Advent: Peace

People often ask the hypothetical question: if you could ask for anything at all and be given it, for what would you ask? The hypothetical answer, at least when I was a kid, was always a joking, dreamy-eyed, sugary sounding, “world peace.”

I hear that answer less often these days. Perhaps world peace seems too unrealistic to even be a joke anymore.

Peace seemed pretty unattainable at the time of the birth of Jesus, too. Although the birth of Christ occurred during the so-called Pax Romana, or Roman Peace, that human-engineered peace came at the cost of many lives and was maintained by a harsh and authoritarian government.

It might seem odd that in the middle of humanity’s best attempt at peace, the angel announced in Luke 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

Peace among men? How could this be? The answer was the reason for the angelic proclamation. It echoed Isaiah’s prophesy from hundreds of years before. 

Isaiah 9:6

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”

We can’t get there on our own, not through politics, or “religion,” or any of our own best efforts. We need the Prince of Peace, (Luke 1:79) “To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

 

Advent: Joy

I love glimpsing into the personalities of the people from history who we meet in the Bible.  I love to ask, "What makes him tick?  What motivates her to keep going?"

When we think of the Joy of Christmas, we tend to think of lights and decorations, carols and choirs, candlelight and scented trees, and all of the other modes of celebrating our Joy.  

 

It seems, though, that our modes of celebrating our Joy have replaced the Joy itself.

 

I think it’s time for a review of the Joy that flooded the hearts of those very first celebrants of the coming of the Christ.

 

Luke 2 

 

The angels were filled with Joy. 8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

 

The shepherds were filled with Joy. 15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child… 20 The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

 

Simeon was filled with Joy. 25 And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, 28 then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, 29 “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace,

According to Your word; 30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation, 31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 A Light of revelation to the Gentiles,

And the glory of Your people Israel.”

 

Anna was filled with Joy. 36 And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers. 38 At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

 

 

The angels, shepherds, Simeon, and Anna celebrated the birth of the Christ with shouts, proclamations and promises.  

 

My prayer for this season of remembering the coming of our Savior is that we will do it with shouts and proclamations that the power of sin has been broken, that the promise of a Savior has been fulfilled.                                                                                                

 

Let the lights fill us with Joy as they remind us that the Light of God has come to show us the path of salvation.

 

Let the decorations fill us with Joy as they remind us that Christ came to us so that we could one day go to Him and live forever in the splendor of the King.

 

Let the carols and choirs fill us with Joy as they remind us that the Good News of the coming of the Messiah is to be shared.

 

Let the candlelight fill us with Joy as we reflect on the peace and calm that Jesus wants to bring to our hearts.

 

Let the scents of the season fill us with Joy as they remind us of the gifts of the Magi and that we, too, are invited into the presence of God through prayers, which rise to him as sweet incense. 

 

And let us always remember the reason for our Joy!

 

Advent: Love

When I think about Christmas, I’m overwhelmed with the realization of the depth of God’s love for us. 

 

It was God’s love that promised on the very day of the fall of mankind that He would send a Savior to crush the power of sin and death and redeem mankind. 

 

It was Jesus’ love for the Father and for us that caused Him to leave the throne of Heaven and come to earth to be that Savior. 

 

Even though He faced the hatred of those He came to redeem, Jesus’ love carried Him to the cross. 

 

This was the purpose of the baby in the manger: to fulfill God’s love toward mankind and to bring us back into His loving purposes. 

As I look back on Bethlehem and the love that brought Jesus into this world, I want to also look around me for ways to share that love with others.

 

Luke 6:35

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

 

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

 

John 13:1

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

 

John 13:34

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

 

John 13:35

By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

 

John 14:21

He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.

 

John 14:23

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.

 

Advent: Hope

As Christians prepare to celebrate the coming of Christ, church congregations around the world consider four themes: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace.  I like to meditate on what each theme meant to Israel as they awaited their Messiah and what each means to us today as we await the return of Christ. 

 

Hope must have been difficult to cling to as the people waited, generation after generation, for prophesy to be fulfilled.  Sometimes, it seems as that we will never see the fulfillment of God’s promise of a new heaven and a new earth without sin, death or sorrow.

 

As He was faithful to his promises to the children of Israel, He will be faithful to his promises to us.  King David faced challenges worse than we can imagine, yet he held on to hope.  As we look back on the coming of the promised Messiah, let’s remember David’s words and make them our own.

