Mike Rusch

it’s Christmas morning and things are quiet and peaceful for just a few minutes. The ground outside has a dusting of snow making it the first “white Christmas” that I can remember. The tree is lit & presents are neatly set under the tree. However, the pile is a bit smaller this year as it was the year before.

All is pretty much perfect in this moment, but as I look around there is still something that’s…keeping me restless. If I’m really honest, it feels like Christmas has lost a bit of its luster. The excitement, the presents & Christmas music just doesn’t seem to be what I remember from years past. It’s not that the idea of Christmas has lost its luster, but maybe it is the way it is practiced in my little corner of this world that has left something missing.

Please don’t get me wrong because family and celebration is wonderful; however, It feels like Christmas as I used to know it may have changed. Today I see Santa, the snow outside, the lights on the houses across the street and the traditional Christmas songs for what they are…just something that occupies my attention from the core of what this day is supposed to be about.

I’m sure I sound like some bitter scrooge, and that’s not the intention at all. I just want Christmas to be about…well, Christmas! I try so hard to do that, but it feels like I’m truly up against the world on this one. Our family has played the Santa game for too long, and now it just feels like a cheap substitute for the truth. I want them to know it’s a story & it’s fun to pretend, but at the same time I don’t want to steal any of the magic of this day. So, we let it continue…conflicted.

Even this year I was very conservative about gifts for my wife and yet I still feel like I didn’t do enough. I mean, where does that feeling come from? Sure I love to give because giving is fun, but that’s not really what this day is about. Yet, it feels like I don’t want to risk anyone feeling like I don’t care or don’t appreciate them. Unfortunately, this Christmas has again become about me. About my inability to express what this is all about and be the one that says…enough with what we’ve made it.

As I sit here, the coffee tastes great, it’s beautiful outside and it will be a day that I get to rest and be with family. And, that’s always a good day.

However, the reality of the snow outside that makes my street beautiful is also what causes my homeless friends to suffer. This day of family that I treasure also screams at me that my family isn’t all together. My little girl is not here. The presents that I receive are nice, but I don’t need them. The inflatable Santa on a motorcycle in the yard across the street makes me laugh, but it also reminds me how this day has nothing to do with Santa or a motorcycle.

…and so this morning, I read Luke 2 & Isaiah 58 once again and am comforted to continue moving deeper into what this day is really about. This day is simply about a God who came to be with us. He give all that He had so that I could be a part of His family, and then He asked me to follow Him.

If only I could do the same thing in the world around me this morning. Maybe then I would really have peace with knowing what Christmas is truly about. Not just in my head, but made real by my actions.

…this baby’s entrance into the world should simply change everything, so today I begin again moving forward in the hope that this would be made true in my life.

one final thought…when Jesus was given the opportunity to share why He had come (Luke 4:18), he echoed the words of the prophet saying they had been now fulfilled.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

May we all move forward with this same purpose…

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas & pray that “the year of the Lord’s favor” will be proclaimed.

“a life of return” a post on Christmas Change

Epiphany…appearance, manifestation, Word made flesh

Jan 6th is celebrated as Epiphany which is the time that is traditionally used to mark the ending of Advent when Jesus was revealed to the three kings.  So, today it is appropriate to pause for a moment and remember that Jesus was revealed to the world as King

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us”

However, my favorite translation of John 1:14 is from the Message

“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”

I think a lot of us understand the “becoming flesh & blood” part, but what about Jesus “moving into the neighborhood”?

The neighborhood that Jesus entered into was broken, hurting and in desperate need of a future and a hope.

However, I contrast that with the neighborhood I moved into.  Honestly, my neighborhood looks…well, opposite of that.

My neighborhood has wide streets for the kids to play in, a community pool, a neighborhood watch and regulations to make sure I quickly fix the door on my mailbox so it doesn’t become an eyesore. I am not saying any of these things are bad or that people shouldn’t enjoy such things (we should all enjoy such things).

I am just reflecting my actions and those of this King because if I am to be the foreshadowing of a coming Kingdom maybe it is time that I also “moved into a neighborhood” that is in desperate need of a future and a hope.

A month ago I began asking people why they chose to live in the house they currently occupy. The answers were very interesting…

“it had three bedrooms”

“it was a great neighborhood”

“the property value was increasing”

“great school district”

…all of these things are great, but what I did notice was the lack of answers related to “because it was a neighborhood in need and I wanted to help.” This included my own response to the question I asked.

Epiphany…appearance, dwelling, presence, neighborhood.

maybe…just for a moment (in a very safe place) we could consider how our communities would change if we were the present foreshadowing of this coming Kingdom in the neighborhoods of our community that are in desperate need of a future and a hope.

E. Stanley Jones once wrote “The Word must become flesh or the Word is a vast question mark.”

Thankfully, the Word did become flesh and now there is hope.

The question is now to us today. How does the Word become flesh and blood in our small corner of the world?

Maybe it means we “move into the neighborhood”?

a song & thought for today

The following is an excerpt from Matt Maher’s blog post “you can’t have one without the other” about Good Friday…

Palm Sunday, and Holy week are around the corner. But we call one Friday a year “good”. It’s the day that Jesus was nailed to a Cross for all man’s transgressions; and on that particular day, most of us now celebrate what happens two days later, on Easter. By that, i mean we don’t know how to enter into the Passion of Jesus, so we just party our way through good Friday. But Friday’s not Sunday, and Sunday’s not Friday. So why are we doing the same thing?

Why? i wonder if in our attempts to make this good Friday more “approachable”, it’s lost some of it’s meaning - and in that, we lost a gift to give to the human race - what to do with their suffering.  For it is in the midst of suffering, in the yelling at God, “Why? Where were You? How could You let this happen”…that we remember He is on the Cross in those times - suffering for us, but also suffering with us. The cross was a timeless act: once, for all, covering all of human kind as the blood of Jesus stretched out over all of human history. Jesus carried all of sin, but also in it, gave suffering meaning, because He Himself suffered.

Take a moment to read his full blog post & let his song “You Were on the Cross” allow those of us following the way of the Christ to enter into the brokenness of this day.