Not feeling “Christmasy?”

 

 The woman looked weary.  “Tired?” I asked. Her reply was interesting.  “I just don’t feel very ‘Christmasy.’  Millions can identify with that feeling as we close out 2020 and come to the holiday.  We are weary of the Covid mess, exhausted by the strife that fills our land, and weighed by the uncertainty of the future.  Then, too, much more personally, many have allowed the chaos of Christmas to overwhelm them.  December’s calendar fills up with events, parties, travel, children’s programs, gift preparation, feasts, and family gatherings.

I celebrate the Christian season of Advent so that the wonder can gradually unfold as I intentionally make my way to the Day! Day by day, week by week, the season emerges as the words of the prophets, the songs of the Season, and the messages of the Gospels help me to prepare my life to celebrate the pivotal event of human history. Jesus entered Creation as a tiny Baby, a mysterious and miraculous coming that announced peace with God, the dawn of the Kingdom come and yet to come.

Dear friend, if we allow bright lights and festivities to steal the Moment, if we substitute mere parties for the substance of the Season, we will quickly grow exhausted, perhaps even Scroogish!  It’s not too late to capture the joy of Christmas.

There is a little phrase buried in the middle of Luke’s narrative of the Nativity that speaks of Mary’s response to the birth of Jesus, the angelic announcement, and the visit of shepherds with the wondrous tale. "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2:19, NIV) Treasured and pondered- the words that arrest me.  She took time to store the moments in memory and revisited them often. Why? Because they were precious, sweet memories for a mother? Perhaps. 

 More importantly, I believe she treasured and pondered knowing that His birth was the pivotal moment of her life, the reason for her very existence- to bear the Son of God.  I wonder if, as she stood 33 years later at the foot of the cross on that horrific day when her Son hung dying, if she retreated to that Holy Night and drew comfort from the knowledge of God’s plans?

Today carve out some time to treasure and ponder. Before you laugh at the suggestion as you look over your calendar, please consider that God’s gift cannot be found in a store, on Amazon.com, or the holiday music of SiriusXM radio. Oh yes, those parts of the holiday traditions will play a part in our celebration, but the amazing, restorative, joy-bringing love of God shown to us in Christ Jesus will be found in the quiet, where His Spirit can whisper to us about the wonder, the mystery of the Incarnation (God in flesh)! 

Treasure and ponder this familiar word letting become new in your heart - “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:16-17, NIV)

Tonight I will gather with friends in the church (Faith Discovery Church, 7 PM) for my favorite worship service of the year.  It will be the first time in decades I will not be leading the worship, but rather sitting among the congregation. But, I am anticipating the opportunity to savor the Story, to sing the songs, and most of all, to treasure and ponder the message that makes all the difference for me and for any who will receive the Christ of Bethlehem.

Yes, I am pondering that momentous message - "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:11-12, NIV)

I pray for you a most blessed Christmas, a renewal of love for the Savior, a re-centering of faith on Him, and a recommissioning to service of the Baby of Bethlehem, now the Lord of Heaven and Earth, our King!

________

Joy to the World,
The Lord is Come!
Let earth receive her King.
Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room,
And Heav’n and nature sing.

 CoffeeBreak will be back in a few days, Lord-willing!
I am taking my own counsel and hope to spend time treasuring and pondering the mystery of the Word become Flesh.

Merry Christmas!

 

Come on in!

 

 

Hospitality. What do you think of when you hear that word? I think of a home where guests are welcomed, where there is a warmth that makes them feel ‘at home.’  Over the years my experience of ‘hospitality’ has varied. Sometimes there are elaborate preparations but no personal welcome so it feels like being entertained rather than welcomed. How wonderful to be met with a real smile, invited in to sense that the hosts really mean it when they say “make yourself comfortable.”  There I find myself leaning back on the couch, settling in, and kicking off my shoes.

Today, we will go to the familiar text in Luke for our thought but first I want to ask –
Does the Lord Jesus find you hospitable and welcoming? 
Is He ‘at home’ in your life?

"So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." (Luke 2:4-7, NIV)  No room! Apparently nobody felt much hospitality in that inn, nobody who said, “Let the pregnant lady take my place here.” She was invisible, a nobody, unwelcomed. The Son of God entered the world without human welcome or warmth.

Hospitality requires intention and focus. When I feel that warm welcome to another’s home it is because they have taken time to think about me, not only to prepare their home, but to open their hearts. Real hospitality can create new relationships, extending our family connections beyond those created by shared DNA! 

Remember this - one does not have to openly reject another to fail at being hospitable!  Sometimes the failure results from distraction or issues that are going on under the surface. I have been invited to dinner and arrived to feel a ‘chill’ in the air only to realize that it’s not about me.  The hosts had a fight prior to my arrival and the emotions are still there.  When Joseph and Mary showed up in Bethlehem there was no hostility, just apathy. It seems that nobody really took notice, because they were just taken up with their own ‘stuff.’

As we celebrate the Incarnation, God come to us in flesh, let’s prepare Him room!  Let’s be intentional in our worship, focused on opening our hearts and minds to His Presence, ready to set aside our agenda and our needs to say “Come in, Jesus, and make Yourself at home in my life.”   

When invited to dinner I would much prefer a simple meal with a warm welcome over an elaborate feast with no real intimacy.  He, too, does not look for us to make a big ‘fuss’ or go through all kinds of ritual. He comes to those who desire to know Him. John writes "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—" (John 1:10-12, NIV)   

Did you see what results from recognizing Him, receiving Him in faith, making room for Him? 

He changes our identity, restores us to our place in God’s eternal family. 

