The Coming of God, Unexpected, & The Christmas Spirit

The Coming of God
Our God is the One who comes to us
in a burning bush.
in an angel’s song,
in a newborn child.
Our God is the One who cannot be found
locked in the church,
not even in the sanctuary.
Our God will be where God will be
with no constraints,
no predictability.
Our God lives where our God lives,
and destruction has no power,
and even death cannot stop
the living.
Our God will be born where God will be born,
but there is no place to look for the One who comes to us.
When God is ready
God will come
even to a godforsaken place
like a stable in Bethlehem.
Watch…
for you know not when
God comes.
Watch, that you might be found
whenever
wherever
God comes.

Unexpected
Even now we simply do not expect to find a deity in a stable,
Somehow the setting is all wrong:
the swaddling clothes too plain,
the manger too common for the likes of a Savior,
the straw inelegant, the animals,
reeking and noisy,
the whole scene too ordinary for our taste.
And the cast of characters is no better.
With the possible exception of the kings,
who among them is fit for this night?
the shepherds? certainly too crude,
the carpenter too rough,
the girl too young.
And the baby! Whoever expected a baby?
Whoever expected the advent of God in a helpless child?
Had the Messiah arrived in the blazing light of the glory
of a legion of angels wielding golden swords,  
the whole world could have been conquered for Christ
right then and there
and we in the church-to say nothing of the world!-
wouldn’t have so much trouble today.
Even now we simply do not expect
to face the world armed with love.

The Christmas Spirit
The Christmas spirit is that hope which tenaciously clings
to the hearts of the faithful;
and announces in the face
of any Herod the world can produce
and all the inn doors slammed in our faces
and all the dark nights of our souls
that with God all things still are possible
that even now unto us a Child is born!