The Empty Manger

Where did Jesus Go – It is an easy thing to find Christ in Christmas. It has gotten a little more difficult to find him in the public square with political correctness taking hold and Santa Claus, or modern society’s version of the original saint, taking center stage. It’s easy because that baby is just so loveable. Certainly, Jesus would have avoided much of the trouble he encountered later in life if he just would have stayed in that manger.

It is when Jesus leaves the manger that trouble starts. He grows up and starts to say things that make people uncomfortable. Herod was the only one who wanted Jesus dead in the days that followed his birth, but by the time of his crucifixion it seems that there was only a handful that wanted him alive.

We don’t think of babies as challenging the established order of things. They are little bundles of joy to be cuddled and tickled and have much fuss made over them. It is always the adults that cause the trouble.

Jesus grew up and began to expect things of people. He began to proclaim and call for the world to change, but the world is made up of people – We are the ones who make the world the way it is with all its hurts and wrongs and injustices. That means we must change in order for the world to change. That means things must be different first and foremost in our own lives before we can expect anything or anyone else to be different.

Those who showed up in the days after the birth looking for the child in the manger would have to go find him somewhere else. In the years that followed, especially Jesus’ adult years, we hear nothing about his miraculous birth. All of that has been overshadowed by his eating with sinners and fellowship with tax collectors and condemnation of religious hypocrites.

There is a big difference between that cuddly babe in the manger and the adult Jesus who, from some people’s point of view, went a little overboard when he cleansed the temple. But, Jesus must leave the manger behind if he is to save us from our sins, and we must leave it behind as well if we are to grow up into his disciples.

Pastor Craig

Why Christmas Eve?

Why Christmas Eve? Unless I have been sadly out of touch, we think of Jesus as being born on Christmas Day. Yes, I know, the date is probably not exactly correct. But, why mess with extended tradition. So, I ask again, why Christmas Eve?

Do you have a celebration of your birthday the night before you were actually born? Most of us do not. Birthday parties, if possible, are celebrated on the day of the person’s birth. However, most Protestant churches, even most churches I know of, have no Christmas Day celebration unless Christmas does indeed fall on a Sunday. Yet, many of the churches I am aware of, maybe even a majority, have some sort of Christmas Eve service.


Is it that we simply don’t want to get out on Christmas Day? Do we keep Christmas Day to ourselves for feasting and gift opening? It is true that many Christmas Day services are among the lowest attended services of the year. So, what is the point of the Christmas Eve service, I mean other than a “that’s-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it-service?”


I think I have some insight, if not the real reason, at least a possible explanation that might make us feel a little better now that I’ve accused us all of bailing on Jesus’ birthday party. We live in a post Christmas Day age. We know that Christ has been born. The shepherds had no clue Christ was coming that night until they were told. The innkeeper didn’t know who it was that had been born in the stable that day. The majority of the town probably didn’t know and didn’t care. Oh, they may have felt sorry for the poor girl who had to have her baby there among the animals, the manure, and the dirt, but that was the end of it.
We, however, live after the birth. We observe advent. We go through those four mournful Sundays when we sing those sad and longing hymns, the ones that make us want to jump ahead to the upbeat Christmas hymns full of joy and angels and shepherds and peace on earth, good will towards men. Maybe our Christmas Eve service is, in a way, like a New Year’s Eve service, but on a MUCH grander scale and with much more eternal significance.


It is Christmas Eve that marks the dividing line. It is Christmas Eve that ushers out the old and escorts in the new. It is Christmas Eve that is the last day in darkness before the bright hope of Jesus Christ, Immanuel (God with us), enters the world. Christmas Eve is the day we remember all those Old Testament heroes and their time of longing. It is a time when we give thanks for being born on this side of the first Christmas. It is the recognition that we have, in plain view, what they longed to see.

Tonight we remember the darkness of ages past. We celebrate the coming of the new day, like the watchman standing on the wall gazing towards the east and seeing the first rays of the sunrise break the horizon and signal the new day that has dawned for us all!
Pastor Craig

God's Patience

Has God ever lost His patience? There are those who would say “No” in their attempt to keep intact the image of the ever loving, ever compassionate Deity. Granted, the times we think of first as a time when God might have lost his patience with the people of Israel were really just attempts to influence them back into his loving and compassionate arms. There is nothing like a taste of reality to remind us just how good we have it in our little, protected lives.

