THE RED CUPS ARE COMING! THE RED CUPS ARE COMING!
by Stephen Green
December 1, Tuesday – Psalms 5, 6 v 10, 11; Amos 3:1–11; 2 Pet. 1:12–21; Matt. 21:12–22
(ESV Daily Office Readings Online)
Note: For those unfamiliar with the controversy surrounding the Starbucks Red Cups, here is a quick review. Earlier this season, these red cups took center stage on Twitter and Facebook when some people threatened to boycott Starbucks for it’s use on “non-Christmas cups.” A video even appeared encouraging Christians to use “Merry Christmas” as a name, thus forcing the Starbucks employees to say, “Merry Christmas” when the coffee was ready.
It’s incredible how Red is so often involved in revolutions! From Red Coats to Red Cups, we so often find ourselves at war with the world around us and crying out for justice!
Red.
Revolution.
Advent. The coming of Christ. Red was pretty involved in that revolution as well. Love ran red.
There is something deeply profound in those “hellish cups”. The simplicity; the emptiness that so many are memeing about might actually prove to be the very thing that communicates the truth of Christ that we keep forgetting over and over and over like a broken record.
Christ came, but he was not glamorous or majestic in his coming. He came in plainness and simplicity. He came into emptiness so that one day He might dye our souls red.
The Psalms for today are an outcry from David for God to act. For the advent of Justice and Protection; for things to be made right. Israel cried out for this in the days of Herod. But just like those blank, cardboard beverage containers, Christ did not come as we demanded. The people put up quite the stink about about. I guarantee that if they had facebook back then, they would have memed about it too!
We are losing ourselves to the ridiculousness of culture and our victim mentalities. Christ, our greatest example for living, did not moan and groan over the nature of his arrival. He did not let culture and the fallenness of the world consume him or distract Him from what was important. He didn’t rant and rave against the Romans for not being Jewish. He rebuked the Jews for not being Jewish!
This Advent, let us strive for a revolution understanding, of love, of peace…a revolution of simplicity and the remembering of our glorious Christ who came to set us free.
