Last Sunday, Nancy and I went to Northpark Mall to finish up some shopping.  You can be sure I was desperate.  For one thing, after growing up thoroughly Baptist, I don’t think I’ll ever quite feel comfortable transacting business of any kind on Sunday (if I ever feel comfortable about anything).  Aside from that, I’d rather suffer any number of tortures than the self-inflicted one of a run to any mall the last Sunday before Christmas.  Anyway, we had lunch at La Madeline.  Sitting at a table at their indoor courtyard, I heard a loud, angry voice.  Behind us, a family was having lunch.  The man, about 40, was leaning halfway across the table shaking his finger in his daughter’s face; she looked about 16.  I heard every word clearly, as did everyone else within 30 feet.  Only inches from her face he screamed, “I’m going to slap you if you don’t chill out!”  I could only wonder what she’d done to deserve such public humiliation much less such a violent threat from her father.

When I walked by their table on the way out I glanced her direction.  She was melting down.  I nearly joined her.  My heart just broke for her and her family.  My guess is that she’ll never forget this Christmas and the message from her father, in a language nearly palm-printed on her face, that was as clear as it was threatening. 

Speaking of family, how was your Christmas?  Any special messages sent or received?  Especially from your father, your heavenly Father?  What language was he speaking?  The mall father apparently concluded that only the language of an emotional mauling would communicate.  What language does God, our heavenly Father speak, even when our behavior has disappointed him?

It’s tempting to be wary of people who even claim that God speaks at all.  It seems that the people who most often make that claim also claim that he has spoken uniquely to them about that folded green stuff in our purses or wallets.  Let’s be careful though about letting the religious snake oil salespeople make us cynical and hijack one of the fundamental tenets of our faith.  Our belief in scripture is based on the premise that God has spoken to us.  In part, the Bible is the record of the on-going conversation of God with his creation.  “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son . . ..”

The unknown writer of Hebrews claims that God has made himself known, revealed himself, over centuries of time through many people in various ways.  He also claims that all of this God-speak reached its zenith in the person of God’s Son whose birth we just celebrated.  A birth!  The language God speaks is first, and foremost, the language of family.  “God has spoken to us by a Son.”  Not, first, a language of the tongue.  First, a language of the heart, the language of family.  Isn’t it interesting, however, that the primary means God has chosen to communicate his message of salvation to us is a language so very many of us have trouble speaking? 

At our Christmas Eve service I casually mentioned the fact that, for some, Christmas is a terribly painful time specifically because it is such a family-centered holiday.  For many, because it has never been a safe, warm and nurturing place, family is the last place they feel at home.  Though many have warm and happy memories of family, as many or more would say, about their family, that’s it’s been anything but a wonderful life.  Many of us struggle at figuring out how to put all the pieces of our family puzzle together.  If so, why would God choose that specific language, the language of family, to speak to us, to communicate his message of hope, if the language of family grates on our nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard?  Specifically what is he trying to say to us that only the language of family can adequately communicate?

Let’s listen again to the language of God, the language of family.  “Long ago God spoke . . . by the prophets . . . in these last days he has spoken by a Son . . ..”  In this context, the language of family comes in two parts, the language of structure and the language of grace.  John’s gospel carries the same message in two parts.  “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth through Jesus Christ (John 1:17).”  Families that are warm, safe, nurturing places, places we feel at home, provide both structure and grace.  Guidance for living well, grace when we fail.  God has spoken the language of family because it is a family of redeemed humanity God has in mind in his re-creative mission.  This Son, through whom he has spoken, God intends to be “be the firstborn within a large family (Romans 8:29).” 

The language of God’s family is a language of structure.  Words are powerful tools.  Just ask Trent Lott how powerful even a few words can be.  Hopefully, he’s a lot more aware now just how powerful words are because they give expression to our hidden character and give structure to our relationships with others.  God, through Moses and the prophets, gave us the law, the expression of his moral character and structure for relationship with him and others.  Families should provide structure.

Nancy’s cousin teaches school in Tulsa.  She once taught in a school where the kindergartners were out of control.  They underachieved academically and behaved horribly.  First thing every morning, the little boys started throwing chairs and the day would go down hill from there.  She recently transferred to another school where the children are well-behaved and making good progress.  The most distinct difference she noticed between the two schools was neither socio-economic nor racial, but the presence of parents.  In the first school there was little or no parental involvement in the schools or with their children, even at home.  In the second, parents were highly involved both at school and home.  Healthy, nurturing families provide structure. 

