GOD OR HUMAN

Advent is gone now. So is Christmas 2019. Now we look forward to the New Year and a new decade. Will we continue in the ways of the old year, or will we repent (change our minds) for the New Year?

Much of what we do is not God’s plan or idea for us. We can know His mind because He wrote it to us in a book called the Holy Bible. When we read it, we discover His mind, His thoughts, His plans. Many folk will make New Year’s resolutions and, if you are like me, will have broken them before the month of January is over But, let’s not look ahead until we look back a bit. Christmas has evolved into something God never intended. All of the focus is on Santa Claus, tree trimming, presents and food. Jesus should be the focus. We sing about the angels singing. I don’t want to burst your bubble, but no where in the Bible do angels SING. They speak, they announce, they talk – but they don’t sing. WE sing. Beginning with Exodus and probably before that, the people sang the praises of God. Why do WE need to sing and the angels don’t? Because we were created with a sin nature that the coming of Jesus wiped away from us. The angels were created perfect, no sin nature to be saved from. Angels singing is a human-made creation that began long ago by some romantic poet who used it to create rhyme. What else can you rhyme with KING, but SING. So, to the poet, the angels sang. But they didn’t. They spoke, told, announced. Not sing. This is a trivial matter in some people’s eyes, but where do we stop making human ideas our tradition?

Another example of human tradition taking over is the coming of the magi from the east to follow the star. If you will read Matthew 2, you will see that they came to a house. Not to the stable. Perhaps this was the same house that was used for an inn during the census. The house belonged to the tribe of Judah, Joseph and Mary’s ancestors, so maybe when the crowd left, they moved their baby into the house. And then the Magi came about 2 years after Jesus was born. It took them that long to make the journey. Yet we have manger scenes where the magi are in the stable along with the shepherds. When my children were young, we always put the magi and camels on a different table or setting than the shepherds and Holy Family to signify that they came later.

You see, God’s timing is always perfect. He knew that Herod would seek to kill His Only Begotten Son, so He sent the Magi with expensive gifts at the right time. The gifts were meant to be travelling money when Joseph had to take his family down to Egypt until the threat of death blew over. And that’s what they did.

None of these human traditions are ‘wrong’, but somehow they miss the point of God’s total control of any situation. Even to having eastern magi come and provide for His Son’s trip to Egypt. Amazing! When we give our lives over to the One God Who rules the universe, He is able to do for us what we never thought of. He ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts so it is best to follow His plans, His ways, His thoughts because He plans in the minutest detail. Remember than when you are making resolutions for the New Year. God has His own plans and needs you to be on His side.

Rev. Joyce Kaplan, M.Div, Retired United Church of Christ Pastor.