What Is Your Opinion Worth?

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION WORTH?

We all have opinions on something. Some people have opinions on everything. 

How do you determine when an opinion is worth anything? Does a ‘name’ and reputation give an opinion extra value? Is value added when the opinion is offered by your Father? Brother? Uncle? Neighbor? Friend? Dad would know! Right?

The story of Jesus birth is commented upon every year around this time. Between us, we probably have heard almost every possible opinion about Jesus and his birth. 

Some say the birth of Jesus is cast in impossible contexts. It is. Young girl. Virgin. Surrogate father. Inconsequential place called Bethlehem. Inconsequential time. No-one attempted to notate exactly when it occurred. Ridiculous pronouncements from angels no less, in fields and hills. Stables. Tax Collections to cover a fiscal crisis. Some suggest that historically the tax collection never occurred. If it did, the Tax officials definitely wouldn’t be sending people back to their towns of origin. The story ends with a local official killing innocent children at the news of the birth. Did he react to an opinion or a fact? 

Nothing like this would ever happen in the 21st century. Would it?  Nothing like fiscal cliffs, killing of innocents in disparate places, Issues of weak economies, poverty, Rights. We wouldn’t know about tensions that result from issues that appear complex or simple and unanswerable? And whose opinion should we be listening to anyway? Does anyone really know what time it is?

Opinions about Jesus’ birth may bear a grain of truth. I don’t know and to be honest, I really don’t care. The only opinion ever worth listening to is from someone who has ‘fruit on the tree’. That is, real experience and successful results at what they set out to do and what they are talking about. I love my brother and my uncle but I don’t seek their opinion in areas where they have no experience, no expertise nor success. Why should we?

Jesus birth story says the same thing from the inside out. The players in the Birth story can’t claim any expertise or right to offer explanation of the events. The Writer does not offer an opinion about the events. He only states the facts from a historians point of view.

None of us can claim anything about Jesus’ birth story. I didn’t choreograph it. Mary was no aristocrat with unique educated insight. The Town had no claim to fame. The participants barely understood what was happening. And of course, this is the point. This is God’s story. Not our story. This is God in action. The focus is upon God’s gift to me – and you! 

This story has weathered some 21 centuries and it still makes sense. God wants me to understand and appreciate and experience the divine in my life. 

I can speak with authority about my experience. If I cannot find God in my experience it means that I have no ‘fruit on the tree’. I better plant somewhere else until I can offer a meaningful comment on my life. What is the result from the way I am choosing to live? 

Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying that ‘EXAMPLE’ is not just a way to show others how to live well. ‘EXAMPLE’ is the ONLY way to show others. Abe had it right! Don’t offer me your opinion. Show me by your example. 

God does the same thing in the story of the birth of Jesus. God doesn’t just offer opinions as we are tempted to do. God shows by example. 

It’s time to stop offering opinions and to read and hear the birth story again. Perhaps this time we will get the point that God makes and not the opinion we fake.