Not So Trivial

Many of you "up North" probably missed the fact that January 4th was "National Trivia Day" in the United States. I can assure you, with my tendency to amass piles of absolutely useless information (The only number whose letters are in alphabetical order is 40: f-o-r-t-y), I did not. In fact, I celebrated by reading at least two articles whose only purpose was to allow me to interject trivia into future conversations.

Su can hardly wait.

Actually, we could be excused for missing National Trivia Day here in Costa Rica because we still find ourselves in a rather extended celebration of Christmas. Now this will not be surprising for those of you who possess the bit of trivia that in several Latin America countries January 6th is "El Dia de los Reyes" or, Three Kings Day. The date marks the culmination of the twelve days of Christmas and commemorates the three wise men who traveled from afar, bearing gifts for the infant Jesus. In particular, the children of Mexico look forward to this holiday because it means they will get at least one more gift.

It's hard to not like a holiday that provides you more gifts.

Our own celebration as been extended because the Christmas cards that many of you sent to us continue to arrive at our local post office. I really believe there may be a rule in Costa Rica stating we are not allowed to receive our Christmas cards until the New Year. Seriously. Some of you sent cards to us at the end of November which we finally read this week!

The extension of the Christmas season does serve one purpose. During the days leading up to Christmas we all tend to be a bit sentimental regarding the holiday... perhaps, it really is possible to see It's A Wonderful Life one too many times! Extending the season allows us to meditate on some of the other aspects of our Lord's birth - some of the things that we do not normally think about.

This week I have been thinking about the people and interest groups which probably did not believe the Messiah's birth was good news. In fact, His birth probably provoked the kind of threatening change that understandably led to resistance.

Herod created an empire that focused on a massive building program meant to immortalize him. He was cruel and unjust. Certainly, it wasn't good news for Herod to hear about the birth of a new king.

The birth of Jesus was not good news for the Romans. The accusation that Christianity accelerated the end of the Roman empire probably holds some water. Introducing a radical, new cosmology into daily life certainly did not promote unity.

Obviously, the Good News was bad news for the religious folk like the scribes and the Pharisees. Their whole life-style pre-supposed being able to control people through religious tradition and rules. People who like rules do not take to rule-breakers.

Trust me. I know.

In Matthew 10:35 Jesus stated that He did not come into His creation to bring peace. He did not become incarnate to create warm, fuzzy feelings or, even, holiday films. Instead,  He came to divide and sever. In fact, this loss of peace and increase in loneliness is probably the natural cost of discipleship. (10:37.38) 

It was none other than Shakespeare who, in part, popularized the use of "trivia" to describe something as trite, commonplace or unimportant. Before his time it was primarily used to describe a liberal arts education. Of course, some people are of the opinion that the latter and former are one in the same. 

There was nothing commonplace or unimportant about our Lord's birth. It did divide creation's history in two. It did separate families, one from another. It still demands that we would be willing to respond to it and Him by picking up our cross and following Him.