some are one trick ponies
but we embrace em
The holidays are a bit of a crucible. Aren’t they?
During the holidays our greatest expectations next to our most dreaded ones! Of colliding our biggest joys with our greatest disappointments. So much hope and expectation are crammed into the days ahead. Loading each and every moment with demands and to do’s.
…So yes, the days ahead are a bit of a crucible.
Now, the etymology of crucible is cross. And for those of us who worship a crucified savior that ought to give us a little hope!
And here it is: When Jesus made the cross his throne, each and every cross lost their power to kill! Now they have become instruments of resurrection!
The days ahead are a crucible. A cross. And what that means is there’s a blessed way to live into them. Or rather, a blessed way die into them. The blessed upside-down way of our savior!
Which is good. Because if your schedule isn’t upside-down yet, it’s about to be. Or didn’t you know Thanksgiving is only three days away???
All of November I’ve been telling you the holidays are about to make mincemeat out of you. And today I have to tell you, unless you’ve already put everything in order; it’s too late. It IS going to happen. The buzzer’s already rung, you just haven’t hear it yet.
…Now I don’t mean stuff like getting the turkey in the oven or having made the big grocery run. That’s the easy stuff. Isn’t it?
No, I mean the stuff that matters; like having your relationships in order. Having the awareness not to stick your own foot in your mouth this year!
And seeing as we spend our entire lives trying to master this stuff, I think I can safely assume you haven’t got it all together yet. Have you?
Okay. Well, that means it’s too late for all of us. None of us have any chance of pulling off the perfect Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s or all three this year…
But, now that you can’t have that, you’re finally ready to have real one!
On this side of heaven, there’s no such thing as perfection. It doesn’t exist. And trying to make your holidays perfect, will only make them worse! But, now that you’re not trying to make one, you have half a shot at getting a real one! A really good one, even!
A holiday that is actually, well, holy!
…I know! It’s cruel to spend the month telling you, you can’t have the the perfect Thanksgiving. And then, right when it’s too late to do anything else, telling you, you can have something better. But that’s the way crucibles, crosses work! They hide NEW life in death!
Hiding on the wrong side of too late, is the new life that blossoms from resurrection. The new life you really want this Thanksgiving!
You can have a Christmas for the ages. But, it will only come, once you stop trying to make it happen!
This sound counter-intuitive, I know. But, that’s how the cross works!
They are counter-intuitive! They’re upside-down to our way of doing things!
And that’s a promise you can hang on to in the crucible of the days ahead!
So long as the holidays are something you must manage, they will only ever be one more thing to stress over!
Your family members will not be family, they’ll mere people you must control. The meal will not be a feast of thanksgiving, but one more obligation you must meet.
Once you’ve lost command of the holidays, though; once there’s nothing you can do to make them come out aright; then they will come back to you! And they will come back to you, not as chores, but as gifts to receive!
Which is what makes the holidays, truly holy! That they come as good and gracious gifts FROM God!
Now that it’s too late for you to make any difference, you can finally receive the holidays as they were meant to be! As gifts!
And when that happens, you can finally be able to accept your loved ones for the flawed people they are. Flawed people a lot like you and me! You can receive the feast, not as one more thing to stuff a little more into, but as a good and holy gift given by God. A gift you get to share with your loved ones!
…The secret to peace and joy this holiday season isn’t more effort, but less. Ideally, none! So little the the world will consider you dead. But, hidden in that death will the the new life only God can give!
Isn’t that the heart of the holy Gospel we’ve been baptized into?
That God is for those who can’t save themselves! For those who are on the wrong side of too late. For those who don’t have the power to make the days ahead come out aright!
We’ve bought into a false gospel of self-improvement. And all we have to show for it are all the new things we’ve found to bicker about over the table!
But, now that it’s too late for you to make any last minute improvements, may the news that it’s too late ring as Good News to you today!
May it free you from the need to try and make things come out the way you think they should. May it empower you to receive everything the days ahead have to offer as the good and holy gifts from God they are!
…That’s how it went for Josiah in today’s scripture, too.
Today’s scripture is a crucible moment. And Josiah was someone who lived their entire life under the cross.
He began ruling at the tender age of eight. And the reason he was anointed so young, was because his father, Amon, was assassinated.
And Amon wasn’t assassinated for his innocence. No, the book of Kings notes, “Amon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”
And that wickedness in Josiah’s family-tree ran deep, apparently. It was Josiah’s grandfather, Manasseh, who took the cake for doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Practicing child sacrifice.
Josiah was born with all that against him. And if that wasn’t enough, he was expected to rule at age eight!
From that auspicious beginning, though, Josiah rose to become one of the great kings of Israel!
…Now, Josiah’s crucible came during an ordinary day. As they so often do.
During scheduled temple maintenance, a book was found. The book of the Law. Presumably Deuteronomy.
As the book was read to the king, it became clearer and clearer to everyone the he and the people were in a bad way. That they had been breaking God’s commandments for a while.
So, Josiah sent an envoy to the prophet-ESS, Huldah; to ask her about the fate of Israel. And she confirmed the nation’s apostasy. And the coming disaster.
She told the envoy it was too late. That there was NOTHING they could do to make any difference. Nothing would avert the disaster.
She adds, though, that God had taken notice of Josiah. And so Josiah was going to get to die.
…How’s that for cold comfort?
“Yes, it’s too late. But don’t worry. You’re going to get to die before all that happens…
But, right when it was too late; new life breaks through! With the death sentence in hand, Josiah was set free of every odd he had to beat! Because he couldn’t anymore!
Once he had nothing left to win, he was free to receive everything God had to give!
The rest of chapter 33 tells of all the reforms Josiah went on to enact…
And that’s how it is for us, too!
Once faith in ourselves dies, faith in God is born! Once we lose everything, Jesus finally wins it all! And gracious victor that he is, he turns around and gives us his cross-shaped victory!
That’s what happened to Josiah. Once he LOST it all, everything fell into place! If it wasn’t for Josiah, it’s hard to imagine what the fate of the faith we’ve been adopted into would have been!
Here’s the upside-down part, though, Josiah could only do all that, once it was too late for him! Once he couldn’t make any difference, he could finally let God make all the difference!
…May you have that cross-shaped blessing in the days ahead.
I hope you have the Thanksgiving, the Christmas, or the New Year’s of your dreams. I pray you can get out of your own way. That you might receive everything the days ahead have in store, not as one more thing you must manage, but as a gift.
Even the hard parts, the crucibles.
This is hard to do, I know. But it’s too late to do anything else, anyway! You’re already dead in the water. You have no power to change the course of the days ahead.
And, hidden in that death, is the new life you have been baptized into! Hidden on the wrong side of too late, is the one in whom time is fulfilled!
What’s more, you’ve ALREADY been given him and all he has to offer! In him you already have the new life, that really IS life! The life that comes, not by effort, but grace!
Receive all this and more in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Happy Thanksgiving!
...And if you’re thinking, “Whoah! Wait a minute! I’m not ready;” good! That just means you have everything God needs to make the holidays truly holy! To make this Thanksgiving Day a day you can’t help but give thanks for!
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