You have to admit that the tree looks less festive after all the presents are pulled out from underneath it. Even the gifts themselves don’t capture the imagination as powerfully once they are unwrapped. I suppose that’s the reason some people have already dumped their tree at the curb. They are ready for it to be hauled away…ready to get their lives back to normal.
It’s kind of funny, really; but also, strangely sad. We have just celebrated the birth of a child who changed history and some of us are more eager to pack up all the decorations than we are to contemplate the wonder of God coming to earth to live with us… as one of us.
Consider the testimony of John: “The Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to us” (John 1:14, CEV).
Ponder this from Paul: “Think the same way that Christ Jesus thought: Christ was truly God. But he did not try to remain equal with God. Instead he gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us” (Philippians 2:5-7, CEV).
Reflect on these words: “He had to be one of us, so that he could serve God as our merciful and faithful high priest and sacrifice himself for the forgiveness of our sins” (Hebrews 2:17, CEV).
The stores may be clearing their shelves. The radio station may be back to playing the hits of yesterday and today. You may be packing treasures for another long stay in the attic. In the midst of all that, let me invite you to consider how you will keep the glorious good news of Christmas alive in your heart, so that the baby who was born in Bethlehem may continue to transform your life…to fill it with peace, hope, joy and love throughout the coming year.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
How Silently, How Silently
Announcements. Engagements. Weddings. Pregnancies. Births. Exciting stuff; but the ordinary stuff of life, really. They are the kind of events you expect to hear about as you listen for the signs and sounds that signal the progression of the lives of the people around you.
Children are born. They grow up. They fall in love. They get married. They have babies. Life goes on. It’s the ordinary stuff of life.
Mary. Joseph. Nazareth. You might expect another ordinary story. That was what Mary expected. That was what Joseph expected. They knew that was what their friends and family expected, too. Nevertheless, in the middle of their ordinary lives, something extraordinary happens.
Angels come to visit. Mary and Joseph were each observant practitioners of their faith, but there is nothing to suggest they regularly received direct messages from God. Mary is confused and disturbed when the angel Gabriel gives her the news that she is going to have a son. Joseph is making his own plans to deal with the situation until an angel speaks to him in a dream. Will anything in their lives ever be ordinary again?
It is more than an idle question. They have heard the news that God is going to enter their lives. The son they are to raise will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21) He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end! (Luke 1:32-33)
Still they have to find their own way to Bethlehem. When they arrive, there is no place for them to stay. Soon they are running to Egypt to save their baby’s life. Eventually they return to Nazareth—where they go back to their ordinary lives; but God has come into their lives, and now everything has changed. Transformed.
I pray you may experience the transforming presence of God in your life this Christmas.
Children are born. They grow up. They fall in love. They get married. They have babies. Life goes on. It’s the ordinary stuff of life.
Mary. Joseph. Nazareth. You might expect another ordinary story. That was what Mary expected. That was what Joseph expected. They knew that was what their friends and family expected, too. Nevertheless, in the middle of their ordinary lives, something extraordinary happens.
Angels come to visit. Mary and Joseph were each observant practitioners of their faith, but there is nothing to suggest they regularly received direct messages from God. Mary is confused and disturbed when the angel Gabriel gives her the news that she is going to have a son. Joseph is making his own plans to deal with the situation until an angel speaks to him in a dream. Will anything in their lives ever be ordinary again?
It is more than an idle question. They have heard the news that God is going to enter their lives. The son they are to raise will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21) He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end! (Luke 1:32-33)
Still they have to find their own way to Bethlehem. When they arrive, there is no place for them to stay. Soon they are running to Egypt to save their baby’s life. Eventually they return to Nazareth—where they go back to their ordinary lives; but God has come into their lives, and now everything has changed. Transformed.
I pray you may experience the transforming presence of God in your life this Christmas.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Do You See What I See?
Driving around town after dark these days is much more fun than it is at any other time of the year. You never know what visual delight waits around the next corner. What looks like an ordinary house during the day becomes a magical place when it is outlined with thousands of lights. Trees and shrubs that would never attract any particular attention are transformed when they are illuminated. The great variety of other lawn decorations adds to the enchantment of these holiday evenings when darkness falls so early.
What do you see as you drive by?
Nearly every store has Christmas music playing in the background these days. Sometimes you hear a Christmas carol, but much of the time it’s some holiday song written to add to some recording artist’s holiday record—more lyrics about snow and mistletoe than shepherds or a savior. Still it’s easy to find yourself humming along as you wait in line at the register.
