The Commander-in-Chief
Fundamentally Christmas is about a rescue, the most audacious, reckless and radical rescue operation ever planned let alone implemented. This is the kind of operation that if it were to be presented to senior military strategists would be dismissed immediately as out of the question. For this operational plan would require the “Commander-in-Chief”, no less, to be dropped behind enemy lines in what was not only sure to be, but was actually intended to be, a suicide mission. The Commander-in-Chief with all he represents, all he symbolizes, with all the power at his disposal would give himself up to rescue those who don’t even swear allegiance to him!
For me the coming of Christ is neither warm nor cozy rather it is wild. I anticipate his coming often by imagining the Commander in chief (who by all rights should be in a warm and splendid office back in Head Quarters) standing helmeted and strapped into a parachute in the back of a dark cold shuddering transport aircraft. Imagine the roar and the blast as the door opens into the empty blackness below. Standing in the doorway buffeted by the freezing wind, his equipment and clothing flapping, he waits for the green light. The time comes. Over the noise of the engines a crew member yells GO GO GO! And without hesitation he leaps into the blackness, into a silent chill where there is only the sensation of falling. Imagine the motionless shock of crew left behind in the aircraft. Imagine the stunned silence echoing around the great halls of Head Quarters when the news is relayed back he has jumped… he has gone. For this is no normal operation, no normal rescue, this is the Commander-in-Chief, the very embodiment of power, the hope and symbol of the nation! This is simply not possible. It can’t be happening…
The Commander-in-Chief has relinquished all his power, compressed himself into weakness and flung himself out of an aircraft into the darkness – why? It is because of love, because of those who live in the darkness, because of those who desperately need to be rescued. And so in an action that will surly take his life we see a tiny lone figure hanging from a parachute descending ever deeper into the darkness that will not realize him for 30 odd years. But in this act we see with clarity the reckless, raging fury that is the love of God.
If we have domesticated the Christmas story to the point where it is a pleasant little fairy tail then we have completely missed the point. The coming of Christ is filled with tension and absolutely worthy of our eager and nervous anticipation! For this is a rescue driven by utterly untamed passion.
There are many Cambodian kids, as there are many among us, living in profound darkness and in desperate need of rescue. May we, this year, catch a glimpse of that lone figure coming for us. And my we, in turn, try and emulate the Commander-in- Chief. May we be brave enough to hear the words GO GO GO over the roar of busyness and chill of our own lives.
Wishing you an undomesticated Christmas!
