Merry Christmas

“Tonight’s the night the world begins again.”  -Goo Goo Dolls, Better Days

The lights, the shopping, the children waiting to open their gifts, the family gatherings and the 24-hour repeat of “A Christmas Story” on TBN… that’s all… fine.  The sentiment that we sometimes still sense — the sparkling snow covering the ground, the Christmas carols, the candles and twilight romance and “grown-up Christmas wishes” of peace on earth… that’s all… fine.

Don’t let the softness and “good feeling” of the season, the pageants and cards and malls detract you from the ache within your heart for something more.  We cover it over quickly enough with busyness and nostalgia, but search your heart and you will realize you want something more than promises of Old Saint Nick.

Jesus did come, you know.  He was born for us.  God became the tender flesh of an infant, was born through cries and blood and broken water by a young woman and her baffled husband in a stable.  God came far.  He came.  He came for us.  The world was never the same again, because now the ache we have for life is met in Him.  When you begin to believe that, that’s what hope is.  When you begin to live that life, that’s what faith is.  Your life can be transformed by this God of Love.  He wants you.  He wants us.  Not merely our worship or our obedience or our church attendance.  He wants our whole heart because He made us for Himself.  And we will only find our lives there.

For more on this, read Emmanuel, God With Us

May the God of Christmas be your life this day, this week, the rest of this year, through all the other stuff you find yourself a part of.  His life for you, your heart for Him.  Merry Christmas.

 

An Old Man’s Encounter: Jesus’ Pursuit, Part 3

Continued from Setting the Stage: Jesus’ Pursuit, Part 2, or start from the beginning with The Question: Jesus’ Pursuit, Part 1

So here Zechariah is, standing at the altar of incense, doing his duty and minding his own religious business and just relieved that he wasn’t struck dead when he walked into the inner chamber of the temple, when all of a sudden the angel Gabriel shows up and stands next to him.

Now, we’ve got to get the picture of cute little cherubs floating around carrying harps completely out of our minds. These are not Precious Moments figurines we’re talking about. The Scriptures refer to hosts of angles as angel armies, and the Psalms call them the “Mighty Ones” of the heavens (Psalm 103:20).  Whenever these dudes showed up, something incredible was always on the horizon, and they were either delivering the message or fighting through enemy lines as warriors.  They were present at the birth of Jesus, not hovering over the manager sweet and cuddly, but fighting an enormous dragon with seven heads and all of its emissaries (see Revelations 12, that chronicles the real story of Christmas). How many angles did it take to take out Sodom and Gomorrah? Two.(See Genesis 19).

And what is everyone’s response in Scripture when they encounter an angel? Wham! They hit the ground, usually crying out something to the effect of “Don’t hurt us!” These are fierce creatures. And Zechariah’s reaction is no different. It says that he was “gripped with fear” (Luke 1:12). As usual, the angel’s first words have to be, “Don’t be afraid,” but then he goes on to say, “Your prayer has been heard.”  Perhaps as fearful as Gabriel might have seemed to Zechariah, his greater fear that the angel spoke of was that his years on end of crying out to God were met with silence. Perhaps his real fear was not that he could hear the words of this fieral angel, but rather that God may never hear his own words of desperation.

Gabriel tells him that God has, indeed, heard him and that he will have a son. And not just any son, but one that “will be a joy and a delight,” and “great in the sight of the Lord” and “filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth” and will “turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:14-16). Whoa! This man is going to be something.  He had prayed for a son.  He gets a prophet.

And yet all Zechariah can offer is incredulity. After Gabriel speaks passionately about the weight of the life his son will bear, he basically says, “Pllllbbbbbtttttt. Yeah, right. Have you seen how old my wife and I are? Bear a son? Ha! Whatever.” (Remember, we’re in the days before Viagra and plastic surgery — and even those wouldn’t help an old woman’s womb be fertile again.)

Now, Gabriel is a holy servant of the Lord, probably not accustomed to being mocked. He is the one who will later be chosen to give Mary the news of her pregnancy. He’s a messenger, and an important one. This side of the story we can see that, but for Zechariah, at a point just before the birth of the Messiah, it’s a little harder to see. I can’t fault him for being so naïve. Maybe Gabriel can’t either, which is why the old man didn’t have to be pulled out of the temple by his ankles. Rather, he was struck silent for awhile. It’s probably something that would have done him some good. Maybe, like Mary would soon do after Gabriel delivers similar news to her, he needed to “treasure up all these things and ponder them in his heart” (Luke 2:19).

But really, all of this is still in way of prologue. The story is just beginning to unfold. And what a story it will be.

