The Christmas Story - The InnKeepers

 "No beautiful chamber,

No soft cradle bed,
No place but a manger,
Nowhere for His head;
No praises of gladness,
No tho't of their sin,
No glory but sadness,
No room in the inn."

"In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.  This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.  And all went to be registered, each to his own town.  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.  And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.  And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn."

Luke 2:1-7

Our Christmas story often has another set of characters that pops into the story next.  A set of innkeepers that keep telling Mary and Joseph that they have "No Room."  The process is repeated over and over until one innkeeper finally makes room for them in his stable or barn.  

It makes for great pageantry.  Perhaps we can even see it best in the annual festival of Las Posadas, or The Inns, celebrated in Latin American countries and cultures.  Las Posadas derives from the Spanish word posada, meaning lodging or accommodation, here referring to the inn in the Nativity story.  Celebration of this 400 year tradition starts with two actors dressing as Mary and Joseph, leading a procession to certain houses designated as inns, usually those at the end of a street.  The procession is headed by a leader carrying a luminaria and can often contain other players of the Nativity story (angels, shepherds, etc.).  The procession makes its way from house to house, singing carols in hopes to have a place to stay.  They are initially met with "no posada," no room, until the end of the street.  There, the residents of the houses respond by singing a song, recognizing Mary and Joseph, and allowing the procession to enter.  The procession comes in and kneels to pray before a Nativity scene.  At the end of each night, carols are sung, children break open a star shaped piñata, and everyone sits for a feast.  This is repeated throughout the nine day period, with a new house each night accepting them in for the festivities.

Despite the longevity of this celebration and the widespread nature of the idea of the innkeepers, this is not necessarily how it went in Mary and Joseph's day.  The word translated as “inn” in the scripture can also be translated as an  upper, finished room of a house.  If this were the intent, then our innkeeper could have actually been relative of Joseph.  He didn’t have any place for Joseph and Mary to stay upstairs, as would be traditional.  Instead they had to stay in the cold, unfinished lower part of the house where the animals would be.  In a cave that would have been used for the animals.  Exposed to the weather, to the stench, to the filth of being with the livestock.

This makes a lot of sense in Jewish culture.  If Joseph had relatives still in Bethlehem, that is where he would seek lodging first.  Hospitality was of the utmost importance, and it would be especially extended to family.  If Joseph had no family left in the area, then he would be seeking shelter at an inn as we think of it.

Either way, the innkeeper should not be blamed for the lack of room. The city was overwhelmed by the census, not because of an inhospitable innkeeper or the like.  Rather because of circumstance and so that prophecy could be fulfilled.  

The lesson still remains the same.  No matter the reason for the crowding, the call is to make room.  To find a place.

Nearly every example Jesus gives us of meeting the needs of our fellow man comes at an inopportune time for the person rendering aid.  The Good Samaritan hurrying off a treacherous road, interrupted by the dying man needing aid.  Not allowing followers to bury their dead or say farewell to those at home.  Leaving the 99 to find the one lost sheep.

Jesus' ministry was filled with interruptions.  To feed his followers, to heal their infirmities, to dote on their children.  

Our lives can be so overcrowded.  With school, with work, with family, with church.  Have you ever been so overburdened with church activities that you miss God all together?  We have to be able to make room for those moments when God is looking to step in and wants us to join him.  For God to truly direct our paths and move us into tangents, into distractions, into diversions.  

To meet people and God where they are.

To find room for them in our lives.

The Christmas Story - Joseph

 "This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.  Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.'

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel' (which means 'God with us').

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.  But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus."

Matthew 1:18-25

Since becoming a father, I've thought a lot about Joseph at Christmas.  The focus of what becoming a father will do to you.  Understanding his position in the story just a little bit better.

He is certainly an enigmatic figure.  We know less about him than we do of Mary and he has a far smaller written role in the life of Jesus than she does.  We know his lineage, tying him to the house of David and requiring him to go to Bethlehem to be taxed/counted.  We know he was a carpenter, or craftsman.  We know he was a just and faithful man.  Beyond that, all we know of him is what happens to him in the early chapters of Matthew and Luke.  The birth, the flight to Egypt, and Jesus at the temple.  From there his story ends.

Some assume that Joseph died before Jesus' ministry ever started.  We know he was not present at the Crucifixion.  If he were, Joseph would have assumed care of his son's body, and Jesus would not have asked John to watch over his mother, Mary.  When exactly Joseph died or by what cause is unknown.

