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Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year? I guess this is a confusing time of the year. What are we celebrating this week? We are between the celebrations. It is easy to feel lost in the holiday shuffle. We have officially entered the no man’s land of time between Christmas and New Years. It is neither fish nor fowl. Sort of like me. I am a Jewish believer in Jesus. Some Jews think I’m too Christian to be Jewish, while some Christians think that I’m too Jewish for the church. Did you ever feel like there was no room at the inn, and the manger is getting’ a little crowded too. Well, in a few days the manger goes back into storage and the lights get taken down. It’s a time for folks to take a deep breath between the celebrations and await the inevitable credit card bills that haunt the end of January like the supercharger ghost of Christmas passed. One holiday is still in our rearview mirror, while the next is approaching faster than a bargain hunter hitting the clearance tables after long lines of Christmas returns. Well, I think this calls for a little reflection. So allow me to introduce myself and welcome you to “CrossTalk. My name is Randy Weiss. And like I said, I am a Jewish guy that believes in Jesus.

With all of the hectic holiday activities, I hope that Jesus didn’t get lost in the shuffle. Let me remind you that Jesus is Lord and He vuz such a nice Jewish boy. We just celebrated His birth. It was marked on everyone’s calendar. But His return will not be found in your datebook. Man’s measure of time shifted from BC to AD on the hinge of His birth in Bethlehem. Yet I must ask you this, is it remembered annually but forgotten daily? Do you celebrate a babe in a manger, or the man on a Cross? This is a great time to ponder a few sincere questions as we cross this time bridge between the festivals. Once again, our calendars are about to turn from an old year to a new year. But before that clock strikes 12 and everyone cheers, are you really prepared for this New Year. If the holiday rush is stealing your peace, take a deep breath, and relax with me as we remember a forgotten Christmas father and a special prayer vigil of Jesus.

Perhaps this eclectic mix of insight, challenge, and a reading from the Bible will help us transition from holiday memories to hope for tomorrow. However, awkward as this might be, will you permit me to begin with a confession? Do you ever find yourself getting distracted while reading the Bible? I ask because recently, it happened to me and it probably happens more than I care to admit in a public forum. Now preachers aren’t supposed to be distracted when reading the Bible, but who are we kidding? It happens. The question is, “Why?”

Well, I guess it can be hard to remain engulfed in a text birthed in a world from which we are thousands of years removed. The literature was written in ancient languages that lose a little luster or clarity in the translations. With the passing of so many centuries, the context sometimes seems foreign. Ancient Judaism lived alongside neighboring cultures that are long ago extinct. Yet these societies and their residents fill the pages of the Bible. It is their stories that we read. Yet their stories often seem distant without a tour guide to bring the story to life when the Holy Spirit seems distant.

Now these are not excuses. They are more like legitimate hurdles to overcome. That is why every good Bible teacher has the responsibility to carry his listener from the modern world, back into antiquity. We need to help each reader crank up a time machine and return to that ancient world. That is where the Bible comes alive. But how do we transport ourselves when we travel alone? How do we shift our thoughts back into the first century world of ancient Israel where our Jewish Messiah lived? That is the challenge. Somehow, that is what is required to make sense of the Scriptures. But some days I just get lost in the moment. How about you? Do the current events eclipse the age old stories as you read the Bible? Does this ever happen to you? It happened to me again on the morning after Christmas. I was doing my Bible study at a local coffee shop when my cell phone rang. Now I’m not gonna kid you. My mind had already been wandering, but the call completely shut down the time machine. I moved directly back into the 21st century and left Jesus in the red ink of my Bible. I made a quick mental note to return to verse 12 and proceeded to allow the interruption to become my primary focus. A few minutes later when I went back to the text, I was so far removed from the story line that I was just seeing words on a page. Have you ever been there? Do you ever get distracted during your Bible studies? I mean have you ever found yourself reading without understanding a single thing you had just read? If so, then you know where my head was one morning on the day after Christmas.

The Bible story had faded into a blur of words on a page. The process had deteriorated into required reading-- a perfunctory act of discipline in case God was watching. Ouch! Well, I read the verse again, sort of disoriented, realizing that I had not understood a thing. “And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). I thought about Jesus in the garden of Gethesemane. My attention turned from my phone call to the sufferings of my Savior. I thought about my own momentary lack of focus that morning. I remembered how slow my morning prayer time had passed praying over the usual selfish concerns—family, work, health, finances. Each was important to me, but none were big issues in the scope of world conditions.

Now I need to remind you that this was the morning after Christmas. The official start of the time between the celebrations. Being perfectly honest, I was still sort of smarting from our family Christmas celebration. I never really know what to make of Christmas. I guess it’s a symptom of the neither fish nor fowl syndrome experienced by Jewish Christians. Look, I am Jewish. As a result, I didn’t really carry any childhood Christmas traditions into adulthood. Really, the whole thing is sort of weird for me.

Now my wife is a real Christmas person and of course, our kids love the whole thing. Our grown children all come home for Christmas in their pajamas. Literally, they show up with their wives and our grandchildren in their PJ’s. We pretend to be sleeping so the grandbabies can come and wake up Grammie and Zadie and then the festivities begin. It really is great fun. The video camera is always running and the entire family is charged up, just like the credit cards I rail against. Hey now, look here, if this stuff is just too honest, I don’t care. It is great fun to see the family. I love being with my kids and grandkids. I love giving them presents and watching their excitement. We spend time looking back at the annual barrage of video tapes that date back to when my kids were as young as my grandkids and it is really a great joy. My wife and I appreciate the opportunity to bless our grown children and their kids. After all, how many young couples have extra money lying around to buy needless toys and the non-essential things that fill Christmas wish lists? Here is the problem. Even in a spiritually-minded family where Dad and all the adult children are in ministry work, the gifts and excitement of the season outshine the reason for the season.

