Tag: incarnation

  • Daddy, if you love me…

    I love spending solo time with my kids. And I really want them to enjoy spending time with me. We spend lots of time doing stuff together as a family, but I think there’s something special about the ratio being 1:1 (or 1:2) instead of 5:2.

    At least once per month I try to take them out to do something– just the two of us. It’s often something simple. Like a trip to Target or Home Depot or out for a taco. But my goal is always to do something a little bigger. Something that’s really special. (When you live in a tourist destination like San Diego, this is actually pretty easy.)

    I also try to mix passions in hopes of passing on some of the things I love. My love for college sports was passed on to me by my dad taking me to Notre Dame football, basketball, and hockey games as a kid. So they go with me to San Diego State football and basketball games. And this year we added the San Diego Padres to the mix because they both seem to enjoy baseball.

    In March, Paul and I were walking to the SDSU vs. Utah game. The Aztecs were ranked in the top 10 in the country. The game was sold out. And the country was just discovering that Viejas Arena had become the most exciting venue west of the Mississippi. Paul dragged his feet a little as we walked across campus.

    “Paul, don’t you want to go to the game? It’s sold out. The Aztecs are awesome this year. And I love sharing this with you.” He got up the courage to tell me the truth. “I really like hanging out with you dad. But we always do things that you love, like sports, and it doesn’t count as a dad date unless it’s something I want to do.”

    My 7 year old prophet hit me… Right. Between. The. Eyes.

    What do you want to do?

    In some ways it seems silly to miss this. But I had a default to want to take my kids along to things I wanted to do. And they picked up that I would have gone to this stuff with or without them, so it didn’t feel as special. While they liked the games they wanted me to come spend time on their turf. They felt loved as we went to games. But they would really feel the love if I’d bypass what I wanted to do for what they wanted to do.

    Yesterday was case-in-point as we went to the Pokemon World Championships. (Pictures above) Thousands of people geeked out on Pokemon. They spoke a language of characters I couldn’t comprehend. The card games, the collectables, the people dressed like the characters. I couldn’t have been more out of place.

    But my kids? It was a giant “I love you” card for them. They couldn’t believe we actually went. (Paul asked me about it months ago but thought I had forgotten.) I didn’t rush them. I just tried to figure it out. I sat and watched as they played in table tournaments. I got excited when they won. I was disappointed when they lost. We took pictures. We wandered around the hotel to make sure they’d seen everything. I learned the names of some characters.

    Parenthood is humbling. There’s times you think you’re winning when you are losing and visa versa. For every miss I’ve had– it felt good to get a win yesterday.

  • Nativity, Defined

    Photo by Grand Canyon NPS via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    Nativity – the process whereby someone becomes a native.

    Christmas is one of the most confusing holiday’s on the planet. It’s half religious and half a celebration of solstice. The secular vs. religious scales have tipped back and forth over millennia.

    That’s a historically accurate tension.

    If you are feeling it this year. Welcome. You are in good company. Grab a glass of eggnog.

    Some people think that Christmas is a religious holiday that’s been ruined by secularization. In fact, it’s a secular holiday that’s religious people have tried to hijack since the 3rd century when Rome turned to Jesus.

    Sometimes Christmas is about revelry. And sometimes it’s about Jesus. Right now it’s a little bit of both, isn’t it?

    Centuries ago, Christians strategically capitalized on a holiday which felt like it had something to do with the incarnation of Jesus. Every pagan group in Europe had celebrated some variety of a multi-day winter solstice festival, some marked by the giving of gifts, and as Christianity became the dominant religion in the area we just tried to rebrand it as being all about Jesus.

    Every element of our modern Christmas celebration is irreligious and about revelry. The tree, the carols, Santa Claus, the yule log, the Christmas parties, the gifts, the traditional foods, family togetherness. These are all pagan festivities we’ve adopted into a pseudo-Christian hybrid holiday we call Christmas.

