Happy Holy-Days From Brunswick Church of Christ!

I love Holidays! Holidays are days of celebration. Days of recognition. Days to reflect. Days for ceremonies and festivals. Holidays are those days which bring us back to our roots and drive us onward to build the future. Holidays in my home, no matter which one it is, are those days which bring us to our knees in prayer and thanksgiving and compel us to keep building life around Jesus till He returns. But as with your first full-time, minimum-wage job, if performed enough over a certain amount of time in the same prescribed way with the same uninspiring results, a Holiday can lose its luster. In fact unless a Holiday remains strongly connected to the holy event which sparked its beginning we will soon wonder why we celebrate it at all.

In the same way that a broken tow-line renders useless both the barge and the tug-boat, so a Holiday detached from meaningful-event centered-celebration can render both the holiday and those who celebrate it useless. An important point about a holiday (or "Holy-Day" as it is derived from) is that it is always tied to an historical event. No one ever celebrated America’s hopes for independence. No, America celebrates her Independence Day- the actual historical day commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 which declared America independent from the Kingdom of Great Britain. When Columbus Day rolls around in October of next year we will all celebrate Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492. None of us will feel all that inspired to celebrate Columbus' high aspirations or noble intentions. No, we will celebrate Columbus' actual arrival in the New World.

In the same way, the many Holy-Day celebrations found in the bible were celebrations of what God had already done. They were celebrations of actual-historical days. The weekly Sabbath holy-day, for example, was a celebration/recognition of the day the Lord rested from His work in creation on day 7 (Genesis 2:2-3). The Sabbath was celebrated not because of what God would do or because of what God intended to do in the future. The Sabbath was a celebration of what God had already done on a specific day in history many moons ago. The Passover and Feast of Tabernacles were of the same sort: they celebrated actual events in the past. If we wish to be faithful to the term Holiday we must understand this important concept.

The “Holiday Season” is not about celebrating peace, hope and joy because peace, hope and joy are not historical events. I might as well throw a Holiday to celebrate the concepts in this blog post. What is an historical event, however, is the incarnation of Jesus Christ which makes peace, hope and joy possible! If we intend to celebrate Hanukkah this Holy-Day season then by all means let's celebrate the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE and note its implications for our lives today! But let's not celebrate freedom on Hanukkah for freedom is not an historical event. To limit a Holiday to a lofty ideal is really to cut the tow line and make celebration void of meaning.

Having said that, the real power of a Holy-Day, the real power of Christmas for us as Christians, is in what Christmas compels us to do after the celebration is done. When celebrating Independence Day as an example, the question for me needs to be, "Am I more strongly committed to fighting for the men, women and children under my care as a result of celebrating those that fought for the freedom of men, women, and children under their care?" If the holiday does not compel me to action then, again, I might as well cut the tow line and go frolic in the sea.

So what about Christmas? What is it that December 25th, 2010 aught to compel me do to on December 26th and all the days following?

1. The first thing I believe Christmas Day aught to compel me to do is bow my knees in worship to the God Who would dare incarnate Himself. If I were God I could probably think of a number of better ways to spend my time then by submitting myself to mistreatment and even death by those disobedient creatures I created. As I think of myself I don't see that I am much worth that cost. But I am not God! And thank God I am not God because Christmas Day may never have happened if I were! As one Bible writer said,  “What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him?" (Hebrews 2:6). But on Christmas Day (maybe not the actual day I know) the eternal Creator sent Jesus so that "He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone" (Hebrews 2:9. Folks, Christmas is not about the celebration of Jesus' noble teachings: it is about His inconceivable sacrifice begun at His birth!
2. Christmas Day aught to compel me to take a serious and strong stand against evil. When God became man He placed his flag post on enemy territory and said, "If Satan is going to take this world to hell in a hand basket it will have to be over My Son's dead body". Through His incarnation God would make a way for all nations to receive the blessing promised to Abraham from the beginning. The angel said to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11). In Jesus God took a serious and immovable stand to restore the world to its original goodness and my life aught to reflect that restoration as well. My life aught to be about living by heaven's laws here on earth. It aught to be about living like Abraham in lands like Sodom.
3. Christmas Day aught to compel me to build my life around Jesus at every point! Through believing the story of Jesus we allow our minds to be continuously renewed by the normative narrative of God. As Greensdale (2002) stated so well, "Jesus calls us away from a faith in which God is available to bless our business and into a faith in which we are available to be a part of His business. And God's business is a multi-national company with branches everywhere!" (ps. 42-43). The incarnation brings God right alongside us and calls us to embody Christ ourselves.

