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For decades we’ve watched the nativity scene be relocated from the centerpiece of the Christmas season to the part which rarely even makes it onto Christmas cards. Watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special where Linus recites the true meaning of Christmas will cause a mixed audience to squirm and feel uncomfortable.

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (Luke 2:10)

The Christmas message is good news for all people, yet religion has co-opted this message and turned the Good News into a threat of really bad news for all people unless they convert to a religion which didn’t exist when the Angel made this proclamation. How many Christmas messages are about the birth of the savior who only saves people with a list of contingencies which also didn’t exist at this proclamation? Is it any wonder so many modern people are tuning out?

So what was the Good News all about? Why did the kings and religious leaders from other countries and religions come and bring their gifts, following a star, and paying homage to Christ Jesus as an infant? Would the promise of a “savior” being born primarily be about not going to Hell when we die? Or did it mean something more universal? It’s seems the soteriology of the religious industrial complex differs drastically from that of Jesus’ arrival.

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among the delighted people.” (Luke 2:14)

Good news to all people? Peace on earth? In our world, Linus reciting Luke 2: 10-14 would not be received as good news. If it occurred in a public school as depicted in the cartoon, angry Karen’s would sue the school, if it occurred on a college campus, this proclamation would be labeled “hate speech.” We couldn’t be farther from what little our world knows of peace, so it seems understandable if people fail to make any connection between the arrival of Christ two-thousand years ago, and how that story is supposed to penetrate a world so full of hate, envy, division, and pride.

The purveyors of this message (religion) must bear some responsibility here. The disconnect between 8 lb, 5 oz baby Jesus, white Christian nationalism, and an expanding world of “have nots” certainly has something to do with punting “peace on earth” and “good news to all people” out into a post-rapture, armageddon, or a politicalized earth evacuation narrative. These are the prime focus of evangelicals these days, and not restoration each of us are called to do. The failure of the church in its mission is glaring.

For this reason, I’d like to close this humongous chasm, and the current dumpster fire of our world and politics is exactly what we require to see what has been hidden in plain sight for two-thousand years.

If a figure, an influencer, could arrive today that could bring both political parties together, with policies that incentivized the hard working with a better life, but didn’t forsake the most marginalized of our world, this figure would gain attention. If every time, he or she spoke, an obvious wisdom came forth, a common sense reality, that placed all people above any political agenda, power play, or money grab. If only the necessary tweaks were made so that we can satisfy everyone’s need rather than everyone’s greed, within a short time, people would begin to believe again, the skepticism, cynicism, and fear would be replaced by substantive change that required all of us to work together and serve one another.

This may seem Pollyannish, but each of us can see exactly how such a figure, who didn’t forsake anyone, could be seen as the savior of the world. Such wisdom would be copied by all countries who sought similar peace and success. Christ is that figure…prophesied from the past, who possesses such wisdom, speaks truth to and frees people from the overreach of institutional power. A savior is born, not just two-thousand years ago, but each and every moment.

The wisdom of Christ is that he offers a counter-intuitive kingdom based on entirely different rules. It’s not capitalism, it’s not socialism, it’s wisdom and love and self dying sacrifice for the sake of others. The Christmas message isn’t that this was true two-thousand years ago, but that it’s always been true, but Christmas occurs when it becomes true for you…and me. Our world puts our faith in all our big political engines, our institutions, our powers and it’s not working. Should we just double down and keep going? Or should we consider the Christmas strategy.

Good news to all people is not a political ideology, it’s the net effect of living in fidelity to the Truth. A savior is born, the moment we begin to see his story playing out in ours. Jesus’ world and ours is not fundamentally different. The moment we recognize the wisdom of God though the context of friendship, is the moment the savior is born anew…in each of us. We discover our marginalization was first his. Our political suffering is also his. Every aspect of his life is found living today, born anew, in each of our lives, so much so that none of us can get through life and miss it, once we see it. Once a savior is born in and as our life.

So the dumpster fire of our world is exactly what we would expect to see when we live disintegrated from history’s most central, controversial, and most powerful influencer. Christmas means the savior is born, and his wisdom is for all people, and the net effect of his power will alter every corner of our globe, and every soul who finally sees it. We could have a New World within a few months time, but it won’t come from religion, we know that. It won’t come from politics either, nor any of our institutional powers. It will come the only way it has been promised to come, when each one of us dies to ourselves and loves our enemy, thus eradicating them forever. Jesus in manager means that a savior has come, and his kingdom flows from the inside out, not the outside in.

This is truly good news for all people. It’s here now…today…and it starts when what has always been true becomes true for you.