In the greater apocrypha, he is portrayed as an old man, even as old as 90 years old at the time of his betrothal to Mary.  These portrayals are found in the texts that maintain the perpetual virginity of Mary.  Accordingly, James, Joses, Simeon, and Judah/Jude/Judas, and their sisters are claimed to be children from a previous marriage, the step-siblings of Jesus if you will.

Modern protestant view tends to portray him a little younger.  Closer in age to Mary, still in the prime of his life.  That James, Joses, Simeon, and Judah would be the later children of Joseph and Mary.  

Whatever the additional details of his life, I can't help but place myself in his position.  The mix of emotions he must have felt when he learned Mary was pregnant.  The awe of the angel's statement.  All leading him to a dark stable, on a cold night, holding this little child that has been entrusted to his care.  Knowing the greatness this child is called to.

There's a song written a few years ago by Mercy Me called Joseph's Lullaby.  A song written from the perspective of Joseph as he sings Jesus to sleep.  It has a line that has haunted me since the first time I heard it.

Go to sleep my Son
This manger for your bed
You have a long road before You
Rest Your little head

Can You feel the weight of Your glory?
Do You understand the price?
Or does the Father guard Your heart for now
So You can sleep tonight?

Go to sleep my Son
Go and chase Your dreams
This world can wait for one more moment
Go and sleep in peace

I believe the glory of Heaven
Is lying in my arms tonight
But Lord, I ask that He for just this moment
Simply be my child

Go to sleep my Son
Baby, close Your eyes
Soon enough You'll save the day
But for now, dear Child of mine
Oh my Jesus, Sleep tight

All the questions that come from looking at an infant child who is the Son of God.  Finally realizing the weight of that statement.  And Joseph's simple request - for one moment, can he just be mine?  Everything else will come, everything else will happen, but can he just be mine right now?  Can he be spared the crushing weight of expectation for one minute?

How often did Joseph and Mary wish to spare Jesus from his destiny?  Did they try to talk him into a safer life?  How often did they pray for his protection, even at the expense of his mission? 

How often did they beg God to spare Jesus from His plan?

I know this is probably not the most appropriate Christian response, but looking over my children and knowing what I would do to protect them, I can imagine the answer is often and frequently.

I know kids need to learn overcoming difficulty and hardship, but every parent, if they knew their children would face real suffering, would face terminal illnesses, agonizing pain, overwhelming hardship, would beg to take their place.

It puts new perspective on what it must have been like as the adoptive father in this story.  To be the one appointed to watch over Jesus.  To raise him, to teach him a trade, and to set him out on his ministry.

I think there is a little poetry in why Joseph, a carpenter or craftsman was chosen.  God the master craftsman sent his son to a carpenter to apprentice.  Picturing Joseph teaching Jesus how to create, how to restore, how to reuse.  How to repair the broken.  

A picture of our adoptive Father.  What he wants to teach us.  How He restores.  How He repairs.   How He creates.

How great the father's love, indeed.

The Christmas Story - Mary

 "Why her, she's just an ordinary girl?"

A Strange Way to Save the World, Mark Harris

"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.  And he came to her and said, 'Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!'  But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.  And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.   And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.'

And Mary said to the angel, 'How will this be, since I am a virgin?'

And the angel answered her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.  And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.  For nothing will be impossible with God.'  And Mary said, 'Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.' And the angel departed from her."

Luke 1:26-38

Mary rightly receives a lot of attention at this time of year, but I wonder if we often gloss over what makes her story so amazing.  We focus so much on the miracle, on the extraordinary circumstances and the details of the birth that make it so amazing, but do we pay attention to the character of Mary and how we should relate to her?

Because, from what I see of the story, Mary was the most ordinary of girls.  We know little of her life from the gospel account.  We know she was living with her family in the betrothal stage of her marriage to Joseph.  At the time, Mary could have been betrothed as early as age twelve and there are apocryphal accounts that she was only 12-14 at the time of the Annunciation.  We know that she was a virgin at the time, that she was faithful.  We know that she was from Nazareth.

Nazareth at that time was a city of no prominence.  Though it is mentioned in the Gospels, there are no contemporaneous mentions of Nazareth.  It does not appear in other writings until 200 AD.  It was a town of around likely 400-500 people.  A town in the hills of Galilee.  A poor farming town.  It was the country.  To the point where it was even asked "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

An ordinary girl, in an ordinary town, in the most ordinary of circumstances.

Until God...

Until God steps into the most ordinary of circumstances to do the extraordinary.

I know there are those that would venerate Mary.  To make her sinless.  To make her a perpetual virgin.  To make her already extraordinary, set apart by God.  The new Mary film on Netflix leans heavily into this belief, relaying the story largely found in the pseudepigraphical Gospel of James.

