THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS IS SEEN IN ITS SONGS

Many of us have our favorite Christmas music. Some of our favorites may be songs that we have sung for years — some sacred and some secular. We listen to them and sing them year after year. Other favorites may be new songs that have been written and recorded in recent years. All of them, though, become part of our celebration year after year.

Some of us grew up with songs like Irving Berlin’s “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” The first public performance of the song was by Bing Crosby, on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941. He and many others would go on to record the song. The song may not mean much to people who live in milder climates, but to those of us who have lived for many years in the North, it is rich with meaning. Another favorite is “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” written by Meredith Wilson in 1951. The song was a hit by Perry Como. Many of us hear his smooth tones singing it in our heads whenever we hear the music.

Then there are, of course, the wonderful Christmas carols that, along with the Gospel record, have chronicled for us the birth of Jesus and the meaning behind his birth. Songs like “Silent Night, Holy Night,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” and others begin to play in our minds and find their way to our lips at this time of year.

In more recent years, some of us have been captured by new Christmas songs as well. The little chorus “Emmanuel” comes to mind, as does a Chris Tomlin song that we have sung at Westwood the last two years: “Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground.”

Of all the songs of Christmas, though, there are some “hymns” expressed in poetry in Luke’s Gospel that are part of Luke’s Christmas narratives. They take us deep into the Christian message of Christmas and help us understand what God was doing when he came to earth and was born in a manger in Bethlehem. This Christmas, I will lead our congregation in taking a close look at four songs of Christmas in Luke — one by Mary, one by Zechariah, one by the angels to the shepherds, and one by Simeon. These songs can once again help us see how Christ’s birth blesses our lives. Go to Luke 1 and 2, read them, and be blessed.

Give Thanks to God This Thanksgiving

In November, two distinct and seemingly different ideas and activities will come into focus at the congregation I serve. These two things are not mutually exclusive however.

On the one hand, we will participate with the rest of the nation in one of the great spiritual traditions of our nation: Thanksgiving. We will begin with our Harvest Dinner on November 10 and then most of us will gather with family and friends on Thanksgiving Day. When we gather on these two occasions, we need to remember that the purpose of Thanksgiving is just that: giving thanks — to God. Contrary to much of the revisionist history that is now taught in America, the original pilgrims invited the native Americans who lived near them to eat with them as a thanksgiving to God, not to thank the “Indians.” The very concept of giving thanks is to thank God for his work in the world and for salvation.

On the other hand, then, we will conclude our thirty-one week journey through The Story of the Bible in November. The Story began with God creating the world and bringing life into the world through the first man and the first woman. We will end The Story by looking at God’s new creation, the new heavens and the new earth, and God’s promise of the final victory for all who believe. Looking forward to that promise is a huge reason for giving thanks to God!

• So ending our look at The Story at Thanksgiving is significant, because we should now have even more reason to thank God. Consider some of the reasons for which we should thank God that we have seen in The Story through the year:
• Following creation, God began to build for himself a people who, through faith, would have fellowship with him. Thank God for those who walked by faith in ancient days before God had fully revealed himself. They pointed the way to faith for us.
• Then, after God’s chosen people were enslaved in Egypt, a foreign land, he acted through a series of divine plagues and through the Passover sacrifices to deliver them from slavery. Thank God that they pointed the way to our deliverance from sin through our own Passover lamb.
• After Israel had escaped from Egypt into the Sinai Wilderness, God gave them the Law, as summarized in the Ten Commandments. Living by that Law does not save us, but thank God that it shows us how to live a Godly life.
• Through his leading of the nation of Israel after they settled in the Promised Land, God demonstrated the principles of his Kingdom and spoke through the prophets to tell us about the deliverer who was to come. Thank God that he kept his promise to send us a deliverer.
• Then God kept his promise and came to earth as God’s Son in the person of Jesus Thank God that Jesus taught us about God’s Kingdom, offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins, and rose from the dead so that we can receive eternal life.

We have a lot to thank God for!! In the last four chapters of The Story we will find there is more to thank God for. We will learn about God’s search and rescue operation in and through the church and we will find how the apostle Paul and others took the Gospel to the entire world, so that we could hear The Story. Finally, The Story will reveal to us our final destiny with the promise of Christ’s return, the establishment of his eternal Kingdom, and the final victory. Give thanks to God this Thanksgiving!!

What Is the Cross That Jesus Calls You to Carry?

The September issue of Christianity Today has an article about a small number of Christian missionaries who call themselves “New Friars.” Like friars from the past, these missionaries live and minister among the poor, people who live on the “crowded margins of society.” Most of these missionaries are from the United States, New Zealand, and Australia.

The article points out that “for the first time in history, one of every two people lives in a city. Some 860 million of these city-dwellers reside in slums—uncertain, cramped, and frequently cruel. Most are there by necessity.” The New Friar missionaries also live in the slums. They are there by choice.