If you choose to celebrate a holiday this season then ensure for yourself that two things occur:

• You celebrate an actual historical event.
• You let that historical event change the way you live today!

May your faith in Jesus Christ increase this season as you allow yourself to be changed by His birth, life, death and ultimate resurrection.

In this year of our Lord 2011,

Shaun

What Building Life Around Jesus is Not

My wife creates and publishes Christmas Cards each year for friends and family. She is very talented in design and throughly enjoys the opportunity to help others shine their family through cards. However each year she runs into the same problem. Some years the problem is minor and causes little disruption, but other years, like this year, the problem is major and creates a big ordeal. My wife designs the cards, orders the proofs online through a third party company, and then waits for the prints to arrive so that she can ship them to the right persons. It is in her dealings with this third party company that the problem always surfaces.

Inevitably every year the company will either ship the prints late, print the cards off-center or, like this year, develop a problem with the online ordering system not allowing my wife to order the cards until much later than anticipated. This last go around my wife was told story after story, reason after reason for which her cards could not be ordered. Each story from each person on each call was a different story and she quickly lost confidence in anyone's word from the company. The quick solution for my wife...get rid of the third party source of course! In her case, however, this is really not an option. She does not have the capacity to print the quality or quantity of cards she needs without them. So next year she will design cards once again, perhaps going with a different printing company this time, but keeping the third party nonetheless.

I can imagine that the way my wife felt during the past month of Christmas Card creations is likely some of the way God feels when He deals with His third party people: us. She felt frustrated and delayed. Unlike my wife, however, God does not need to continue to deal with us. He does not need a third party in order to accomplish His will. But His goodness and enduring love for mankind drives Him to exert great patience with us. The Lord recognizes the inherent risk involved and utilizes us anyway. It was not until recently that I realized just how frustrated with us God must be at times.

I have talked with an Islamic man on 7 or 8 different occassions now at a Dunkin Donuts locally. I visit this particular D&D's once a week for a few hours each week typing, thinking, planning. My Islamic friend is always there for some time during my stay. We initially met on account of his (not mine) evangelistic initiative. He noticed an open bible beside me and said, "Oh you don't read the rest of that I guess". I asked him to clarify what he meant and he gave me a discourse on the "Holy Koran". The 10 minutes we talked that first day could not be called a conversation as much as it was a monologue. I listened, he taught. I chuckled at the brief encounter that first day and went about my work again after he left.

The conversations that have ensued since them have been of the same style. He shows up to teach me what he knows about "Allah" and leaves puzzled that I have not understood his "revelations". Today in particular was the day that his musings broke the camel's back for me. I entered the D&D's, bought my coffee, plugged in my laptop, sat down in an adjacent table next to him, we greeted each other and the conversation began. He started by mentioning his 2 day fast that he was beginning at sundown after the order of the prophet Muhammed . His tone, facial expressions, gestures and over-all milieu were as they had been each time prior. He behaved as if he knew something within himself about "Allah" that I did not know and it was his direct order from "Allah" to teach me. Rather fed up with what I perceived, over time, to be self-righteous pride, I said to him,

"So you can teach me but I can't teach you. You have nothing else to learn, is that what you are saying?"

With half a smile he replied, "Well Allah has shown me the truth".

I said, "So if you have nothing else to learn then why are we having a conversation? Why should I even talk to you if you won't even consider the fact that you may be wrong in some of your beliefs?"

"Well Allah will reveal it to you if you want him to".

Increasingly perturbed by his self-righteous-God has spoken to me not you-attitude, I made it clear that I did not believe what he believed, that Jesus was more than just a prophet to me, and that his spiritual experiences, even though he was convinced they should have been proof to me of his connection to the divine, held no weight whatsoever in convincing me that "Allah" had spoken to him. In fact I made it clear that his spiritual experiences may just as well have been the work of Satan and his angels.

