"Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men came to Jerusalem from the East, saying, 'Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?'...They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'"
Matthew 2.1-2, 5-6
As our Advent journey draws to a close and the celebration of Christmas bursts upon us once again, we end up in the little Judean town of Bethlehem. This is the place where the prophet Micah (5.2) told God's people so long ago that they would meet the ruler and shepherd of Israel, Christ the Lord. And still today, we take the metaphorical journey to Bethlehem to meet our Savior and the world's great King.
As you may have noticed, the language of "king" or "ruler" has already appeared 5 times in this post. And that is because the true Christmas story is all about a clash of kings and kingdoms.
In Matthew's narrative, wise men come from the East looking for the true King of Israel. But before they get to him, they are intercepted by king Herod, who was in all reality a false king of the Jews, a usurper, an impostor. Herod was troubled by the news of a newborn king, and so, he consulted the chief priests and scribes to see where Israel's Messiah was to be born. "In Bethlehem of Judea," they replied.
In desperation, Herod was willing to do just about anything to hold on to his power. So he summoned the wise men and sent them to "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him," said Herod, "bring me word, that I too may come and worship him" (Matthew 2.8).
What a lie! Herod's true intention was to kill the child Jesus. Herod was willing to go to the extreme to ensure that Israel's true King was destroyed. This was revealed to Joseph by an angel of the Lord (Matthew 2.13). And that same angel told Mary and Joseph to flee to Egypt with their child, for Herod was about to do the unthinkable.
Herod (a man who was known for killing his own family members and his wife!) used his position of power to kill all of the male children in the region of Bethlehem who were two years old or under.
It may surprise you to hear that this political power struggle is at the heart of the Christmas story in Matthew's gospel. What do we make of this?
Well first off, try to discard your thoughts of a calm, peaceful Christmas scene with a nice little manger.
While Jesus was still an infant, he became a refugee with a bounty on his head. And this fate would follow him all through his life, ending, of course, with a brutal death on a Roman cross - a place where failed revolutionaries often ended up.
But what is even more important for Matthew is that when things are at their darkest, that is when God fulfills his promises. God always comes through in the clutch!
Emanuel, God with us, comes to the place of pain, brokenness, betrayal, and darkness in order to bring us into the light of God's glorious kingdom. Jesus the Messiah and King of Israel comes in Israel's place and accomplishes God's ultimate plan of deliverance. Jesus accomplishes a new exodus for the world - "Out of Egypt I have called my son" (Matthew 2.15).
Jesus, Israel-in-person, has come to accomplish what Israel failed to accomplish. In the darkness of exile, Jesus brings God's light and deliverance. Jesus brings God's saving presence to bear in the world. And Jesus bids us, "Come, experience God's goodness and become agents of change in the world!"
In spite of the odds and in spite of what the rulers of this world promise us, we must always remember that our God is a God who truly does fulfill his promises. In Christ, God's promises never fail us.
Jesus' final word and promise to us in Scripture is this: "I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star...Surely I am coming soon!" (Revelation 22.16, 20).
As we, in this Christmas season, call to mind the person and work of Jesus, and as we prepare ourselves for his coming again, let us make the words of the the old hymn Joy to the World! The Lord Is Come our prayer:
Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.
December 24, 2008
December 16, 2008
Advent Week 3: Repentance
"Now, after John [the Baptizer] was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.'"
Mark 1.14-15
In the time when Jesus lived, the Jewish people lived in a state of tension and hope. Tension because they were in a state of political and spiritual exile and they were slaves in their own land. Hope because they believed that Yahweh (their covenant God) would act again in history to vindicate his people, to bring them all the way back from exile.
Many Jews believed that by faithfully obeying God's Law, the Messiah or Anointed One would come and usher in a new age – an age in which Yahweh would restore the fortunes of Israel by defeating her enemies. Israel's hope for restoration was, however, often mistakenly bound to its nationalistic belief that restoration would come in the form of a military overthrow of the Roman Empire, starting with the conquest of Jerusalem. A commonly held belief was that God would establish the Jews in the Promised Land and throw out the unclean Gentiles (ie. the Romans). This is how God's kingdom or rule would be established on earth.
But that was not the message of Jesus, the Messiah of Israel. Jesus came announcing a different kind of kingdom - one that included the outcasts, sinners, and those who were deemed to be ritually unclean.
Along with this, Jesus' message of the kingdom of God included within it the call for all in Israel to "repent." Shocking! The (so-called) "people of God" needed to repent - to turn to God with all their hearts.
