ADVENT2012

JR. Forasteros - September 10, 2015

A Screen Between Us

Social

When there's a screen between us, it becomes easier to ignore our humanity. On one hand, we bully, shame and blame online much more readily than if we are face-to-face. On the other hand, because of this culture of online shaming, we rarely express our full selves online. Our social media selves are carefully-curated versions of ourselves we think the internet will approve of. How can we use our screens to facilitate life-giving relationships rather than hide from them?

From Series: "Social"

Most of us don't connect new technologies to our faith. After all, Jesus never had a Facebook profile. He didn't post on Instagram or even have a smartphone. No wonder we struggle to imagine the Bible has anything to say about this Brave New World we live in. But we can think theologically about the technology in our lives. We can learn not a new set of rules (How many episodes per day is too many when I'm binge-watching? How old should my kids be before they get smartphones?), but rather how to ask the right questions. Do our technologies help us bring about God's surprising, mustard seed kingdom here on Earth as it is in Heaven? How are our screens spiritual? Welcome to SOCIAL.

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You know. This scene.
You know. This scene.

There’s a scene that pretty much every Christmas movie includes at some point (usually toward the end of Act II). The protagonist is down on his or her luck, and has just stumbled upon a window. They look inside and see a perfectly happy family, tall, perfect Christmas tree in the corner, a big, crackling fireplace, a big pile of gifts and plenty of laughter.

And the protagonist stands outside, looking in. Separated from all the warmth, laughter and love. Of course this usually happens at the low point in the story, when the hero is about to learn some valuable lesson that will enable them to save Christmas and rejoin their loved ones at their own fireplace scene.

Because the message is that Christmas is happening inside, where the fire is so delightful. Not outside where the weather is frightful.

This understanding of Christmas, as the warm places full of love and cheer, runs deep, so that even our nativity scenes look so peaceful and serene.

We forget that the first Christmas was anything but warm and peaceful. We forget that everyone around the manger is an outsider. That the nativity scene is filled with people who didn’t belong anywhere else. People who’d been left standing outside in the cold.

We forget – or maybe never actually thought about – the fact that when God came to the World, he didn’t come to the cozy fireplaces. He came to the outsiders, to the left-out. Jesus is outside.

In our sterilized, commercialized Christmas culture, that’s a hard thing to imagine. That Jesus would come into the darkness, rather than into the warmth and light. Yet that’s just how the Scriptures describe the first Christmas.

And more importantly, we are called to go out into the darkness. To join Jesus outside. This is our sacred calling.

Join us Sunday as John 1 and Revelation 10 teach us a different way to celebrate Christmas!

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