Why Christmas is Love

I think the Incarnation is loving.  If you're not familiar with the term, Incarnation is a technical theological term for God coming in the flesh in Jesus Christ.  The second person of the Trinity actually became a human.  The equation goes something like this:  100% God + 100% Man = 100% Jesus.  It's a little mind-boggling, but so it goes with God.

And I think that's an incredibly loving thing for God to do.

Here's why:  the Incarnation was loving because the Crucifixion was coming.

If God, in Jesus, didn't take on flesh, then no human could be saved.  There's an old theological maxim that goes like this:  what is not assumed cannot be saved.  In other words, God had to become a human to save humans.  That's reflected in the passage I preached Sunday - "He had to be made like his brothers" (Heb. 2.17).  Another translation says, "It was necessary for Him..."

Beautiful.  God became one of us to save us.

The Incarnation was loving because the Crucifixion was coming.

A boring part of the Bible

Admittedly, not every part of the Bible is miracles and awe-inspiring.  I'm currently in the part that's not.  I use the M'Cheyne reading plan and I'm plowing through the Chronicles right now.  The first several chapters of 1 Chronicles are genealogies and, if I can be honest and still remain a pastor, ridiculously boring.

And so I was laying out the boring nature of these genealogies for God and reminding Him of how good a Christian I am that I don't skip these parts and He reminds me of two things...

First, the genealogies are roots.  They locate the story among a people.  Real people.  Real histories.  Real families.  Real happenings.  Real connections.  Real stories.  This is not some disconnected, golden tablet, angel revealed craziness.  The events happened in a real context with real people.  All of the stuff following in 1 Chronicles happens, at least in part, because Shimea met and married a nice Jewish girl and had Berechiah.

Second, the roots remind me that God uses real people.  None of them were perfect.  All of them failed the good and faithful servant test at some point.  But these were the people who perpetuated the Jewish lineage.  And, more specifically, these were the people who perpetuated the Messianic lineage so that another Jewish boy would meet and marry another nice Jewish girl, and though it didn't look like they thought it would, Joseph and Mary would be earthly parents to the One who would rescue us all.

When God reminded me of that, I had a little less attitude and a little more perspective.  Here's hoping you do too.

Why Advent?

It's a good question:  why do we (the Baptist church I pastor) celebrate Advent?  Isn't that on the calendars of Catholics and Episcopalians and a few Methodists?

Good question.

It's true, lower church traditions (meaning less formal than more liturgical/tradition-oriented denominations like the ones mentioned above) are not known for celebrating Advent.  But I think it's important and I can sum up why in a single sentence:

Black Friday and Super Bowl Sunday ought not be the major anticipations of our holidays.

Cynical?  Probably.

But the key for me and what I hope to communicate to Jesus' church is that this rhythm of expectation is a good thing.

The first Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Hope:  we look forward to His coming.

The second Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Peace:  we look forward to His benefit.

The third Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Joy:  we look forward to our response to His causation.

The fourth Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Love:  we look forward to knowing it fully, demonstrated 30-something years later outside of Jerusalem.

So that's why we celebrate it as a church.  But I think the rhythm of expectation is important - even if we can't articulate all the reasons why.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...

Snakes are Scary: SpongeBob on Christmas

Somehow, this is funny to me...

To link to the original Snakes are Scary post that explains the Friday insanity, please click this link.

More Christmas. Even more Flash Mob

Yep. More.

More Christmas. More Flash Mob

Merry Christmas, Everyone

Confession:  I love the Hallelujah Chorus.  Another confession:  I love (most) flash mobs.

Snakes are Scary: British Rap Christmas Awesomeness

Merry Christmas everyone.  A little blogging break is ahead, so we'll see you in the New Year.  But enjoy!  Because I just can't do any better than this...

(I just figured out that it won't let me actually post the video here - so go view it here, you'll laugh!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyuzSzdpE38&feature=player_embedded

The Heisman and the Manger

Robert Griffin III (or as his adoring fans and Baylor alumni know him:  RG3) has won the Heisman trophy.  I’m not sure if you knew that I was a Baylor alum or not based on my making fun of Aggies and wearing green all the time.  And I’m not sure if you heard me as I jumped out of our recliner and screamed with joy as the announcement was made.  Call me a proud Baylor alum who is happy for his school and for a great kid.

I have two favorite quotes related to all the Heisman noise.  First, Kirk Herbstreit saying that RG3 has brought Baylor football back to relevancy.  Ouch.  Second, from a friend of mine:  “I don’t know how to live in a universe where Baylor football is a winning program and we have a Heisman finalist [and now winner].”  Cracking me up.

And that brings me to the non-Heisman related point of this column.  Can you live in a universe where the God of the universe who is fully in control of everything becomes what is seemingly a helpless child?  Can you live in a universe where a unwed teenage mother bears the Savior of the world?  Can you live in a universe where a deity wins the day through a death penalty case?  Can you live in a universe where a backwater prophet predicts He will die and rise again, then actually does so?

You do.


But that's just me thinking thoughts...

But He HAD to...

This is probably the last post before the awesome insanity of the Guaranteed White Christmas from The Weather Channel starts around here.  So, Merry Christmas everyone!

