Merry Christmas in Unhappy Times
All glory, laud and honor to the Redeemer King
to whom the lips of children their glad hosannas ring!
Jesus is the auto-basileia and the auto-aletheia, the kingdom of God in person and the truth of God in person. Jesus is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament who unites past, present and future. “For out of thee O Bethlehem shall come the ruler of the nations” (Micah). “Comfort, comfort, my people” (Isaiah 40), he has reconciled us with God, the Creator out of nothing. Jesús is the Light of the world, the true bread, the door, the shepherd, eternal life, the way, the truth and the life.
In the Sermon on the Mount, he beatifies the poor and proclaims the new laws of conversion or metanoia. In his parables, he describes the present and future kingdom of God The smallest mustard seed grows into the greatest tree under which all birds find shelter. The merchant sells all he has and buys the field upon finding the pearl of great price.
Jesus warned of the Great Apostasy, the Great Tribulation, when the hearts of many would grow cold amid famines, false prophets and false teachers. Ebenezer Scrooge and Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer carry the day once again. The misanthrope imagines himself as a great genius, the only one who understands banks, the economy and foreign relations!
Hating taxes and hating the UN leads to misanthropy where human rights are subordinated to Lolita Express and lies, narcissism and profit maximization drown out truth and where social justice is forgotten and only the propertied have enforceable rights.
Hope sets us apart from the rest of creation. We can go beyond everything past and present in the power of the coming, the power of promise and anticipation (Jurgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope).
We have dual citizenship and should “obey God more than man” (Acts) when the media and the state are only infatuated with themselves and make criticism and alternatives taboo.
Darkness and loss seem omnipresent, not merry and bright. America is rich in things and poor in soul, expert at judging the elections of other countries and inert and anemic at rectifying its own moral and political bankruptcy!