 

Psalm 39:7  “And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.

 

Psalm 62:5  My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him.

 

Psalm 71:14  But as for me, I will hope continually, And will praise You yet more and more.

 

Psalm 119:116  Sustain me according to Your word, that I may live; And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.

 

Psalm 119:166  I hope for Your salvation, O Lord, And do Your commandments.

 

Psalm 130:5  I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope.

 

Psalm 146:5  How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the Lord his God

Palm Sunday: Right Savior, Wrong Salvation 

During times of personal or societal upheaval, there is a tendency for people to look to God in prayer, and good for us. He is truly our only source of real and lasting hope.

But I want to dig a little deeper to see if there is wisdom below the surface that we’re missing. 

Looking to God for salvation is nothing new. The power of God has been so evident throughout history that even rulers who deny His authority have sought His protection. There is nothing particularly Christian about praying to God to save us from calamity.

In 33 A.D., the Jewish people, God’s chosen people, did more than call on God. They rightly recognized His Son, Jesus, as their long-awaited Messiah, and met Him with Palm branches, their symbol of nationalism and victory, and with cries of “Hosanna! Save us now!” They were ready to crown Him as their King and to follow Him in armed insurrection against the Romans. They were ready for salvation.

Luke 19:29-40
When He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners said the them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord has need of it.” They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it. As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road. As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”

They had the right savior, but they were asking for the wrong salvation.

Jesus was indeed the King who had come in the name of the Lord, but the victory Jesus came to bring at that time was a victory over the bondage of sin and the power of the grave, not over an oppressive government. Tragically, the people’s failure to see the salvation being offered actually cost them salvation on both fronts.

Luke 19:41-44  
When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

God offers His salvation, but He will not force us to live under His protective will.  The life of the unrepentant is the life of the unprotected.

I believe we are repeating the error the people made on “Palm Sunday” all those years ago. I believe we are looking to the right Savior, but we’re asking Him for the wrong salvation.

Jesus rode that donkey into a Jerusalem that was rife with anger. What were the topics that had the people so angry? So ready for revolution? From what did the people want to be saved? From an oppressive government, poverty, class distinctions, injustices, sickness and disease, and more. It’s a terrible list.

During our present period in history, America is rife with anger, and what are the topics that have us so angry? So ready for revolution? The list should look familiar. Governments are limiting the activities of citizens. Families have lost their means of support. Individuals are being segregated into classes labeled “essential’ and “non-essential” and are being idolized or shelved according to those labels. Healthcare and financial aid is being granted in ways that seem unjust. Sickness and disease have taken over the globe. And we cry out for salvation, but from what? From that list? It’s still a terrible list.

To be clear, Jesus does want us to be free from those things, and for His children, that day is coming. But there is something much worse than the items on that list. One problem outweighs them all. Only one source of bondage will follow us beyond the grave. Hunger can’t. Poverty can’t. Injustice can’t. Only sin has the power to hold us in tormented bondage in both this life and the next. And that’s what Jesus came to deal with first.

Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

Romans 6:4-9 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

Are we reporting to God as an angry mob equipped with pitchforks and torches, ready to help Him rout the enemies of government and societal ills and sickness? Or are we falling before him in broken repentance and in recognition that the real enemy is sin?

Acts 17:30-31 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed on a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed [Jesus], having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

The Resurrection is coming! But while we contemplate Holy Week, let’s not forget what it’s really all about. Let’s not forget our need of a Savior to save us from our sins.

Now that I think about it...

If I had known at almost twenty or almost thirty how many things I would see differently at almost forty, I question whether I would have found it worthwhile to have any opinions or thoughts at all at the time. Come to think of it, in ten years I’ll be almost fifty, and ten years after that I’ll be almost sixty, and I wonder whether I’ll look back then at almost forty and ask the same question.

At any rate, and in honor of my upcoming milestone, I’ve decided to put some thoughts down for posterity. At the moment, these all seem like bits of wisdom—things I know now that I wish I had known then. But who knows if in ten or twenty years, these pearls will be embarrassing reminders of how much I still didn’t know?

Well, risk not, live not. Here I go. Things I’ve come to realize, whether or not they’re true:

1. A husband who is treated as though he is a man worthy of respect and admiration stands a decent chance of becoming a man worthy of respect and admiration.

2. Raising children is the most meaningful work with which a mother can occupy herself.

3. God’s way is always the best way. There are no exceptions. There never were. There never will be. Not even when we think there are.