And remember, too, that we’re still after the importance of Jesus’ original question to his disciples when he asks them in John 1:38, “What do you want?”

Continued in The Cry: Jesus’ Pursuit, Part 4

 

Cantique de Noël

This morning I listened on the radio to O Holy Night. It might be the first time I really heard the lyrics.  Listen to the expression of the earth-shaking reality of the Father giving his Son in exchange for us.  The world was long lost and in despair.  And then the soul felt its worth:  Here, beyond all shadow of doubt, was the absolute expression of God’s love for us, that He would stop at nothing to have us back, even giving His own life.

 Read these lyrics not as a Christmas carol you hear every year when stores start having their sales and Santas start appearing in malls and people start putting out lawn ornaments of stables and snowmen.  Read them as the reality of the Gospel, an act that would make the whole weary world rejoice, and then break out in worship.  At last, at long last, we are wanted.

Oh holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
Oh night divine, Oh night when Christ was born;
Oh night divine, Oh night, Oh night Divine.

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here come the wise men from Orient land.
The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friend.

He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King, Behold your King.

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,
His power and glory evermore proclaim.
His power and glory evermore proclaim.

And here is the English translation of the original French version, Minuits, chrétiens / Cantique de Noël:

Midnight, Christians is the solemn hour
When God as Man descended unto us
To erase the original stain (sin)
And end the wrath of his Father.
The entire world trembles with expectation
In this night that gives to us a Savior.

Fall on your knees, await your deliverance.
Noel, Noel, here is the Redeemer,
Noel, Noel, here is the Redeemer!

The redeemer has broken every shackle
The earth is free, and heaven is open.
He sees a brother where there was once only a slave
Those who had been chained together by iron, love now unites.
Who will tell Him of our gratitude
It is for every one of us that he was born, suffered and died.

Stand on your feet, sing of your deliverance.
Noel, Noel, sing of the Redeemer,
Noel, Noel, sing of the Redeemer!   

 

All-Consuming

It’s a busy season. Family to visit. Gifts to exchange. Shopping to do. I’m struck by the way so much of our culture has been able to recognize the deep need in the human soul and sell it, promising the life we’ve always wanted if we just purchase this pair of tennis shoes, or that leather coat, or this necklace for our wives or that extended DVD set.

It can happen with even the most important things. “The church, you see” explains Paul, “is not peripheral to the world.” Oh really? It hardly seems so when you watch television or visit the nearest mall. I wonder if Paul would have thought differently if he’d had a Macy’s or Sears in his hometown. This is, afterall, what Christmas seems to be about. Even many Christians I know seem to be caught up in the consumerism and commercialism of the season. But Paul is unapologetic in the finality of his statement. “The world is peripheral to the church” (Ephesians 1, The Message). The church, meaning the body of Jesus on earth where all the action is, where the life of Jesus happens.

There was a fascinating study done at UCLA where some mice were given injections of speed to see how long it would take them to run themselves to death. Control mice that weren’t injected were placed with them. You know what happened? The control mice ran themselves to death just as quickly as the others. It’s the nature of the world to run around purposeless, distracted, desperate to fill in the missing pieces with shopping, sex, empty conversation, complication in relationships, and the like.

And so, DeAnn and I have begun pulling back, resisting, refusing to allow ourselves to be taken out and ours hearts to be completely overwhelmed with the “needs” around us – the shopping lists, the family visits, the frantic pace, the buzzing and whirling and crowding. We are withdrawing to the center, turning our gaze to the One who came for us, and starting to remember.

John Eldredge recently wrote a fantastic reminder to the deeper and truer reason behind Advent season. It is so that we may remember and anticipate. “Not only is it an opportunity to reflect – for several weeks – on the fact that God came, it is also an opportunity to lift our eyes towards his return. He will come again.”¹

Together we are seeking out the stories that remind us of God coming through for us, and for His promise that He will come again to set all things aright. We are to love Him. We are to be consumed with Jesus and with His kingdom, with His presence and with His promises. We are to see Him, to set our eyes on Him, as a babe born in a manger, as the Son who came to take our place and ransom us, as a Warrior, as a Friend, as the image of the Father, as our one true love. As Dallas Willard has said, “The key, then, to loving God is to see Jesus, to hold him before the mind with as much fullness and clarity as possible. It is to adore him.”