"But turn from what?" you may ask. After all, the Jews were God’s people, weren't they? Exactly! And we often miss this. Jesus was preaching to the choir, so to speak. But why?
Well, even though many Jews thought they had it all in order, they didn't. Many boasted that Abraham was their father. They believed they were God's children by right, by blood. They believed you could be born into God's family. Thus, they concluded that they'd be the benefactors of God's coming kingdom because of their status as physical descendants of Abraham.
So Jesus (and before him John the Baptizer) came with a message that challenged Israel to realize that being a physical descendant of Abraham was not good enough. In Matthew 3.9, John the Baptizer says, "Let me tell you, God is quite capable of raising up children for Abraham from the very stones at you feet."
Being born a Jew, or a Christian for that matter, is not good enough! No one can claim an absolute right to possess the status of a member in God's family. That is something that happens through faith in Jesus. "Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham...in the Messiah Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith." (Galatians 3.7, 26).
And so, God calls all of us to repent - to continually turn from the way of arrogance and conceit, and from our self-centered desire to do it our way. God wants us to admit that we don't have it all together, that we are all messed up, and that we desperately need his grace to save us. But that's not all...
The message of Advent is that God graciously comes to us through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, offering us forgiveness, reconciliation, and the amazing opportunity to become children of God. God meets us where we are at. And God calls us to trust in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for salvation - to turn to Jesus and follow his way of being human. God calls us to embrace the way of the cross, the way of the crucified and risen Messiah, and then to pick up our own cross and to become his agents of peace, reconciliation, and renewal in the world.
Mark 1.14-15
In the time when Jesus lived, the Jewish people lived in a state of tension and hope. Tension because they were in a state of political and spiritual exile and they were slaves in their own land. Hope because they believed that Yahweh (their covenant God) would act again in history to vindicate his people, to bring them all the way back from exile.
Many Jews believed that by faithfully obeying God's Law, the Messiah or Anointed One would come and usher in a new age – an age in which Yahweh would restore the fortunes of Israel by defeating her enemies. Israel's hope for restoration was, however, often mistakenly bound to its nationalistic belief that restoration would come in the form of a military overthrow of the Roman Empire, starting with the conquest of Jerusalem. A commonly held belief was that God would establish the Jews in the Promised Land and throw out the unclean Gentiles (ie. the Romans). This is how God's kingdom or rule would be established on earth.
But that was not the message of Jesus, the Messiah of Israel. Jesus came announcing a different kind of kingdom - one that included the outcasts, sinners, and those who were deemed to be ritually unclean.
Along with this, Jesus' message of the kingdom of God included within it the call for all in Israel to "repent." Shocking! The (so-called) "people of God" needed to repent - to turn to God with all their hearts.
"But turn from what?" you may ask. After all, the Jews were God’s people, weren't they? Exactly! And we often miss this. Jesus was preaching to the choir, so to speak. But why?
Well, even though many Jews thought they had it all in order, they didn't. Many boasted that Abraham was their father. They believed they were God's children by right, by blood. They believed you could be born into God's family. Thus, they concluded that they'd be the benefactors of God's coming kingdom because of their status as physical descendants of Abraham.
So Jesus (and before him John the Baptizer) came with a message that challenged Israel to realize that being a physical descendant of Abraham was not good enough. In Matthew 3.9, John the Baptizer says, "Let me tell you, God is quite capable of raising up children for Abraham from the very stones at you feet."
Being born a Jew, or a Christian for that matter, is not good enough! No one can claim an absolute right to possess the status of a member in God's family. That is something that happens through faith in Jesus. "Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham...in the Messiah Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith." (Galatians 3.7, 26).
And so, God calls all of us to repent - to continually turn from the way of arrogance and conceit, and from our self-centered desire to do it our way. God wants us to admit that we don't have it all together, that we are all messed up, and that we desperately need his grace to save us. But that's not all...
The message of Advent is that God graciously comes to us through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, offering us forgiveness, reconciliation, and the amazing opportunity to become children of God. God meets us where we are at. And God calls us to trust in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for salvation - to turn to Jesus and follow his way of being human. God calls us to embrace the way of the cross, the way of the crucified and risen Messiah, and then to pick up our own cross and to become his agents of peace, reconciliation, and renewal in the world.
December 13, 2008
2nd Week of Advent: Hope
"They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more."