A question:  is there something God has to do?

If you're an aspiring theologian, you can probably name a few:  He has to be truthful, He has to be pure, etc.  If you're consumed by American idiocy clothed in religious clothes, you might say He has to bless you or He owes you a good life (you might not say it that way, but you might say it nonetheless).

Here's one that's probably not on your list:  He had to be made like His brothers in every way (Heb. 2.17).  That is, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity and God the Son, had to become like us - a human.  It's a beautiful little Christmas truth smack in the middle of Hebrews.

But why?  Why does God the Son have to become like us in every way?  The rest of the verse answers that question:  so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.


Jesus had to take on humanity, becoming incarnate (literally "putting on flesh"), in order to be a high priest and make propitiation for our sin.  If He were not human, He would not be a merciful and faithful high priest.  He would be unable to sympathize with us in our temptations, struggles, pressings, tribulations, and even our tears.  But clearly He can (Heb. 4.15).  If He were only God, hovering above us, He couldn't identify with us.

But also He, as a human, can make propitiation for us.  That is, He can become the sacrifice that takes away God's wrath and gives us righteousness.  Gregory of Naziansus (c. 329-390) said it this way:  "What is not assumed cannot be saved."  In other words, if Jesus didn't become a human He wouldn't be able to save humans.  If He didn't have a human body, a human mind, a human will, a human heart, a human ____________, He couldn't save humans who have those same things.

So Christmas is about God's saving work.  Don't forget that.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...

What kind of love?

So this week, at least at Heritage Park, is the 4th week of Advent which is the week we focus on Love.  As I said in an earlier post, I'm not sure we do it in the order everyone else does, but it makes sense to us and so we stick with it.

Here is an insight I'm working on for Sunday.  There appears to be a pretty consistent cycle in my life and in the lives of many I know.  The two-pieces of the cycle are (1) whatever I think a person is after determines my perception of the kind of love that person has for me and (2) whatever kind of love a person has for me determines what I think that person is pursuing.

You easily see #2 on reality TV.  Which bachelor or bachelorette has taken the kind one over the hot one?  And to my knowledge, only one of those couples is still together.  And #1?  Look at any relationship (good or bad) between a teenager and parent.  If teens succeed in keeping in mind that parents want the best for them, their sense of love and acceptance makes them pick up the phone and call when they run the new car into the pole at the gas station.  If teens think parents want me not to be a screw up and embarrassment, they hide and hide everything:  blemishes, grades, sexual struggles, hurtful conversations, etc.

And here's the beautiful thing about God's love - He demonstrates it and it reveals what He's after.  His love shows up in the death and resurrection of His Son.  It's free, unconditional, unique and transformational.  And it shows that He's after the hearts of men and women everywhere, capturing their allegiance and affection.

Can't wait for Sunday to preach this.

I simply cannot improve on this...

FBC Dallas has a Grinch website set up for those companies who do not say, "Merry Christmas," but opt for the more PC, "Happy Holidays."  I'm sure this makes Jesus, who has something to do with Christmas, look great to those watching.  And I'm confident it reflects well upon the people who claim to follow Him.

Okay, enough sarcasm.  My friend Tommy Kidd has a great article on the founding fathers and Christmas.  He's excellent on historical perspectives on Christianity in the public sphere.  I can't improve on it so I'm putting it here (from www.patheos.com, posted in its entirety)...

Christmas in 1776           

By Thomas S. Kidd

‘Tis the season to argue about religion. Or more specifically, to feud about whether to say Merry Christmas or Seasons Greetings . . . to call it a Christmas Village or a Holiday Village . . . or to allow a crèche or menorah to stand on public property.

What would Americans at the time of the founding think about all this?

They would have been perplexed. Perplexed, first, at the ways that we fuss about the public role of religion. The Revolutionary era was shot through with public expressions of faith, from the days of prayer and fasting declared by presidents, to the chaplains employed by the Continental Congress and Washington's army, to the faith principles undergirding the Revolution itself, especially the notion that all men are created equal. The concept of a public square stripped of religion would have been deeply unfamiliar to Americans in 1776.

But they would also find our kind of Christmas strange, and probably unpleasant. We are constantly warned by the prophets of our age -- Charlie Brown and Snoopy chief among them -- that we should not become obsessed with commercialism at Christmas. Yet this is like warning fish about the pollution in water -- a world of consumption is what we Americans live and breathe in.

Christmas in 1776 was very different. One difference, of course, is that America was engaged in a terrible war with Britain. That is why George Washington and his army spent Christmas night of 1776 crossing the Delaware River through a blizzard of sleet -- to attack the Hessians at Trenton, New Jersey.

Wartime or not, Christmas was not a big public spectacle at the time of the Founding. One searches in vain through the newspapers and almanacs of the Revolutionary War period to find references to Christmas. It was almost never mentioned, even on December 25th itself. When it was, the holiday was usually only cited as a reference point. ("General Washington hopes that the war will be over by Christmas," and such.)

