This weekend I went to a Christmas play at a mega church in the area. It was a great production and of course a replication of the birth of Christ.

At the end of the play the Lead Pastor came up and talked about the Christmas story and the life of Christ, then said that “Jesus is not about journalism but about poetry.”

I have been really pondering on that, because the earliest witnesses say that the gospel of Mark was written by Peter in journalist fashion from eyewitness accounts, reporting the details of what happened as they happened. Mark would say “Peter, this is important! Get out your scroll; start taking notes.”

I have always thought of the Christmas story as prophetic, not poetic, until I researched the word “poetry.” It means: “Writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a…