Your Family’s Christmas

We all have our own family traditions for the way we celebrate Christmas. Some open presents on Christmas Eve and wait till Christmas morning to see what has appeared in the stockings.. Others hold all gift opening till Christmas morning. Some have a big meal on Christmas Eve. Others have always gathered the entire family around the table at high noon on Christmas day.

Our family tradition has not changed since I was a child (and probably before). There is an order to things and everyone knows what to expect: First we go caroling to friends and neighbors (usually in red earmuffs, sort of odd in McAllen’s 80 degree Christmas weather). Back at the house, no presents are opened until the youngest reader has read the Christmas story from the bible, reminding all of the true meaning of Christmas.

I don’t necessarily recommend the caroling part unless you have a particularly gifted musical family. But I DO recommend the bible reading. If scripture is not already a part of your family’s celebration, this would be a great time to start a new tradition. Here’s a suggested order of service for your own gathering around the tree:

1, “Joy to the World”
(Sung with gusto, no PowerPoint required)

2. Prayer of Thanks for Family and for God’s Blessings
(Give the pray-er advance notice)

3. Reading of the Biblical Christmas Story – Luke 2:1-14
(Read by youngest reader OR one verse per person)

4. "Silent Night"
(Sung with reverence)

5. Closing Prayer of Thanks for the Baby Jesus
(Prayer voiced by Adult or Student)

6. Presents Opened

However it is that you celebrate Christmas, find ways for your family to remember the Christ child, Emmanuel, God with Us. Take advantage of the teachable moment to remind one and all of how and why he came.

From our family to yours,
Merry Christmas!

Bro. Mickey

Small Town Boy

My wife and I recently ate out at a local Mexican food restaurant and we kept running into people we knew.  All in all, we counted over a dozen people that we spoke to or encountered over the course of our meal.  Not all of them were Northsiders and I don't think any of them knew each other but we knew them.  When we were walking to our car we both commented on how Victoria is still a small town.  Things like that don't happen in Houston or Dallas and that is fine with us.  Don't get me wrong, it is a good feeling to go out and see a lot people you know.  We both said we like it that way.

When is a small town no longer a small town?  I think it is when you go out and never encounter someone you know at the grocery store or the restaurant or the mall.  So, though Victoria is growing, by my definition, it is still a small town.  I hope it stays that way.

Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus was a small town boy?  He was born in Bethlehem.  It was classified as an "O, little town" even before the Christmas carol was written.  When the wise men came looking for him, they came to Jerusalem, of course.  When they inquired about where he was to be born, the scholars said, "In Bethlehem in Judea" another sign of a small town is when you have to say the name of the place followed by what region or county or state it is in also.

The prophet Micah had written in chapter 5 verse 2 and following. "But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel."  The word "least" could also be translated "insignificant."  God sent his son to come to earth in a place that people could have called insignificant if not for his birth.

Jesus was raised in Nazareth, not Rome, not Jerusalem, not even Jericho but Nazareth.  Everyone knew him as "Joseph's son."  That is another sign of a small town - everyone knows you and all your family connections too.  When Jesus began his ministry, he made trips to Jerusalem and to Jericho but the bulk of his time seems to have been spent in places like Capernaum - another small town.

So at your Christmas gatherings when your relatives are talking about their big city adventures and advantages and you are feeling a little insignificant, just remind yourself - Jesus was a small town boy.  When you travel out of town and meet your cousin's new wife from Dallas and she asks where Victoria is and as you explain she gets this dazed, confused look on her face as if she has no idea what you are talking about, just remember - Jesus was a small town guy.

He came to those who could be called insignificant to prove that no one and no town, are insignificant to him.  Merry Christmas.

for the journey...

Tim

Using Christmas

Perhaps he was the original "Bad Santa."  We know he was bad enough to be lynched by an angry mob, perhaps the last man in Texas history to meet such an end.  His name was Marshall Ratliff.  He borrowed a Santa Claus suit from his landlady and set out from Wichita Falls in a stolen car with three other men to rob the First National Bank in Cisco, Texas.

On December 23, 1927, Ratliff dressed in his Santa suit and armed with a gun, walked into the bank and announced it was a hold up.  He did not count on several children dragging their parents into the bank right behind him because they had just seen Santa walk through the streets of Cisco, Texas.  They walked into the lobby behind Ratliff, saw Ratliff's friends who had now entered from the back of the bank with guns drawn and one little girl began to cry, "They're gonna shoot Santa!"

Things turned violent very quickly.  There was a gun battle in the bank, a high speed car chase (for 1927 standards), a car jacking, a group of armed citizens joining the pursuit and finally a capture of the bank robbers.  In all, six people were killed and eight wounded. Ratliff later escaped from jail and was captured by a mob of angry citizens who lynched him.  Using Christmas backfired on Ratliff and his bank robber friends big time.