    The tension you feel is because tension is the intention of the season.

    Imagine how it must have felt as Jesus stepped out of heaven and into the arms of a teenage mother? Uninvited game changer. He ruined the reputation of a young woman. He entered the world as a family disgrace. And the political powers didn’t like who people said he was to become so they had every boy his age killed. Like it or not… Jesus’ arrival changed everything. His process of coming here was just as messy as the messiness you feel at a family Christmas celebration this December.

    That is nativity at it’s core. The process of becoming a native. Uncomfortable. Foreign. Out of place. Contradiction. Frustration.

    And just like Jesus dealt with the tension and contradiction of becoming a native, he asks us to do the same by doing things which seem counter-intuitive. Instead of Good News being about us, Jesus asks us to be Good News to our neighbors. Instead of Good News something we privately keep to ourselves, Jesus asks us to live a life worthy of sharing. Instead of living a life about our family, Jesus invites us into a community of new family.

    There’s a lot of tension in this season we call Christmas. It is by design. The tension you are feeling is the tension of bringing Good News into a broken world.

    Ask yourself today, “How am I being Good News today to my neighbors? What can I do to be Good News to the family next door?“

  • Why did Jesus come here?

    It’s a perfectly logical question for this time of year.

    The incarnation of Jesus: God becoming flesh in the form of a baby. St. John covers this pretty good in chapter 1 of his gospel account.

    Here’s a hint: It didn’t have anything to do with Christmas. How do I know that? When Jesus was born they didn’t celebrate birthdays. His parents didn’t even use the Roman calendar we use to declare his birthday as December 25th. Maybe somewhere someone wrote down the day Jesus was born. Heck, we’ve got a 1 in 365 day chance that he was born on that day. But considering they used a 360 day calendar it’s safe to say that Christmas isn’t really about Jesus’s birth.

    So let’s instead focus on the incarnation of Jesus the Christ. All of that birthday stuff is just a distraction from the really good stuff.

    Christmas, from a religious holiday perspective, is about Jesus bringing the Good News to earth.

    I’m pretty sure the incarnation of Jesus has nothing to do with having his birth celebrated by giving one another gifts financed by debt. Oops. Sorry, too personal?

    And I surely know it had nothing to do with putting a ton of your churches resources into putting up decorations and hosting a pageant. God didn’t take on flesh as an outreach event. Yeah, I’m looking at you.

    The incarnation, a quick review

    1. John 1:12 – “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” [Let’s be honest, we like this statement best because it has to do with us. It’s OK, it’s good news to us. It’s awesome news to become a child of God!]
    2. John 1:9 – “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.“

    The Good News of Jesus is personal. I’m an evangelical and boy do I like that! It’s all about me, baby!

    Or is it?

    John 1:9 is oddly inclusive. It implies that it’s not just about me. And it’s not just about bringing people to church so that they can be exposed to the message of Jesus.

    The incarnation of Christ includes bringing a more general Good News to the earth. To everyone. And for those of us (myself included) who see the incarnation through an evangelical lens… this idea messes with our theology a little. We talk a ton about personal salvation and accepting Jesus into our heart. But John makes it clear that there is some general good news brought to the whole world through Jesus’ light.

    Think about the physics of bringing light into a dark room for a second. Let’s say you are in a dark movie theater. It’s full of people… a thousand of them. And suddenly the screen goes pure white.

    Who does that white light effect? Just the people who chose to be effected by the light? Of course not! Everyone who was in darkness is effected by the light. Personal choice has nothing to do with it. Everyone in the room was in darkness and is now experiencing some sort of the benefits of the light shining.

    So, as we think about the incarnation of Christ we must think about “What does it mean that Jesus brought light to the whole world, practically?”

    It’s a lot to chew on. And I’ll step away, asking you to reflect on these two passages which I think move believers towards the reality that Jesus is asking us to bring Good News to our neighborhood more than he is asking us to grow our church. (Specifically, he is expecting Good News to flow to your neighborhood through you.)

