Well, 6+" of snow overnight with more still coming down coupled with high winds led to canceling service this morning. That's Michigan for you. It does, however, give me a unique opportunity to post a summarized version of what I was going to preach as a blog entry. I don't generally write my sermons as some preachers do. I preach from a simple outline and rely on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to take it from there. So that makes this an interesting exercise, at least for me.

Why do we give gifts at Christmas? Most Christians would answer "To remember the gift of Jesus that God gave us." That's not a bad answer, but I wonder if that's really true. Do we really give gifts to remember or honor the gift of Jesus, or do we do it for other reasons?

How do we honor a person or an event? For example, if I truly wanted to honor my grandfather and the time he spent with me as a child, I'd need to do something that connected to him and what he did for me. I could say, "I'm playing this round of golf in honor of my grandfather" but it really wouldn't mean anything. My grandfather never played a round of golf in his life. Now, if I were to go bowling in his honor, that would be better. My grandfather took me bowling at least once a week my entire childhood. If our Christmas gifts are to remember and honor the gift of Jesus, then our gifts should somehow reflect that. To that end, I want to highlight one important characteristic of the gift of Jesus that I think we've forgotten. As the angels announce the shepherd in Luke 2:8-14, the gift was "good news of great joy that will be for all people" (emphasis mine, of course). So why then do we primarily (or perhaps solely) give gifts to those we know and love, or perhaps more accurately, to those who already love us?

We've been taking some cues this Christmas from Charles Dickens' classic book "A Christmas Carol". One of Dickens' main themes within the book is a call to a return to charity and brotherly love, especially at Christmas. When asked for a donation for the poor, Scrooge responds that public welfare services should take care of the poor, he shouldn't be bothered. The Ghost of Christmas Present rebukes Scrooge for his cold-hearted attitude, and perhaps we should hearken to his rebuke as well. Care for our fellow man has always been part of God's call to His people. Time and again in the Old Testament, the Israelites are commanded to care for "the alien, the fatherless, and the widow." Deuteronomy 24:17 is just one example. In Jeremiah 22, God rebukes Shallum (King Jehoahaz) for not following his father's example:

"Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 22:15-16 (NIV)

The Apostle John brings this same thought into the New Testament canon in 1 John 3:16-18 where he boldly states that if we don't care for those in need, the love of God is not in us.

In "A Christmas Carol" the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge "the children of men", a boy and a girl named Ignorance and Want. These children still exist today. Those involved in foreign missions have always recognized this. That is why overseas missionary endeavors are so often tied to schools, hospitals, and orphanages. Missionaries understand that the gospel of Jesus is not just a message of forgiveness, but a holistic message of restoration. Scot McNight highlights this very effectively in his new book "A Community Called Atonement". Jesus' miracles of healing were not just a way to prove His identity, they were an expression of God's love for mankind and His desire to see mankind restored from all the effects of the Fall. They were an integral part of the mission of the Messiah and the meaning of the Gospel. The forgiveness and salvation we have received is not just for our benefit, but "so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)

I'm certainly not advocating an end to gift-giving at Christmas. I think it is a fine way to remember and honor the gift of Jesus. To truly honor the gift of Jesus, however, I think we need to look at how we're giving and to whom we're giving them. Jesus was given not just to the righteous but to all mankind. He was given to those who loved God and to those who were opposed to God. To truly honor the gift of Jesus, perhaps we need to broaden our gift list. Our "Giving Tree" project is certainly a step in the right direction for our church, but I think it's only the beginning. I think the folks at the Advent Conspiracy have some pretty good ideas about spending less and giving more, to cut back on what we're spending on those who love us so that we can give more to those in need. To truly honor the gift of Jesus, our giving should more closely reflect the love of the Giver and the universality of the Gift.

I'll close with another passage from "A Christmas Carol", where Dickens subtly rebukes the church for offering judgement and condemnation without offering mercy and justice:

`Spirit,' said Scrooge, after a moment's thought, `I wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment.'

`I?' cried the Spirit.

`You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all,' said Scrooge. `Wouldn't you?'

`I?' cried the Spirit.

