I hope this week finds you well! The Anchor is not going to be meeting for the next few weeks, but I will try to get on here and post some thoughts and reflections in the meantime.
With Christmas Eve tomorrow night, I start to think of the story of Christ’s birth in the manger. And that inevitably brings Silent Night to mind as the standard Christmas song celebrating Christ’s birth.
This isn’t necessarily a good thing though. When I reflect on what that night must have been like, silent is far from what comes to mind. I imagine that being in a stable was stinky, and a little gritty. Not to mention the shepherds who show up are not exactly the cleanest or most socially normal people around. Spending all that time with sheep out in the middle of nowhere tended to make a person interesting.
Yet I have the feeling that God would have it no other way. Where if I was God, I would choose a silent night, for the incarnation, and definitely not a stable. Maybe some fireworks instead of a star, just to name a few.
But the dirty, gritty stable with the rough and tumble shepherds is exactly where God shows up, and I think there is much for us to learn. If God is willing to enter our story in such a setting, it speaks volumes of who He is. This same God, our Lord Jesus would use this same humility to humble himself to death, even death on a cross - the lowest death possible, the death suffered for rebellion.
This all reminds me of the words that the ancient church planter Paul wrote so long ago when he said:
In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human being,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
What a contrast, that this God, who is everything, would enter our story in one of the lowliest ways possible. But praise God that that is who He is. The God who chooses to stoop to being nothing because of how much He loves us and wants us to be in relationship with Him. This is the God who would do anything to keep us from condemnation.
I hope that as you celebrate this Holy Day, that you would reflect on what this incarnation was really like, and how much it conveys of God’s love for you, for me, for us as humanity, for His whole creation.
This Sunday, Richard shared with us from Matthew 3:1-17. This passage centers on John the Baptist, who Matthew depicts as a herald, preparing the way and announcing the coming of a King. Central to John’s message was the message of repentance. Specifically, Matthew notes this message that John had been saying:
You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
In this statement, John was speaking to religious leaders who had come out to be baptized. John focused in on what repentance really is, which is a change in action. Richard shared with us that this message is further clarified in Luke 3:
What should we do then?” the crowd asked.
John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.
Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”
He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”
Our primary discussion this week centered around thinking through what this kind of repentance looks like for us. How do you see this view of repentance bearing out in your life? What does it mean for you to see repentance as having an effect on how we interact with others, and even in how we do our jobs?
Advent is a new concept for me. The church I grew up in did not celebrate Advent in the traditional sense, though I am sure we touched on the topics. I shared that Advent is important because our culture wants to push us straight to celebration, and a self centered celebration at that. The wisdom of Advent is that it is four weeks of preparation and anticipation. Four weeks for us to prepare our hearts for celebrating Christ’s birth, the moment in time where God invaded our story, entered into our existence, united Himself to humanity. Advent reminds us that it’s not just a time of celebration. It reminds us of the voice that is heard over and over throughout the old testament, that keeps reminding us “He’s coming.” Over and over “He’s coming.” Advent reminds us of this and calls us to embrace the message of the one crying out in the wildnerness to prepare for the coming of the Lord.
This week, we finished up our series in Jude, taking a look at the Doxology, and reflecting on Christ’s coming, and how ultimately it is God who is powerful, it is God who keeps us, it is God that is able to save us. We don’t do this of our own power, but through God’s power. And because of that He gets all glory, majesty, power and authority. This is the God who comes, who enters our story. Jesus invites us in and keeps us. It is this Jesus that we anticipate, and we celebrate at Christmas. It is this Jesus that will one day come again.
Also, with it being Advent I’d encourage you to look into things like the Advent Conspiracy (video about it below).
Sorry all, it has taken me a while to give an update on here. We have covered some ground as a group in the last two weeks.
Two weeks ago, I shared on Jude 5-7. Jude refers to three stories from the Old Testament(plus a bonus allusion to 1 Enoch, an apocryphal book) to say how the leaders that are leading people astray are entering into these stories of people who have spiritual advantage, but betrayed their position to rebel against God. We talked about these three stories, and how it is that the Bible doesn’t just tell a story that happened, but a story that happens still. We talked about how we find ourselves in these stories, as we contemplate how God has been at work in our story to bring us to him.
Last Sunday, Richard spoke at the Anchor, as I was in Almira, WA to share about what we are doing in Portland. Richard shared on verses 8-16, as we continue to find out who these men were who were leading these Christians astray. Since I wasn’t there I can’t give you a full recap, but I do know that mentoring was mentioned as something to the contrast of how these leaders functioned.
Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that the Lord has once for all entrusted to us, his people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.
We found out that this is why Jude, the ancient Christian pastor, who happened to be a brother of Jesus wrote his letter - he wanted to write about salvation, and about how salvation was a meaningful message for those who are believers, but instead felt he had to urge the believers to contend for their faith against people who had snuck into the church and were trying to turn God’s grace into a license for immorality and deny Jesus as Sovereign and Lord.
We discussed how we can be fooled into seeing God’s grace as a license for immorality by buying into a slogan that sounds something like “I am and accepted and loved by God, not of my own merit, therefore I can do whatever I want.” We talked about how for us as Christians in Portland this can be a real danger as we operate with a mindset that thinks that somehow we are more spiritually advanced and don’t have to worry about issues of sin.
After some discussion on what this means, we also wrestled with how we can go astray in the opposite direction, that is by falling into a mindset called legalism. The slogan for legalism sounds something like “I obey Gods rules, and I’m a good person, therefore God loves and accepts me.” We talked about how this is just as dangerous for us as Christ followers.
The questions that we should dwell on in prayer this week are:
God, what is the danger I am in for misunderstanding your grace? How might I pervert my understanding of your grace?
God, how are you calling me to respond? How do you want me to live differently?
Last Sunday, we started a series on Jude, and went through verse 1 and 2 of Jude, discussing what it means that as Christ Followers, we are called, loved, and kept, and how we when we understand that it is God who does the work, it shifts our focus from being about proving ourselves to having a great hope, because we can live in light of the fact that we are already united to Christ.
I am hoping to begin a process of adding additional discussion onto what we look over in our service, that the blog might serve as an augmentation to the conversation of working to discern what the scriptures mean for us.
In commenting on verse 1 of Jude, here is what one ancient Christian had to say:
Christ the Lord said: “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him.” Jude affirms the truth of this here when he says that those whom the Father has loved are preserved by the Son. - Theophylact
When we are called as Christians, we are preserved by the Son, who we are united to. This is exciting because it means in some mysterious way, we are invited to participate in the life of the trinity! This is why in the very next sentence Jude says as way of a greeting “mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance!” This is not just a standard greeting, but it is a statement about our lives as Christ followers. Because we are united to Christ we do have an abundant access to mercy, peace and love. We do not have to cast about hoping that we might have these things, but rather, we already have them.
Might you and I grow in understanding that mercy, peace and love are ours in abundance!
bryan on December 23rd, 2008