    Mark 12:28-31 – “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

    “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

    I love how the teachers of the law ask him a singular questions in Mark 12 and he gives them two answers. Take that!

    Ephesians 5:8-12 – For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said:

    “Wake up, sleeper,
    rise from the dead,
    and Christ will shine on you.”

    I love how Paul says, “You were once darkness.” Not, “You were once in darkness.” No, things were dark because of you. We’re all in the same boat there.

  • Do Ministry Leaders Need a Social Media Presence?

    Photo by Flickr user hoyasmeg (creative commons)
    Photo by Flickr user hoyasmeg (creative commons)

    Seth Godin answers his own question:

    What is the reason social media is so difficult for most organizations? It’s a process and not an event. Events are easier to manage, pay for and get excited about. Processes build results for the long haul. link

    Why do pastors and other church leaders need a social media presence?

    • The world is full of fakes. Because of the public sin of so many who lead large ministries, there is a general suspicion of all people in church leadership.
    • The people in your congregation want to know if you are a fake. They show up, so on some level they believe in you. They are watching your life to validate what you say.
    • The people in your community already think you are a fake. You need to prove them wrong.

    If you need a biblical justification for investing your time and energy in social media, look no further than the incarnation of Jesus. John 1:14 says, “He came and dwelt among the people.” The way church is run today… pastors do not dwell among the people. They dwell among their flock and their offices. (2-3% of the population of your community is hardly “the people.”) Look at the example of all of the Apostles in the New Testament. They all dwelt among the people. Most of them worked vocationally in the cities they ministered in.

    A public presence, 1 hour per week, preaching in front of an audience, is simply not enough of a presence to know if you are fake or not. The fact is, if that’s all people see of you than they know you must be fake.

  • That Slimy Boy

    Photo by Jon Ovington via Flickr (creative commons)
    Photo by Jon Ovington via Flickr (creative commons)

    While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:6-7

    The incarnation of Jesus is messy business. Like, the physical act of it. Not pretty. As we approach the sterile corporate approved holiday of Christmas that we celebrate today, maybe we need a step back to remember just how messy Jesus coming to earth really was?

    I don’t know if you’ve witnessed child-birth personally. But I’ve seen it and it isn’t beautiful. It’s popular to say child-birth is beautiful… it isn’t! I don’t know where this notion comes from. It’s interesting, it’s miraculous, I’d even call it cool– but it is not beautiful in the sense of a Monet painting or the Christmas display at Marshall Fields or the Cubs winning the pennant. Child birth is anything but beautiful.

    And modern birth is a lot safer than it was back 2000 years ago. Even in today’s modern hospitals child-birth is still bloody, agonizing, stinky, and otherwise unpleasant. I can’t imagine child-birth outside of a hospital. Maybe you can. But to me it just seems really scary.

    Now put yourself in the shoes of a teenage girl. Away from home, pregnant for the first time… and your water breaks. Wonderful. Labor and delivery of Jesus was not in a hospital, hooked up to monitors, comforted by nurses and a lovely drug man offering pain management. Jesus was born outside of the inn. The text just highlights that there was no room for them in the inn, so Jesus could have been born in a barn or a cave or just outside.

    And who can blame the innkeeper? If you showed up at my house with a woman in labor– I’m not about to give you a room in my house so your wife can drop all that stink and nastiness in one of my rooms for a couple bucks. Would you let them into your place of business? I think not.

    We think of Jesus’ physical arrival in such clean modern medicine ways, don’t we? Let’s not lose sight of the blood and agony of Mary so quickly.

