Scandalous Love

Perhaps this has happened to you. You choose a gift for someone. You wrap it, present it to them, and step back and wait for their reaction. You have to wait, because you can never be sure exactly what kind of reaction you will get.

If they are busy or distracted, they may look up from their work for a moment, accept the package, and toss it to the side without missing a beat. Then again, they may be a little more gracious. They may take a moment to thank you; but—and you’re not sure why—it’s seems they have been expecting you to show up and they are more than a little disappointed that it has taken you so long.

Then there are those folks who seem sincerely surprised and honored that you have thought enough to remember them with a gift. You might hear them say, “You shouldn’t have”—and it’s not because they now feel obligated to reciprocate. It’s these occasions that remind us of what Christmas is truly about.

Christmas is the occasion when God gave the gift of his Son to you. Jesus came to live among us, as one of us. The Incarnation is the revelation of God’s scandalous love affair with humanity.

We often fail to understand just how scandalous God’s love for us is, and how radical it is that God would show that love by lowering himself to be born in human form.

The Christmas story exemplifies how God’s ways are not our ways. God works miracles in unexpected places, in unexpected ways.  God loves us with a scandalous love.

To experience a different kind of Christmas means to not only appreciate and accept God’s scandalous love, but also to respond to the challenge to love others in that same way. What are society’s expectations of who you’re supposed to love, and who you’re not supposed to love? What kind of scandal would it create if you were to go out of the way to demonstrate love toward someone who’s not supposed to be loved? How would that be different from the safe, cautious ways we often show Christ’s love in the world?

To whom or in what way can you show “scandalous” love this holiday season because of the great love God has shown you? This is truly what Christmas is about. 

Giving Up on Perfect

The vast majority of Christmas cards that are sent each year feature scenes that depict the beauty and wonder of that silent night. The hills where the shepherds watched their flocks are perfectly manicured and bathed in a heavenly light. The wise men look especially regal as they move effortlessly through the last few miles of their journey to find the newborn king. The holy family looks especially serene as they gaze at the baby who is smiling happily from the finely crafted wooden box lined with golden strands of hay.

While these pictures help put us in the mood for a happy holiday season, they may also keep us from remembering the first Christmas was really quite messy and uncertain. Whether it was a barn or a cave, if it was the place where the animals were kept overnight, it smelled like animals. Even after travelling for a couple of days and spending the night in AAA rated facilities, most people tend to become travel weary—and it shows. I’ve been to Bethlehem—the hillsides around the city have never been at risk of being mistaken for a golf course.

If that is not enough, consider all the messy and uncertain personal and relational struggles that are a part of the story. Mary is still unmarried when she learns she is going to have a child. Joseph is caught in quandary. Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth—who is decades older and now a few months more pregnant than Mary—makes some incredible predictions about their children. On top of all that, everyone in the region has their agenda reordered by the command of the leader of the occupying foreign power.  

The first Christmas was not the neat, tidy event pictured in our nativity scenes and greeting cards. If you want this to be a different kind of Christmas, you need to give up on creating the “perfect” Christmas and remember that God shows up in the middle of the mess to bring us a message of hope.  

The miracle God wants to accomplish through you may start when you focus on helping someone you know who is struggling. Commit to praying for them, ask how you can help, and follow through with help and encouragement.  Or maybe you should consider how God can use your current struggles to help others this holiday season.

Even in the midst of the unexpected, the messy, and the devastating, you can still fully expect God to show up. May God give you eyes to see the Savior’s gracious presence in the midst of our messy, uncertain lives. This is truly what Christmas is about.

Expect a Miracle

It’s a message that is hard to avoid. It seems to be everywhere. Billboards, catalogs, and commercial after commercial on television all promise a better life for you, your spouse, your children, your family, your friends, your coworkers; if you will just give the gift they are offering. Sometimes it’s a new toy. Other times it’s a piece of jewelry. You will even see new cars with red bows parked in some driveway before December is done.