But let's not be romantic about their simple, subdued Christmas, either. One reason that Christmas was downplayed in the New England states is because the Puritan fathers had banned Christmas for much of the 17th century. This was not because they were killjoys, but because they did not see how the Bible taught a December Christmas. They believed that the festival of Christmas was invented by medieval Catholics -- and this, if you were a Puritan, was never a good thing.

You did see occasional evidence of commercialism in Revolutionary America, too, especially after the war was over. In the Christmas Eve edition of Rivington's New York Gazette for 1783, there was a screaming advertisement -- almost reminiscent of our "Black Friday" ads -- for "CHRISTMAS and NEW YEAR'S PRESENTS," which included gold and silver watches; goblets fit for drinking "Porter, Ales, Punch, Sangree" and other holiday beverages; and assortments of stockings that the merchant pronounced "Monstrous Cheap."

Christmas at the time of the founding -- for those who embraced it -- was mostly a family and church affair. Lauren Winner's delightful new book A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith shows how Christmas occurred naturally as a part of the household devotion of 18th-century Anglicans in Virginia. Wealthy families there often had sumptuous feasts. At one Christmas dinner, the menu of the Fairfax family included "six mince pies, seven custards, twelve tarts, one chicken pie, and four puddings." Twelfth Night, the evening signaling the end of the Christmas season, saw even bigger bashes, which could sometimes turn into drunken brawls. Devout Anglicans also made their way to church for the Sunday of Christmas week, where they would hear a special sermon on the incarnation and receive communion.

In modern America, outdoor nativity scenes and other Christmas displays became common after World War I, encouraged by the advent of electricity to light displays at night. Some of these displays ended up on government property, a circumstance that predictably elicited lawsuits by secularists. The first major lawsuit on this topic sought to remove a nativity scene from the White House Ellipse in 1969. A number of contradictory court decisions have followed, fostering annual feuding and court cases regarding Christmas or Hanukkah displays.

Americans of 1776 had no particular need for public manger scenes. Christmas, when observed, fit easily in the traditional rhythms of home and church life. Obviously, they had no secularists screeching for the removal of Baby Jesus from the public park, either. His image was not there in the first place, nor did it need to be. Their society was already pervasively religious, even though not every American was a saint. They lived in a serenely religious milieu that we can only approximate today. We certainly can't recreate it on today's fractious courthouse square.

Thankfully, believers can still foster an indisputably Christian Christmas in our homes and churches. I guess that is where Christmas is the most edifying anyway.

Thomas S. Kidd teaches history and is a Senior Fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, and is the author of God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution (Basic Books, 2010). Follow his writings viaFacebook.

Christmas Spending, Wisdom, and a Small Insect

So I'm reading through the book of Proverbs right now, trying to live in the wisdom that it espouses.  At least once a year, I read through the book, one chapter per day for 31 days.  It's a practice I encourage you to adopt.  There are so many gems in here.

So on to today's reflection.  In 6.1-11, Solomon contrasts two very different financial situations.  They apply both to individuals and to nations (Congress, are you listening?).

The first person is the person who has pledged his goods to his neighbor to buy something he wants now.  I'm sure none of us are in that situation (to MasterCard or AmEx or the next generation...).  Wisdom says to run to the neighbor and work it out right then and to do so with intensity:  like a gazelle caught by a hunter and trying to get away and flee.  Dave Ramsey's "gazelle-like intensity" comes from 6.5.

In light of our Christmas and Congressional spending as of late, sounds like a good reminder.  Admittedly, our family is not a "no credit and no credit card" kind of family like Mr. Ramsey.  But we can write a check for every expenditure.

The second example is the Ant.  She works hard.  She saves.  She plans ahead.  She has plenty when it gets bad and plenty when it is good, though (honestly) probably not as much as others have when it's good because she's always putting away from when it's bad - and it inevitably gets bad.  The sluggard, in contrast, merely wants to nap.  But when snoozing, poverty and want come along and commit robbery.

Which do you want to be?  And equally as important:  how are you going to get there?  What practices do you need to change to get there?

But that's just me thinking thoughts...

You probably have seen this...

So you've probably been passed this email or have seen it on Facebook or YouTube.  However, it's the Christmas season and I absolutely LOVE the Hallelujah Chorus.  And I love that, whether or not these folks are people of faith in Christ, they proclaimed incredible Truth at a food court in a mall, right beside a #1 with cheese and no tomatoes with fries for the side and a Dr. Pepper to drink...

Peace

This is the second week of Advent.  I'm not sure we, as a church, do it in the order that everyone else does.  But this week is the week we think about Peace.

I have done a lot of thinking about peace this week for various reasons (not the least of which is I get to preach about it on Sunday).  God brings us His peace - shalom - wholeness and does so through Jesus Christ.

Why do we need it?

The answer (and a preview for Sunday's sermon) is clear:  we have no peace - shalom - wholeness.  We have brokenness.  There is the fracture of our relationship with God because of sin.  There is the brokenness in our relationship with one another.  And there is the cracked relationship between us and the rest of Creation.

Brokenness is everywhere.  So God brings peace - shalom - wholeness.  Right in the midst of the ugliness is this beautiful thought.

Enjoy that this week as we head toward Sunday.