A 2020 Christmas

 It's almost Christmas AND we've almost finished 2020!  We're pretty excited about both of these occurrences.  This month we have the joy of saying hello to an amazing BIRTH celebration as well as saying goodbye to an amazingly strange, difficult, socially distanced, separated, disease-filled year.  But we find that even as we now anticipate the joy of Christmas, we need to find meaning in the lessons of 2020 for we're convinced they are numerous.

The two liturgical seasons of Advent and Lent have both similarities and differences.  They are different in that they bookend the life of the historical Jesus with two very different events: his birth and death

And Advent is usually seen as a time of “preparation,” while Lent is experienced as a time of “penance.”

Yet, they are similar in their invitation to make a retreat…to go inward…to reflect…to contemplate…and, perhaps, to be renewed.

The text that we chose for this Advent experience is neither new, nor is it “Christmasy”.  In fact, it’s over 25 years old and is not a nativity narrative, but a post-resurrection story: the account of two people walking to Emmaus after crucifixion of Jesus.  The book we are studying is entitled, With Burning Hearts.  And Nouwen suggests that we can embody a recurring five-step pattern in our daily lives…

· Acknowledging our suffering and losses
· Being attentive to God’s presence in our story 
· Affirming our belief
· Intimacy
· Taking action

Nouwen writes about the familiar story of two men on a journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  This story occurs just after Jesus has been hung on the cross, died, and was buried.  Women have gone to the Jesus' tomb but have found it empty.  These two travelers were men who had great hope in the new teacher but alas are now confused, sad, depressed that he has been killed.  The men were experiencing dashed hopes and dreams.  Their expectations for the year had been rudely ripped away from them.  Nothing was what they expected.  They were downcast looking for reason and trying to make sense of all that had occurred.  Luke 24:13-23

Does this sound familiar to you?  It seems very similar to our 2020.  We've been surprised, disappointed, and perplexed with next days.  We might say we've been confused and trying to sort it all out.

Let's also remember the story of Mary and Joseph and the unexpected pregnancy they experienced!  Do you think life as they expected was interuppted?  Were they shocked?  Were their parents disappointed and did they experience a life change, a new way of life?  Could their year have been ANY worse?  They had no eyes to see the future. Certainly, they had tears, questions, and confusion.  Again, just like us in 2020.

There are three things we can learn from these stories:

1. God was with them.  He walked right beside them and listened to all they needed to say.

2. God encouraged them to express their mourning for the life they expected and lost and, in that pain, they begin to SEE with new eyes.  Once they voiced their pain they were able to see God's hand in their lives.
3.  Faith won the day.  They each took steps of faith.  Faith that believes even when it cannot see.

Today, we have the same assurance.  He is with us.  He has never left our side.  He knows the pain of 2020 and he encourages us to voice the mourning of what we lost this year.  And somehow, in that awakening to our losses, our recognition that we need a healing God, we actually begin the process of being renewed.  It's a way of living called Faith.  Faith in who God says He is: the beginning and the end, the Savior of the world, the Hope, the One who loves unconditionally.

Let's join the these fellow travelers and recognize that God is with us.  Let's express our sorrow for the year and give Him all that pain.  And then, express Faith that He indeed is our Savior and He is coming!

Kathy and Scott

What's On Your Mind?

What's on my mind is not too holy!  I confess that my mind is occupied with present buying,
present wrapping, food and more food, plans, parties and finances!  This is the fight I daily battle in this Christmas season.  But through the writings of the last two weeks I have been encouraged to love God with all my heart and all my soul and now this week with all my mind.  Our words have perhaps challenged some but they may have also hung soundless in the corners of our brains.  For truly, how do we love God in these ways?  And certainly, in this week how can we possibly love God with our minds?

Maybe its all about what we see and what choice we make?  Let's go to the Christmas story.  The shepherds were in the fields working.  Their day was just as the one before - hard, grueling, tiresome with little pay perhaps.  I would bet they had family, responsibilities and worried about many things.  As the story goes these shepherds suddenly experienced a visit from an angel who displayed the "Glory of the Lord" and the shepherds were terrified. (Luke 2:9-10).  You may recall that there was a reference to the Glory of the Lord in Moses' day and in fact, this Glory was so overwhelming that Moses was not allowed to even look directly at the Glory for he would surely die (Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” Exodus 33:18-20)

Was this the type of Glory the shepherds experienced?  Additionally, joining the one angel was a heavenly host of angels!  I don't really know how many angels appeared but if the one showed the Glory of the Lord I can only imagine what one plus a heavenly host would be like!  It was after this experience that the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."  Was this decision-making action TO GO an example of loving God with their whole mind?  For they made a decision, yes it would seem their hearts and souls had been stirred and their MIND took them to action.

Is my Christmas mind so stirred with God's glory in my life that I am making plans to love Him with my whole heart, soul and mind today?  Do I recognize his Glory as it shines all about me?  Or have I diminished His Glory to a to-do list full of unwanted and unneeded gifts?  For if I truly see and recall His appearance in my life....how can my mind have any choice but to run to Bethlehem?

I have a very dear friend who has recently moved back to her home in China.  While she was visiting the United States she learned about a spiritual world.  Never before in her life had she known that there was a Saviour born for her.  Never before in her life had she known His unconditional love and grace just for her.  But she met Him here and accepted His love.  In the few weeks leading up to her departure she began to express concern about her return and the lack of Christian fellowship available to her in China.  I expressed to her that our God was the God of the world not just the God of Alabama.  But oh, how easy for me to say as Bible-belt faith literally stands on every corner of our city.  And how different when you are one girl returning to a city of millions or one shepherd standing all alone in a field.  You've seen God but...will He show up in your normal life, that's the question your mind asks.

This week, I had a video call with my friend and one of the first things she shared was this story:
"While I was up feeding the baby, I thought I heard music playing from the apartment above me.  And the music seemed familiar.  I began to listen closely and finally could understand the music and recognized the sounds as Chinese christian worship songs.  I immediately alerted my husband so that he could listen too.  We were so excited and overwhelmed that we left our apartment and went to find this music.  I never thought I would hear such sounds in my apartment complex.  But Kathy, I am not alone.  He has gone before me.  He is here!"

She loved God with her heart and her soul and on this night she believed and loved with her mind.  She saw the Glory and her mind followed.

Through Bethlehem, He surely went and goes before us!  I want to remember His glory today and have my heart and soul and mind follow.

A Big Soul

Since last week I have been grappling with this verse.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’   I have gone through the week thinking about heart, about soul, and about the old song Heart and Soul for goodness sake!  
(I daresay some reading this are too young to even recognize the very popular duet, Heart and Soul, that many of us banged out on our mom's pianos!).  

How does one define heart especially when the verse asks us to delineate between heart and soul?  Several months ago, I had the opportunity to teach a group of visiting scholars and Ph.D. students this very verse.  These scholars were all from China and were quick to help me differentiate the meanings of these two small words.  Please be reminded that these scholars had NO prior spiritual training or Biblical understanding and that these descriptions were their very words...

HEART                                                 SOUL
•site of specific feelings & intuition     •spiritual
•physical only                                       •immaterial part of a person
•eventual death                                     •eternal part
                                                              •humans only animal with soul
                                                              •part that has relationship with God
                                                              •has a will
                                                              •lives forever

The fact that a people group with limited to no knowledge of the Biblical Jesus could come up with this list astounds me but also confirms to me the presence of a very real, living God.  A God seeking us, searching for us and even placing within each of us this innate desire for a God of our understanding. There is indeed a God-shaped hole in each of us...a longing to be filled only by our Creator.  Every human living has a heart and has a soul.  Our question for today is how do we love God with all our soul?

Joseph faced the very same question.
"This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son." Matthew 1:18-25

Joseph was a real man.  We have him stored in our brains as some surreal character that we read about as children in Sunday School.  He was a plain man.  He worked hard for a living, worried about the future, worried about money and loved a girl.  He wanted to get married and have a family.  We are also told that Joseph was faithful to the law.  In these verses, we can also see that he was a man with a beautiful soul as he prepared to spare Mary disgrace and divorce her quietly.  Can we also agree that only faithful men and men of soul might receive angels in technicolor dreams?  Can't we agree that as surely as God chose Mary the 'highly favored', that He also saw Joseph as highly favored?  

