How many have not done your Christmas shopping yet? How many of you have decided not to do any Christmas shopping this year?

 

As I was reflecting on these questions, I read a news report yesterday:

 

Last Wednesday, in the early afternoon, in Omaha USA, when people were busying themselves in one of the shopping complexes. And you must know that those who are able to spend their Wednesday afternooon doing their shoppings are most probably those who can afford not to work on a Wednesday afternoon - perhaps slightly affluent folks. One can imagine the festivity, the eagerness and the happiness as the shoppers roamed the mall looking for gifts, for themselves and for others.

 

But on the contrast, there was a young man in their midst, Robert Hawkins. He was recently fired from McDonald's, I mean, a lot of us work in MNCs; Intel, Dell, Motorola, and it's a terrible thing to be laid off from your jobs, we know that. But we being fired from McDonald's? Imagine what would your friends think: loser. Imagine what it would be like getting fired from McDonald's, it is devastating. But how about being fired by McDonald's and being dumped by a girlfriend? Loser.

 

What would it be like then to Robert Hawkins who were fired by McDonald's AND was dumped by his girlfriend recently. There was no other way out from this stigma of being a loser in a society where many of us can afford not to work on a Wednesday afternoon and go for Christmas shoppings. He took a gun, went into the mall, killed 8 people randomly, injured a few others, and finally pulled the trigger on himself. "He wanted to go out like a star", commented one of his friends.

 

Someone wrote on the internet, and I paraphrase, why would we celebrate the birthday of a pelarian borned in a kandang lembu with buying gifts for one another?

 

And someone else asked, What would Jesus buy? Or rather in my mind, what would Jesus want us to buy this Christmas?

 

What would Jesus want us to buy this Christmas, admist our extreme consumerism, shopping therapy culture, radical consumptions of goods and a society which promotes individualism and caused cold cold loneliness - where we are not alone, but feeling lonely deep inside?

 

As I was thinking on the "buying", I recalled the word of god in my favourite OT prophet, Isaiah: Chapter 55 v1-3

 

 1 "Come, all you who are thirsty,
       come to the waters;
       and you who have no money,
       come, buy and eat!
       Come, buy wine and milk
       without money and without cost.

 2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
       and your labor on what does not satisfy?
       Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
       and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

 3 Give ear and come to me;
       hear me, that your soul may live.
       I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
       my faithful love promised to David.

 

Three points here:

 

Firstly this strange admonishment to buy from him bread and milk and water and wine? Why these are all basic staple of our lives. And how much was it to buy from god himself? He said, no, I don't want your money.

What? We are living in a world where money, wealth, is the final the final determinant in life. What do we want and what do we need, they can be done, with money. Problems of all kinds are thought to be solved with more money - war against terror, billions and trillions of dollar pumped in this year, education, a higher budget allocation, inflation, a bigger paycheck, no time for the kids, more pocket money and toys to keep them busy to themselves.

 

But god wants us to buy from him, even the most basic necessity in life, without money and without cost. The reality of god is that the whole human financial system and our values break down into nothingness. All of us are alike, in god's businessman perpective, no one is too affluent who can afford to spend midweek afternoon shopping or no one is too poor who were fired from even McDonalds.

 

As if in disbelief of our absurdity, the prophet asked in god's stead: Why are you spending your money on rubbish? Why are you working your ass off for things which does not bring any fulfilment. Everyone, all and sundry, is invited, whether the rich or the poor, to come, come, come, come - yes, four times in v1 alone - to buy from god; and buy the real things which mattered. And don't be bothered about money and cost.

 

Phew...what would happened to the banking system.

 

Secondly, as I reflect on vv1-3, I saw the prophet admonishing, again on god's behalf: listen, listen (v2), give ear, hear me (v3).

 

When god asked us to listen, we'd better be.

 

I am sure within the bible, god spoke a lot of words for our listening ears (though again as the prophet lamented, we are like those who have ears but would not listen), but as I turned the pages for what god wanted to speak to me in this reflection, I saw in the very next chapter 56, the 1st verse:

 

 1 This is what the LORD says:
       "Maintain justice
       and do what is right,
       for my salvation is close at hand
       and my righteousness will soon be revealed.

 

This was what god is saying, and the prophet is asking us to listen, listen, give ear and hear. Maintain justice and righteousness. These are undeniably the foundation of the prophets' teaching in the OT and in the NT. In fact, as I have written recently, KY was commenting that in the NT, the greek word dikasoone often translated as "righteousness" can as well be read as "justice". And I think, to put in simply, god wanted to right things which went wrong, yes, to right the skewered personhood in humanity, to right the corrupted political system of human society, to right the oppressive economic and financial system, to right the self serving and idolatrous religious system, to right the degradation of the whole cosmos.

 

This Christmas, as we are buying, god is asking us to buy from him the real thing, not the flimsy ephemeral stuff huge corporations, hypermarkets and toy stores wanted to sell us as "gifts of love and festive joy".

 

And then god asked us to right the wrongs of the world, just as he has done and is still doing.

 

How does the two points connect?

 

This is the third point of my reflection: god asked us to buy from him bread and wine and milk. Mystery, mystery, mystery.

 

But bread and wine (and milk? - think promised land, rest, god's restoration, temple) reminds us of the equally intriguing and mysterious sayings of Jesus in John chapter 6, well even the disciples and the rabbis were confounded. Jesus said, he is the bread of life coming from god. And he is asking us to eat him and drink his blood because they are the real thing.

 

Gulp.

 

No wonder the folks were offended.

 

I am confounded, intrigued, I cannot fathom, to this day the great depth of such saying and the great profoundity expressed in the Lord's Table every week. What does it mean to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood, to receive and eat the real food?

 

I am sure there are many things which can be said about such feast. But one thing for sure, and this were the words of Jesus: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him (v56).

 

The real thing, the real food the real bread and drink from god is given so that we can share in god's nature, so that there is a union of our humanity with god's divinity; so that the profound can coexist with the profane. So that heaven once again meet with earth. Just like the days in the wilderness in the holiest of holy. Just like the days in the innermost chamber of Solomon's temple. Almost but not quite.

 

God has chosen off the whole wide earth, one single spot first in the holiest of holy of the tent of meeting and then in the magnificient temple to be a point where heaven meets with earth, where god's presence commune with the people.

 

But that was not god's real plan. The prophets had a vision, that someoday god's glory, god's presence would fill not one spot in the tent or in the temple, but the whole wide earth, just like water fills the sea. The whole world is to be the temple of god. And we all saw that picture in Revelation, the whole earth is now the temple because heaven came down to meet earth, fully and completely.

 

But before that happens, god is now building little temples, going about in every directions of the earth, us, Christians, the Church.

 

Too often the indwelling of the Holy Ghost become for us some sort of a hidden Ultraman superpower to be invoke to achieve great feat. Those are good and fine, but we should not forget as we often do, we are god's temple meant that we are the meeting place of heaven and earth, the key or portal to god's dimension. Think about that!

 

We are to be the place where god is present on earth, to the people, to one another, to non christians!

 

It can be clearer then to imagine that god wanted us to buy from him - btw no cost on us DOES NOT mean there's no real business transaction, god still used the word "come, buy", isn't that curious? - the real thing, so that the real thing becomes real food to us, so that we become god's presence on earth, embodying god's dream of making things right again on earth.

 

Dear friends, what are you going to buy this Christmas?

 

Think about the 60,000 graduates who were jobless (the figure may have increased now), most of them undertrained. Think about the cries of the people who were rallying on the streets to our government asking for their rights, think about our Oppositions members whose voice were often silenced by mindless bullying (see recordings of Parliamentary session in youtube), think about members of our government who were trying their very best within their means to be good leaders to the people. Think about Robert Hawkins, the 19 year old who was fired from McDonalds and dumped by his girlfriend.

What sort of gift can we buy for these people this Christmas? What do they need? Another job at another McDonalds? A new galfren?

 

Or will some CEO willing to take up the challenge to create on job re-training opportunities for the unemployed graduates of our country, most of them bumiputeras, willingly loosing some of their year end revenues?

 

Or will we give an ear to the poor estate worker who cannot even afford his next meal because his employer denied his already meagre pay? And then will we become their mouth to speak the words that they long to say to the powers but could not find a voice?

 

Or will we make a stance in politics, rather than keep giving our sometimes unneceessary comments, by joining a political party?

 

What sort of gift matters most? I think it is obvious, when we were exhorted to buy from god the real thing, we are expected to give back the real thing, not some flimsy ephemeral lead-infested toys.

 

I leave it to you guys to figure that out. But I must warn you, it's hard work though.