my soul that afternoon.

Far from boring and mundane, faithfulness is a miraculous fruit that is produced by God's Spirit in the hearts and lives of believers.

And how does faithfulness show itself? In everyday life, of course.

Faithfulness means answering the bell morning after morning, working hard, paying attention to detail at our jobs, refusing to be distracted and waste our company's time. It means that we are consistent in the time we spend with our families, making that time count by pouring into them and showing them how to walk with the Lord.

Faithfulness also means pursuing relationships that God is putting naturally in our lives; relentlessly loving, knowing and caring for our friends, co-workers and neighbors and ceaselessly praying that God would open a door for His gospel there.

Faithfulness means that we make the most of our time, realizing that time is short and we are on a mission to reach a dying world with the good news of God who has loved us and pursued us even to the point of death so that we might live in Him.

I pray that God would produce this forgotten fruit of faithfulness in me more and more.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." -Galatians5:22-24