People still try to use Christmas for their own selfish reasons.  A man called the church the other day, telling a tale of woe.  He had just begun to attend our church, he said -  we had no record of him coming.  He was now calling "his pastor" to see if "his church" could help him by putting money onto his prepaid VISA card.  There was no other possible way he could be helped and it need to happen immediately he said.  I told him I was sorry I could not send money that way, but we would pray. We later saw he had been on our website fifteen minutes before he called and left his name and email address.

We can grow cynical and bitter about "the way people use Christmas," but maybe a better way to approach this season is to ask ourselves, "Are we letting Christmas use us?"  In all the commercialism of Christmas, the conflict about Christmas and the chaos of the world at Christmas are doing anything positive?  Are we being messengers of something different?  Witnesses of God's love in sending his son?  Examples of a better way to honor and celebrate the season?

I must confess, I am not as creative in letting Christmas (and of course God) use me as others are creative in using Christmas, but maybe it is not about my creativity.  Perhaps it is more about responding to what God is doing in the world rather than what the world is doing in Christmas.  Where is God at work this Christmas around you?  How are you going to respond?  Maybe that is a request I really need to respond to this week.

for the journey...

Tim

The Cost of the Incarnation

"Most American evangelicals hold views condemned as heretical by some of the most important councils of the early church."  That statement from a Christianity Today article got my attention.  As I read the article I found that much of our modern confusion centers around things related to Jesus and the incarnation.  We are good at celebrating Christmas but not as good at understanding the implications of the incarnation of Christ.

Note that this survey is speaking to people, 96% of whom believe Jesus rose from the dead and 92% believe that salvation is found only in Jesus and 96% believe in the Trinity.  But nearly a quarter (22%) said that God the Father is more divine than Jesus with another 9% not being sure.  Also, 16% said that Jesus was the first creature created by God with another 11% not being sure.

The Bible does not teach that Jesus was created and it certainly never teaches that Jesus came into existence to come at Christmas.  It always teaches that Jesus was fully human and fully divine.  Somehow Jesus came into this world as a human but never lost any of his divinity.  He would even say that he and his Father were "one" (John 10:30).

It cost something for the Jesus, the son of God, to become a son of man.  People would never fully understand him while he walked on this earth and today we still don't. That was one price he bore in becoming God incarnate - being misunderstood. 

Our little minds can hardly fathom what it must have been like to leave the glory of heaven for the goriness of a human birth.  Perhaps C. S. Lewis caught this part best when he wrote this in Mere Christianity:

The Second Person in God, the Son, became human Himself: was born into the world as an actual man—a real man of a particular height, with hair of a particular color, speaking a particular language, weighing so many stone. The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a fetus inside a Woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it, think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.

We often think of what it cost him to go to the cross.  To fully understand him, perhaps we should first seek understand what it cost him to go to a stable in Bethlehem.

for the journey...

Tim

The poll can be found at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/october-web-only/new-poll-finds-evangelicals-favorite-heresies.html

Switched at Birth

Sixty years ago in Tokyo a hospital made a terrible mistake.  They sent babies home with the wrong families.  One baby born to a poor family went home with a wealthy family.  Another baby born to a wealthy family went home to a life of poverty.  The mistake was only discovered because of some health problems in the wealthy family that lead to some DNA testing among the siblings.  When one brother showed no genetic kinship to the family they began searching for the reason.

The two men spent their lives in very different ways, the poor man was a truck driver and the rich man runs his own real estate business.  Last week the a court ordered the hospital to pay the poor man - who wishes to remain anonymous - a settlement worth over $370,000, substantially less than the $2.5 million he sought.  "I feel...regret and also anger," the impoverished man said after his settlement, "I want them to turn back the clock."

Contrast this to the birth of our Lord that we celebrate today.  He, as Paul put it in Philippians2:7-8, "... made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!"

He chose the poverty after knowing the wealth of heaven.  C. S. Lewis likened the incarnational drop of going from heaven to earth as being like that of a human choosing to become "a crab or a slug."  He chose to come live in this world of poverty with us.  He chose to die for us to make us rich in ways we never could have dreamed.  It was God's plan that he chose for himself and for us.

Today celebrate where and to whom you were born but also celebrate that you can be born again because he was born among us.

Merry Christmas,

Tim

Glitter

I see traces of it more this time of year than any other - except perhaps Valentine's day.  I saw it on someone's sleeve.  I saw it the other day on the carpet at the church.  I was talking with someone and noticed a single flake of it in their hair.  Another person I spoke with briefly had a speck on their face.  I looked in the mirror this week and found a flake on my face. 

Glitter.  It is everywhere at this time of year and when we brush up against it or touch something that has glitter on it, chances are it is going to stay with us, even if it is just a speck.  It is not a bad thing when you think of it.  It is rather nice to begin to look around for it and see traces of it.  Glitter is a happy thing.  It brings sparkle to plain old paper or bland plastic ornaments.  So seeing it around is not a problem.  Start looking around and you will see what I mean.

