Day 1- Thanksgiving: What’s the difference
Psalm 100:4-5 ESV
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Day 2 – Thanksgiving: Pathways in Worship
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Against All Odds
At this time of the year, it is quite common to reflect on the advent of Jesus Christ on the stage of human history. We all have cozy nativity scenes and a cute little glowing baby that are commonplace in most sunday schools, churches and homes (this is not even considering all the countless other extra-biblical traditions we all love). I think it is a wonderful thing to be afforded the freedom to celebrate the arrival of Jesus in our world and acknowledge that in our personal ways.
This Christmas, however, as I pondered the state of the world we live in, I began to see how the gospel of Christmas isn’t readily recognized. I know broad statements will be made about hope, love and peace and how our world can receive it regardless of religious affiliation or personal belief. Others will be more militant about denouncing the fact that this season had anything to do with Christianity in the first place. While I might accept that fact, the reality of Christ’s birth is to be recognized and celebrated. There are several obvious reasons why we celebrate Jesus, but here are few we might not have fully considered.
As the pretext for what follows, think about the fact that the safety of the whole world depended on what you were about to do next. How would you set up this rescue mission? Now that your imagination is thinking through scenarios let’s see what God did.
1) Being God, He left the Superhero suit behind
Way to go, God!! He goes and starts the mission off with no fuel in the tank!!
Philippians 2:4-7...Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Way before a virgin called Mary was brought into this story, God-the Father had this chat with His Son. The plan to be set in motion involved God laying down His power deliberately. This is not to be confused as Jesus losing His status as God. It means He deliberately chose to live as man without taking up the power He had at His disposal. The salvation of man, now rides on this God-man who will have to walk through life like you and I and bear the brunt of all humanity’s sin in the days to come. Phew! Intense!
Let’s say the odds of success are still good. Jesus was a stand-up son to God-The Father, He’ll get the job done.
“Ok, I’ll go with your plan, God. What’s next??”
2) God picked total rookies to carry this mission out
A) Born to newly-weds (what do they know about life….really!!!)
What??? A middle-eastern virgin teenager who will be pregnant, and her fiance will find out after the fact? Now, that’s asking for failure!
Matthew 1:18-19 –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. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unw illing to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
We just took the odds of success way down. In a middle-eastern setting, a virgin who is no longer a virgin….let’s just say, she won’t be marrying anyone anytime soon, that is, if she is allowed to live. God picked total rookies to carry the entire mission. Neither of them were influential, rich or scholarly. All this was given to simple folk who would now find themselves in a whole heap of trouble in society. Odds of success are bleak. However, Mary, though totally freaked out initially, chooses to carry the weight her obedience will imply. Joseph too hears from God and chooses to obey God. He covers for Mary through society’s watchful eye by marrying her. A whole lot of obedience and willingness was needed here to push this plan into countdown mode.
B) The Trailblazer was born to a Grandma!
Luke 1: 13-17 ...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….. And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
John, the Baptist (who was also Jesus’ cousin) was born to a grandma in another town. Elizabeth (just like Abraham and Sara) was way too old to have kids. God wanted people to be ready for His Son’s arrival and chose one of the least impregnable women to do it. God’s logic seems to work against every sane idea we could come up with for success. He just picked two sets of untrained mothers and fathers to carry the most important message and person.
C) All the main witnesses were not Jewish authorities, and the Jews who did witness it were not people society would recognize for veracity
You would think that if we wanted this good news to get out to the population, we would pick people with a sufficient platform to convince the masses. Nope! God just picked shepherds and travelling astronomers who had no vested interest in Jewish politics or culture. Shepherds did not have a very high standing in the culture of the time. They were rough characters who usually had a case of potty-mouth. Not people you would entrust with PR. Wise people from other lands doesn’t really do much to change the scene where Jesus would grow up, except maybe make things worse- by going to Herod with word of a another ‘King’.
3) Born is a king in a narcissistic-genocidal maniac’s stomping ground
Herod the Great, was king of Judea at the time of the census which brought Joseph and Mary back to Bethlehem. Of all the rulers to be born under, this one would be low-down on your list. He was a paranoid ruler who killed half his family, put to death teachers who sneezed the wrong way, and proceeded to kill all male children under the age of two in his kingdom when he heard news of a ‘king’ born somewhere in his vicinity. We have just sped past the most wonderful event surrounding Christmas, the nativity. I have a good reason. Jesus was born roughly two years ago, but now is threatened with death. What!!! We just about got the mission underway only for this to blow up after takeoff.
