AVOIDING THE HUNTER

As a child growing up, our family, especially when we were in Belgium, used an Advent calendar. Opening the "door" and discovering what was behind it, which we did at supper, was exciting. Then, when Christmas came and went, the calendar was discarded. Tossed out with the tree. Decorations were put away.

Even as a child I would feel a vague sense of sadness. I wasn't sure I wanted to return to "normal." I wanted to hold onto a world where glad tidings were being shared, shepherds were singing, and the night sky was lit up by the very presence of God.

The reading from Matthew (2:13-23) for this Sunday tells how after the birth of Christ an angel appears to Joseph, in a dream, and tells him to get up, take the child and his mother, "and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." This is a part of the story we often skip over. Soon after the birth of Jesus, the holy family flees south to get away from the forces of hatred and fear that are at work to stamp out God's new thing. In The Message, Eugene Peterson says Herod is "on the hunt for this child."

(Jesus, of course, will be brought back to Palestine from Egypt. It is the Bible's way of reminding us that Jesus is the new Moses!)

God's work in the world has amazing power. God's grace is resilient and God's love gets the last word.

However, what God is doing in us can be fragile. Under threat from a variety of sources. There may be voices in your head and heart urging you to go back to "normal" after this season of "glad tidings" and "great joy" and "good news for all people." Herod may not be hunting down the hope in you, a paranoid despot may not be the one trying to stamp out the new, God-centered way of thinking and living in you, but you may be at risk as the decorations are put away, the tree is carried out, and the Advent calendar is thrown away.

Whatever it takes, don't go back to "normal." If God is doing a new thing in you, in us, flee from that voice...the influence...and get into a place where God's grace and truth can flourish in your life. Avoid the hunter, and resist going back to the broken place where you've been.

Blessings to you in the year ahead. May the new born King shape all our days and not just this season!

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark

SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS

A very young Jewish girl, from the region of Galilee, has her life turned upside-down by an angel's visit.  (Angels, it should be said, often show up looking like very ordinary people...)  She is told she is favored, and that the LORD is with her.  The angel tells her not to be afraid (this is a common message angels deliver), and that she is going to conceive and bear a son.  She is to name the boy Jesus, he will be the "Son of the Most High," and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.  This pregnancy will be a God thing.  This pregnancy will be a good thing.

Mary has to be stunned by all of this.  I suspect she was within shouting distance of shock (if not smack dab in the middle of it).  The young girl is reeling.  Her life plan is being sharply altered by God's action.  Then, the angel mentions that her older relative, Elizabeth, is also pregnant -even in her old age.

Luke 1:39 says Mary hurried south to Judea.  She headed straight for a town in the hilly country where her older relative (a cousin?  an aunt?) Elizabeth was living with her husband, Zechariah.

Why does Mary head straight for Elizabeth?  Because she needed to be with someone who would understand what she was going through.  Elizabeth had some experience with the mystery and activity of God.  She was dealing with her own unexpected pregnancy.  Elizabeth would understand.  Elizabeth would be able to give her a place and some time to begin to sort out this new reality. 

When the child inside Elizabeth hears the voice, the boy leaps.  Then, Elizabeth tells Mary she is blessed and she will, in fact, be the mother "of my LORD."  The older woman tells the younger woman it will be okay.  She reassures young Mary that God is up to good.  And, I am sure, she does a lot of listening over the three months of Mary's visit.

To whom will you go when your life flips upside-down?  Who do you trust to understand you?  Who will you look to for help in sorting out where you are, what is ahead, and how God may be at work? 

And is it possible that there are people looking in your direction for your blessing, your mentoring, your understanding, and your encouragement?

Mary heads south to the hilly country and her relative, Elizabeth.  She is in a hurry.  What we know, of course, is that the child she is carrying will be the Christ who understands us, who knows our heart and soul and life better than we know them ourselves, and is not frightened off by our confusion, our shock, and our ache. 

Jesus is the one to whom we can go....when life is more than we can handle.  It is good to have a place to go, isn't it?  It is good to know someone understands.  It is good to know we're loved. 

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark

IS THERE A PLACE FOR CARPENTERS?

"Do we know what Joseph looked like?" someone asked at the Bible study last Sunday evening. "Are there pictures or drawings of him (that show him as he was)?"

I said we don't know what Joseph looked like. I suggested that I like to think of him as compact, shorter than most people (we're taller -well, some of you are!- than earlier generations), muscular given the fact that he was a carpenter and a builder (who walked almost everywhere), and a very dark-skinned Palestinian.

In our study we discovered some things about Joseph.

We learned he was quiet. Didn't say a lot. When he discovers Mary is pregnant, he decides to "divorce her quietly." In the entire New Testament there is no record of Joseph saying a thing. When Jesus goes running off at the age of twelve, during the family's visit to Jerusalem, Mary is the one who says, "Where have you gone to, and why are treating us this way?" Joseph apparently stands there and just...is. (Perhaps Jesus thinks of the man his dad was when he, in Luke 15, tells the story of the father who never gave up on his youngest son.)