We may balk at God’s laws or even mock them.  But, at what price?  Where would we be without what Moses brought down off the mountain on tablets of stone?  Where would be without the great sermons on repentance and faithfulness to God the prophets preached that still echo through the centuries?  They give us structure.  The language of healthy families includes the language of structure. 

The language of God is also a language of grace.  The “law . . . was given through Moses; grace and truth through Jesus Christ .”  We need tracks to structure our journey.  But, when we derail, we need the language of grace.

The writer of Hebrews elevates the person of Jesus to supremacy over all of creation.  He describes Christ as “the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.”  He also says that, through his Son, God created all that is and that all that is will eventually surrender to his Lordship; God appointed Jesus “heir of all things.”  The cornerstone of the Christian faith is the confession of Jesus as Lord.  We find the meaning of our beginning and our end, our birth and our death, and every moment in between in Christ Jesus, through whom, again, as John said, came “grace and truth.”  The final word from God, through Jesus, is not just about how to live, it is about how important we still are to our father once we have failed to live within the structure he has given us. 

This past Christmas morning I was running late getting to church to help with Christmas Day dinners, helping family get off that morning and such as that.  I decided to stop at a 7-11 and get coffee.  I knew they’d be open because they’re open every Christmas when I’m running late getting to the church for Christmas Day dinners.  The lady behind the counter must never go home.  I think she’s been there since last Christmas.  She also never smiles, never looks happy.  People who always smile make me nervous.  People who never smile break my heart.

You know how it is.  You buy your coffee or bread or milk, hand your money to this automaton behind the counter and, robot-like, they give you change.  You can do this for years without ever having even one personal exchange with the person who gives you change.  Christmas morning, I decided to change that.  On purpose, I paid for my $1 coffee with a $20 bill.  When Ms. Neversmile gave me my change, I slid a $10 bill back across the counter and said “Merry Christmas.”  I don’t know what 7-11 clerks are paid.  But, it’s not enough to compensate for drawing the short straw and having to make coffee for total strangers on Christmas morning.  So, I slid the $10 back across the glass to her and the most amazing thing happened.  She looked at me.  We made eye contact.  For the briefest moment, I saw just the quiver of a smile.  “You don’t have to do that,” she said.  “I know,” I said.  “But, Merry Christmas.”  The only difference between that encounter over the counter and countless others is that two people made human, eye-to-eye contact and one said to the other, “You matter more than just what you do.”

God has spoken the language of family through his Son Jesus because it is the only way he could look us in the eye.  It was the only way he could say to us, in a language we could all understand, “I just had to let you know that you matter more than what you do.” 

What we do matters.  And, the memories of our countless moral and spiritual derailments following head on train wrecks with moral and spiritual boundaries that just don’t give bear witness to that.  That’s why God gives us structure.  What we do matters.  We also matter more than just what we do.  That’s why God gave us grace in the person of his Son, Jesus.  In fact, we’ll come nearer doing what matters well this year if we will take the first step January 1^st remembering that we matter more than what we do. 

Randall Parks and his wife, Nancy, live in Cairo, Egypt.  He and I were classmates at Hardin-Simmons and Southwestern Seminary.  He was back in the States recently and we had lunch.  Randall is gifted with one of the brightest minds I’ve ever known.  In addition to English he speaks Arabic, French and Indonesian and reads German, New Testament Greek, Hebrew and some Mandarin Chinese.  People with a gift for languages like Randall amaze me.  Of the some 6,000 known languages in the world, I’m fluent in English and fast food Spanish!

Randall’s parents were missionaries to Indonesia when he was growing up.  One year, they had some Indonesian guests in their home at Christmas.  Randall’s mom told the Christmas story in the Indonesian language.  When she finished and they left, Randall asked his mom if she would tell him the Christmas story in English.  His mom said, “Randall, I just told the story and you know the Indonesian language better than anyone in our family.”  Randall said, “I know.  But, I just wanted to hear it in my own language.”

Don’t we all?  Don’t we want God to help us structure our lives?  Don’t we also want him to look us in the eye and say to us, in a language that we personally understand, “You matter more to me than just what you do”?

Jesus is the language of God.  A cry from a manger.  And, from eternity’s mysterious beginning and end, a voice that calls us home.  Home, with God, where Jesus will forever be our big brother in our eternal family and where we’ll always matter more than what just what we did.