After working with people for many years as a pastor, I realized how predictable we all are, like to the syllable. It’s almost as if people are reading from a script. I’m not trying to be insulting; I include myself in this one-act play. 

Why else would we resonate with other people’s stories, even great works of fiction? It’s because we recognize the lines we all have memorized. Our stories are filled with the same characters, the same conflicts and spectacles, the same responses, and the same outcomes.

This single script we read from is evident throughout history. Every culture and people act it out. We are tempted to think there is an infinite variety and possibility, but there are only different nuances, colors, shapes, and languages. Sometimes, the play is told more sophisticatedly or acted more beautifully, but don’t be fooled. It’s the same story, same lines, same last chapter.

We are predictable because we are all the same character, living in somewhat similar circumstances on this earth and in our bodies. We all wrestle with the same short list of desires and fears. We are bound to sin and sinful behaviors centered upon ourselves. 

What’s the solution? We need a new script, a new story, new characters. So God enters our story, takes over our role, and writes new words. God actually becomes us in this drama. That’s what Christmas is all about. Like the Seinfeld episode where George Costanza decides to do the opposite of his instinct, Jesus does the opposite of what we would do. He does good. Yet He also becomes sin, who knew no sin and is punished in our place. 

In baptism, we are not only forgiven and given life but also given His identity in this play, with new lines and a new ending.

We are tempted to think that God changed the script in Christ. But did He? Or was this the script all along? St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, “as He chose us even before the creation of the world.” 

Sometimes, Christians mock pre-written scripts or liturgies for worship. But don’t kid yourself; you are just reading a pre-written script anyway. Why not read one with a happy ending on Sundays? Why not recite a dialogue between God and you written by Him, full of forgiveness and hope? After all, none of your words have ever been yours to begin with. 

Let’s start with these lines, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ours, and the truth is not in us.” “But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.”