While I don't want to deny their beliefs, I think that misses the mark of her story.

She's supposed to be us.  

To represent what God could do through any of us, if we found his favor.  If we were willing to say "let it be to me according to your word."  That no matter our beginnings, no matter our location, no matter our circumstances, God can make something wonderful.  Something miraculous, something extraordinary.

It's Mary's statement, "let it be to me according to your word," that reveals her extraordinary character.  Her willingness to follow God wherever He led her is her most amazing attribute.  Because what the angel was telling her would bring shame on her and her family.  At its most benign, it made her the subject of gossip and whispers.  It brought slander to her character.  It could mean the dissolution of her betrothal.  If that happened, it could make her an unfit candidate for marriage of any kind, leaving her destitute, should her family refused to keep her.  At the absolute worst, it could mean her death for her "unfaithfulness."

We don't see Mary fight back against any of this.  She simply says, "let it be done."

To have that kind of faith!

It can be so hard for us to serve when it's merely mildly inconvenient.  We're so concerned God is going to send us to Africa or China if he calls us, that we're turning away from even going across the street.  We hold on to so many reasons holding us back - family, jobs, status, comfort, prejudice, tradition, relationships - when God is waiting for us to cut through it all with a simple, "Here am I, send me!"

Or perhaps worse, we make it about ourselves.  We make ourselves important people needing to be seen and known as doing great things.  To be visible.  To be prominent.  To always be pictured as someone on the right side of pious.  To be known for being a good person, having the right beliefs, attending the right church, doing the right things, voting correctly, fitting in just squarely.  Associated with the right people.  We have no time for when things get messy or uncomfortable.  We're sticking to our plan.  We’re determined to be the main character of the story, when our role may be more like Mary’s - to set up a bigger story.  And also forgetting we are all just the supporting cast in God’s grand story.

What would we see if Christians went back to being ordinary people used by God for extraordinary things?

What if we weren't afraid of messy?  Of inconvenient?

Think about it, the Christmas story starts with an all too common scenario that we look down our noses at today.  An unplanned, likely teenage pregnancy.  A rushed and hushed marriage.  

Do we really grasp that?  God's plan for Mary's life was going to subject her to lies and slander about her character.  She was going to be known for her lifetime in her hometown as unfaithful.  There would be questions and rumors about exactly who she slept with, including rumors that persist to this day of her relations with a Roman soldier.

Joseph would likely be looked upon as either the one who couldn't wait or as weak for not exacting his remedy for her unfaithfulness.

God's plan made their lives extremely messy.  It subjected them to the disappointment of their family and friends.  

No wonder her name meant “bitter tears,” as there were likely many bitter tears shed throughout her lifetime.

Mary had to know this, she had to be imagining this.  

And yet, she said, "let it be."

Mother Mary come to us.

And there, through bitter tears, came the joy of the world.  All because an ordinary girl was willing to endure the messy, the broken, and the pain to see the extraordinary.

Are we willing to do the same?

The Christmas Story - Elizabeth

 "The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.  Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.  For no word from God will ever fail.'"

Luke 1:35-36

I've recently been fascinated by the pairing of the stories of the pregnancies of Elizabeth and Mary.  Mary's story rightly gets told and proclaimed throughout this time of year.  But Elizabeth's is often forgotten.  And it's the pairing of these two stories that show the full power of God.

Elizabeth's story is very brief; her only mentions throughout scripture are wholly contained in the first chapter of Luke.  We know that she was a descendant of Aaron.  That she is married to Zechariah.  That she was "well along in years."  That she was childless.

And we know she had prayed for a child.

In the very beginning of this Christmas story, before the angel speaks to Mary, we see God speak to his people for the very first time in over four hundred years.  His angel appears to Zechariah and lets him know that Elizabeth will conceive and give birth to John.

A promise fulfilled.

We focus on Mary's story because we find it the more miraculous.  The child is conceived immaculately.  Life is created from nothing.

But the story is even more astounding when paired with Elizabeth's pregnancy.  With Elizabeth, life comes from the dead.  From the barren.  Resurrection.

In Elizabeth and Mary, we see God creating.  From death and from nothing.  The Redeemer and the Creator.  Alpha and Omega.  Beginning and End.

In other mythologies, a common theme are the three sisters.  The weird sisters, the kindly ones, the norns, the fates, the furies.  Mother, maiden, and crone.

In this Christmas story, we see maiden and crone both becoming mother.  Life coming forth from beginning and end.