Matthew 2: 16– Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.
This toddler would have finally gone to bed for his mom, and she just about crawls into bed after much rocking. Moments later Joseph wakes up with a start when an angel says to him in a dream “get out quick, the death squads are coming”. So, immediately he obeys. In the middle of the night, they pack a carry-on and bail out. The little boy, Jesus much crying he makes, as mom puts a palm over his mouth to muffle the sound as they take the back way out of Bethlehem towards Nazareth.
That was close!! Mission proceeds!
4) Growing up with no grooming for public office
The family makes it to Nazareth — a good blue-collar town, where you go to get day laborers and craftsmen, not national leaders. Jesus grows up like an average blue-collar neighborhood kid, learning dad’s trade with furniture and tires (for carts). Again, it seems like the choice of family to be born into was a bad one. He is not going to get the necessary grooming in national politics and policy that would be needed to get traction on a national campaign. Still, Jesus chooses to obey His father on earth and in heaven and not touch the superhero suit even once.
Can we just quit with this plan of salvation? This story keeps bouncing from one absurd event to another. No! It gets better
5) Choosing a band of illiterates and social odd-balls
After growing to manhood, Jesus proceeds to pick an unlikely team for the purpose of message delivery and action. Jesus quite specifically was led by God to pick each one. Let’s just say most of them had to really pay attention when Jesus spoke, because writing things down would have done most of them little good. Apart from a few who were educated, most of them were fishermen or laborers. Again, not the kind you would entrust a global mission to.
I think five reasons should do for now. You know the story (if not, read the gospels of Matthew and Luke).
So, Why do I think these are reasons to celebrate Jesus?
Against all odds, God wove the entire story of salvation so close to frailty and fickle nature of man that there is no way you could say Jesus and his message are some kind of propaganda of the religious class. The salvation he came to bring did not come about because of a secret space pod which God sent with super powers. He wasn’t born with a giant hammer to pound out enemies along the way. He did not even have superhuman strength to match some biblical heroes. Lastly, and this is one of the main reasons I write, it wasn’t because of a nativity scene solely either. Well before it and way after it, the story of Christ’s birth is filled with confounding improbabilities that we must take time to celebrate Jesus and His successful mission. It’s about God confounding our best scenarios of salvation, to leave us saying “salvation belongs to the Lord”. The work of salvation so heavily relied on obedience and God’s grace, that none of us can attribute any part of it to magical moments, but rather to the commitment of a heavenly Father to be God with us. Immanuel- continues to be with us.
Enjoy this Christmas knowing that salvation belongs to God and He is with us. The mission is still in play and it’s a – go! When Jesus said he was the light of the world, He was forseeing the time when He would say “You now are the light of the world, a city set on hill”. Having done all that in necessary to secure the mission, He has handed the baton to the Holy Spirit who fills His church. The mission to dispel darkness in every place was placed in the hands of obedience, not superhero-ism. So, as we celebrate Jesus the baby, remember the mission that baby was born for, is still in play today. Carry the light of Jesus in dark places, till He returns again or takes us home. Have a Jesus filled Christmas!
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Why Church Matters – Part 1
Over the years, I have heard many reasons for why people think “church” is no longer relevant, and that going to one is a pointless exercise. Some may even argue that what we see today is unbiblical. I will take the next few posts to slowly unpack some of the common themes and places of confusion we might have as those who’ve grown up in a church or as someone now on the outside dreading the thought of “church”.
Before I address the most common points surrounding this issue, I think it is worth noting that the fundamental roots of this problem is found in the enterprise of church (more so, in my experience, in the Untied States). It has left many wondering if God is even part of the picture in this “experience”, let alone remaining the center of it. One extreme thrives on making an event become “church”. From the welcome to the coffee, the parking lot to the kids ministry, the men’s breakfasts to the women’s luncheons, the conferences to the streamed content, much of church related activity has been hijacked by a pick-and-mix bar of programming to meet each consumer’s needs. When all that gets extreme, there is not much attention given to inviting those who don’t know Jesus to true encounters with God and diligently training them as followers of Jesus. On the other end of the spectrum, some churches are so intent on preserving “traditional church” (whatever that means to each kind) that it deviates little from a set format and practice regardless of a changing culture and world around them. It often means long meetings with little engagement of the attender, a few chosen ministers who do everything, and everything revolving in the orbit around THE “man of God”. Committees and boards abound and a lot of talking is done. Likewise, in extreme cases, encounters with God are missing and little training and developing of disciples happens.