Isaiah 2.4
"They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea."
Isaiah 11.9
Hope is one of the primary themes in the Advent season.
But what is Christian hope? And what, exactly, does the church hope for during Advent? In this post, I'll look at these two questions.
Christian hope is centered on the coming of God's kingdom. The hope of the gospel is all about God's Word going out to minister to all peoples and to all of creation. Thus, when the church hopes, it actively seeks to bring God's redemptive love to bear in the world. When the church hopes, it brings with it the shalom (peace, wellness, welfare, wholeness) of God.
Hope is not static. It does not stand still. Hope is always on the move, envisioning new and imaginative ways to live out the good news of Christ's saving grace in the world.
And as we see in Isaiah chapters 2 and 11, what the church hopes for (and actively anticipates) during Advent is for God's peaceable kingdom to come in all its fullness. We hope for the complete restoration of all creation. Against the odds and against much of the evidence around us, God calls us to hope and to work for justice.
The prophet Isaiah's vision, and indeed the vision of Advent, calls us to foster life, to open up new life-giving opportunities, to cultivate creation in such a way that God's justice and righteousness roll down like an ever-flowing river (Amos 5.24).
In specific, God calls us to transform our weapons of war, aggression, and destruction into implements of cultivation and new creation. The Spirit of God is leading us to take bold steps that move us toward a commitment to the way of Christ - that is, to the way of non-violence, to an economics of care for all people, to the elimination of global poverty, ect...
We do this as we hope and wait for the time of great renewal - the time when God's kingdom will come in all its fullness!
"Living out of messianic hope is therefore different from just waiting passively. It requires that we leave our protective shelters behind and put our future, our prosperity, and if necessary our whole lives in jeopardy for the sake of love, truth, and justice. Indeed, growing into God's story implies growing into a living obedience to the risen Lord" (Hope In Troubled Times, 177).
A concluding thought to ponder:
In 2003 the world spent more than $950 billion on its militaries, with the "the land of the free and home of the brave" contributing nearly 50% of the total.
Thus, world military expenditure in one year is greater than would be required to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals in 11 years (the MDG is an 11 year project designed to cut global poverty in half). If 10% of world military spending, or 20% of US military spending, were diverted yearly, the MDG could be fully funded!
The above information is gleaned from Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, "Military vs. Social Spending: Warfare or Human Wlfare" (2004), l. Go to: http://www.epsusa.org/publications/factsheets/facts.htm.
What should the response of the world-wide church be to this shocking reality? Well, as a start, all Christians should call upon citizens, governments, and decision-makers to embrace a life-affirming and life-sustaining peacebuilding paradigm. We must challenge ourselves and our governments to integrate development and peace initiatives and agendas at both policy and practice levels. This would involve reallocating resources freed by refusal to continue developing weapons, and then delivering those resources to a wide variety of peace initiatives.
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more."
Isaiah 2.4
"They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea."
Isaiah 11.9
Hope is one of the primary themes in the Advent season.
But what is Christian hope? And what, exactly, does the church hope for during Advent? In this post, I'll look at these two questions.
Christian hope is centered on the coming of God's kingdom. The hope of the gospel is all about God's Word going out to minister to all peoples and to all of creation. Thus, when the church hopes, it actively seeks to bring God's redemptive love to bear in the world. When the church hopes, it brings with it the shalom (peace, wellness, welfare, wholeness) of God.
Hope is not static. It does not stand still. Hope is always on the move, envisioning new and imaginative ways to live out the good news of Christ's saving grace in the world.
And as we see in Isaiah chapters 2 and 11, what the church hopes for (and actively anticipates) during Advent is for God's peaceable kingdom to come in all its fullness. We hope for the complete restoration of all creation. Against the odds and against much of the evidence around us, God calls us to hope and to work for justice.
The prophet Isaiah's vision, and indeed the vision of Advent, calls us to foster life, to open up new life-giving opportunities, to cultivate creation in such a way that God's justice and righteousness roll down like an ever-flowing river (Amos 5.24).
In specific, God calls us to transform our weapons of war, aggression, and destruction into implements of cultivation and new creation. The Spirit of God is leading us to take bold steps that move us toward a commitment to the way of Christ - that is, to the way of non-violence, to an economics of care for all people, to the elimination of global poverty, ect...
We do this as we hope and wait for the time of great renewal - the time when God's kingdom will come in all its fullness!