For no word from God will ever fail.

The Christmas Story - Zechariah

 "And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.  And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.  But the angel said to him, 'Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.'"

Luke 1:11-13

Of all the players in the greater Christmas story, Zechariah is one that I've never given much thought to.  He's there, just a bit player in John's story, but perhaps unfairly, I've sidelined him.

He is the first person to hear from God in over 400 years.  He's blessed with the first angel visitation in the broader story.  All through a very orchestrated plan to make sure he was serving in the temple that day.

In thinking through his story, I suppose I've always had the picture of he and Elizabeth getting what they've been continually praying for.  That after all these long years of prayer and petition, of continually bringing the request for child to God, their prayer was finally answered.

But what if the scenario were a little different?  With Zechariah and Elizabeth both well advanced in years, what if the prayer for a child was one that had fallen off the prayer request list?  What if Zechariah had given up hope long ago that he and Elizabeth would have a child?  Had stopped praying that particular prayer ages ago?  After all, he could see it was an impossibility, or at least a great improbability.

At this point God had been silent for so long.  There was no prophet to bring the word of the Lord.  There was no judge looking over the people.  No king to do right or evil in the sight of the Lord.

And likely, God had been silent in Zechariah's life for a long time.  The prayer for a child had seemingly gone unanswered.  No word, no promise.

It's into this that the angel of the Lord steps in.  His first words "your prayer has been heard."  God revealing himself to Zechariah, to His people and saying "I hear you."  "I heard you."

You can imagine Zechariah thinking what prayer?  The prayer for a king?  The Messiah?  Someone to come and overthrow Rome and establish an earthly rule again?  The prayer for an uprising? The prayer for provision?

To which the angel replies, no, your first prayer.  That deep petition of your heart.  Your longing.  The prayer for a child.

The one you thought forgotten.
The one you gave up on.
The one you thought impossible.

Here is God saying I heard it, I hear it, I have always heard you.  But answering in His time.  Bringing forth His provision when it will be right.  When it aligns with His purpose.  In a manner that brings Him the glory.

He steps in and says that I am answering many prayers and promises.  The prayer for a child.  The promise for an Elijah.  The turning of the hearts of Israel.

It becomes easy to see Zechariah's confusion.  To have such an old prayer answered would be startling.

How easily we could be guilty of the same thing?

Maybe it's just me, but how often do we think we need to continually remind God of our request?  That we have to keep praying for the exact same thing over and over and over again, as if we think this time he'll finally hear us?

When God is trying to tell us, "I heard you, I hear you, I always hear you."

What would it look like if we believed that?  How would our prayer change?  What would it look like to trust His timing instead of our own?

That's not to say every prayer will be answered in the exact way we want it to be.  But we have to believe that He hears us and His plan is the best.

In this season of miracles, perhaps that is the one you need to be reminded of the most -
He heard you, He hears you, He hears the requests of His people -

Always.

Second Sunday of Advent - The Preparation

 Today marks the second Sunday of Advent.  A time that used to reflect on the preparations made for the arrival of the Messiah.  Of the birth of John the Baptist, he who would prepare a way for the Lord.

A voice of one calling:
"In the wilderness prepare 
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert 
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up, 
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

Isaiah 40:3-5

Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel who alone does marvelous deeds.

Psalm 72:18

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Luke 1:26-38

I've always loved the comparison in the miracles of the birth of John and of Jesus.  Though they are not of the same level, through them we see the breadth of the work of God - to bring forth life from the dead and to bring forth life from nothingness. To restore and rejuvenate, as well as to completely create from new.  A beautiful reminder that no matter where we may be in our lives, God can prepare a way.

We see that God is always planning ahead.  He placed prophecy in place not just for His coming, but for His herald’s coming.  He arranges for Elizabeth and Zechariah to be up in years, and to come to Mary before she and Joseph are together.  Everything according to his time table and design.

God will make a way.

In addition, I think it is also a picture of how we are to wait.  To have an expectancy in our waiting.  To continue to be about the work that he has called us to while we wait.  That’s our preparation.  The call on our lives to prepare ye the way of the Lord.  

Zechariah was still serving in the temple.  He was still week in and week out, faithfully serving where he was called.  This will even play an important part of his story when he is struck mute.

But for our purposes today, the focus is that he is still working.  Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary - they have all remained faithful Jewish people up to and through the moment God speaks.

The waiting we are called to, the waiting we find ourselves in is not to be an inactive one.  It’s meant to be full of action.