When I look back at our definitions I realize the highly prized heart of a person is the one of great emotion whether that be joy, exuberance, sadness, pain or joy.  I've always prided myself on having a big heart.  But today I've newly realized that my heart never really tells me the whole Truth.  It is fickle and one day it will die.  Also, I believe that Joseph MUST have experienced a heart-ache as happenings unfolded.  His Mary was telling him of an encounter that surely his heart wanted to believe but yet....how difficult was this news.  So...it was Joseph's great soul of belief that allowed him to keep striving to be the man of God to which he was called.  For his emotional heart was surely damaged and in great pain; therefore, it wasn't Joseph's emotional heart that kept him on course but it was his God-seeking soul.

In this Advent season, loving with with your whole heart may be difficult.  For even in this season of joy, celebration, gifts, food, children and love there is still pain in our lives...pain from disrupted relationships, the stress of Christmas giving and expectation, and the enormous pain of a broken world.  But in the depths of us this week, Advent is truly calling for us to Love with our whole souls - our essence, our forever, eternal selves.  Our whole souls are those that rise to the top during difficult dreams, angel visits, unexpected Savior visits and life's hurts and disappointments.

So today, this day, I strive to LOVE with a BIG SOUL - the eternal, forever part of God in me.  For that is the LOVE of our Saviour...forever and unchanging.

We Know

From Kathy

"Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Nicodemus made an important decision that night.  He decided to go.

Earlier this week, Scott gave us a definition of the Pharisees, "a political party, a social movement, and school of thought in the Holy Land during the Second Temple period." Through Scott's writing we were specifically able to glimpse Nicodemus' prestigious role in the Jewish community.  The Pharisees were highly respected as they intimately knew the scriptures and they outwardly professed their faith. These were men who had dedicated their lives to the spiritual.  At the same time, they were human and clearly made mistakes and some really bad decisions.  And somehow this sounds familiar to me.

I must confess to you...the Pharisees of that day may now...be me...and my church.  Some of us have been taught the Bible since we were toddlers.  We've heard sermons and attended Bible study our entire lives.  Is it possible that we've lived in this place of faith for so long that we have come to a place in our hearts of simply going through the motions?  Could that be a Pharisee moment in me?  I don't mean to focus on outward appearances and forget the grace and mercy of our God.  I don't mean to forget the coming of the Savior into the world but it's Dec. 3 and I don't even have a Christmas tree up yet!  And to be almost-totally honest, I blazed through Thanksgiving week with barely a thought of the Savior of the world because I had six days of company in my house, cooking, a dinner party, travel, and football!

So I find myself needing to come to Jesus too.  In the stillness of the night when all is quiet and it is just me and Him.  It is in that place that I am able to unrobe from my Pharisee gown and tell Him my whole truth.  Nicodemus says to Jesus, "we KNOW that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him."

WE KNOW.  I know you have come from God and I know this Christmas season is about your coming to get us and save us.  I know that I and my church get mired in the production and entrapments of Christmas but we know.  We really know who YOU are for no one could do what you've done and not be God.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” Luke 2:8-15.

We find shepherds who also experienced God at night.  They were terrified but they heard the message and they believed...And they KNEW.  And as a body of believers, the church, in that lonely field that night they looked at each other now realizing the truth and chose to go.  They chose to leave their work, leave the familiar, leave the surrounding expectations and to go see the Savior.  That is exactly what Nicodemus chose also.  He knew Jesus was God.  He chose to leave the entrapments of his prestige and position to go to Jesus.  I wonder if Nicodemus felt an amazing sense of relief and peace as he came to meet Jesus.

Is that my desire?  Is that a choice I will make this December?  Can I choose to leave the familiar and the typical seasonal expectations and live my life as though I really know what the Christmas season represents.  It's a choice I can make to go meet Him.  Do I dare take off the entrapments of christmas-doings?  Can I go into the world around me and tell what I know?  Can you?  Will you?

Let's go to those outside our inner circle who are standing in vacant fields just waiting to hear the message of hope and healing that is only offered in this Christmas.  We know HE has come into our world.  Let's go!