Let’s make time to worship.
Let’s step out of the hustle of the holidays to meditate on His love
Let’s engage ourselves with God, the Holy Spirit, welcoming His Presence.  
Give Jesus room today.

The word from the Word is a promise for those who will open themselves up to the Presence of God.
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne,
just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne." (Revelation 3:20-21, NIV)   Amen!

(Video of this blog at this link)

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No Room

(a real old one but a good one!)

No room only a manger of hay
No room He is a stranger today
No room here in His world turned away
No room no room

Angels in heaven up yonder
Watch with amazement and wonder
To see the Son of the Highest treated so
No room no room no room

No room here in the hearts of mankind
No room no cheery welcome could find
No room surely the world is blind
No room no room no room

No room only a manger of hay
No room He is a stranger today
No room here in His world turned away
No room no room no room

John W. Peterson © 1958. Renewed 1986 John W. Peterson Music Company

CCLI License # 810055

What kind of love?

 

 

In the 4^th week of Advent, we meditate on Love.  Love is “a many-splendored thing,” isn’t it?  Love intoxicates us. A dinner with love is a feast. A song shared in love makes our heart beat faster. A beautiful vista shared with one we love becomes a thing of delight. The warmth of a loving embrace will linger for a day. Oh, you’re right. I’m writing about romantic love. That is not the same love that we celebrate this week, is it? True enough, but the love we find in God’s gift makes us capable of the best kind of love in this world, right here, right now.

Christian, to quote an old song, “what the world needs now is love … not just for some, but for everyone.” (Burt Bacharach)  Being loved by God and loving Him in return cannot be without a human dimension. Religion that does not move us to love in this world is empty and faulty.  Christians must be great lovers because they are deeply loved.

One of the best books I have ever read on the subject of love is titled, Bold Love (NavPress, 1993) written by Dr. Dan Allender.  The author lifted me beyond the incomplete ideas of love that is founded on desire or ‘compatibility,’ to realize that love is a choice, a sustained effort, a way of life. "There is an enormous drive in the fallen human personality that impedes the process of learning to love and an equally powerful force outside of every person that labors to destroy every effort to love. ... Complacency and presumption work hand-in-hand to blind even Christians to the importance of love and inherent battle involved in learning to love. IF we are to learn to love, we must begin with an acknowledgment that love is not natural and that love's failure is not easy to admit."

This week in Advent we can think newly of an ancient love, meditating on a Baby’s birth, and thus finding renewal in the love of God!  And it will be a transformative experience.  Indeed, they Word declares - "We love each other because he loved us first." (1 John 4:19, NLT)  In this world where Evil is real, where sin is persistent, where hate is strong, we cannot allow ourselves to be naïve, to believe that all the suffering and wrong results merely from people who act in ways that are  ‘mistaken’ or because they are ‘confused.’  Yes, many of us are those things, garden variety sinners, but evil lurks in the hearts of people and causes us to do terrible things to others.  

God loves us to life and asks us to respond in a way that does not simply involve self-interest or our own comfort.  Jesus, God come to us in love, demonstrates a radical response to an evil world. As a person filled with His Spirit I am to be known for a quality of love that includes a deep reservoir of forgiveness, that acts against evil, that includes the ‘unlovely,’ that seeks the best for others. It is a BOLD LOVE! 

What does that love look like?

First, that kind of love is beyond mere sentiment and is more than benign indifference! It is active in pursuit of life and beauty.

It comes from a deep work of the Holy Spirit, from a solid foundation of God's love in our own life first. "We love," John says, "because He loved us first." There is no way I will consistently choose to turn the other cheek, no way that I will pursue the well-being of a person I believe hates me, if I am not fully convinced that God is my refuge, my fortress, and my loving Father who cares for me. It is almost impossible to boldly love an evil person with an active love that overcomes their wickedness unless we are held securely in faith, the wisdom of the Word planted deeply in our mind and heart. Before we can give grace, we must know grace.

Second, bold love is not needy.

Much of what passes for 'love' in our world is nothing more than an expression of our need to own another's affection. Healthy love that Jesus desires in us is not shaped around our emotional desire to be liked!  A codependent person will continue to let others abuse and mistreat them in one-sided relationships. That leads to pitiful situations where things go from bad to worse. The kind of love that overcomes evil has little to do with our own needs. It has everything to do with meeting the other person's need. Jesus did not need to become our Savior to fill an emotional need in Himself. He is God, self-sufficient in every way. He chose to love us because He knew we were lost. He moved strategically to bring about change.  Is your love both wise and tender?

Third, bold love is hopeful!

Jesus' love as the model in this, too. Our aim in loving those who are mean, cruel, or abusive is to lead them to the Savior, to call them to wholeness and transformation.  He sees the person who is sinning, who is resisting God's ways, and He loves. Likewise, we love others with prayerful hope that persistent love will overcome and sow the seeds of change in their heart and mind. Radical love is costly and those who choose to love like Jesus will pay a high price. From our place in time, it often looks like evil wins over goodness. But, we, by faith, continue to live in love and trust that the Eternal One, Who is working deeply in us and through us will triumph by His love.

Pray to know love and to live in love. This is the very heart of the Christmas story.

The word from the Word. "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (1 John 4:7-12, NIV)

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Love Came Down At Christmas

Love came down at Christmas
Love Incarnate Love divine
Love was born at Christmas
Star and angels gave the sign

Immanuel, our God comes
Immanuel, our Hope, our Trust

So worship we the God-head
Love divine
Worship we our Jesus
In this holy time

For love shall be our token
Love be yours and love be mine
Love to God and neighbor

Immanuel, our God with us
Immanuel, our Hope, our Trust

Love shall be our sign
Love came down

 

Christina Georgina Rossetti | Stan Pethel

© Words: Public Domain