However, there is a time I think of when, if it is indeed possible for God to lose His patience, God may have lost patience with an individual. Yahweh wanted to demonstrate His gracious, powerful, and compassionate nature to King Ahaz. You see, King Ahaz was worried. Two nations, Aram and Israel, much stronger than the kingdom of Judah had declared war against his tiny country. Their desire was to destroy Judah and divide it between themselves. The very announcement of war sent Ahaz’s knees knocking and his spirit into a freefall of depression.

Yahweh responded by sending Isaiah to King Ahaz with words of encouragement, but it seemed to do little good. Yahweh sought to strengthen the faith of Ahaz and told him, “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or the highest heights” (Isaiah 7:10). Ahaz was told, “Ask for anything because nothing is too great for the LORD your God. As surely as I can perform any task you could possibly assign, I can protect you from these two kingdoms!”

Ahaz, in a moment of self-righteousness, proclaimed, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.” God gave Ahaz an opportunity that many of us wished we had, a chance to ask God for absolutely anything! Ahaz, whose faith was teetering, could have put God to the test. In fact, God even ASKED Ahaz to test Him. Ahaz is basically telling God a HUGE lie, “I have no need to test you. I do not doubt. I am righteous and holy.”

That’s when God lost it! HEAR NOW, YOU HOUSE OF DAVID! IS IT NOT ENOUGH TO TRY THE PATIENCE OF MEN? WILL YOU TRY THE PATIENCE OF GOD AS WELL? Sometimes our self-righteousness gets in the way of the possibility to witness a tremendous event God wishes to do in our lives. Yahweh proceeds to put an impossible task upon Himself, a task which no one could do, a task beyond human comprehension, a task that has become one of my favorite advent passages. The Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin shall be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel, meaning: God with us. It must be noted that the “you” of the passage is plural in the Hebrew. The sign is not just for Ahaz! The sign is for you and me as well. Yahweh says, “Do you need proof that I care for you? Do you need to know that I watch over you? Do you need confirmation that I love you? Would you like to know that you are the most important thing in all of my creation? Do you want to realize that when you seek me with all your being, I will guarantee that you will find me?” Well, be anxious no more my friend, for God Himself has come down to assure you of your place with Himself. The Virgin has given birth. Immanuel is realized. Christ has been born.


Pastor Craig

Third Sunday of Advent

Advent has rushed past. This Sunday is the third Sunday of advent. It has gone by far too quickly. Our preparations are not complete.

When we say that, most of us mean our shopping, decorating, card writing, and cooking preparations. Most of us don’t take near the time we should with spiritual preparation. There’s always time for that once the holidays are over.

However, once January 1st rolls around it is quickly back to business as usual. Then it is time to lose those pounds we gained with all the holiday food. Life chews up our spiritual time, doesn’t it?

For some reason, this season more than others in the past I have noticed the absence of Christ in Christmas. Don’t worry. This isn’t going to be a call for a boycott on whatever store is saying “Happy Holidays” as opposed to “Merry Christmas.” It doesn’t seem to be a removal of Christ from Christmas but more of an ignoring that he was ever there in the first place. We forget that St. Nicholas was just that, a saint, a person trying to live out the call of Christ to make an difference in the world through his Christian faith, a man obeying the Great Commission. Somewhere along the way following Santa became more attractive than following Jesus. No, I am not a Santa basher either. I love the Jolly Old Elf. I watch Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer almost every year. I love Miracle on 34th Street, The Santa Clause, and many of the other holiday favorites.
Face it; the Santa stories are more interesting than the original Christmas story, unless you happened to be one of the actual participants in the original. I mean, really, babies are born all the time. As far as we know there wasn’t anything spectacular about the actual birth of Jesus, I mean the actual birthing process. No Hallelujah Chorus sounded as Christ was laid in the manger. I do think it would have been a nice touch though, don’t you? Certainly, God could have arranged an angel chorus to back up the birth of Christ rather than just sing to a few shepherds.

