Kingdom Harbor

“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that A CENSUS SHOULD BE TAKEN of the entire Roman world” (Luke 2:1).

The week between Christmas and New Year’s gets many in the counting mood. Counting how many gifts we need to return. Counting how little money is left in the checking account. Counting how many cookie calories we’ve consumed. Counting how many pounds we need to shed when we hit the gym in the New Year.

Hollywood is counting down the Top 10 movies of the year. Spotify tells me my most-listened to songs of the past year. My Audible account calculates how many books I’ve listened to and how many hours it took. My podcasts are reviewing the most popular episodes of the year, and news outlets are reviewing the most consequential stories of the year. Now here’s a deeper truth:

What we choose to count tells you a lot about what we ultimately value.

How interesting then that the Christmas story read in churches all over the globe in countless languages about the most significant event in human history begins with a passing reference to a mundane and seemingly un-spiritual administrative task of conducting a census! Here we are wearing our festive sweaters with our kids dressed to the nines wearing matching Christmas outfits, gathering in fancy church buildings decorated to the gills, with choirs singing, bells ringing, candles glowing, when the deacon steps up to the lectern and begins to read in a regal tone: “In those days the king decided to count the size of his kingdom” (my paraphrase).

Before we hurry by this seemingly unimportant background fact and rush forward to the angels and shepherds and baby Jesus in the manger, let us pause to consider that maybe “counting” lies at the heart of the message of Christmas. What if what we choose to count ends up being what “really counts” in our walk of faith?

Luke has crafted his infancy narrative with great care and wants us to see the stark contrast between what Caesar Augustus is counting on, and what the faithful and unexpected “stars” of this story are counting on. Worldly tyrants have always counted on the size of their army, the number of weapons stockpiled, the amount of wealth and gravity of their influence.

The two main reasons Caesar conducts a census is to 1) count how many people he can tax to expand his imperial wealth, and 2) to count how many fighting men he has at his disposal to wage his next war campaign. The Scriptures often warn of the danger and folly of trusting in worldly power over God-dependance: “Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God” (Ps 20:7).

Christians and churches fall into this trap still today, choosing to count (and rely on) the size of our budget, the amount of money flowing in, the size of our influence, the amount of cultural power we have, the ability to “take new ground” for the gospel and get certain results in the public square. We are counting and shoring up “Caesar Power” in a dog-eat-dog world. But Luke doesn’t think Caesar Power is worth spending more than a couple sentences on. Caesar Power isn’t what counts in God’s economy and the quiet revolution about to take place under Caesar’s nose.

What really counts in the Christmas story and what God counts as important in His Kingdom economy is finding ordinary people with no social status or influence or wealth or power willing to be humble servants and faithful participants in the upside-down Kingdom God is bringing into the world through a peasant girl and her baby boy lying in a manger.

What really counts for God in this story is not Caesar’s power and might and wealth and influence. What registers on God’s Top Ten list in the Christmas story are things like:

A brave country girl’s willingness to rearrange her life around God’s plans for her with the words, “Let it be to me according to your will.”

A just man who keeps his calm when his fiancé tells him she’s pregnant and chooses not to subject her to public shame.

An elderly man and woman in the Temple who have been hungering and thirsting for the arrival of the Messiah their entire lives and who are now rejoicing.

A King whose manger-throne is surrounded not by power-seeking elites but poor and powerless shepherds.

A Kingdom that attracts not “clicks” or media attention or caters to populous cravings, but rather attracts true seekers of wisdom from far and wide — those willing to lay down their worldly capital at His feet in humble worship.

Indeed, what we choose to count says a lot about what we ultimately value.

This New Year let us be found counting the things that count most with God. For me and the church I lead, we think character counts most. We believe God became man in order to make us more like God. As my friend puts it, Jesus didn’t just come to take us somewhere else (Heaven); he came to make us into somebody else—the person He always intended us to be. God has called us “to be conformed to the image of his Son…he chose them to become like his Son” (Rom 8:29-30).

May the church in America stop measuring “success” by Caesar’s standards (political power, influence, wealth, “winning”), and embrace the call to live as countercultural representatives of another kind of Kingdom and King.

Let us count humble acts of charity.

Let us count faithful acts of obedience to God’s call.

Let us count how many times we’ve turned the other cheek rather than choosing to get even.

Let us count the ways we’ve tried to love our political enemies and chosen to pray for those who want to persecute us.

Let us count how many times we’ve forgiven a brother or sister for offending us, not holding it against them.

Let us count how many times we’ve chosen to “count others more significant than ourselves” (Phil 2:3).

Let us count the ways we’ve “been rich toward God” rather than storing up wealth for ourselves (Luke 12).

Let us count as our highest ambition the cultivation of the Spirit-generated virtues of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23).

These are the things that really add up in God’s Kingdom economy. Trust me, you can count on it!

If you’re local, join us at MainStreet Covenant Church this New Year on Sunday nights at 5pm at St. Martin’s for a new teaching series called “Kingdom Essentials.” Begins January 7. Grace and peace!