It is tempting to believe this siren’s song: the secret to filling the life of those I love with peace, love and joy can be charged to my credit card. The people in the pictures look so happy. Maybe this is the gadget or game or gem that will make this the Christmas they will always remember.

It is essential that you resist this message if you want to experience a different kind of Christmas. When you focus only on those gifts that come in brightly wrapped packages adorned with ribbons and bows, you risk the danger of failing to recognize the good gifts you have already received . . . and the even better gifts God has prepared for you.

Over the years I have received some pretty great gifts, but I must admit that even the greatest of those gifts pale in comparison to the gift of Immanuel—God with us. When you really begin to grasp the significance of that gift, it fills your heart with a gratitude and a spirit of generosity that makes it possible to celebrate the miracle of God’s gift over the materialism of more and more stuff.

Let me challenge you to consider creating some new traditions this year—traditions that focus on the miracle worker instead of the materialism. Consider some traditions that emphasize the people in your life, rather than the presents you expect to receive. Remember to make space in your schedule and in your heart for the presence of Jesus, too. Once you receive the miracle he has for you, you can become God’s conduit for delivering miracles to others.

A miracle is a unique event in the world that God does through people like you and me. God does miracles through ordinary, simple people like Mary and Joseph. We have the power to do amazing things . . . if we are willing to sacrifice some of our own comfort for the good of others.

What new traditions in your own holiday planning could focus more on Jesus’ presence than on presents? For a truly different kind of Christmas begin to pray about one or two ideas that you feel might be God-initiated dreams for you to pursue in helping change this world for God’s Kingdom.

The Cost of Doing Great Things

When they walk into a store most people –whether they are living from paycheck to paycheck or earning a six-figure salary for their particular expertise—look at the price tag before they take an item to the register. Everybody wants to know how much what they are about to purchase is going to cost.

While the price is usually expressed in dollars and cents, you may do the same mental calculus that many other people do as they determine how many minutes or hours or days they have to work to pay for this particular item. There also quite a few folks who consider what they will have to give up or put off purchasing if they decide to take their current selection home.

Of course, it’s not just the things you buy at the store that cost you something. If you want to acquire a skill or improve your performance or master a subject, those efforts require an investment of time and energy. It also means sacrificing other pursuits, diversions or activities.

On the other hand, there are a lot of “things” we enjoy for which it is nearly impossible to calculate the cost: the numerous freedoms we enjoy in this country, the right to express our opinions, and the distinct privilege to cast a ballot. It is fitting that we should set aside some time to consider the cost others have paid so many may claim these rights and such freedoms.

May this time of remembrance serve as more than just a reminder that we owe a debt of gratitude to others. May it challenge you to ask, “What am I doing right now to make the world a better place?” It may be something big that requires lots of time and energy and attracts lots of attention; or it may be something small, like waiting a few seconds to hold the door for the person following you into the office.

As a community of faith we believe God calls every person to join the task of working to make the world a better place. When you spend yourself, your time, your energy, and your resources to bring about something better; God notices. May you feel God’s delight as he notices something you do to make the world a better place today.

Recognizing Greatness in the Shadows

It is hard not to notice. They are the people in the spotlight. Walking down the red carpet. Behind the microphone. Riding around in limos. Holding the MVP trophy or Oscar or Emmy or Tony or Grammy or Moonman.

It’s only natural to think that these are the people who have really accomplished something significant. These are the people that we want to be—or we hope our children will grow up to be.

Depending on how serious we are about becoming like them, we spend hours learning about their habits. What they eat. Where they live. The routine they follow. The clothes they wear. The people they know. We look for anything we can do to improve our chances of earning our place in the spotlight.

With so much attention on the celebrities in the spotlight, we may be missing folks who are making a much more significant contribution. That’s what Jesus wanted his disciples to see the day they were hanging out at the Temple in Jerusalem.