Maybe you have developed some better disciplines. Maybe your family invented meaningful methods to insure that Jesus gets the spotlight at Christmas. Perhaps your parents or grandparents had more creativity and their holiday traditions still help you share your faith with the next generation. If so, maybe you can send me your Christmas story. Honest, I would enjoy hearing your story. Maybe we can help each other do a better job sharing Jesus next Christmas. Please drop me a line. I really would love to hear your holiday ideas.

In the meantime, I must tell you that I am still a little troubled about Christmas. Each season seems to get a little more materialistic. More lights glitter, but less light really shines. More talk about the baby Jesus and less attention to a risen Savior. Every Christmas seems to give up a little more ground to the culture wars being lost to the masters of Madison Avenue. When will we stop allowing advertisers to dictate which toys will please, or which clothes will squeeze . . . our ever fattening bodies . . . into longer lines . . . at bigger stores . . . to ultimately exchange the useless things bought . . . that we really couldn’t afford in the first place. Besides, more things will not make us more happy. We need more of the Master’s touch and less of the Mastercard.

Now if I sound like the Christmas grinch, forgive me. I want to focus on the New Year and do a better job of passing the truth on to the people I love. How about you? Do you realize that this is how things work in the family of God? It follows a basic Hebrew concept. The love of God is carried lador vador, from generation to generation. One generation passes on timeless truths to the next generation in preparation for them to do the same. That is how the cycle continues-- from father to son. That is how the circle remains unbroken. How is it working in your family? I know that we must be vigilant. We cannot afford to drop our guard at the altar built to worship a fat man in a red suit flanked by flying reindeer exalted to distract us from the real King of Christmas.

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I am not complaining. I am a blessed man. Normally, I spend the holidays surrounded by people I love. Our home is warm and clean. Our plates are full. My best friend is still my wife and we have been passionately in love with each other since we were just kids ourselves. We both enjoy the privilege of blessing our children and grandchildren and when that Mastercard bill comes due, we’ll hunker down and write the checks just like millions of other parents. But in the meantime, how can we do a better job of sharing the real meaning of Christmas? The celebration of Jesus should never end, yet each Christmas I wonder if it ever really began? Sometimes, it feels like we get swept into the flow of culture that pulls us from Christmas into the New Year at a mind-numbing speed without any time to reflect on the meaning of the season or the passing of time.

In the hope of helping you reflect on what is important, I want to conclude the story of my distracted Bible study on the morning after Christmas. As I mentioned previously, my morning prayers had been quite self-centered. My time in Bible study had been distracted and unfulfilling. The words in my Bible had become a blur on the pages and God seemed to be nowhere near that coffee shop where we had met so many mornings before. My reading had been interrupted by a cell phone call. I put the phone down, gathered my thoughts, and re read the 12^th verse of chapter 6 of Luke. “And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). Jesus prayed all night. Yet I was realizing that I could barely keep my mind on Him for a short while. I read a little further and received a revelation from the Lord. The blur cleared and a truth jumped out at me from the pages of Luke. Jesus was praying through the night, but that night, He wasn’t in the garden contemplating His crucifixion. Whenever I think of Jesus praying through the night, I focus on that fateful Passover night prior to His arrest, just preceding His brutal execution. Yet the text of the 6^th chapter of Luke refers to a much earlier event in the life of Christ. In fact, it was at the beginning of His ministry. Once again, Jesus prayed all night. But in this situation, He was praying about the choice of His disciples. You see, the Bible tells us that it was in the morning after a full night of praying that Jesus “called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; ¹⁴Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, ¹⁵Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, ¹⁶And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor” (Luke 6:13-16).

What a tremendous text? What a revelation? Jesus prayed all night to make the right decisions about building His Church. Look what happened. After praying earnestly, He chose His group of disciples and He carefully selected His inner circle that would make up the short list of apostles. But even after all that prayer, Jesus picked Judas, and Judas was to betray Him. Wow! You’d think after all that praying He would have done a better job. But guess what, that is the real revelation. Without Judas to betray Him, where would we be? Jesus loved us so much that He took great care in selecting His friends, but I think He took even more time to pick His enemies. Jesus was careful to make sure that Judas was close by and ready to turn Him in to the authorities. That is how much Jesus loves us. But how much do you love Jesus? Will you stand with Him? There really is no middle ground. Either you are with Him or you are against Him. If you were undecided about the person of Jesus at Christmas, what will change on the New Year? Perhaps you would like to discuss your concerns about Jesus. We would be honored to pray with you if you feel that it is time for you to take your stand with the true Christ of Christmas. Maybe a parent or grandparent has been praying for you. Maybe you acknowledged the Lord at an earlier time in your life, but your faith has grown cold. Maybe a Christmas long ago brought true meaning, but along the way, you allowed the world to distract you from God’s desire for your life. If I am talking to you, will you give me a call? My number is 1-800-688-3422. We can help you enter the New Year with new hope if that is your desire. If your heart is heavy, you can call me. I read my mail, so you can also write to me at CrossTalk, P.O. Box 2528 Cedar Hill, Texas 75106 USA. If you prefer, visit my website at www.crosstalk.org. I hope we can all make a great New Years resolution. This year, I want to draw closer to God. How about you? Is that what you want? Its time to get serious with Jesus because there may not be much time left? So don’t wait til next year. Don’t let another season pass without the Lord.

My prayer is that you will be drawn into an ever-deepening relationship with the God of creation and His Son Who came to die for you. I look forward to hearing from you. I hope you had a Happy Hanukkah, a Merry Christmas, and I pray you will have a wonderful New Year! Til we meet again, Shalom & God bless.

Copyright 2002 by Randy Weiss, Ph.D