That may seem counter-intuitive, but it’s not.  We, as believers, do not get to get ourselves into church, take up a pew, and then simply wait until we are called home, or Jesus returns, whichever comes first.  We don’t get to run away from the world and retreat into our cozy little safe spaces and wait ‘til Jesus comes. 

We are called out.  

“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.  Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.”

Luke 12:35-37

Think about the days before Jesus’s birth was announced.  God had not directly spoken to his people for over 400 years.   The prophecies from Isaiah above were over 700 years old.  The people had been longing for a Messiah, waiting for the promised someone to come and save them for a long time.    They had been waiting just to hear from God again.

But in that waiting, life had to go on.  Service had to go on.  Faithful dedication to the principles and promises of God had to continue.  Passovers continued.  The feasts continued.  The temple continued.

The laws requiring justice to the oppressed, hospitality to the immigrant, and charity to the poor remained.

And it’s to those whom were continuing in faithful service that God arrives.  

Isn’t that the way through Scripture?  God spoke to Noah, the patriarch of the remaining faithful family.  God works through Daniel and his friends remaining faithful in the midst of captivity.  God comes to Elizabeth and Zechariah and to Joseph and Mary, highlighting them as faithful servants.  

Those who remain steadfast in their faith not just being held, but lived out.

Therefore, it is imperative that we remain active in our faith, actively seeking to serve others, to love others, to go and to tell.

And in doing so, I think we also need to remember that sometimes faithful service isn’t exciting.  It’s not glamorous.  And it may not feel important.

Sometimes faithful service might look like doing the same small thing over and over again each and every day.  Continuing to do the last thing you were called to, until the Lord directs you elsewhere.

In fact, it may look small.

I believe this reminder is necessary, because I think we can run a danger in not remembering that the scriptures are a highlight reel of the key players not a play-by-play account.  We can look at the events of the lives of Jesus or the apostles and could foolishly believe our lives are supposed to be that exciting every day.  That something should be happening every second for us to feel our faith. And to believe that if it is not, we must be out of the will of God or missing it somehow.

This type of reading ignores the long passages of waiting time that are omitted from the scriptures.  There are decades of Jesus’s life not recorded and even for the three years that are heavily recorded, we don’t get the long stretches of walking that would have occurred.  For Paul, we don’t get paragraphs on the months that would have been spent sailing or other forms of travel.  The repetitive days he would have spent in prison, or on just making tents.

Our lives might be like that too.  Our faithful service might just be watching and teaching toddlers in Sunday School week after week, year after year, until the Lord directs you to something else.  It might be faithfully making a meal for others as often as you are able.  It might be going to your job with a smile on your face each morning and a good word for everyone you see. 

It’s not big, but it’s faithful.  And if it is where you are called, it is just where you are supposed to be.

So, on this second Sunday of advent, may we remember that God is always making a way and that we are to be faithfully working while we are waiting on His deliverance, even if that may look repetitive or small.

May we prepare that way today. 

First Sunday of Advent - The Waiting

"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light:  they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. [...]
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The might God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.  The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."

Isaiah 9:2,6-7

Today marks the first Sunday of Advent, where we remember the hope and promise of a coming Messiah, as well as looking forward to the promise of His return.  We live in a similar hope today, looking forward to the second coming, when will be restored.  We can understand that longing, that hope.  

It’s on this day we focus on the waiting.  The promised, but not yet fulfilled.  The already/not yet.

And it’s on today we experience the absolute truism - the waiting is the hardest part…

In this tension, we look to the past and see the promises fulfilled.  We see all of the promises and prophecies that Jesus’s birth fulfilled.  Depending on your definition of prophecy, there are 200 to 570 prophecies fulfilled just by the brith of Jesus.  That’s an excellent track record and one that should give us great comfort and hope in the 1,845 references to Jesus’s second coming.

And that can provide a great comfort.  It is of great consolation that we can be assured that Jesus will come again.  That He will make all things new.  That there will be a day when there is no more - no more sickness, no more war, no more death, no more suffering.  Oh Glorious Day!

I’m convinced, though, we have a greater hope and comfort than that.

Because we are not just saved to eternal life, but to a life more abundant and full here on earth.  We are not just called to sit on the sidelines and “wait ‘til Jesus comes.”

Our waiting in an expectant waiting.

We are called to prepare the way, which is the focus of the second week of advent.  The preparations made and preparations necessary.  The things we should be found doing when the second coming arrives.  To continue to be about His purpose and His mission here on earth.