We are among those He came for, and for whom He will again return. He came to make Himself known “to the humbled, to the fringes of the population, heralded by goats, by sheep, and by astrologers from the east.”²

May we remember. May we awaken to the deep and unbelievably great news that we have been invited into a Great Tale, “a Story that begins, “Once upon a time” and ends “And they lived happily ever after…”²

¹John’s letter can be found here.
² This comes from “Emmanuel, God with Us“

 

Setting the Stage: Jesus’ Pursuit, Part 2

Continued from The Question: Jesus’ Pursuit, Part 1

John the Baptist has already been proclaiming some pretty wild stuff out there in the wilderness, wild words to match well his wild clothes and choice of food. John’s a wild man, and a passionate one. He is known as John the Baptist because he has been baptizing folks to get them ready for the coming Messiah. And some people are starting to believe that there will really be a Messiah coming. A lot of expectation is raised, and a lot of anticipation. What will this Messiah be like? What will he do?

Those who are coming by frequently to the Jordan where John is preaching were known now as his disciples, or more simply, his students. They were listening intently to what John had to say. Why? I mean, why would anyone particularly want to hang around this wild man who was dressed in camel skin and ate locusts for dinner? What was he saying to them that drew their interest, anyway?

To answer that, let me back up a bit to tell you about John’s father. His name was Zechariah. This guy was a priest who had been chosen to go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the temple of the Lord to burn incense. This was a very rare opportunity for a priest, and Zechariah was no doubt scared out of his mind as much as he was excited.

One of the first things we learn about Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth is that they had no children. They wanted them, but Elizabeth was barren, so their hope of having any sons or daughters was waning fast, and the chances were slim.

Now, even as a priest, it was a very rare thing to get to go into the temple of the Lord. Very few priests were ever able to do so. And Zechariah was the guy chosen to go in. Now, to do so it meant that he would have a rope tied to his ankle just in case he did something wrong and he’d die in there as a result of God’s holiness and the others would need to drag him out. So this was a pretty heavy and serious matter. What made it even weightier was what Zechariah encountered in there.

Continued in An Old Man’s Encounter: Jesus’ Pursuit, Part 3

 

The Question: Jesus’ Pursuit, Part 1

Be prepared to meet Him Who Knows How to Ask Questions.
-T.S. Elliot

When Jesus speaks to the disciples (who really, at that point, weren’t yet disciples) in John 1:38, he asks them, “What do you want?” Now, that in itself isn’t necessarily all that profound. I’m asked that question quite a few times a day. I ask it of myself when I’m in the drive-thru line or the 16 year-old kid with the Taco Bell hat asks it of me when I’m in line thinking seriously about one of those yummy crunchy tacos they have. My wife will sometimes ask it if me in the evening when we have a wide open few hours to do whatever we want to do together. Even the little dog on my computer screen that pops up when I need to search for something has a bubble above his head and the question, “What Are you looking for?”

So what’s so special about this time when Jesus says it? (As a sidenote, I’m just going to start living like everything that Jesus says carries a really deep truth, because I mean, afterall, he is the Truth, so it seems natural that just like a fountain gushes water because that’s what it does, Jesus is going to gush truth. It’s Dallas Willard’s contention that the reality that Jesus is the smartest and most clever man that ever lived doesn’t often enter our minds when we think of him as Teacher and Master of Life, and that is tragic.)

To get a clear idea what Jesus is really saying, and why, let’s set the stage a bit…

Continued in Setting the Stage: Jesus’ Pursuit, Part 2

(Thanks, K, for the T.S. Elliot quote)

 

Emmanuel, God with Us

It is perhaps one of the greatest understatements of all time, full of hope and mystery, and ushering in the greatest raucous that has ever burst forth on this earth. To a fearful group of wayward shepherds, keeping weary eyes open to watch their sheep late on a clear night, appears a powerful member of the Angel Armies who, upon seeing their shocked and trembling countenances, says, “Don’t be afraid. I bring you good tidings of great joy…” And so, on such a small introduction follows the greatest promise we can have, given to the lowliest and poorest of us all.

God has come. He has traveled the furthest distance from the Throne room to an unknown cave, fighting through all the forces of the Evil One arrayed against His plan, to make Himself known to the humbled, to the fringes of the population, heralded by goats, by sheep, and by astrologers from the east. Here, in this tiny infant – vulnerable, helpless, needy – rests not only our hope for life, but our restoration as well, our invitation to take our place once again in the story God has been telling for a long, long time. It is a Story of heroic proportions, of daring rescues, of passion and pursuit, of battle and adventure, and of intimacy beyond our wildest imaginations. Of heroes masked in wrappings of spittle and enemies masquerading as angels of light. It is a Story that begins, “Once upon a time” and ends “And they lived happily ever after…”

We are they. And the depths of our hearts burn with the anticipation of all that awaits, of all that began so, so long ago, of all that concludes with our full release into all we were created for…