Quote Of The Day

 "One thing this vaccine will not solve or cure is selfishness."

                                                        Tennessee Governor Bill Lee

An Advent Meditation

 ‘Tis the season for decorations, special music, (virtual) gatherings, gifts, parties, and…nativity scenes.  Representations of the circumstances of Christ’s birth appear as ornaments, in church plays, and on lawns.  Although we don’t know the details of this momentous event:  We don’t know if Jesus was born in a stable, a cave, or even in the stone tower known as Migdal Eder.  But we often find it helpful to imagine them so that our minds have something of substance to ponder.

 

Of course nativity scenes feature the baby Jesus with His mother Mary and human father Joseph.  Usually included is a donkey that may have accompanied Mary and Joseph from Nazareth and often a cow and a lamb.  It is a warm, rural scene that emphasizes the contrast between the glories of heaven and the humble circumstances of Christ’s birth and earthly life.  

 

There is one animal that is consistently and remarkably absent from our nativity scenes.  We never see a snake.  Modern-day Israel is home to over forty species of snakes, and ancient Israel no doubt had a robust population.  It is not in the least unreasonable to speculate that a snake was present at the birth of Christ.

 

But it is not a generic snake that is in question here.  It is the serpent of old, Satan in the Garden of Eden, whose presence deserves our consideration.  After Satan, in the form of a serpent/snake, tempted Eve and provoked her to disobey God and initiate the fall, God pronounced judgment upon all involved.  His judgment upon Satan included a promise of redemption for Adam and Eve and their descendants—the Seed of Eve would crush the serpent’s head even as he would bruise this Seed’s heel.

 

And so even though we do not know if there was an actual snake at the birth of Christ, the serpent of old plays a prominent role in this drama.  His presence—literally or metaphorically—reminds us that the wondrous birth of Christ is a scene set in the battlefield of Good versus evil, of sacrifice and suffering to defeat the serpent, to purchase redemption, and to reclaim eternity for those who believe.

An Advent Meditation

 In.  The.  Beginning.  Powerful words that begin the books of Genesis and the Gospel of John.  And while these phrases were originally written in different languages, they share the same meaning and are translated with the same words.  This has been recognized since the Old Testament was first translated into Greek by the scholars gathered together for that purpose.  En arche God created the heavens and the earth.  En arche was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

 

As we walk through this Advent season and prepare to celebrate Christmas, the connection that the Apostle John makes with the book of Genesis is powerfully relevant.  The God who was and is the beginning of all things is the very same God who was and is the Word who came to live among us, to be our Immanuel, God with us, to reveal Himself in flesh and to save us as the Lamb of God.  

 

Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem, in time and space, was not a random event.  It is firmly anchored in the beginning of time; it is promised by God after the fall; it is prophesied by the prophets.  The I AM by Whom, through Whom, and for Whom all things have been created (Colossians 1:16) has emptied Himelf, taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:7).  

 

As we prepare to celebrate our Lord’s first coming and consider the reality of His second coming, may we remember and appreciate with awe and reverence the wonder of Immanuel, God with us. 

An Advent Meditation

 Today marks the first Sunday of Advent.  Many Christians all over the globe mark Advent as an important season to prepare for our celebration of the birth of Christ: Christmas.  Preparing our hearts and minds to celebrate the first coming of Christ and to welcome His second coming is of primary importance.  John the Baptist declared the arrival of kingdom come, and Jesus exhorted His disciples to remain alert and prepared for His return.  

 

Even the most spiritual of believers can become distracted by the peripheral preparations for Christmas: gift lists and purchasing, party planning, baking and meal preparation.  And in this COVID-saturated holiday season, we face stress and anxiety, frustration and fatigue, grief and loss.  It seems to me, though, that we can take comfort and encouragement from Matthew’s account of Joseph as the time Jesus was born:

 

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.  When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). ²⁴ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵ but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.  Matthew 1:18-25.

 

Joseph is a humble carpenter, looking forward to marriage and a predictable life in his Jewish community.  And then he finds his world turned upside down!  Joseph’s wife-to-be is expecting a child despite the fact that they are not yet married and have not been intimate.  Matthew’s account is sparse, but it is easy to imagine the shock, grief, anger, and confusion filling Joseph’s heart and mind.  But even as he decides to separate from Mary in the most gracious way possible, an angel interrupts his grief and upends this plan.  Not only does a heavenly messenger appear to Joseph, but the angel addresses him as “Son of David,” reminding Joseph that he is descended from Israel’s greatest king.  The very real struggles of Joseph’s personal life are suddenly eclipsed by the angel’s revelation of God’s greater purposes.  Again, Matthew gives us few details.  We are left to ponder Joseph’s departure from his “micro” personal life and his entry into a life that is intertwined with the fulfillment of God’s eternal purposes and promises.  Matthew tells us that Joseph is a just man, a good Jew.  Without doubt, he knows God’s Word and is waiting with all faithful Jews for the Messiah.  As the angel reminds Joseph that he is a descendant of David, the Law and the Prophets converge, centuries of Jewish history come into sharp focus, and Joseph is confronted with the enormous reality that the LORD is using him to fulfill the LORD’s glorious and eternal purposes.

 

And so here we are.  In some ways, at least, we are not unlike Joseph.  We do our best to live by faith in our day-to-day lives.  We are beset by the trials and troubles of life as fallen people in a fallen world.  And we are sometimes blind-sided by unexpected interruptions in our plans if not by outright tragedy.  Without minimizing in the least the significance of our trials, we can take Joseph’s story as an encouraging reminder that we are, in fact, part of the Lord’s larger, glorious, eternal plan.  Even as we find ourselves reeling from life on this side of the kingdom, even as we continue to adjust to life in a pandemic, we can be comforted that the Messiah has come, and we can be confident that He is returning—to redeem us for all eternity.  The season of Advent is an invitation to remember not only that Jesus came because He cares about our trials and troubles but also to remember that those trials and troubles are only a part of our story.  Advent is our opportunity to prepare for redemption and to proclaim it.  The kingdom of God is at hand!

The Doing and Being of Thanksgiving

 ‘Tis the season…to give thanks.  Thanksgiving is the time when we are reminded to give thanks, though giving thanks is best practiced as a daily exercise in our lives year round.

 

Why do we give thanks?  In The Book of Common Prayer, used by the Episcopal Church, congregants are exhorted to give thanks unto the Lord because it is meet and right so to do.  King David exhorts his readers throughout his writings to acknowledge the greatness and goodness of the Lord and offer Him praise and thanks.  The Apostle Paul instructs his Thessalonian readers to rejoice always and in everything give thanks.

 

So is giving thanks a duty that we do as a perfunctory matter of obedience?  Certainly, there are challenges to gratitude in our world and lives today; we may not feel grateful, may not feel like giving thanks.  We are living in a pandemic, with its associated anxiety, grief, and relational and economic pressures.  But just as certainly, there were challenges to gratitude last year, before COVID-19 was a thing.  King David faced his share of challenges to gratitude as he places complaints and cries of distress right alongside his offerings of praise and thanksgiving.  And the Apostle Paul reminds his Corinthian readers that he had been beaten with rods, stoned, and shipwrecked three times.  Neither man of God minimizes or denies his hardship and pain.  And yet, there is not the slightest hint of obligation in the expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving offered by David and Paul.  It very much seems that thanksgiving need not be particularly dependent on or reflective of our circumstances.

 

James encourages his readers to Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  James reminds his readers—and us—that even trials can be cause for thanksgiving when we remember that our faithful and redemptive Lord will use all things for our great good.

 

And yet, it seems to me that giving thanks must also reach beyond our circumstances.  When we cultivate a grateful heart and persistently exercise our thanksgiving muscles, we are changed, transformed.  We become grateful people who reflect the goodness of the living God abiding in us in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

 

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis observes that “We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort.”  As we consider this season of Thanksgiving and holiday celebrations in the midst of pandemic struggles, we may begin to give thanks out of a desire to obey or a sense of duty.  But let us not stop there!  May we follow the model set by King David and the Apostle Paul and become genuinely and deeply grateful people before the Lord.

 

Thought For The Day: Faith, Hope, and Love

 "Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the window which hope has opened."

                                                                                                               Charles Spurgeon

In Our Back Pocket

 As we negotiate the transition to a new season of weather, activities, and commitments in the context of a continuing pandemic, we face multiple, often overlapping challenges.  And although we can’t change our challenges, the way we respond to these challenges has a tremendous potential to change us.  Indeed, the way we respond to our challenges will determine the way we experience our days. 

 

I am an enthusiastic advocate for a redemption mindset, one that depends upon Paul’s reassurance in Romans 8 that our Lord will work all things in our lives for our good.  I will add a Biblical postscript to this verse and remind us that the Lord’s redemptive purposes work not only for our good but for His glory.  

 

There are limitless ways the Lord can do His redemptive thing as we walk through our days.  I would like to focus on one of them that applies to all of us: the way we interact with others.  Social distancing and COVID restrictions do not eliminate many of our interactions, but they do generally make them more challenging.  And this is exactly where Christ wants to do His work in us and through us.  As we allow Christ to do His sanctifying work in us through His Holy Spirit, we partake in the nature of Christ and become His ministers in a needy world.

 

In his letter to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul has this to say: Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.  (Colossians 4:6).  And in his letter to Titus, Paul instructs Titus to remind his congregation to be ready for every good deed (Titus 3:1).

 

So how do we do this in the emotional and stressed interactions that are becoming more and more common?  There is the certainty of the abiding Holy Spirit.  Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would give them the words to speak in the midst of persecution, and while we may not be in exactly that position, we have every reason to believe that the Holy Spirit is continually at work in us.  Beyond that, as we take responsibility to be ready for every good deed and to speak with grace, I think the concept of “pocket phrases” can be extremely helpful. 

 

Solomon, in Proverbs 15:1 exhorts us with this truth: A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.  A pocket phrase is a thoughtfully-prepared, gentle response that we can pull out of our pocket, so to speak, when we are taken by surprise or in the emotional heat of a moment.  This does not mean that we follow a script or a flow chart.  Nor does it mean that we suspend boundaries and enable destructive behavior.  But if we have a small collection of gracious phrases at our immediate disposal, we will be able to meet the demand of the moment while allowing our mind to manage the emotion and give the Holy Spirit a chance.

 

Here are a few pocket phrases that I have used and recommend to others:

 

·      I’m sorry; I did not mean to offend you.

·      I am sorry you feel that way.

·      Please let me think about it.

·      Is there a way for us to work this out?

·      I am afraid you may have misunderstood me.

·      Do you mind if…?

·      Is there something I can do to help?

 

Multiple Gospel accounts remind us that not everyone responded well to Jesus’s words, and it would be unrealistic to think that our experience will be different.  We need not belabor unconstructive conversations.  Sometimes, we need to simply wish the other person well and walk away, allowing the Judge to rule according to His character.  When we do have a negative encounter despite our best attempts to manifest Christ, we can take consolation that we are experiencing what our Master did and be encouraged by the truth that the way someone treats us (or the way someone speaks to us) says everything about him/her and nothing about us.  Our identity and value remain firmly grounded in Christ.  Regardless of the outcome of our efforts, we can praise the Lord that He is doing His work in us and giving us the incredible privilege of communicating His truth and grace.