    • A young woman in a lot of pain.
    • Since she was traveling for the census, her mom probably wasn’t with her.
    • It’s reasonable to think that Joseph and Mary traveled with his family. So maybe Jesus was born within the presence of his grandmother or aunts? The text doesn’t say. Either alone completely– or this virgin was bearing her goods to her husbands relatives. Talk about awkward.
    • She sits down or squats to deliver a baby. No birthing suite. In the ancient world they let gravity do much of the work.
    • If modern child-birth feels touch and go, imagine child-birth in the ancient world? Hell on earth. It’s not like they had the option of a C-section.
    • As Jesus’ little head pops out we have no idea how scary that moment was for everyone there. But I will guarantee you no one pulled out a little suction thing and sucked the fluid out of Jesus’ nose.
    • No one felt safe enough to ask Joseph, “Would you like to help deliver your child?” I will guarantee you that. Joseph probably wasn’t even allowed to be present.
    • After delivery, no nurses took the baby to wash him and wrap him up to lay him warmly on mom’s belly while a doctor uses sterile instruments to clean up. How did they get that cottage cheese stuff off of him?
    • If Jesus was born in a stable or barn, let’s hope there wasnt’ a dog. They like to lick stuff like that. My dogs runs around and licks when the kids spill cereal. Yeah, let’s hope there wasn’t a dog present. There probably was.
    • No big moment when the doctor asks Joseph if he’d like to cut the cord.
    • The “it’s a boy” moment was just a confirmation of what the angels already told Mary & Joseph.
    • No one pulled a sterilized Jesus aside to check his Apgar score.
    • No balloon bouquet or digital pictures of the infant fly around the world so that family can instantly know the baby is healthy and mom is OK. Word probably traveled fast back to Mary’s family… but a couple of days at the very least.

    The act of Jesus coming to earth– slimy at best. Death defying to say the least.

    And yet, on December 25th, the entire world pauses to remember this moment. Messy, bloody, gross, and scary. The act of remembering, symbolized by the exchange of gifts and family celebrations, is celebrated in almost every country in the world! Even people who are diametrically opposed to Jesus celebrate Christmas.

    Black Friday. Mall parking lots. Santa Claus. Candy canes. Shopping lists. Ham. Credit card debt. Somehow God is in all of that, too? Something like 30% of retailers cash flow comes in the 30 days surrounding Christmas.

    That’s a lot of cash spent remembering a baby people don’t believe is the Savior of the world.

    The act of incarnation. God becoming flesh. 2,000 years later it is still sending shock waves, isn’t it?

    Messy, slimy boy.

  • Life Schmooshing

    life-convergence

    “How do I keep my private life private with social media?”

    When I pull away all the onion layers for people learning about social media, this is their core fear. They wrestle with two primary realities.

    1. Why would anyone care about what I am doing?
    2. How do I control the message?

    I’m not saying that every person who uses social media has something to hide. But I am saying that nearly every adult is increasingly aware that their use of the internet can be a both an asset and a liability– often times at the same time.

    I call it “life schooshing.” When I want to come across as intelligent, I use the phrase “life convergence.”

    Rather than fight it I suggest you learn to embrace and manage it.

    In the past, we could have a public persona and a private persona. And because theose spheres of influence rarely collided it wasn’t a big deal if those lifestyles didn’t line up with one another. A pastor could be a complete Republican hero on Sunday morning, while privately supporting the most liberal Democrats with his money. No one would ever know or ever care to know!

    The internet has changed all of that.

    Now? You’d be an idiot to try to keep all of these spheres apart. Your high school friends on Facebook will call you out. Your family will call you out. Your church will call you out. Your co-workers will call you out. Worse case scenario, your sins will call you out.

    Two realistic choices for dealing with life schmooshing.

    1. Go Amish. Unplug from social media. Don’t have a Google account. Stop using Facebook. Don’t comment on people’s blogs. Pretend Twitter doesn’t exist.
    2. Embrace incarnational living. It’s not a bad thing to have all of your life converge together. Trust me. It’s more blessing than curse. If you truly want to be a person of integrity in all areas of your life… social convergence is a great thing!

    What are some ways social media is helping your spheres converge in healthy ways? What are some fears you have? What about concerns of privacy?