Wise Tom

At Christmastime this year when there seems to be an unusual amount of squabble between the ACLU and the Fundamentalists on the propriety of Christmas displays in public places, it might be wise to ponder the thoughts of Thomas Jefferson who firmly believed that Jesus Christ was the wisest human who ever lived and that he codified in the Gospels the most thorough code of ethics or morals ever conceived (by the mind of man). Jefferson could not however, bring himself through faith or any other means to accept the divinity of Christ. He went so far as to redact the gospels by eliminating all reference to he supernatural, including all reference to the miraculous.(see, The Jefferson Bible).

Perhaps this is a wise foundation for non-Christians to ponder and to bring us all together this season. People of faith and people of no faith, Christians and non.


Christmas makes me nervous. The Infinite who came in a feeding trough is not the kind of God I want. He is too powerless for my liking. Such a God is an embarrassment, not just to the Herods of this world, but to all who are enamored with themselves and their own potency. I don’t want this God. I have an inn to offer, decorated for Christmas, not a stinking stall.
God exists in weakness and comes to those who reach up to him with empty hands. He is neither useful nor helpful. He came and still comes, not to solve our problems or answer our questions or fulfill our needs or bless our endeavors, but to expose our problems, to question our answers, to be our need, and to point us to his kingdom. In Christ, God enters time and space to turn our world upside down and inside out. “Valleys are made high, mountains are laid low.” We are left bewildered, undone.