By Linzy Slayden
In 1940 and 1941, British author Dorothy Sayers was commissioned to write a series of plays entitled, “The Man Born to be King.” These plays about the life of Jesus were later produced and broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation, but before they were ever heard they caused quite a stir. Some insisted it was sacrilegious to portray the voice of Christ over the airwaves, and many accused Miss Sayers of blasphemy by “personifying the Godhead.” Others objected to the “fictionalized” dialogue that Sayers wrote based on the gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ life. Still others balked at the “modern” language used. But the first play, “Kings in Judea”, was aired in December of 1941, and the public response was overwhelmingly positive.
I am not surprised. You see, when it comes to sheer, powerful storytelling…nothing beats the gospel. There is just no better story, because nothing beats the gospel. There is just no better story, because there is no better Storyteller. “Kings of Judea” was the story of the Incarnation, the birth of Jesus Christ, as seen through the eyes of earthly kings, rabbis, wise men, and shepherds. It took the Christmas story out of the church pews and into the homes of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children who somehow heard it with a brand new attentiveness.
When I read that, I couldn’t help but think of our missionaries on so many different foreign fields telling the story of Christmas in different languages and in new and maybe even unexpected ways to a world that is dying to hear. It is my prayer this holiday season that our Fellowship will somehow tell the story of Christmas in effective ways. I think there is a challenge to all of us to weave the wonder of the Incarnation into every moment of every day. Tell the story. Tell it in real language. Tell it truthfully, but tell it in a way only you can tell. We might tell it in a gesture, a hug, a smile, a story, a song, a gift, or an act of selfless patience. Let’s tell it at home and at special church services. Let’s tell it with all the wonder of the eyewitnesses of that wonderful event that changed human history. We weren’t there, but we can all take a fresh look at the Lord Jesus and tell others what we see.
As we again approach the holiday season, let’s remember our missionaries around the world. As the earthly parents of our Lord left their homes to journey to tiny Bethlehem in the will of God, our missionaries have left their homes to proclaim the fact that He was born and the reason why He came to this world.
The children in a small Sunday school were putting on the annual Christmas pageant. A small girl was chosen to represent the magi. They practiced and practiced until everyone had the story ready to perform for the whole congregation. When it came time for the magi’s entrance, she majestically swept up the aisle, draped in jewels from many garage sales and robes of pieces of all the fine fabrics collected from a local discount store. Pausing and bowing before the infant’s crib she announced, “Greetings, baby, I bring you gifts of gold, circumstance, and mud.”
Isn’t that the truth! That is what life brings to us. Some gold blessings — not just money, but wonderful people, and precious moments we occasionally encounter; circumstance — lots of that, and most unpredictable; and mud — more of that than we want, the bad patches where we and our world sometimes get stuck.
The mud is around us. The news from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other parts of the world is always a cause for concern and prayer. There are so many young Americans separated from their families and living and fighting in difficult and dangerous circumstances far from home. Our missionaries face spiritual, financial, physical, and emotional challenges in different cultures. Here in the U.S. we get the news of H1N1, political and economic issues, just to name a few. Then we include our unique personal situations in whatever ministry the Lord has us in or in whatever country the Lord has us serving.
But despite the mud and the circumstance, there is gold. Maybe it is gathering with family and friends, a Christmas card from a good friend, a Christmas package for a missionary family from a church in the states, a Christmas mission love offering that alleviates financial pressure at least for a while, the special holiday events that create and trigger wonderful memories from long ago, and then there is the message of Jesus Christ. A message the whole world needs to hear in their language.