Here’s my new poem-spoken word film for your 2020 Christmas. It’s been quite a year, friends!
Watch it:
Read it:
Each Advent, I’d pen a poem, a Christ-themed rhyme,
a light-filled song about that night divine
My heart was full as ink struck scroll
A Christmas cheer, a snowflake here,
A starlit night inspired my mind, my heart felt bright
But try as I might… the Christmas feel is forced this year
The adornments hang like a cheap veneer
No snow, no song, no pine boughs hung
Could break this despondent spell of the no good, very bad, coronavirus 2020 year
Omit the raging illness, everyday still unveils the ugliness
Which rose to the surface in this year of fear
Politicians screaming, innocence falling, landscapes burning, and voting, voting, voting!
Facebook shouted at us every day, every month, hey, it seemed the whole year: “Have you yet registered to vote in this year of all years?”
How can I think of what’s ahead when I just want this crazy turmoil to end?
How can I write of happy glad tidings, holly and jolly, when the world appears to be going down into a sin-stained, stench-filled potty?!
I looked and waited for the Christmas inspiration,
a full week into Advent and still everything was belated, deflated
2020 was an exhausting receipt of disappointment – at least that much was clear
– stacked layer upon layer, dampening any sense of Christmas cheer
But then I heard the oddest of songs: a dusty genealogy
Set to meter and rhyme with a dose of harmony…
Take one listen and all appears as one nasty, gassy charade
From Abraham the lying began, then the whole line of sinners marched on in a disastrous parade!
Jacob the deceiver, Judah an abuser, Solomon the idolater, David an adulterer
The longer their march grew, the worse the crew!
Rehoboam, Manasseh, Amon, and Jehoiachin, all sick-in-the-head, a sinful kin!
The women in the mix? Oft-treated like cattle and chattel
But then I noticed something that would make even the sleepiest head rattle
A healing was appearing, a redeeming from the rotting…
For Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, God’s grace could be traced
Down this tree of names to a young girl with no societal place
Mary, her name is quietly sung but followed by a great anthem
She would give birth to a Son
One like no another, for He would save His people from their sins
And give true freedom within
At His Arrival…
Nothing was perfect, nothing was bright
The righteous? Oppressed.
The wicked ruled with great might.
Yet there into a darkest mess,
that year of all years brought hope and forgiveness
For the world… a name, a person, a Baby
He would be King of all kings in this our year of all years
And for every year of our Lord after that!
So my drooping head and burdened heart were lifted
For Christ arrived precisely for those being sifted
The Infant in the manger wasn’t born to the celebrating, but for those in mourning
…in the closet of grief
…in the pressure of pain
…in the darkness of death
So as my ink again struck the page
I saw the frame around my portrait of Christmas was amiss
Because I was relying on the tinsel, snowflakes, and holiday bliss
The joy of Christmas is found in the grace healing our mess, a redeeming light into deepest darkness
Emmanuel enters this year, our neighborhoods of weary, beleaguered COVID-too-near
And declares God is with us still and He will guide us into another New Year.
For the One who upended the curse and fulfilled God’s promise
Is the ultimate cure for our Blah Christmas
Jesus, the Savior, for all drowning in a stinking sin-sickness.
So, in Him receive Life
Rejoice for He arrived for you that holy night.
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“Blah Christmas” | by Michael J. Breznau | All Rights Reserved
Isaiah 9:6-7
6 For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this.