What do you hear as you wander through the mall?
This is the time of year when you probably receive more greeting cards than any other time—unless it’s your birthday. Some folks include lots of news about their family and what has been happening with them since you heard from this last year. Lots of cards have really pretty pictures. A few include the essential good news of the season—the news with which an angel greeted some shepherds in a field thousands of years ago.
What do you know as you open your cards?
In the popular carol, the night wind points out the star to the little lamb, who asks the shepherd if he hears the song; and the shepherd asks the mighty king if he knows about the child who has been born. How easy it would have been for them to miss this momentous occasion had they not seen or heard or known. May you see and hear and know the joy that is yours as the child brings us goodness and light.
Driving around town after dark these days is much more fun than it is at any other time of the year. You never know what visual delight waits around the next corner. What looks like an ordinary house during the day becomes a magical place when it is outlined with thousands of lights. Trees and shrubs that would never attract any particular attention are transformed when they are illuminated. The great variety of other lawn decorations adds to the enchantment of these holiday evenings when darkness falls so early.
What do you see as you drive by?
Nearly every store has Christmas music playing in the background these days. Sometimes you hear a Christmas carol, but much of the time it’s some holiday song written to add to some recording artist’s holiday record—more lyrics about snow and mistletoe than shepherds or a savior. Still it’s easy to find yourself humming along as you wait in line at the register.
What do you hear as you wander through the mall?
This is the time of year when you probably receive more greeting cards than any other time—unless it’s your birthday. Some folks include lots of news about their family and what has been happening with them since you heard from this last year. Lots of cards have really pretty pictures. A few include the essential good news of the season—the news with which an angel greeted some shepherds in a field thousands of years ago.
What do you know as you open your cards?
In the popular carol, the night wind points out the star to the little lamb, who asks the shepherd if he hears the song; and the shepherd asks the mighty king if he knows about the child who has been born. How easy it would have been for them to miss this momentous occasion had they not seen or heard or known. May you see and hear and know the joy that is yours as the child brings us goodness and light.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
A Deeper Hope
Perhaps you still remember when all your hopes during these few weeks after Thanksgiving were tied to what you were wishing you would find under the tree on Christmas morning. Were you one of those folks who didn’t want to leave anything to chance? You made sure everyone knew exactly what you wanted, where they could find it, and how much it would cost. Or maybe you wanted to test out the “magic” of the holiday, so you kept you wish list to yourself and let the “elves” do their work for you.
Whether you were explicit with your instructions or more reserved in sharing your expectations as you were growing up, eventually you realized that there had to be more to hope for than just what you might find wrapped in pretty paper and tied up with a bow. No bicycle was fast enough; no doll was pretty enough; no game system was cool enough to really satisfy your deepest hope for something more.
These days you don’t expect your hopes to be fulfilled by what someone can put in a box, but it’s still tempting to think that there is something that could transform your life—maybe it’s a new car or a new job or a pile of money. And, if you’re honest, you may have to admit sometimes that is where your prayers begin and end.
God has great news during these days of Advent. In the midst of this life that is so much less than you had hoped, God is sending a Savior who will reorder creation. When he comes, things are going to go back to the way they were originally created. As Walter Brueggemann says "the old practice of the big ones eating the little ones is not the wave of the future….The rightly governed world will indeed be detoxified, no more a threat to the poor, the meek, the children, the lamb, the kid. The new world will indeed be safe for the vulnerable."
That’s the hope I pray you have this year!
Whether you were explicit with your instructions or more reserved in sharing your expectations as you were growing up, eventually you realized that there had to be more to hope for than just what you might find wrapped in pretty paper and tied up with a bow. No bicycle was fast enough; no doll was pretty enough; no game system was cool enough to really satisfy your deepest hope for something more.
These days you don’t expect your hopes to be fulfilled by what someone can put in a box, but it’s still tempting to think that there is something that could transform your life—maybe it’s a new car or a new job or a pile of money. And, if you’re honest, you may have to admit sometimes that is where your prayers begin and end.
God has great news during these days of Advent. In the midst of this life that is so much less than you had hoped, God is sending a Savior who will reorder creation. When he comes, things are going to go back to the way they were originally created. As Walter Brueggemann says "the old practice of the big ones eating the little ones is not the wave of the future….The rightly governed world will indeed be detoxified, no more a threat to the poor, the meek, the children, the lamb, the kid. The new world will indeed be safe for the vulnerable."
That’s the hope I pray you have this year!
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