There were lots of rich people coming through wearing long flowing robes. As they walked up to the box to deposit their offering you could see them glance around from side to side to make sure that others were watching them. It was hard to discern exactly how they were able to make such a big deal of putting money into a box; but they were.

The disciples may have been thinking about how they might be able to use all that money to help Jesus in his ministry. They could probably feed a crowd with what just a few of those rich people had dropped in the box. They might even be able to entice a doctor to treat a few of the sick.

If Jesus had not interrupted their reverie, the widow would have passed by unnoticed. She slipped by so unassumingly that she was virtually invisible. The coin she had dropped in the box had made no difference in the running totals they were keeping.

But then Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others . . . . They gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on” (Mark 12:43-44).

As we remember those who have lived faithful lives, and who have  now gone on to glory; may we remember all they did—both great and small—as we give thanks for their contribution to the community of faith.

Dealing with Disappointment

The phones rings.

The number doesn’t look familiar.

“Hello?”

“This is the nurse. The doctor asked me to call you. Your labs came back . . . .”

This is where you really start to listen; but you don’t really hear what is being said because your mind is racing through questions you would have never considered asking. A diagnosis changes schedules, priorities, plans, ambitions. It may shake your confidence, make you question your faith, lead you to examine your relationships, or prompt you to reassess your values.

In the face of such disturbing news some people decide to give up. They settle into the recliner and wait for the end. They may allow those closest to them to tend to their most basic needs; but they would rather sit in silence than accept the care and condolences of their friends and family.

Other folks try to make the best of a bad situation. They listen carefully to suggestions about the best way to manage their condition. They want everything that can to remain the same—hoping they won’t become the center of attention.

Some refuse to resign themselves to accept a diagnosis as a verdict. They are determined to do more than manage the situation. They pursue changes that may reverse their condition, even when others question their resolve. They replace unhealthy habits with new routines which promise greater vitality. 

Sometimes it seems that life changes in a matter of moments—and it does. But the shape of the change depends on what you choose to do in that moment.

In the face of disturbing news, in the midst of crushing circumstances, in the light of disappointing prospects, faith calls the followers of Christ to recognize the savior is near. Even though others may disparage our confidence in him, we must not be dissuaded. Let us throw off whatever prevents us from going to him, acknowledge his power to redeem, and accept the restoration God can give. Then we can follow where he leads.

Spreading God’s Grace

With all of the survey results and polling data being reported as the nation moves toward the presidential election, you may have missed the results of the survey conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. It reports that one-fifth of the U.S. public—and a third of adults under 30—are not affiliated with any religion today. That’s a 15% increase in just the past five years.

In other words, 46 million Americans do not identify with any religion. Of those, 13 million are self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6%); and the other nearly 33 million people say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%).

Despite the rise in the religiously unaffiliated, Pew also found that more than two-thirds of those people believe in God. One-in-five say they pray every day. According to Pew, the spiritually engaged but religiously unaffiliated do think that “churches and other religious institutions benefit society by strengthening community bonds and aiding the poor.” Most of them acknowledge faith as a positive human urge, but are increasingly turned off by the institutions that claim to represent faith.

In the midst of his public ministry Jesus commissioned around 70 of his followers and sent them into the towns and villages where he was planning to go. “These were his instructions to them: ‘The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields’” (Luke 10:2). Jesus’ last instructions to his disciples were to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19).

The time we have spent learning how to share the good news in a graceful pattern has prepared you to take your place in the field. The results of the Pew survey are just one more reminder that this is work that needs to be done. I encourage you to renew your commitment to pray for those in your life who are “unaffiliated.” Look for opportunities to engage them in conversations about life and faith. Share your faith story with them with humility and love. Let them know that there is a community of believers where they can experience the love of God in meaningful and tangible ways. And let us all resolve to allow the Holy Spirit to shape us into that community that is more interested in making God’s love real than it is in anything else.