<Sigh>……..This is where much of society finds themselves at odds with the “church”. Their wariness is founded on an opposition to both these extremes or a fear that every church between those extremes is headed towards one of those extreme ends. This leads many to make a summary statement “I would much rather meet Jesus by myself, and not have to deal with all this”.
With that backdrop, and all the preconceptions that fueled those blanket statements above, you can see how starting a discussion about the relevance of church from scriptural standpoint is quickly drowning as the listener gears up to tell you why your brand of church is tending towards one of those extremes if it is not already there (as they see it). This is why I’m hoping that calling these things out at the outset, gives us an opening to really dial all the preconceptions back so we can see why church matters. My hope is that you will see that much of the reasoning we have for leaving the church is based on snap preconceptions and the misconceptions that result from them. By the end of this series I hope that your particular concern is addressed and you are encouraged to reconsider joining or getting more involved in a Bible believing and practicing church with a passion.
The church is a people, not a person, definitely not a place
(Titus 2:14, 1 Peter 2:9). Many people. From every tribe, language and nation (Revelation 5:9
(Acts 1:4-8, Matthew 28:18-20). When church becomes about me and ‘my’ Jesus, I’ve already veered far from the purpose of salvation in this time period. It is about MANY being saved from sin and all that plagues our world, and you and I (together) have been given the charge to see them reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). Seeing disciples made happens in the context of daily life and in community, the alternative is asceticism. Before you say it, we all know how making isolated religious communities turn out. So, rather than go there, can we agree that getting together with people from your immediate town or community regularly is a good idea? God could have asked us to run, hide away and be the best online Bible PhD that ever lived, but instead, He wants this gospel of Jesus to be on display right here in the darkness of our cities and communities (Philippians 2:15).
The Church: Disciples that make more disciples
Now, before we move further, let’s just clarify– the church as Jesus described it in very simple prototype terms, is a group of committed disciples of Jesus making more new disciples by the indwelling and powerful work of the Holy Spirit. If our churches cannot use that simple statement to describe our condition, we are already messing with what “church” is. The word disciple (learner, follower, student, trainee) and the idea of making new ones is central to the mission.
Going to church, being the church, and getting over semantics
1 Corinthians 12:4-11, Romans 12:3-6, Ephesians 4:4-
Functioning locally, trans-locally, and globally
We need each person functioning and supplying the part of God’s grace which He has uniquely committed to them. This means the group of Jesus followers I call my “home church” needs what God has placed in me. I don’t get to “go to church”. My local church is missing something if I only show up to receive something. I come ready to be a life-giving expression of Jesus to my brothers and sisters. Something I have in my personal following of Jesus is meant for their growth as disciples of Christ. When we grasp this, church means something totally different from what we’ve been used to. This is not even limited to my own “home church”. I often love to get together and have coffee buddies from other local churches, just so I get to receive from them and in turn bless another part of God’s big church that I might not get to see on a regular basis. So across my locality (trans-locally) other churches have gifts and expressions of the life of God that I can be thrilled about and cheer on. This must become a vital part of our understanding of church. If all we see as “church” is our brand, denomination, or pastor, we’re missing the big picture. I also hope you see that being on the same team “The Church of Jesus” does not mean I become Mr Baskin-Robbins and decide to try all 31 flavors each week. I stay committed and accountable to one group/church, so I grow with intent and purpose (More in another post about reasons for this). But, with an attitude that sees and values the church of Jesus as an ever-growing group of unique people all over the world, every encounter with His church in my town, on vacation, on mission trips, university life, etc… are all opportunities to receive and bless.
We’ll cover more reasons for why the church matters in the next post.
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Celebrate Jesus
Most of us have grown up with some understanding of Christian holidays, most notably Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter. The fact that these events have merged with other worldly ideals and rituals is for another post. I’m not too concerned with how you celebrate, my aim is to encourage each reader to consider what and why we celebrate. Spring and winter are big times we celebrate together. Family, relatives, friends, churches, communities, nations and the world- we all get together at varying levels for various reasons and all do it differently. Let me preface everything I say with one categorical statement- celebrating anything Biblical together is a good thing at any time.
