Advent, Christmas, and John 4

Advent is nearly over and Christmas is all but here.  We Christians are now in our fourth week of our (religious) calendar.  This year during Advent I have spent my devotional time reading and praying the appointed texts for Advent and looking at John's Gospel.
John 4 is a story that examplifies the anticipation of Advent and the coming of Christ that is Christmas:
In his gospel John goes to great lengths to show that Christ is God. Several stories are recorded of Jesus identifying himself with personal divine name, YAHWEH.
This is the name God reveals when Moses asked who he should say is sending him, "I AM."  Jesus says several times in John's gospel "I AM."
In John 4 Jesus is traveling through Samaria and while resting at a well, a women of ill repute comes upon him and gets more than a bucket of water.  Jesus reveals himself for the first time in John as "I AM"

John 4:25-26 (my translation, very literal)

Advent v. 25 The women said to him, "I know that the Messiah (or the Anointed One) is coming, the One who is being called Christ: whenever that [One] has come he will proclaim to us all things.

Christmas v. 26 Jesus said to her, "I myself am, the one who is speaking to you."

On being a slave

I am a slave.  I am a slave because I am a debtor.  The people I owe money are my slave masters.   I am working on changing this as fast as I can.  I can't wait to be free.  I am currently putting all my extra pennies toward my debt. (I am using the Dave Ramsey approach to debt relief.)

I am a pastor at heart, but I am in the wilderness right now and I plan to return to the Church as soon as I am debt free.  I need to be debt free because if I am concerned with drawing a salary I can no longer speak the true message of the gospel.  Because of debt I have held my tongue when church leaders were doing the wrong thing and hurting the Church rather than nurturing the Body. I regret biting my lip and not speaking truth, but no longer.  I love the Church too much to keep silent. I will break off the chains and live freely for the Lord.

Markers

When you see a fireman you know he is a fireman because he looks like a fireman.  He has a helmet and fire suit, he might be carrying an ax or a hose, or  be driving a big red fire truck.  There is little doubt that he is a fireman.
I sometimes wish that this was true of Christians.  I wish that we got a uniform or a badge or something.  Instead we are left with being known by our love for others and consequently our actions.  I would like to propose a recycling of an old idea.  I would like Christians everywhere and from all denominations to come together and come up with a list of  specific behaviors that would be the uniform of the Christian.  I recently read the Rule of St. Benedict and I think that he had some good ideas on how a monastery should be run and that many of them would be good ideas for the rest of us who are not monks.
What if we banded together and said we were going to honor the sabbath by not working on Sunday (Jews still don't work on Saturday), we were going to fast every Wednesday and Friday by not eating lunch (the Church has done this most of its history), and we all pray 3 or four times a day (also something the Church has done most of history)?
None of these things will bring salvation but they can lead to a better, stronger Church.  And these are not the only markers that could work.  What other common specific behaviors could mark the Church and its people?

Jesus Must Want Me to be Poor

This is the wrong time of year for attempting to be a better Christ follower.  I have been trying to live the teachings of Jesus and lately I have been trying to give to everyone who asks.

Luke 6:30 says, “Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back." (NASB)

I was out to restock the house with snacks and Kool-aid today and got hit up by beggars.  One of the beggars was the cashier, the store is raising money for St. Jude's Hospital.  The other was a group of women asking for money to help battered women.  It was the only time I left the house today, and I gave to two causes.  I wasn't even out of my truck more than 5 or 6 minutes!

When I got home I told my wife, "Jesus must love me being poor!"  I hadn't told her that I had been trying to give to people who asked yet and so she looked at me funny and I explained.  I like giving, don't get me wrong, but we are on a tight budget because we are trying to get out of debt as quickly as possible.  I only get so much money that I can do whatever I want with.

After I explained my new attempts to do the things that Jesus taught, my wife immediately starting asking for this and that.  Nothing big, just to share the snacks I had just bought for me (she and boys are less discriminating than I am when it comes to snack foods, the house had plenty of things for them). Next thing she wanted was me to follow her around the kitchen and rub her back while she got dinner started. I wasn't amused.

I know that soon the Salvation Army will have the bells and red buckets, and nearly every other charity will be out raising money.  Christmas is on its way.
I want to take Jesus at His word so I am going to load up my pockets with change for the red buckets and try to carry single dollar bills as often as I can.

This must have been what Jesus means when he warns us that following Him will not be easy, but come with a cost.  (See the last half of Luke ch. 14)

Adventures in the Ancient

I may have already said that I grew up in a church that was completely void of liturgy.  We celebrated Advent, but not really.  Lately I have been completely enthralled by the practices of the Church through out history.  I don't know a whole lot about "high" church, but over the last months I have been exploring some practices that have been part of the Church for the better part of two thousand years.

The practice/discipline I picked up first was fixed hour prayer. Fixed hour prayer is not only done at specific points in the day but specific prayers are said for the time of day, the week, and the season.  These prayers are also saturated with scripture and psalms. I am completely in love with this new ordering of my life.  When I miss a prayer for any reason I feel a loss.

