Why It's Not Normal Rockwell That We Need

I was talking with a friend this week about the deep sense of yearning that we are all feeling these days. We’re all yearning for the return to “normal,” when we don’t have to wear masks, when we can go out to eat, when we can go to concerts and sporting events, and, most of all, when we can gather with loved ones and actually hug them.

We’re especially conscious of this yearning now, as we think about Christmas 2020, another austere holiday truncated by pandemic protocols, cutting back on travel and group size. And we look forward to next year, when all this will be behind us, when we will remember these troubled days the way we remember a bad dream, when we can once again renew our holiday traditions.

And if we were only Americans, that would be the extent of our yearning. We would be looking forward to a time when we could again enjoy the nostalgia of days gone by, an experience of Christmas more along the lines of Norman Rockwell’s nostalgic vision for American life.

But we’re not just Americans. Before we are Americans, we are Christians. And our sensibilities are shaped not just by pop culture but also – primarily – by the teachings of Scripture. And from Scripture we know that there never really were any “good old days” when all was right and good for all people. Everything about the human experience has always been tainted by the brokenness of our world and the corruption of our own hearts.

So the yearning of Christ-followers takes on a different cast. Of course, like many others in our culture, we see in Jesus the paradigm of the Perfect Man, the exemplar whose life inspires us to be our best selves. But knowing ourselves and knowing the Scripture, we are grateful that Jesus was far more than that.

We know that Jesus didn’t come to show us how to live. If that was all he came to do, then he came only to ensure our condemnation. We didn’t need his perfect example to convince us that we cannot even live up to our own expectations.

No, the entrance of Christ onto the stage of human history was far more disruptive than the introduction of the Perfect Man. The birth of Christ was the announcement of God’s Kingdom had finally come. Jesus’s time on earth was the D-Day of the spiritual war that has been fought on our planet since the days of the first man and woman. Just as D-Day turned the corner on that great global conflict, Christ’s victory over the power of death and sin has shown us how the story of human history will end.

So what we yearn for is not just the restoration of the old ways. Of course, we will rejoice with everyone else when we can once again celebrate Christmas with one another. But Christmas is more than nostalgia; it is a reminder to us that we yearn for something entirely new. We look forward to that glorious, catastrophic moment when all that is wrong is made right and all that is wounded is healed.

And this expectation of what is coming ripples throughout the pages the New Testament:

Peter wrote, “We wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13).

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has it, “For we do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

And the Scripture closes with John’s glorious vision: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away” (Revelation 21:1-4).

So, yes, we too are yearning for better days. But our hope is fixed not just on what happened in the past – how we used to celebrate Christmas, not even the coming of the Christ child. Our Christmas hope is fixed on what Christ’s first coming means: he will come again, and he will finally set things right.

And that Coming is what we yearn for most deeply.

So we say to the Babe who first came to us in the manger, “Even so, come quickly.”

Persevere,
Pastor Paul Pyle
Discipleship Pastor

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