I have seen the future and it is good. I can be jolly even though this is not Christmas. In fact, it is about as not Christmas as it can be. The Holiday is far enough in the past that we have ceased to think about it, but not close at all.
In fact, thinking about Christmas is necessary. The end of Christmas and Epiphany start the journey to Lent and the Passion of the Christ. There are hard days coming and before they begin we need a little Christmas.
The other reason is the world in which we live. There have been worse times, 1918 or 1939 are good candidates, but not times with greater potential to go bad.
China is ruled by thugs with dreams of world power. North Korea is controlled by a madman. The Middle East is deciding to repeal the last six centuries for bad and worse. Africa looked to be recovering, but now is stumbling back into the ruts that colonialism created. South America is South America and North America is morally confused.
So if you are sad, be encouraged. I woke up this morning pretty sad, but then I remembered a vision I had in HBU’s Dunham Auditorium just before Christmas.* I was listening to selections of Handel’s Messiah, a work we need a good bit more often than Christmas, and I saw something that made me well up.
I saw our students.
There they were: the sixth most diverse student body in the United States creating beauty. I read YikYak and so I know nobody is perfect, but the moment was perfect. The USA has her problems but it is possibl with vision, work, and terrific students to see all races and many religions united by art.
But I think it is not just the art, but the Christian message of the song and of the University. Is it any accident that a Christian faculty can be a safe haven for students to think about all the issues? Our students beliefs are diverse, but our staff and faculty are united in the Truth. This living Truth demands we love our enemies, love our neighbor, and (sometimes hardest of all) love our fellow believers.
Impersonal truth divides, but the Personal Truth of Jesus comes without compromise and with loving power. We see Him and then we know and knowing humbles us. It is no accident that Christians tend to liberty, because we are being liberated from the chief slavery: slavery to our hateful desires.
We know what we believe and it unites us and in that confidence and community we can risk helping hurting Houston…the USA…and the world. I have seen the future and it works. The future is not a socialist paradise governed by the all powerful state, but a community of fallible people serving an infallible Faith in love.
The good news is that this good news isn’t just happening at HBU (though maybe you should be here), but every place where Christ was born and is being born. This is not Christmas, but Christ is in our midst! Hallelujah!
*Here is a shout out to the Pressler family for making this evening possible.
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