The writer of the article, Kent Annan, spent Easter weekend this year in Bangkok, Thailand, meeting and observing the ministry of some of these missionaries. Among them were:

Michelle Kao: She was a premed student at John Hopkins when she visited Bangkok as part of a missions program. Instead of going to medical school, she moved to Bangkok six years ago. Now she works with Thai church leaders to help people who had been evicted to find land and build new homes. Annan observed that when Kao walks the neighborhood of 3,000 that she lives in she knows the stories of the people she meets.

Anji and Ash Barker: This Australian couple moved into a tiny house in Bangkok eleven years ago where they’ve raised their three children. They have listened to suffering in their neighborhood—”to the cries of a child being abused at night, to the screams of a child being raped by her father, to the aching silence after another child died. They also listened to strengths and dreams and, through friendship and work, found the resources to help those strengths flourish. “

Tim and Amy Hupe: They have lived in Bangkok for five years and have two girls, ages 4 and 6. “They are gathering missionaries and local Thai and Cambodian leaders to serve Cambodians living in Thailand. This includes teenagers who sell flowers in the red-light district (and are pressured to sell much more).”

This brief introduction to these amazing missionaries only scratches the surface of their ministries. They have chosen the life of servanthood, which is central to all followers of Christ.

Jesus himself taught us “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28, also Mark 10:45). Jesus himself ministered to those who live on the margins of society. The New Friar missionaries are certainly following the example of Jesus—and he calls us to serve in his name.

The New Friar missionaries are setting one other example for us that Jesus called for: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). These missionaries, like so many others and like so many Christian today and through the centuries, have laid down their Lower Story lives to live out the Upper Story of the Gospel.

That is also our calling—not just the calling of missionaries. What is the cross that Jesus calls you to carry? What does he call you to deny in order to follow him? To live in God’s Upper Story, we must answer that question.

What Is A Promise Worth?

There is a TV commercial currently running which has a man leaning against his pickup truck as the commercial begins. When he begins to speak, he says,

“What is a promise? A promise is nothing; it’s not worth a dime; it doesn’t mean a thing. A promise is flimsy and frail and full of uncertainty. You can change a promise, go back on a promise; forget you even made a promise. A promise is nothing – until it’s kept. Then, a promise is everything. “

Then the man is replaced on the screen with the following words: “Promises kept, plain and simple. Security-Health Plan.”

The man’s statement is, of course, absolutely wrong. The statement reflects the current thinking of our culture where a person’s word and integrity mean nothing.

It is true that people often change a promise or go back on a promise or forget they made a promise. To many people promises do mean nothing.

Promises, however, are worth a lot. They do mean something. Just ask anyone to whom a promise has been made that has not been kept. A broken promise can destroy a relationship. That is how significant they are.

Promises are especially significant to God. We have certainly come to understand that as we have gone through The Story this year. This coming Sunday, September 1, we will complete the Old Testament portion of The Story. As we have explored the Old Testament, we have seen promise after promise that God made to his people that he kept. Indeed the entire Bible story and the mission of God is all about promises made and promises kept. Without the certainty of God’s promises being fulfilled, the Bible story and the work of Christ would be meaningless. How can you trust a God who makes promises that he does not keep?

Consider some of the promises God made in the Old Testament:

• To Abraham: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2).
• To Abraham: “Look toward heaven, and number the stars. If you are able to number them…. So shall your offspring be” (Genesis 15:5).
• To Jacob: “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and your offspring” (Genesis 28:13).
• To David: “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16).
• To Ahaz: “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

Space prohibits me from going further. All the promises of God have been kept. To paraphrase the commercial: “Promises kept, plain and simple. God’s security plan.”

As we continue through The Story for the next three months, we will see the fulfillment of God’s most important promise: his promise to send a Messiah, one who saves people from their sins. And standing in the balance is God’s final promise: he will bring an end to death and give eternity with him to all who believe in his Son. That is a promise you can trust.

Jesus–Sifted By Temptation

Jesus made his way to the Jordan River on that day before he began his ministry knowing that his ministry would begin soon. He went to the place that his cousin, John the Baptist, was baptizing in order to be baptized himself. When Jesus came up out of the water, Matthew tells us that “the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him, and behold a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’” That set the stage for the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Before he began his ministry, though, Jesus went to spend time in the lonely desolation of the desert. There he fasted for forty days and forty nights, bringing himself to the limits of human endurance. There at his weakest human point, Jesus was tempted by Satan. These temptations proved to be the final proving ground before he began his ministry.

Matthew and Luke’s gospels record three temptations that Jesus faced there in the Judean wilderness:

He was tempted to satisfy his hunger through supernatural means. Just turn these stones into bread. How satisfying that would have been as his strength slowly ebbed from his body. His easy it would have been for the one who had created everything by his word.

