Born to Rule
Some unsentimental things to remember about Christmas. (And some fun for balance.)
On St. John’s Day this past Saturday, I delivered a brief eulogy for a friend who had a terrible car accident at 20 and then lingered on for years, I think in a coma though I am unsure what is a coma and what isn’t.
That it was St. John’s Day prompted me to cite two passages from John’s Apocalypse. It being two days after Christmas Day, I quoted Revelation 12:5:
And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.…
Christ was born in a manger, not to make us sentimental, not so we would go on frantic bouts of Christmas shopping, not even to give us excuses to eat and drink too much. Christ was born to rule. And part of His rule — a very important part for us! — is to conquer sin and death.
So death does not get the final say. Christ gets the final say.
St. John’s Day also prompted me to recall that time when Jesus told John something so important, he told John to write it down.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. (Rev. 21:5)
Jesus really wants us to know and remember this! And it is a great comfort to know that I will get to see my friend Neil, bedridden for fourteen long years, made new. As I mentioned in my eulogy, he will probably then have some fun at my expense, knowing him. And I will love it.
Much, much more can be and has been said about Christmas and the Incarnation. But the above two aspects are particularly helpful for me to remember. For I am of a age when, though in excellent health and likely with years to go, it is too obvious my body is declining, dying really. That unhappy knowledge would be all the more unhappy without the hope of Christ making “all things new.”
I sometimes tell youth and young adults that “Behold, I make all things new” means more to you when you get older. It sure does!
It calms me in a different way to know Christ shall “rule all nations with a rod of iron.” I see the enormities committed in the West and in my country; I see those enormities enabled and sometimes committed by governments that should instead wield justice against them — and I get sorely provoked and angry. And I see that anger has the potential to warp and harm me if I do not put it aside or at least greatly control it.
I look inside myself and can too easily imagine the less controlled and even greater anger that many men must have against the criminality, tyranny and treason around us. And I think we may be on the edge of widespread vigilante justice with disturbing consequences.
I may revisit that black pill another day. But we do not want to go there. I do not want to go there, even internally. So it is important to recall that Christ rules and shall rule and shall execute perfect justice in the end. Criminals and tyrants and traitors who do not repent will get theirs and far better than we can give it to them. And that knowledge calms me.
Does that make me a bad Christian? Well, I guess I am a bad Christian then.
But even us bad Christians can be made better by remembering that injustice does not get the final say. Nor does death get the final say. Christ gets the final say. Among the reasons we can and should rejoice in Christmas is that Christ was born to rule. He rules and shall rule. And that knowledge assists us in ruling our anger and fears.
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Well, that wasn’t exactly tinsel and candy canes, was it. So as a bonus, something light-hearted.
The day after my friend’s funeral, the First Sunday after Christmas and also Holy Innocents Day, I attended a favorite parish of mine, St. Joseph Anglican New Braunfels. I was also the crucifer for Mass — they always put me to work!
One of the hymns was In the Bleak Mid-Winter with “snow upon snow” and all that. Now, it had been unusually warm for about a week, with highs in the 70s and even 80s. So we were poking some fun at that choice for a Christmas hymn. I immediately got an idea for a South Texas adaption, began it right there to much amusement, and completed it after I got back home. So here is the South Texas verse of In the Bleak Mid-Winter:
In the bleak mid-winter. Eighty-five degrees.
We live in South Texas. Turn on the AC.
Forty is cold here, and what the hell is snow?
Legend said snow happened lonnnnnng ago.
Just give me credit or discredit with a link if you use it. And keep having a Happy Christmas.