The other thing we learned is that he was compassionate. Instead of doing what the law allowed him to do and divorcing Mary, he allows love and compassion and kindness to control him.

He was a man who trusted God, and even allowed the dreams God sent to change the plans he had made.

He was, I suggested, a hard working man who was quiet, humble, physically strong, faithful and kind. The kind of man who was better with wood than words. The kind of man whose hands were callused and who loved being outside fishing. Maybe, even, the kind of man who would be the last to volunteer to lead public prayers in the synagogue or direct a Bible study.

Sometimes I think quiet men, men who are better with their hands than words, men who are never more close to God than when they are on a trail, or fishing, working in the dirt or reading a set of plans, wonder if there is a place for people like them in the church. They see rascals like me who are into music and love writing poetry and often get close to God by talking through a Bible study, and they think, "That's not who I am. That's not how I'm wired. I'm not one of those guys. I'm not sure if someone like me can be a Jesus follower. I'm not very spiritual."

There is a pretty standard gender breakdown in most Mainline Protestant churches. Around 60% (or more) of those participating are female, and men are -in many places- a dwindling tribe. Hard to find in any numbers at all. (In fact, many male pastors, myself included, score high on the feminine end of a rather standard personality inventory.)

I am confident there are women who don't feel they "fit" the classic profile of the active "church lady." So they stay away, too. Instead of devotions they would rather build a house, get clothes for a family in need, tutor a child, or march against what some would consider a reactionary attempt to change a state constitution. They experience God in doing -more so than talking or joining in a prayer litany.

Is there a place in the church for carpenters...and welders...and truck drivers? Is there a place for people whose love for God doesn't get expressed in words as much as it does in basic acts of kindness and compassion? Is there a place here for people whose hands are callused rather than soft, for people -male or female- who don't think they fit the traditional profile of what a "church person" looks like?

Remember, there was a carpenter at the middle of this story. He had calluses and he was a pivotal figure in God's narrative of redemption! There is room for someone like you in this story...in God's story...in the church.

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark

AVOIDING A RUSTY CHRISTMAS

You may be trying to decide how to move through this season wisely and faithfully.  What do I buy?  How much should I spend?  How can I resist "saving my money" when prices are discounted 60%?  Will I spend so much to "create" the perfect family Christmas that I spend half the coming year working my way out of a credit card hole?

Years ago Richard Foster wrote a book titled Money, Sex and Power.  In that book he offers some guidelines worth remembering as we make decisions about spending/giving gifts in these next few weeks.  His principles helped shape the following list:

First, take a moment and look around to see with new eyes all you already have.  Develop a spirit of thanks-giving for what you have.  You may discover the anxious need to have more will be replaced by a spirit of gladness and contentment.

Second, develop a budget.  (An annual budget is a good thing, but it certainly helps to begin the retail side of this season with a gift budget!  How much will you spend?)  Include in this Christmas budget the amount you will give away to your church, Habitat, Doctors without Borders, Shalom, or other worthy causes. 

Third, if you have to go into debt to buy a gift, think twice.  Think three times.  Think again...

Fourth, understand that the best gifts we can give others are times together.  Give a gadget or create a moment when you will eat together, play a game together, etc.  Most of us can remember only a few gifts over a lifetime, but we can remember moments with people we loved and people who loved us.  I hear Sharon talk about the days when the kids and adults in her neighborhood would ride around town on snow sleds pulled by a local implement dealer driving a Case tractor.  Not safe...but memories I hear more about than any gift she ever found under a tree!

Fifth, remember the castaways.  Remember those expensive things you bought a year or two ago.  Where are they?  Still used or are they broken, forgotten, or out of style because some new thing has come along?  (That new Mac Air is pretty light and cool, after all.  Last year's model is looking rather shabby...)  Think about the castaways before you go broke trying to buy the latest thing that may become next year's castaway.

Sixth, buy things for their usefulness and not for status or to impress. 

Seventh, it seems right to think about the Wesleyan rules for living as we consider what and how much to buy.  Do No Harm, Do Good, and Stay in Love with God.  Will that new, ultra-violent video game help you, your brother or your grandchild stay in love with God?  Will how we spend and what we spend and how we end up working to manage our stuff allow us to Do No Harm, Do Good, and Stay in Love with God?

Jesus, in Matthew 6, says we shouldn't store up treasure on earth where rust and moths can destroy.  Instead, we are to seek the Kingdom of God and store up treasure in heaven.

Before you allow yourself to be sucked into the vortex of debt-generating, retail craziness, slow down.  Open your eyes.  Look at your budget.  And remember your life is about more than the clothes you wear or the food you eat!

Gift giving can be pure joy, but it is always best when we let God's gift of the Child be at the center of it all.  That gift...is enough!

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark