Starting the Season

The Wonderful Wisdom of Christmas

Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1-5

As the prophet Isaiah gained insight into the working of God, he saw a coming child, one who would be the Messiah of God, one who would lead the people of God into the fulfillment of all the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This child would reveal four great sides of God for all people—Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace—each a facet of God revealing a particular intervention and intercession on our behalf. Over the next four weeks, we will be looking at each of these revelations closely, for we are a people who believe this promises child was Jesus of Nazareth, born to Mary and Joseph, who redeemed all the world in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension to glory as the Christ of God. 

We begin with Wonderful Counselor.

On one level, take this title absolutely at face value. A counselor is someone we seek when we need help finding our way. Our congregation is chock-full of counselors, both medical professionals like psychiatrists and psychologists and therapists deeply rooted in pastoral and pyschotherapeutic techniques like marriage and family therapists and pastoral counselors. We also have several pastors whose education included teaching in pastoral care, the spiritual art of listening, praying, and interceding for others. And, of course, we have pews full of folks just good at being wise friends. We seek these people when we need help to find a direction, answer questions, and solve the conundrums of human existence. All such counsel flows from God, whether we acknowledge it or not. God is the source of all wisdom from common sense to the most esoteric of therapies for mental illness. In ancient practice, theologians and worshippers alike were far more comfortable naming God simply Wisdom (sophia in Greek, and hokhmah, in Hebrew). So, the Wonderful Counselor would be that person who perfectly embodied the wisdom of God and was able to communicate that wisdom to all of us in way that we, too, could live according to its dictums.

This concept, hopefully, is not one too hard for us to grasp. Part of our daily faith is finding the means by which to meet each day with its simple graces, common joys, but also its frustrations and irritations in a way that does no harm, that furthers the grace and love found, and helps us end the day with knowing thanksgiving for having made it through still a child of God. 

We need that at this time of year, a season that has become, sadly, a festival of stress, complications, and fervor that continually threatens to overwhelm us. There is the commercial pressure to cover all the real joy of Christ’s birth with tinsel, glitz, and bling—only big price tags communicate “real” love. There is the run through holiday parties, gatherings, and meals that sometimes threaten to unravel as pressure builds to make sure every person there is so fully sated and entertained that nothing else compares. There is family stress of being sure the right relatives are in the right room at the right time, avoiding conflict and arguments. And there are the absences—the people no longer present. That hollowness hurts. God’s wisdom helps. Align with love, compassion, and grace. Allow yourself to pause, sit, and be still. All else can wait. All else can be set aside for time with God to refocus, recenter, and recalibrate priorities. Align yourself with love that redeems, reconciles, and resurfaces our rough spots.

But how?

This is where we allow Christ as Wonderful Counselor to transcend face value. Jesus of Nazareth was also the Word made flesh—God himself with us. As such, Christ showed us a way to tap into the transcendence, particularly when the world as it is seems so overwhelming and so overpowering as to drown any sense of wonder, joy, and hopefulness.

Jesus taught great parables revealing this wisdom, but even more profoundly, he lived them. Return to the Gospel stories this season—not the Nativity stories—the stories that show Jesus meeting life. There we find the Wonderful Counselor writ large. First, note how often Jesus simply stepped aside to be alone with God. What is so comfortingly real here is that Jesus did so when he was stressed, tired, or overwhelmed himself (yes, Jesus could get overwhelmed). Without hesitation or guilt feelings, Jesus went alone to pray. Do that—it is okay, and it will make your participation better, I promise. Second, Jesus dealt with difficult people and difficult situations a lot. But he handled them with love. Sometimes he did indeed tell somebody to straighten up, but in a way that allowed it to happen (dispersing a crowd intent on murder [Jn. 8:1ff.]). Sometimes he reminded others of the real important bit in whatever was happening (teaching resentful disciples what love really meant [Mk. 14:1-9]). And sometimes it was refusing to play into the stress apparent (so many times when Jesus refused to take the bait from Pharisees intent on conflict). Follow these wisdoms—employ them as we meet the inevitable conflicts and conundrums. 

As we allow the Wonderful Counselor to guide us, the more light appears in our darkness; the more warmth flows into our hearts; the more open we become to one another and the world around us; and the more we are able to fully enter the joy and wonder that is Christmas.

And this is what Christmas is all about. It is annual moment to rekindle our awareness of the presence of God in each and every day. Isaiah was seeking to proclaim just this message to a people overwrought with anxiety. Their kingdom was tossed to and fro by international war and crisis. Their hope faded. Their sense of God’s presence nearly vanished. But the prophet, tuned into God, found light in the darkness. A child was coming. A child who would be God revealed for all of them. They needed to wait, watch, and listen. It was coming. Once again, God asks us to do the same. Please listen.