4. Struggles we label as our “crosses to bear” are often the result of not having lived by #3.

5. No husband can live up to the romantic standard of the fictional characters in books and movies who were edited into their concocted perfection.

6. No fictional character in books or movies can live up to the romantic standard of the God who paints the sky with stars and sunrises and serenades us with breezes and birdsong.

7. Home education is easier to defend biblically than any other form. This is true even if it offends people.

8. Confident, intelligent children get filthy and break things, often on purpose and in the name of research.

9. Motherhood is a profession with its own dress code, skill set and professional development opportunities. And contrary to popular belief, the pay is fantastic.

10. For the Christian mother, losing a child through miscarriage is as sweet as it is bitter. What greater joy can a woman know than to imagine her child in the presence of God Himself who created each one and is the Source of love and protection, and of His Son who held the children in His lap and may be doing so now for all we know?

11. Carpets cannot be cleaned.

12. This list will change.

Sheep: The Dream

(Written on Friday, September 18, 2009. It is a retelling of the dream I had the night before, which began with a Tim Burton-type, dark and distorted, eeriness then...well, I'll let you read for yourself.)
 
I had a dream last night.

  Whether I lived next to the farm house or not, I can’t tell you, but as my dream opened, I approached it's front yard down a gentle, grassy, overgrown slope and through a misty haze. There were sheep in the yard; beautiful, white, playful, young lambs. They were not in the safety of a pen as they should have been, but were playfully hopping about the yard, some wandering aimlessly into the narrow country road.

  Worried for their safety and desiring to guide them to the sheepfold, I tried to get their attention. I called. I waved. I got the attention of one adorable little lamb with large eyes. She walked cautiously toward me. I called gently, but in earnest. Just before reaching me, she turned and sprang away into the road.

  As I made my way quickly through the chilly fog to warn the farmer in his house, I found myself dodging discarded tools and broken farm implements left in the machinery graveyard that was the lawn--the rusting remnants of a brighter past.

  The house itself stood high and narrow, enormous in its leanness. Dark paint peeled from shutters which hung in disrepair. Whether the darkness within was real or an illusion created by the filth which covered the windows, I could not yet tell.

  Entering, I found a very young man, a teenager I think, sitting silent and alone in a parlor. I think he was holding a book. The wallpaper, his shirt and the upholstered chair he sat in were all of a dirty yellow that was somehow both dark and pale. I told him the sheep were out of their pen and wandering into the road. He replied sluggishly that he supposed he should let "them" know.

  I followed curiously as he made his way into the next room. In the deep darkness, I could just make out that, like the room next to it, this was all one dirty color. This time, though, the color was a suffocating, dark and fluid blue. The color seemed to move like water promising to drown me. I wasn't afraid, and I think the blue knew. It was a bedroom, and on the bed was a fat, greasy woman sleeping under an ocean of blue bedding. She moved in her sleep as if she were drifting in a pool. I understood her to always be just as I was seeing her—wallowing in a darkness which swallowed. I knew she had authority over the boy, but her obvious uselessness made me wonder how that could be. Upon waking to my companion's news, she rolled like a whale, looked at me with eyes equally as large as her disdain at being bothered, and told the boy to tell "him."

  We found the farmer at last in a narrow, dirty passageway. He was not old, but lean, wrinkled, leathered and hard. His one upper tooth hung diagonally from behind his lips which I thought unable to smile. His eyes were a beautiful, pale blue, but glassy, as if real observation was not possible. He cursed the sheep and said, "If they die, they die," and went on his way.

  Alone again on the front lawn, I became aware that the fog, while still there, was lifting slowly, and there were small patches of sunny, bright sky taking over. The chill I had felt moving across the long, damp grass just a short time before, was leaving too, as a gentle, warm breeze blew it away. The most amazing change was in the sheep themselves. They were suddenly grown into large, robust, mature adults. No more youthful and aimless, they walked calmly, but with purpose across the road, down a slope and onto a straight, narrow path I had not noticed before, although I had looked at the very spot. The most inexplicable change of all? The sheep were black.

  I stood watching as the sheep left for better pastures they could not yet see, away from the lethargy and darkness of the towering home which contained only shadows of life. My chest filled with admiration for their quiet strength and purpose. As I stood amazed, I wondered why they were now black. Weren't black sheep bad? "No," came the revelation, "but the inhabitants of the farmhouse will never understand."