O Come Let Us Adore Him, Christ the Lord!
Jesus entered the world in the midst of an ongoing story. For centuries, people had sought answers to life’s fundamental questions. Plato and Aristotle, for all their obvious genius, could not come up with a philosophy for life that took into consideration the whole of the human condition. Thus, they could not provide healing for it. The Greeks and Romans gave it their best shot, as did the Stoics (“just learn to bear with life”) and Epicureans (“seek pleasure in order to attain peace in an otherwise brutal world”).
It was in this frustrated world of despair and spiritual hopelessness that the first Christmas occurred—a powerful light of hope in disorienting darkness. The infant contained a powerful unseen reality. Like a mustard seed growing into a tree, Jesus’ Gospel of the kingdom has become a foundation for gracious, generous and generative living for innumerable people. Jesus is the deliverer that humankind sought for millennia. I still seek him. I still cultivate adoration for him.
A life of adoration does not mean we as Christians engage in denial. Jesus’ birth narrative, the wonders of his love, has a creative, transformative effect upon us, giving us the power to be present to reality. We notice and name what is real. This is never more needed than in our times, an era in which many people fear where the world is going. The current storyline can be bitterly disappointing. Some may even feel like an alien story is being forced upon them.
Christmas carols, capturing the true meaning of Christmas, give us language for adoration in these anxious times:
Yes, the pandemic was the top news story of 2020, and…
Come let us adore him!
Yes, we have lived with disturbing politics, and…
Glory to God in the highest…
Yes, some of us groan under economic distress, and…
He rules the world with truth and grace…
Yes, friends and family are sick, and…
Sing praises to his holy name….
Yes, our culture is divided by many topics, and…
Hail the heaven-born Prince of peace…
Yes, race and immigrant relations seem intractable, and one day…
In his name all oppression shall cease…
Whatever your present circumstance, I join you in worship: O come let us adore Him!
Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Todd Hunter is the founding bishop of The Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others and founder and leader of The Telos Collective. He is past President of Alpha USA, former National Director for the Association of Vineyard Churches, and retired founding pastor of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Costa Mesa, CA. He is the author of Christianity Beyond Belief: Following Jesus for the Sake of Others, Giving Church Another Chance, The Outsider Interviews, The Accidental Anglican, Our Favorite Sins and Our Character at Work.