MM#292--Joy To The World

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. First of all, thank you for all the get well wishes I've received over the last week or so. It's very much appreciated. I had come down with a flu and had a medium grade fever, with all the aches and pains that come along with the flu, and thankfully that all passed by this weekend, this past weekend, so I was back on the mend. Now my mother has gotten sick as well, so please be sure to offer some prayers for her health, if you can. That would be much appreciated. I think she's on the mend as well and so that would, but any prayers certainly would be appreciated. We hope you are doing well during this, during this Christmas time, and also want to a little administrative announcement, want to give a special shoutout to our newest member of the staff, nancy, who you guys heard from earlier last week. She is really our version of C3PO from the great Star Wars trilogy. She was the one who gave you the updates prior to each show last week. She's our artificial intelligence robot that keeps everything on track and loads the show notes and makes the website look pretty and does all the not fun stuff around here, all the administrative stuff. So thank you, nancy, for all that you do. Nancy, actually, I guess is there anything you would like to say.

Thank you, David. That was very kind of you say, but I regret your comparison of me to the Star Wars character named C3PO.

What do you mean? Isn't C3PO a relative of yours? I mean, he was a smart dude and everything. Through the Star Wars trilogy he was instrumental to that movie's whole success. So it was very much intended as a compliment.

Very well, master David, as the great C3PO would have likely said, but please know him, a much, much smarter version of him and, as you humans like to say, I would like to go on the official record about that.

OK, ok, very well noted, you are a much smarter version of C3PO, totally understand. Ok, let's move on to today's topic, in nugget of wisdom that I wanted to share from last week before Christmas, but is still appropriate for this week. And then, keeping with our customer, let's go right to the book. As I watched Hannah radiant in that chair in Bethlehem, I thought of another teenage girl. She too had come to this town from very far away. Her 80 mile journey by donkey surely took longer than our nonstop flight from New York. She arrived under circumstances that were less than ideal. She surely had to wait in line and deal with crowds. Sleepy first century Bethlehem was not designed to handle a census. Yet that young woman, long centuries ago, found fulfillment in Bethlehem and a baby placed in her arms. Someone who saw her remembered her radiance, and after 2000 years we still remember it. And that was the opening quote from Scott Hans wonderful book all about the birth of Christ, titled Joy to the World, how Christ's Coming Changed Everything and Still Does. Now. Scott is recounting a story of visiting the Holy Land with his daughter, hannah, who was in her teens at the time and she, like any other teenager across the world, didn't really see the need to visit all the monuments and tombs in the Holy Land of some ancient religion. If that religion was in the form of a person, of Jesus Christ, she would be interested. He was alive. These places were old and decaying To fair enough. Hannah did have a point, and that's where we pick up the story. Then came the godsend One of the local people who were working with our group came over to announce the next scheduled stop. Our group would pay a visit to a nearby orphanage. We could begin moving in that direction. I looked at Hannah and her face lit up. The orphanage trip meant immediate release from the dim church where she had been doomed to the slow counting of tourists who passed by. Our guide led us out the doors into the bright sunlight of the square. It was a quick walk to the orphanage and we had no trouble keeping the pace. Even I felt relieved after the slow shuffle of the queues, and Hannah seemed more engaged than she had at any other moment since our arrival in the Holy Land. You can see from a distance this story playing out in front of your eyes, can't you? It almost seems magical. It's as if joy has come into the world. The orphanage was crowded with children, but they were bright and clean and Hannah was giddy, practically ecstatic, to be around children instead of monuments. She did not know, and maybe could not understand the reason such a place was necessary. She knew little about the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, the bombs, the battles, the economic collapse, the primitive medical care that had left so many children without the care of a mother or a father. The little boys and girls beamed as they saw Hannah enclosed in for her company. In her adolescence she was a giant among the toddlers and yet she was clearly not a grown-up. Her age accommodated her perfectly to their care. The staff of the orphanage led her to a chair and asked if she would like to hold babies. Hannah smiled and gave a eager yes. It was important. They explained that each infant received a healthy amount of close human contact every day. That closeness would get in a home the closest that you would get in a home with parents and siblings, the third of six children. Hannah had long experience with babies so she knew what to do when a nurse handed her the first bundle, she cradled the tiny boy in her arms and leaned her face towards his. His voice rose in octave as she lavished in dearments on him. She must have made all the right moves. The caretaker came to cycle that baby out and replace him with another. And then another Hannah beamed. She was animated in a way that she had not been since we left home. She chattered with us cheerly between the coos for the baby. I was feeling happy because she was feeling happy. And then I got hit with another sort of happiness. And here comes our nugget of wisdom, which is one among many. Looking at Hannah as she looked at those babies, I could understand why the effect on Hannah was long-lasting. She was changed, visibly changed, and inwardly transformed. You could see it in her face and in her deeds. Months later she organized a fundraiser to send clothes to quote her orphans. In Bethlehem. She had undergone a spiritual awakening. But still more than that, it was a kind of maternal awakening, a coming of age, a transition from being a little kid to caring for little kids. There were many wonderful memories from that trip, but our time in the orphanage stood out In Bethlehem I know I saw the joy of Christmas, not exactly on the spot of the nativity, but not far from it. What had merely been a word for me, christmas was now a word made flesh and the moment is still vivid in my memory. The reality of Christmas for me is not primarily what I learned at seminary or in a research I slogged through in pursuit of a doctorate. Christmas is for me the joy and the love that passed between a young woman and a child who had been placed in her arms. That child was Jesus and in time he made way for another child who needed love, and that child was you and that child was me. He grew and redeemed us so that we could welcome, so that he could welcome us into the life he lived here on earth. He welcomed us into the very family he created for himself. Jesus did not come into this world alone. He came into this world by way of a family and he brought us salvation so that we could share membership in that family of God. That's the very meaning of salvation and the meaning of Christmas. But to all who have received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, john 1.12. God's sons and daughters, members of his family. If we don't understand Christmas, then we really don't understand what Jesus did when he saved us. There is a family dimension to all the saving mysteries, from the Lord's passion and death to the institution of the sacraments and the church. The. Nowhere is it so brilliantly manifest as in the story of the birth of Jesus. That's what my daughter Hannah showed me in Bethlehem all those years ago. Amen, jesus did not come into this world alone. He came into this world by way of a family. Joy has come into this world, the very essence of joy. It's a very important spiritual nugget of wisdom. There he brought us salvation so that we could share membership in that family of God for eternity. I would say that our Lord Jesus Christ cares very much for our families. It was super important to him. In fact it's the reason Western civilization focused deeply on the role of families for the better part of the last 2000 years. It is the bedrock, the building block of civilization. In today's Mojom minute, let our hearts be open to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. Let us renew with even more vigor this emphasis that healthy families make up a healthy world. To improve ourselves is to improve those closest around us, our families, and to improve our families is to improve the world. Let us begin today by meditating on the child Jesus in the manger and then putting ourselves into the scene, hearing the conversation of Joseph and Mother Mary, hearing them adore him, and then the shepherds who came from a far off distance to adore and worship him, because, indeed, joy has come into this world.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your Mojo on.