"Living out of messianic hope is therefore different from just waiting passively. It requires that we leave our protective shelters behind and put our future, our prosperity, and if necessary our whole lives in jeopardy for the sake of love, truth, and justice. Indeed, growing into God's story implies growing into a living obedience to the risen Lord" (Hope In Troubled Times, 177).
A concluding thought to ponder:
In 2003 the world spent more than $950 billion on its militaries, with the "the land of the free and home of the brave" contributing nearly 50% of the total.
Thus, world military expenditure in one year is greater than would be required to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals in 11 years (the MDG is an 11 year project designed to cut global poverty in half). If 10% of world military spending, or 20% of US military spending, were diverted yearly, the MDG could be fully funded!
The above information is gleaned from Economists Allied for Arms Reduction, "Military vs. Social Spending: Warfare or Human Wlfare" (2004), l. Go to: http://www.epsusa.org/publications/factsheets/facts.htm.
What should the response of the world-wide church be to this shocking reality? Well, as a start, all Christians should call upon citizens, governments, and decision-makers to embrace a life-affirming and life-sustaining peacebuilding paradigm. We must challenge ourselves and our governments to integrate development and peace initiatives and agendas at both policy and practice levels. This would involve reallocating resources freed by refusal to continue developing weapons, and then delivering those resources to a wide variety of peace initiatives.
December 4, 2008
Advent: Week 1
We are currently in the first week of Advent (last Sunday was the first Sunday of this new church year).
For those who are unaware, the season of Advent marks the beginning of the Western (Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant churches) Christian year. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve.
From the Latin adventus, Advent means “coming” or “arrival."
Throughout history this season has been observed as a fast, with its purpose focused on preparation for the coming Christ. During Advent, Christians all over the world prepare themselves to receive the newborn in a lowly manger at Bethlehem, to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Messiah - his coming into the world.
In this time, Christians also look forward to Jesus’ coming again and the establishment of God’s new creation.
Throughout Advent, Christians humbly confess their sins, seek God’s forgiveness, and joyfully look to Christ’s indwelling presence through the Holy Spirit. We wait and hope for Christ’s light to break through the darkness of our world. We wait and hope for the revelation of Christ with us, Christ among us.
But we who are members of Christ's body are called to do much more than simply wait and hope. God calls us to action! In Advent, God calls his church to be Christ's light for salvation to the nations. This happens through the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.
During this season we are empowered by God to to enact his peace and justice in the world. We are to cry out on behalf of those who are poor and afflicted, and thus, provide further fulfillment to Jesus' words in Luke 4.18-19: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord!"
After taking some time to chew on the words of Jesus, please also consider these words of Jesse Jackson:
"Let us gather and embrace our families. Let us join together to protect the babies in the dawn of life, care for the elderly in the dusk of life. Let us nurture the sick, shelter the homeless. Stop for the stranger on the Jericho Road. Work for the promise of peace. Surely that is the point of the story [of Advent and Christmas]."
For those who are unaware, the season of Advent marks the beginning of the Western (Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant churches) Christian year. Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve.
From the Latin adventus, Advent means “coming” or “arrival."
Throughout history this season has been observed as a fast, with its purpose focused on preparation for the coming Christ. During Advent, Christians all over the world prepare themselves to receive the newborn in a lowly manger at Bethlehem, to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Messiah - his coming into the world.
In this time, Christians also look forward to Jesus’ coming again and the establishment of God’s new creation.
Throughout Advent, Christians humbly confess their sins, seek God’s forgiveness, and joyfully look to Christ’s indwelling presence through the Holy Spirit. We wait and hope for Christ’s light to break through the darkness of our world. We wait and hope for the revelation of Christ with us, Christ among us.
But we who are members of Christ's body are called to do much more than simply wait and hope. God calls us to action! In Advent, God calls his church to be Christ's light for salvation to the nations. This happens through the redemptive work of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.
During this season we are empowered by God to to enact his peace and justice in the world. We are to cry out on behalf of those who are poor and afflicted, and thus, provide further fulfillment to Jesus' words in Luke 4.18-19: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord!"
After taking some time to chew on the words of Jesus, please also consider these words of Jesse Jackson:
"Let us gather and embrace our families. Let us join together to protect the babies in the dawn of life, care for the elderly in the dusk of life. Let us nurture the sick, shelter the homeless. Stop for the stranger on the Jericho Road. Work for the promise of peace. Surely that is the point of the story [of Advent and Christmas]."
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