Now, to most, Christian or not, these days signify a gathering of family, fun times with friends/relatives, going on holiday, lots of great cooking, binging on desserts, and chocolatey treats (Isn’t it great that we get to do that ?? I love it!) If you’re Christian too, we add church services, special events, and dressing up (or not depending on your background) along with all or some of the above. In the whole mix, Jesus, often just happens to be a good excuse to have a good time on days the whole working world ( for the most part) allows people to stay home.
Somewhere in there, are those who devoutly follow the Christian calendar and take time to consider the relevance each holiday has for their personal lives while doing all or some of the above. I would hope that most Christians could say they fall into this category. The truth though, is that some Christians just never know to do that. Some of us just grew up around the cultural celebration, went to a church service and then carried on with our lives. It is not a criticism of individuals but an observation on the general state of ‘Christian’ culture . Each holiday season has lots to offer, but can never offer anything close to the worth of knowing Jesus more.
Paul puts it like this: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8 ESV)
At this time of the year, I would like to gently urge each of us to consider not just the ‘reason for the season’, because we can get by that one quite easily by saying “it’s Jesus”. I would ask that we all take time to consider- “What did Jesus really do? how does it make a difference in my life today?” Having done that, and continually doing that on days that are not a holiday, we will become people who are firstly grateful for salvation each day. Secondly, we see the relevance of Christ to our daily living. Thirdly, we always learn to depend on the work of Jesus and not ourselves each day. The list goes on as you see your daily life changed.
We can enjoy all the things a public holiday affords us, but let us be people who celebrate Jesus every day. Nothing beats getting to know God more on a holiday dedicated to Him or on any other day for that matter. We need to teach and show our children why we celebrate Jesus and what He has done( and make it exciting, not religious). Otherwise, we will raise a generation of holiday junkies who think the words ‘friends’, ‘family’ and ‘fun’ trump ‘fellowship with God’ or worse still, we raise a generation that think knowing God is just boring religion.
Celebrate this season according to your culture and tradition and have good fun (passing all fun and tradition through the lens of scripture). I hope that you take away a passion to celebrate Jesus by knowing Him more and not a legalistic mindset to look more Christian. Jesus is worth shouting about seven days a week, all 52 weeks of the year, and on leap years. So, let’s celebrate Jesus today….and every other day too.
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The church on mission
Over the past few years in our church meetings we have been seeing that life together with God is all about eternity touching earth. When the fullness of God dwells in us, ‘abundant life’ is the outcome. Taking away all the mystical and weird notions people might have about eternity; the very heart of it is – ‘knowing God personally’. To simplify it further let’s go back to the very beginning. One of the main purposes of Adam’s existence was to be known by God and know Him in return; to share a walk with Him in the cool of the day and converse (two way) about how things were going and what God had in mind about seeing the earth managed. It wasn’t like a CEO calling a senior manager into their office to bark at them and evaluate their performance. No fear, no pretense- just God and his people in constant fellowship doing things together.
In one of our teaching series ‘Life together with God’, we looked closer at the ‘together’ aspect of life with God. Most people are comfortable with the idea of being with the church or at a meeting, but we don’t necessarily give much thought to why we do it in the first place. As children of God, the Father is interested in bringing us into knowing His heart and plans ‘together’ and seeing them done through the power of His Spirit. He taught us to pray and focus our hearts on “let your kingdom come, let your will be done”. So what exactly is our mission? What does the church look like on mission?
What is our mission?
I believe,Our mission as seen in scripture is three-fold. We were made and joined together to see the following three mission objectives met:
1. Mission unto God: Worship
2. Mission to the Church: Building/Nurturing the Body
3. Mission to the world: Evangelism, Discipleship and Mercy.
Finally, we meet together to take the good news of salvation in Jesus to the ends of the earth. Jesus gave us this ministry of reconciliation. We make the appeal for people to be reconciled to God, Holy Spirit does the convicting, Jesus does the saving, and God the Father does the adopting. There are multiple examples of God proclaiming salvation in different ways in certain unique circumstances, but that does not absolve us from the commands in scripture to GO! The method and process you use to share the gospel is not as important as your willingness to be sent to the lost and share out of what you have received.
What does the church on mission look like?
(Ephesians 1:15-23 paraphrased in the context of this study)
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