Shortly then-after he quit talking for the first time in 8 encounters.

My point in telling these two stories is to make the point that sometimes dealing with third-party sources can really mess things up. Every time I spoke to this man those 7 or 8 times I left wondering if that is the way I as a Christian come across in conversation to others who are not Christians: self-righteous and all-knowing. In fact I am convinced that this is exactly how I have come across in times past. God forgive me.

Folks, God is good. Jesus is Lord. But it is me, the third party, that oftentimes significantly distorts those realities and leaves others frustrated and delayed when I talk to them. Building life around Jesus is not about walking into a D&D's to empty onto the closest individual all that we know about Jesus. It is not about feeling superior to others under the hightened assumption that God has been working in our lives more than others. Building life around Jesus is about living gratefully in response to God's gift of mercy in Jesus. It is about praying face-down with the publican saying, "God have mercy on me a sinner" (Luke 18:13) and inviting others into the same face-down posture with us. The grace of our Lord Jesus breaks our resolved to feel superior to anyone. Instead it drives us to our needs in prayer, thanksgiving and sincere conversation with others longing for them to experience the fullness of joy, love and freedom we now know is only available in Christ.

"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior" (Titus 3:4-6).

Busy-ness: The Enemy of Love

The past 24 hours in my home has been a lesson in busy-ness. It began last night when a computer virus forced me to work quickly to save important files before I lost them. I had planned on being done with the computer by 6pm, eat dinner with the family, talk about the day thus far and assist my wife in preparing the house for guests who were to arrive by 7:30pm. Well by the time I could leave the computer without fear of further infection it was nearly 7pm and all I had done was cram a bowl of chili down my throat while my wife took care of the kids and started the cleanup.

Needless to say the last 30 minutes before FOCUS Group were filled with short tempers, annoyed tones, a broken drawer with papers all over the floor, a crying toddler and 2 completely unfocused adults. The rush from 6-7:30pm made loving each other rather unappealing. Instead we were ready to make war. But at least I got the dishes done in record time!

As I was leaving the house earlier today I was again in a rush. A couple of weeks ago I had been told by my supervisor at my part-time bus driving job that 2pm sharp was my arrival time, not 2:05pm. I now know exactly when I need to leave the house to arrive by 2pm and that time was quickly approaching. I gave the kids and my wife a kiss goodbye and ran out the door. Lately, however, a kiss is not enough for my 7 year old daughter. As I ran out the door I got half-way to the truck and realized I forgot some papers and ran back inside. My daughter was now insistent on a hug before I left again so I quickly squeezed her head in my hip and tried to run out. But in my house a kiss always follows a hug and if a kiss does not follow a hug a wining child follows a hug. So in order to pursuade my daughter to let go of me I quickly bent down and gave her a kiss.

Then, just as I got to the truck door to hop in, my daughter and 5 year old boy began yelling from the steps of the house, "We want a hug. We want a hug!"

"I just gave you a hug!", I replied and motioned to them to run out to me quickly. We embraced, I left and all is still well for my bus job.

The point I am trying to make with these two stories is that busy-ness makes loving people well about 300lbs heavier. In fact loving people well while running at warp speed is such a difficult balance to keep that most people, if not all people, collapse under the pressure. What's worse, when we are so busy for so long time continues to fly by and before we know it our children don't have time for us either. We feel estranged from them. They feel estranged from us. Trying to build our home life around Jesus after many years of unhealthy busy-ness becomes an attempt to "re-build" life around Jesus because so much of what we orginally built has fallen down.

Perhaps the greatest testimony to busy-ness as an enemy of love is Harry Chapin's 1974 hit song" Cats and the Cradle". No song that I know preaches busy-ness as an enemy of love like this one. Watch...



Folks I am learning, and so are you I'm sure, that if we want to build our life around Jesus we must reject as practically as possible the temptation to busy-ness. Busy-ness is an enemy of love.

In a future post I may, for those who are interested, list some practical things we can do in the 21st century to slow down while still remaining faithful to our work responsibilities.