For we also should be expectantly waiting for God to show up in our everyday lives.  We should fervently and expectantly waiting for miracles to arrive in our lives and the lives of those around us.  To see healing happen, in bodies and in relationships.  To see lives changed and turned from the depths of despair into the heights of hope.  To see churches, and towns, and cities, and counties, and states, and nations fervently change direction and seek God.  To see those locations feeding the hungry, clothing and sheltering the poor, nurturing the immigrant and stranger among them regardless of status, caring for the sick and dying.

We should be waiting on God on a daily basis.

So it begs the question, where are you waiting on God?

Are you waiting for physical healing?  Are you hurting and in need of comfort?

Are you waiting for mental healing and strength?

Do you need comfort from grief and sorrow?

Do you need housing?  Clothing?  Financial stability?

Where are you waiting for God to show up?  And are you expectantly seeking Him?

Are you asking “Come, Lord Jesus, Come!”

This is where we can aid each other. To comfort each other. To support one another. To come alongside in the waiting. To share burdens where we can. 

And to continue to lift each other up. To continue to pray, come thou long expected Jesus.  Come again as we know you will. And come into this moment now with us. 

An Updated Reminder

 If I’m going to be really starting this up again, it is probably wise to give the periodic reminder about this blog.

First, I want to thank you all for your readership and your kind words.  This is largely a writing exercise and an opportunity for me to get thoughts out of my head.  I remain humbled by positive response and the appreciation.  To everyone who has let me know you are reading, ever liked a post, or commented, thank you.  It is appreciated more than you could know.  To those of you who read in silence, thank you as well.

I would also like to use this time to post a reminder of the blog rules, and to provide advance warning.  There will be blogs that will either make you mad or will upset you or challenge your position on a particular topic.  The blog is my personal space and soap box, so it will reflect my biases and my contrarian streak.  I will also likely question things that many people believe are and should be settled.  

I do remain open to civil discourse on almost any topic.

Finally, I wanted to pass along a reminder that I have an email subscription option on the page.  With that, you'll receive an email link each time a new post is added.  There is also an RSS feed option, in case anyone prefers that method.

Further, an update of the reminders that have been previously posted:

1. This blog represents the thoughts and opinions of its writer, me.  I stand behind what I write, but it does reflect my views and opinions at the time of writing.  I provide myself the opportunity to change my mind and to learn new information.
2. I promise, I will post on topics that are so niche-focused, so utterly nerdy that anyone but me is going to be bored to tears.  I try to keep those to only once or twice a week and to rotate through a variety of topics throughout the week to keep it interesting.  I use the labels so that you can screen out certain topics if you want to.
3. I will post things that you will disagree with and that will potentially make you upset.  I know I am more liberal than the majority of my audience.  Probably regarding doctrine and politics both.  These are both topics I'm going to write on from time to time.  I personally favor moderation and lean center-left, but will post on a variety of viewpoints from center-right to hard left (maybe even hard right in a few instances, though increasingly unlikely).
4. I am going to be harder on Republicans than I am on Democrats.  While I am not a fan of many politicians of many different political parties, I am growing to despise what the Republican party is becoming.  And I reserve the sharpest criticism for them due to one fact above all: the perverse mixture of politics and religion that Republicans promote. Because they purport to hold themselves out as the Christian party, I'm going to hold them to that impossible standard.  
5. I am likewise harder on churches and Christians than I am on non-believers.  Those who profess to believe have identified themselves as recognizing a higher standard.  To put it simply, "we should know and act better."  And do so based on a reading of the entire Bible.  Sadly, we all too often fall far short of this.  While I do want to extend grace to those that slip, when errors occur as abuses of power in the church  or in ways that belittle the faith they claim to hold, I will be discussing it. 
6. I'm generally more interested in questions than concrete answers.  I think we as a collective are less curious than we should be and settle for comfortable answers when we should still be asking harder, more difficult questions.  
7. I am completely open to disagreement and debate. Honest and open dialogue is the only way we can move forward in any civilized society.  However, I have a few ground rules for debate:

• I will not tolerate name calling or muckraking.  When the thread resorts to calling each other racists, "liberal snowflakes," "libtards," or four-letter words, I will shut it down.  Likewise, I'm not going to let stereotypes and sweeping generalities go unchallenged.  All liberals do not want the destruction of our country, all conservatives are not bigots, etc.
• I hope for discussion that will foster conversation, not end it.  So I expect more than "guns don't kill people, people kill people" in a discussion on gun control, for example.  I will not let those conversation-enders stand unchallenged.
• Compromise is not a dirty word.  And likewise, I do hope people change their mind from time to time based on what they learn. Including me.
• I follow this hierarchy for the value of information: facts, then informed opinions, then general opinions.  Saying "that's just my opinion" is going to get nowhere with me if it is not supported by the facts.

As always, thank you for reading!

Veterans Day 2024

“Today, we honor generations of America’s veterans — patriots who have stood on the frontlines of freedom and kept the light of liberty shining bright around the world.  Just as they have kept the ultimate faith in our Nation, we must keep ultimate faith in them.

Each one of our Nation’s veterans is a link in a chain of honor that stretches back to our founding days — bound by a sacred oath to support and defend the United States of America.  Throughout history, whenever and wherever the forces of darkness have sought to extinguish the flame of freedom, America’s veterans have been fighting to keep it burning bright.  I remember so clearly the pride the First Lady and I felt in our son Beau during his service in Iraq.  He — like all our veterans from Belleau Wood, Baghdad, and Gettysburg to Guadalcanal, Korea, and Kandahar and beyond — lived, served, and sacrificed by a creed of duty.  We owe them a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay, not just for fighting for our democracy, but for giving back to our communities and inspiring the next generation to serve, even after they hang up their uniforms.

President Joe Biden, A Proclamation of Veterans Day, 2024

"I’ll have you know that a soldier is the most holy of all humans because he is the most tested — most tested of all."

John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Today is a day that the world remembers and honors those who serve their countries.

Armistice Day. Remembrance Day. Veterans Day.

The world remembers and celebrates the end of what was supposed to be the war to end all wars.  The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.  Oh, were that true.

As Americans, we remember and honor those who serve and sacrifice for our country.  Who sacrifice for our freedoms as the wars rage ever on.

Thank you. We owe you more than we can say.  May we never forget.

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

President John F. Kennedy

That is the key, isn’t it.  May we not just continue to repeat these words, may we live by them.  May we enact policies that truly show the value we place on our soldiers.  May our leadership thoroughly weigh the costs every time before engaging them.  May we repair the broken systems we have to ensure they are supported throughout their lives.

And then, may our words on Veterans Day be an everyday remembrance.

Are You Safe?

Three short words, but such a powerful question, with multiple implications.

We recognize the physical nature of the question.   Are you in a good place?  Are you safe from physical harm and danger?  We ask this in situations of crisis or disaster.  Checking on our loved ones and friends, making sure they are okay.  Making sure they survived and weathered the storm.

There is a deeper way this question is asked.  One that reveals more about the character of the listener, than their situation.  And one that gets to the heart of what we seek in those around us.

Are you a safe person?

Can I trust you?

It’s a question of self-preservation.  One that we ask to keep ourselves from being hurt.  We may not ask it out loud, but we definitely evaluate in internally when we are deciding who we can share our hopes, our dreams, our sorrows, and our fears with.  When we determine who we can authentically be ourselves around.

Our church is currently working through a series entitled Leave the 99.  It’s about venturing out and going forth to be about His purpose.  Leaving the 99 in the flock to look for the one lost lamb.  And that passage of scripture, with the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son is well tread scripture.  It is well taught and well read.  

But something jumped out of the passage last night to me for the first time, right at the very beginning.

Luke begins chapter 15 with a verse summarizing the situation.  “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him [Jesus].  And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’”

The New Living Translation describes the crowd as “tax collectors and other notorious sinners.”  To put it mildly, these were the ultimate outsiders of Jewish society.  They were those people.  The ones that “respectable people” did not want to even be seen near.

Jewish society divided everyone between clean and unclean people.  The pious were clean and were the “worthy” in society.  Everyone else was unclean and needed cleansing.  But even within the unclean, there were levels.  These people were the “dirtiest.”

The tax collectors were seen as abusive and traitors, siding with Rome over the Jewish people.  Profiting off their own people through usury and graft.  The other notorious sinners likely referred to prostitutes, to drunkards, to beggars..to the undesirables.

People whose sins real and perceived were harder to hide.

And yet, they were still drawn to Jesus.

The question that hit me last night was why were they drawn to Jesus and not to the Pharisees?  Why would they feel comfortable coming to Jesus, drawing near to Jesus?

Because they felt safe.

Despite their sin, despite the station in life, despite their outsider standing, they knew they were safe to come to Jesus. 

They were safe to present the totality of their life before the feet of Jesus.  To bring everything they were, to bring their pride, to bring their shame, to bring all of it and just be in his presence.

They knew they weren’t safe with the Pharisees.  They knew how that would go.  The Pharisees would come forward with a long list of things that would need to be cleansed – the path to be made clean, which would have to happen before they could even hear the message.  Before they would even be allowed in their presence.