I wonder if our glitter "infections" can't tell us something about the love of God we should be carrying around too.  Most of the people that I have seen glitter on are unaware of it yet it was obvious to the observant. It brings a brightness to us even if it is unintentional.

God's love in us usually works that way too.  When we really truly have it, it is something that becomes a part of us and yet we are unaware of it, though others see it clearly.  The way we share God's love is the same way that glitter is transferred to us - we touch it and it stays with us.

So this Christmas season, take some time to allow God's Word and God's story of his love to touch you.  If it really is something we touch, it will linger on us in a way others can see.  We will work on that love this Sunday.  I hope to see you there.

Merry Christmas,

Tim

Manger Seen?

My trip to Israel this year was really eye opening.  So many of the things that I had imagined about the land of the Bible were not at all like the reality.  Another pastor friend on the trip put it this way, "All these years I have pictured this place too flat."  That is a good description.  There are some flat places (like here in Texas) but, for example, in Bethlehem, there isn't a flat place to be found.  When people talk of Judah's hills, they do mean hills.

It is also a lot more rocky than I ever imagined.  Rock is everywhere.  That got me to thinking.  Now where I am going with this is not something I am saying you have to agree with, but it is something I wonder about.  Was the manger  that Jesus was placed in at his birth made of wood or was it made of stone?

Let me tell you why I wonder that.  Every where we went, my farm boy eyes were looking at the agricultural sights as well as the archaeological.  Many times they were both.  Everything I saw that had to do with agriculture of biblical times was made of stone.  Some of you may be saying, "Well of course all that remains from that time period would be stone, wood articles would not survive."  That of course is true but it is also part of my pondering too.  You want things that will last.

Our mangers here in the United States are largely made of wood, so naturally we would think mangers there and then would be too.  But I saw several  feeding troughs for animals made of stone.  I have included a picture that is something like a stone trough or manger below.  Stone lasts much longer than wood.  Stone there in Israel in general and Bethlehem in particular, is in great abundance; wood is much harder to come by.  A stone trough or manger would be much harder to turn over and when animals are feeding - things do get moved around in larger animal's eagerness and competitiveness for food.  So I wonder, was it wood or was it stone?  If I were there in that day feeding animals, I would have at least given stone a try.  We know for sure that Solomon's horses where fed in stone troughs, archaeologists have found them.  Could that have worked in Bethlehem too?

Of course it does not make one bit of difference whether it was stone or wood.  The fact is that Jesus was born and Mary and Joseph placed him in a manger. That was the sign the angels told the shepherds to look for and they found him.  If it was made of stone, then think of this,the first thing Jesus' body was laid in at birth was stone.  We know the last thing Jesus' body was laid in after this death was stone - a tomb.  From each, he rose in glory and in victory as it was  purposed by God for that time in his life  He may have started his life at rock bottom.  It surely appeared that his life ended at rock bottom, but there was more to the story.  There always is when it comes to Jesus.

May you and your family have a Blessed and Merry Christmas.

For the journey...

Tim

Christmas and Atheists

Christopher Hitchens, perhaps our day's most noted atheist, has died.  He is at least one atheist who will not be fighting nativity scenes in public places this Christmas.  Not that Hitchens would have bothered much with something as mundane as nativity scenes but many other atheists seem to think Christmas is a key battle ground.

In Santa Monica, California, churches have been placing nativity scenes in designated areas in a park for over 60 years.  This year atheist groups used a coordinated effort to book up almost all of the sites.  They not only kept nativity scenes out, they used them for their own message about the "myth" of Jesus as a real person.  The man who spearheaded the effort does not even live in Santa Monica.  Of course there is controversy over all of this.  It also helps the atheists get publicity.

But not all atheists are alike.  A new study found that 17 percent of atheists attended a religious service in the past year.  The most popular time for an atheist to go to church?  Christmas. Perhaps the committed atheists are trying to reach out to the less committed atheists to keep them from celebrating Christmas.

This week my wife Judith was speaking with a woman who was looking for the type of help that Perpetual Help Home (the women's ministry where my wife works) provides - housing, job training, spiritual help.  This woman had grown up in a family of atheists.   The family had fallen apart and now she was looking for help.  Judith explained the program to her and the mandatory spiritual element of being required to attend church if you get into the program.  The woman was interested in that. As they continued their conversation, Judith found this woman had recently begun to read a Bible that someone had given to her.  She was finding a love she said she had never experienced before.  As Judith explained the basic tenets of the gospel to her, Judith asked if she was ready to put her faith in Jesus and commit her life to Him. She said yes.  Now she is a former atheist.  Now she knows personally a love she never knew existed.  Now she has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ for Christmas.

One of the things that is really hitting me this year is God sent His son into the world and made Christmas not just for Christians but for atheists too.

For the journey...

Tim