According to ancient tradition, Psalm 51 is a psalm of David, repenting of his sins after committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband Uriah killed on the frontlines of battle. As such, it is a reminder that even those chosen by God, even those who love God, are in need of repentance. In this interpretation, it reveals David’s deep sorrow at having done wrong, and his desire to turn from sin toward the forgiveness of God and amendment of life.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the circus. If memory serves, the last circus performance I saw was the Big Apple Circus in Boston, over twenty-five years ago. I’m not a huge circus fan, especially when animals are involved, because no matter how well they are treated, I know how inhumane circus life is for a creature meant to live wild and free. Of the human performers, one of the most entertaining acts is always the trapeze artists, who swing and glide and soar across the performance space in “death-defying feats.” It seems so effortless, though we know it isn’t. It is certainly elegant and wondrous to see human beings flying through the air in beautiful arcs, catching and letting go of bars, ropes, and each other.

Have I told you how much I love Jonah? The story, yes, familiar from way back in childhood, but most of all, Jonah the character. He is the most real to me of all the characters in the Bible – whoever spun this yarn had a profound grasp of human nature.

In this country we have become accustomed to having an almost unimaginable number of choices. Go into any grocery store and count the number of kinds and brands of cereal; you will be there for quite a while. Even just looking at a restaurant menu – once you have decided which restaurant to go to – is enough to make one’s head spin. This availability of choices is a matter of pride for many residents of this nation – for many, America is all about freedom to choose one’s path in life; one’s job, one’s place of residence, the books one reads, the kind of peanut butter to buy. This assumes that what makes us us, and what makes life worthwhile, is the choices we make, without anyone anywhere limiting or guiding those choices.

On this blessed morning, we celebrate that Love came down and was born all those centuries ago in a land that even now is wracked with violence and death and unimaginable suffering. It is hard to see evidence that the world has been saved; I have been thinking this every Christmas for many years now. If Love has indeed come down, why is the world still so full of hate?