This new (new for me) way of praying has already begun shaping my life and my relationship with my Creator.  I do not limit my prayer to just these prayers that are already laid out for me but still I pray spontaneously.  I have found that these fixed prayers are giving me the words to pray the way I already wanted. My spontaneous prayers are becoming more frequent and more natural, which is the purpose of fixed hour prayer.  Fixed hour prayer is the discipline to help us be in constant prayer.

Other practices I have been learning are Sabbath, and fasting, and I have begun following the liturgical year.  These are topics for another day.

The "low" church is right to fear the use of ritual.  Rituals can become gods and idols themselves instead of directing us to proper worship.  These things that the Church has been doing for all these years have a rich history and great rewards.  These are the things that the Church needs to do to right itself and to be the Body of Christ.

Agreeing with Adam

A man I consider to be one of my best friends is someone who I often disagree with, especially when it comes to politics.  I don't remember the last time we talked about politics and agreed.  Adam is one my dearest friends and when it comes to how we read the Bible I would say that we are very different.  We do usually come to the same conclusions on what it means for our lives.

Adam's, http://adamheffelfinger.blogspot.com, missional approach to doing church is something that I can get behind. I have long thought that the Church in North America, and maybe the world, has lost track of what it should be doing, and how it should be doing it.  The main culprit is denominationalism.  The endless splitting and growing and splitting again of the Protestant church has caused the division of the Body of Christ.  My heart tells me the solution is to start a church of my own and hope that it changes other churches.  My brain tells me that doing that would only cause more division.  The solution is in the churches themselves.  They, and me as well, must put aside all we think we know but Christ crucified (Paul says, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." 1 Corinthians 2:2).

I think that debate about theology and doctrine is important and I am not advocating theology outside of orthodoxy.  I think that it has a place in the Church, but when it divides the Church what good is it doing?

I told Adam the other day that I felt like Martin Luther did, all he wanted to do was help fix what was broken.  Instead, we got the reformation. Maybe, we are do for another, what do you think? I would like to see this reformation bring the Church back together.  Besides if Adam and I who are so different can get along, everyone else should have it easy.

Starting Fatherhood

In just over a week I will be a dad.  I will be joining the ranks of those who get ugly ties on Father's days.  My wife and I have decided to skip the early childhood years and go strait to having teenagers.  O, and we are going to have 3 and are expecting a 4th sometime soon.

We are going to be houseparents in a long term residential program for at risk teen boys.  We are very excited, not only because we have been out of work for so long and were feeling the tightening of our belts, but we are called to this.  In my heart I am a pastor, I think.  I am very excited to share my life and my God with these boys and help them figure out how to be men.

The other day I had a scary revelation. I am going to be filling the role of a father for these guys.  The father role is one of the primary ways we think of God. (No pressure right?)  The thought still freaks me out a little bit.  But I am being sent for a reason. So here we go. Pray for me.

Thoughts on 1 Kings 18:28

I have to admit that sometimes I get things backward. I catch myself changing word order, or using my left hand when I supposed to use my right. I think that I catch it most of time. The worst thing I get backward is that I am created in God’s image not the other way around. I want Him to be like me instead of letting Him change me to be more like Him.

A lot of religions have made that same mistake. The worshippers of Baal in ancient Israel were no different. A prophet of Yahweh (God) challenged the prophets of Baal to a show down. During a drought that had already lasted 3 years the prophets asked Baal and Yahweh to start a fire. The 450 prophets of Baal did everything they could think of to get Baal to show up. That even included cutting themselves until their blood flowed from their veins.

You see, they thought that if they cut themselves and got Baal’s attention, he might do something similar and fire would flow from the world of the gods and consume the offering. It didn’t work for two reasons. 1. Baal is a false god. 2. They did not understand the relationship between the divine and the rest of us.

The Bible teaches us that there is only one God and He is the Lord of the universe. He made man uniquely in His own image. Worshippers of false gods have made their gods in their own images and out of their own desires. What kind of god is that?

The Christian journey is about letting God change us into something that is more like Him. That includes all aspects of our lives: our actions, thoughts, feelings, desires and everything else that is in us.

Grace and Justification

I have been thinking a lot about the message of the Church lately especially the movement called the Emerging Church.  The message seems to be lacking. I hope I am wrong. (I don't say that often!)  I have been watching many of the movements leaders and I have to say that they are preaching a message of grace, and that is good.  What is not good is they are so consumed with grace that they are distorting the message of Jesus and the Bible.

The full message needs to be one of Justification.  Grace is only a piece of the puzzle.  God's grace towards us allows for our justification and thus our salvation.

I wonder if the message of justification is just too big to package in to the movement or if those people who are proclaiming a grace only message have been so hurt by the past's turn or burn messages that they cannot see the rest of the picture because of their own pain.

I think that the Emerging Church has a lot to offer when it comes to how we do church (especially those of us in the low liturgical evangelical world), and how we treat those outside the Church.  However, Jesus tells us time and time again to repent and sin no more.   His grace is sufficient for me, but Paul reminds us in Romans 6:1 that we are not to continue sinning in order that grace may increase.  James writes that in Chapter 2 that a faith that does not result in actions is a dead faith.