But they were safe at the feet of Jesus.  They were seen at the feet of Jesus.

And similarly, I think that is the highest compliment people could give us as Christians.  That they feel safe in our presence.  That they feel seen by us.

Which raises a question –

Do people feel safe around you?

Are they able to share their frustrations, their hopes, their dreams, their fears, themselves with you?  Or are people guarded around you?  Are things kept at a surface level?  Are interactions short?  Are people uncomfortable in your presence?

Perhaps a better question is, which people feel safe around you?

Do all the people that feel safe around you look like you?

Is a woman able to tell you all the ways she feels threatened, has been threatened, felt objectified and feel you hear her? Would she feel safe in sharing her concerns regarding her health and safety? Or do you try to minimize the concerns?  Explain the experiences?

Does a minority feel safe to tell you of the injustices they have faced in their life and feel seen?  Would they feel safe explaining their fears of what is ahead?  Or do they feel overlooked, minimized by your experiences?

Would a refugee or migrant feel safe in telling you their status?

Would an LGBTQ person feel safe in sharing their fears for the status of their relationships?  The status of their marriages?  Or is that part something that has to be kept hidden?

We have a real problem in the American church where we have lost the ability to make people feel safe.  We’ve lost the idea of church being a sanctuary and hospital for the wretched.  For the sinners that we all are.

And I wonder if the church failing to do its job in this area is what has led to things like the “safety pin” symbol or the blue friendship bracelet.  Tokens designed to be symbols identifying the wearer as an ally to anyone who needs it, regardless of race, gender, sexual identity, sexual orientation, religion, immigrant status, etc.  Designating themselves as safe people.

In engaging in this train of thought, I recognize I have to address two oppositions that will arise.  First, the idea that not all people felt comfortable around Jesus.  And this is correct.  The Pharisees very obviously did not feel safe or comfortable around Jesus.  They found him antagonistic.  Isn’t it curious that the people that designated themselves holy, “clean,” in their own eyes felt uncomfortable?  Maybe as if you had to let go of the front before you felt seen, whole, and safe?  That’s ideally how church should work, we should be able to drop the mask, to drop the front of being perfect or pious, to present ourselves as the broken people that we are all trying to support each other to do and be better.  That makes a safe space.

Second, I can hear the choruses of people that will point out that though Jesus hung around and ate with sinners, he didn’t leave them there.  He would then tell them like the woman caught in adultery “go and sin no more.”   

This is true.

But there are a couple of important points to this story that are also left out.  Especially as the woman caught in adultery provides a beautiful illustration of how Jesus made people feel safe.

In this story, we have the woman caught in adultery (and it’s always interesting that it is just the woman caught in adultery and not the man as well), dragged out by the Pharisees to be stoned, the punishment prescribed by the Mosaic Law.

We all know it is a trap for Jesus.  If he says stone her, they will ask why he breaks other Mosiac laws.  If he says to not stone her, they will ask him why he doesn’t respect Mosaic Law.

Of utmost importance to understand in the story is that the Pharisees care nothing for the woman.

But Jesus does.

Jesus’ response in this story amazes me to this day. 

First, he affords the woman her dignity.  There is no telling what state of dress or undress this woman was presented.  For them to catch her in the act could have several implications in this respect.  The Pharisees looked down on her and dragged her before them.  She was made to face them down.

But Jesus refused to engage.  He turned away.  He bent down, and began writing in the sand.  He afforded her her modesty.

And when the Pharisees demanded a response, he provided her security.

Instead of engaging in the Pharisees trap, he told whomever was without sin themselves to cast the first stone.  Whomever was truly righteous could stone her.  He called out their hypocrisy.  For this he straightened up, looked them in the eyes, and then returned to his writing.

And of course, they left.

Because of all of them there, he was the only one who could judge her.

Finally, when it was just Jesus and the woman, he provided her visibility.  Only when everyone else left did Jesus straighten up and face the woman standing before him.  Here he showed how he saw her, how he viewed her.

He freed her, in all senses of the word.

And yes, there he told her, go your way and go and sin no more.

But he did it in order.  He made her feel safe and protected.  He made her feel seen, and then he told her to sin no more. 

All too often, we want to jump to sin no more, then come to us and we’ll recognize you.  The Pharisee problem all over again.  Go get clean and then we’ll associate.

We have to get better at making the outsider, the downtrodden, the different, and the outcast feel safe and seen.  Only then do we earn the right for the second part of that conversation.

So, I ask again, and hope we take a hard look for the answer.

“Are you safe?”

“God help the outcasts, or nobody will.”