right responses

Jesus spoke to the crowds, "But to what will I compare this generation?  It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn."  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, "He has a demon'; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!"  Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. 

Matthew 11:16-19

Seems to me this morning that Jesus is talking about having the right or appropriate response to what we see and hear-- especially about God.  

The first image that came to mind as I pondered today's passage was of an old friend who once wept openly about some pain in her life, but beamed a big smile at the same time.  I've never forgotten that picture-- the double burden she had to "cover up" her pain when she was finally able to express it.  Smiling broadly is not an appropriate response to deep emotional pain, that is, it is OK to cry without pretending you are happy.

So instead of being ecstatic and erupting in joy because Jesus had finally appeared, folks criticized him for his friends and for his lifestyle.  Their response was not appropriate.

I've spent the last 24+ hours (with time off for sleeping!) preparing my home for Christmas (this is my "weekend," you see), doing laundry, bringing Christmas ornaments and accompanying decorative objects up from the basement, sorting and weeding out, cleaning up, putting familiar Christmas items out.  In some ways, this is a right response to the upcoming celebration of the birth of Jesus.  

But I confess, it can feel an awful lot like a chore, like work, too.

Today I'm working on my response to the good news of the birth of Jesus and its celebration on Christmas.  It's about joy and praise and wonder at the awesome love of God given to us as a gift.  What is the right or the appropriate response?  Not to put a big Christmas "smile" on what I may be really feeling, but to dig deeply into the truth of what God did in Christ some two millennia ago.

What struck you today?

[image © Kati Neudert/dreamstime.com]