It is hard for us to grasp the idea of God being born in a barn. It is so other worldly that it seems EXACTLY that, something from another world. Somehow Santa seems more personal, but I can’t possibly comprehend how someone breaking the bonds of time and space, bridging the gap between the divinity and humanity, taking our ugliness and transforming it into something worthy of a seat at the Christmas feast of our Creator could be anything other than personal.

Imagine, a person shows up at your door after you have done some the most horrific things possible to them and they want to tell you how much you mean to them. They want to show you in the most meaningful way possible. How could that be ordinary? Certainly, one of the details about Christmas is that Christ is in the details. Christ is wrapped around every aspect of Christmas. He isn’t the center of it. Rather, he is the whole thing. Our preparation involves giving him exactly that place, allowing him to wrap himself around every aspect of our lives and holding us in his ever-loving arms.

Pastor Craig

What if Mary had a blog?

What if Mary had a blog, or was connected through one of the social networks, or, even better, twittered? What would she be saying over the next few days? What would she link to or repost? What would her status be? Here are some of the recent status updates from some friends of mine. Any of the spelling errors are theirs!

• I can not make cookies and talk on the phone. Did I put the egg in?

• Instant karmas gonna get ya'.

• wonders how much longer this Christmas tree will remain bare???

• My whole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others!

• To all you Auburnites, congratulations. It was an impressive victory and I believe you will be able to handle the Ducks, sorry Bruno. Just be proud that you have the best team money can buy. Go SEC.

The last one is my brother-in-law, a devout Georgia fan!

But, what would Mary’s status be? ”On the way to Bethlehem!” “Why didn’t we fly?” “This donkey ride sure keeps this kid active!” Who knows? You see, the internet didn’t exist back then, no cell phones, no Instant Messaging. If she kept a journal of any kind we have not even a whisper of it.
The one insight the Scriptures give us is contained in Luke 2:19, But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. So, she did wonder about them.

The last nine months had been a blur. There was the announcement of the angel that she would bear a child. She knew that would create a scandal. She and Joseph weren’t even married yet. People would surely talk.

Of course there was the whole idea of telling Joseph. That had been one of the hardest things she had ever done. The fact that he stayed by her endeared him to her all the more.

And just now, a group of shepherds had left, marveling at the things they had seen and heard earlier that night. They claimed a whole company of angels had come to tell them about this little child’s birth.

It was more excitement than anyone from Nazareth had ever thought of before. The whole idea of her giving birth to this person that the angel had described amazed her. Certainly he was going to do great things. But right now, this great person needed to be changed and wanted to be fed. The thoughts of greatness would have to be treasured away and pondered later.

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Unity

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Romans 15:5-6)

Unity is a hard thing to achieve. It is hard for our great nation to come to anything approaching political unity. About the only thing we can agree on is that we are frustrated.
Unfortunately, spiritual unity is not much better. We have a multitude of protestant denominations, some of them not accepting any of the others and each of them with a tale of division and schism. After all, their very existence verifies that after one group decided they could not stomach the Orthodox or the Catholics, it quickly became apparent that they could not stomach one another either.

I understand, there are those within our own Presbyterian Church (USA) who are teetering on the brink, wondering how we might get along, or if we can get along with one another. Those who choose to leave usually go to some already established denomination instead of creating yet another one.

Read through the Scripture that begins this short article one more time. Does it strike you that we might be going about it all wrong? Certainly our list of groupings bear witness to a general lack of unity. Oh, we speak about the Church as unified and the churches as not always the best representatives of the Church. But, the truth is the world sees the Church through the churches, just as surely as the world sees Christ in Christians.

No, while all that is important, I’m talking about something else. It’s in the order. We want unity with those we follow Christ with. Unity first – following Christ afterward. Paul seems to put it quite differently. Unity only comes AS we follow Christ Jesus. We can’t expect unity with one another until we put Christ himself ahead of our petty theological wars and differences! It would be nice if we could read that today and tomorrow all conflict among Christians would melt away. However, the development of unity is as much a growing in Christ process as is your Christian life or mine. We have not arrived yet, but as we follow Christ we know we surely shall!

Pastor Craig