He was taken to Jerusalem, to the pinnacle of the temple and tempted to throw himself down, allowing God to rescue him. It was an act so close to what God had sent him to do, so close to the signs and wonders he would perform in the years ahead.

He was taken to the top of a high mountain. From there he could see all the kingdoms of the world in his mind’s eye and was offered rule over all those kingdoms if he would just worship his tempter. What an easy path it would have been to solve all the world’s problems with no pain or suffering.

Jesus, with a word from God, turned back all three temptations. He would not satisfy himself or create a following through a grand spectacle or compromise with the enemy.

These temptations prepared Jesus for his ministry and for the temptations to come throughout his ministry and finally in those last hours before he went to the cross. There is no one who has been tempted like he was. God sifted him through temptation just as he does us. By examining his temptations, we receive hope for facing our temptations because he “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Handling Our Doubts

John the Baptist was in prison. He had understood himself to be “Elijah,” the forerunner of the Messiah. He had understood Jesus to be one who would come to deliver Israel and had seen the Spirit of God descend on Jesus as God’s affirmation of the Messiah’s ministry.

But now, he had some doubts, some questions. Perhaps he missed the sky. Perhaps he missed the open air of the wilderness and the flow of the Jordan River where he had done all his preaching. After all, you don’t get out much when you are in prison. Perhaps he had been worn down by the injustice and the rough treatment of the guards who hated him and by the whispering of people who had known his legend but had never spoken to him or dared approach him along the Jordan.

In his gray cell there was no escape. He must have had a sense that his chapter was about to close. His disciple and friends often went and encouraged him, but he was in depth of despair. He was so sure Jesus was the chosen one, certain that he had found the Messiah, but now doubt began to plague him.

When you thing about it, it is easy to see why John the Baptist would start doubting. He had spent so much time preaching to crowds at the Jordan River, but now there were no crowds, no purpose, no waster in which to baptize someone. Perhaps there were a few guards he told to repent, but they may even have understood. So he began to wonder if his ministry had any real meaning.

So he sent some of his disciples to find Jesus and ask him if here really was the Messiah. They may have been shocked that he would even ask, that he would now doubt everything he preached, but they went — and John waited.

Then they returned and related to John what Jesus had told them: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

John’s doubt were answered. He had been sifted. Sometimes we too are sifted by our doubts. We really cannot avoid questions and doubts. The real question is: What do we do with our doubts? What do you do with your doubts? Will you let God sift you, so that, like John, you come out stronger?

Returning To The Story

On August 18 we will resume our 2013 adventure in The Story. My sermons and our classes and Bible studies will pick up on that Sunday with chapter 19 in the book, and will continue to the conclusion of The Story at the end of November.

Where has The Story taken us so far? Let me review:

The Story begins, as you might expect, “in the beginning” when God created the world and then the first couple, Adam and Eve. Then sin came as Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree God had forbidden them to eat from, and the declining condition of the world due to sin led to God’s destroying the world with a flood and starting over with Noah and his family.

God then chose a people that God began to reveal himself through. God called Abraham and promised him that he would raise up a great nation through him. The promise was reinforced to his son Isaac and Isaac’s son Jacob and then carried further through Joseph and his ordeal and leadership in Egypt.

Through Joseph, God began building a nation in Egypt only to result in their becoming slaves there. So God sent Moses to deliver his people. Through the night of Passover, he rescued Israel from Egypt and as they wandered in the Sinai wilderness he gave them the Law to live by and a system of sacrifice to keep them holy before God.

Israel would make wrong choice after wrong choice in the wilderness, until Moses presented them with an opportunity to trust God as they never had before and to enter the Promised Land. Joshua would lead them into the land of Canaan and, under his leadership, they would conquer the land. Then for 300 years, the people of Israel would turn away from God time and time again, only to have God raise up a “judge” who would deliver them and bring them back to God. During that time, God would demonstrate in the story of Ruth his desire for people of every nation to come to him.

Israel, however, still did not trust God and they asked for a king. The first king, Saul, stood tall at first, but them turned away from God, so God raised up David as the greatest of the kings and promised that a son of his would reign on David’s throne forever. Subsequent kings, instead of holding to that promise, turned away from God and the kingdom was divided into two kingdoms.

God raised up prophets during the period of the kings who repeatedly called the people of Israel to return to God, promising they would be judged if they did not return. Even in the midst of their difficulties, they refused to listen to the prophets. First the Northern Kingdom of Israel and then the Southern Kingdom of Judah were taken captive by foreign powers. The people were led away into captivity and even the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. You might have thought The Story with all its promises had ended.

Even in their captivity, God did not abandon his people or his promises, though. Daniel, the last person we met in The Story, demonstrated how they could trust God and walk with him even in a foreign land.

So now, we will watch God continue to fulfill his promises and carry out his purpose. Israel will return from captivity and events will move toward the coming of Christ and the greatest part of The Story. Don’t miss the next chapters.