I'm Dreaming of a Brown Christmas

Peanuts, a syndicated comic strip created by Charles M. Schultz running from October 2,1950 to February 13, 2000, the day after the Lord called Schultz home. It is considered to be one of the most popular and influential in the history of American popular culture.

In the 1960s, Robert L. Short interpreted certain themes and conversations in Peanuts as being consistent with parts of Christian theology, and used them as illustrations during his lectures about the gospel, and as source material for several books, as he explained in his bestselling paperback book, The Gospel According to Peanuts.

On December 9, 1965, the classic television special A Charlie Brown Christmas was aired by the CBS network. On many occasions, Peanuts dealt with religious themes. Here Linus van Pelt, the comic strip’s young theologian, quotes the King James Version of the Bible (Luke 2:8-14) to explain to Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about. In his personal interviews, Schulz mentioned that Linus represented his spiritual side.

Schultz was raised in the Lutheran faith. As a young adult and then later he taught Sunday school at a United Methodist Church: he remained a faithful member of the Church of God (Anderson) for the rest of his life.

- Source: Wikipedia.

Let me share with all people of goodwill [or: on whom God’s favor rests] this delightful excerpt:

A Charlie Brown Christmas
courtesy of YouTube.

CHRISTMAS CONTEMPLATION

This Is My Body Which is Broken for You

This is the season when the city is bedecked with star lanterns, tinsel buntings on Yule trees and boughs of holly, and a billion twinkling lights. Buyers and sellers are engaged in a paroxysm of purchases and sales of Christmas gifts for friends and family. Little if any room is prepared for Christ in the hearts of believers who are commemorating His birthday – except perhaps for crèches that are dusted by some from storage to be displayed is some innocuous corner for a few weeks.

As silently calm, bright, even joyful as these Nativity scenes are, they conceal the underlying bitter sweetness of the time: the strenuous forced trip to Bethlehem caused by an oppressive tax census by an occupying foreign power, the tarnished reputation of Mary of Nazareth for her unwed pregnancy [though the Child was divinely conceived], and the difficult [but fully human] delivery in a filthy stable with no one to midwife except the devoted and loving husband Joseph. Forty days later, when Jesus was presented at the Jerusalem temple to be consecrated to the Lord as Mary’s firstborn, an old prophet, Simeon, prophesied, "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too." [Luke 2:34-35] Some two years later, the slaughter of the innocent male infants in Bethlehem two years or younger was ordered by King Herod the Great in an attempt destroy God’s promised Anointed King. It was a very bitter sweet time.

Inconceivable but true. “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” Jesus, always fully God, became fully Man from zygote to embryo to fetus to His glorious birth. Then, “He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” “We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, Who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” [Luke 2:52, John 1:14]

We delight in celebrating birthdays of family and friends, saved or unsaved, because they enrich and gladden our lives. The birth of our True Brother and Faithful Friend is much, much more than that. Full of grace and truth, He teaches us a better, righteous way of living; He restores broken hearts, forgives sins, heals diseases, casts out demons, and redeems us from darkness and death by making possible our rebirth in the Holy Spirit. He fully reveals to us the living, loving and luminous image of God [John 14:9, Colossians 2:9]

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” [Isaiah 9:2] “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” [John 1:4] That is the eternal life. “…so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.” [John 3:13-15]

When Christ came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;” …. "Then He said, 'Here I am, I have come to do Your will.' He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." [Hebrews 10:5, 9-10] “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” [Philippians 2:6-8]

His tortured death on the cross is the penalty He took on our behalf for our sins, once for all. “Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by HIM, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” [Isaiah 53:4-6]

So, that body, born one bitter sweet night in Bethlehem was lifted up on the cross on a hill in Jerusalem, died for our sins, was buried and rose to life again, exactly as God promised. Jesus commands us to constantly remember His body, broken in our behalf and His blood poured out for us. [Matthew 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24, Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:24-26]

Because we shall behold that Body again. "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. [Revelation 22:20]

- End-

Jonseb, Tuesday 18 November 2008.

Mark Lowery sings

'Mary, Did You Know'

Courtesy of YouTube

Nearing the Midnight Hour

"And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him" (Matthew 25: 6)


Darkening sky slides in the deafening absence of sound
as the grayish haze hides faintly-lit stars, beside

the neon-smeared pool, an old man gazes beyond
a swath of the stellar sea, comic book on hand,

as though watching the inky blackness swallows
a cruising capsule-crib, ahead of which flies up,

up in the sky, a hero’s tale that is faster
than a speeding bullet, but there is another story

more compelling, he reminds himself: a bloodied,
impaled body hung limply between the dark,

shrouded sky and the sin-stained ground,
his dying breath ascending like flickering mist

but weighed down instead by the sins
of us all, until the tale gets to the part

of the empty tomb, the body rising above
curdled clouds, below which gaping mouths

grapple for words, the way endless silence speaks
in volume, there is this other way that his dying,

and rising means everything, not just believing,
not just a mystery that keeps him waiting,

but how his scarlet sins turned white as snow, even
as he ponders the promises veiled in portents

and oracles, clues remain hidden between
the lines until the advent of the end-times, nothing

to flush from the pink urinals’ sludge, but how
he sips the cityscape’s bitter after-taste, even

the tisane from slanting rains he sniffs
for indelible signs of his coming, for all

signs are flowing traceries of prophecies
he used to say before humming lullabies

of longing, for there seems to be no end
from this lengthened spell of solitude, this slow

infinite waltz of waiting, even as Orion chases
the Pleaides night after night, hurtling headlong

across charcoal-coated sky, below which
the downbound train of worn-out faces, crashes

on the final bend, the screeching sound a faint
echo of thundering hooves, as his sunken eyes

continue to stare at a patch of the dark sky,
waiting for the rider on a white horse, with a robe

dipped in blood, to descend from the clouds, it is
starting to drizzle, the gentle breeze cools

his craggy face, a thunder rolls overheard,
its sound as audible as the last trumpet call.