`You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day,' said Scrooge. `And it comes to the same thing!'

`I seek?' exclaimed the Spirit.

`Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family,' said Scrooge.

`There are some upon this earth of yours,' returned the Spirit, `who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.'

...or better yet, with Jesus' own words:

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'"

Matthew 25:41-45 (NIV)

P.S. Don't miss Keith Schooley's excellent blog post on Christmas gifts.

Skye Jethani has a great post on Christmas over at the Out of Ur blog. He identifies two primary obstacles to truly celebrating Christmas as we should: Busyness and materialism. I think most of us will readily admit we suffer from busyness. Materialism, on the other hand, is something no one likes to admit but all of us suffer from to some degree. As I've mentioned on Sundays this month materialism isn't just "wanting more stuff". You can have very few "things" and still be materialistic if your focus is on your "things" or your focus is on all the "things" you don't have. It takes great discipline to avoid both these traps, but when it comes to materialism we have to start at step 1: Admit we have a problem. Skye has some good suggestions on avoiding the traps of busyness and materialism, click on over and see.

May we all truly focus on Christ this Christmas.

There’s an email being forwarded around this Christmas season regarding sending Christmas cards to the ACLU. If you haven’t received it, a copy of the email is below.

With all due respect, this is absolutely the WRONG thing to do at Christmas. Even if you disagree with the ACLU, maliciously trying to “freeze their operations” is absolutely ANTI-Christian; a violation of Christ’s teachings and the Christmas spirit. What happened to “love your enemies”? (Matthew 5:44) What happened to “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.” (Romans 12:20) Not to mention the idea of dishonestly writing “contribution enclosed” on the envelope. Don’t tell me “but I contributed a bible verse!”…please. We all know it’s intentionally dishonest and SINFUL. Have we completely forgotten how Christ calls us to behave? This is exactly the kind of thing that gives Christians the reputation of being malicious, hateful, and petty. How can we proclaim “God is love” and act in such hateful ways?

While the ACLU is involved in trying to get nativities off government property*, they have NOTHING to do with stores changing from “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays”. Stores are doing that as a business decision because fewer and fewer of their customers are actually Christians. The solution to that is NOT to protest, but for Christians to MAKE MORE CHRISTIANS!!!

Please, please, please, I beg you, DO NOT do this and DO NOT forward it on to other people. The only thing it will accomplish is to make things more difficult for people who are actually trying to share the Gospel.

Sorry for the rant, but these things really get under my skin.

* Personally, I don’t think getting nativities off government property is such a bad thing. I don’t want my Savior associated with corrupt politicians. Why do we want people who aren’t living according to Christ’s words promoting Him, anyway?

Here's the email in question:

This is coming early (really early) so that you can get ready to include an important address to your list. Read on ...

Fun with the ACLU ... Wanna have some fun this CHRISTMAS? Send the ACLU a CHRISTMAS CARD this year.

As they are working so very hard to get rid of the CHRISTMAS part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice, CHRISTIAN card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world.

Make sure it says "Merry Christmas" on it!

Here's the address, just don't be rude or crude. (It's Not the Christian Way, you know!)

ACLU
125 Broad Street
18th Floor
New York, NY 10004

Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations because they wouldn't know if any were regular mail containing contributions. (Put "contribution enclosed" on the envelope and inside contribute a bible verse!!) So spend 39 cents and tell the ACLU to leave Christmas alone. Also tell them that there is no such thing as a "Holiday Tree" ... It's a Christmas Tree even in the fields!!

REMEMBER send a card that says MERRY CHRISTMAS not HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

And pass this on to your email lists. We really want to communicate with the ACLU! They really DESERVE us!!

Anticipation. It's an integral part of the Christmas holiday. The anticipation children feel today is nothing compared to the longing for a savior that led up to Jesus' birth. Simeon and Anna only touched the surface in Luke 2. And yet, the anticipation doesn't end with the birth of Jesus. We celebrate the birth of our Lord, yet we long for His promised return.

The past year or so has been tumultuous for so many. People I care about deeply have endured much pain and uncertainty. At the same time, I have seen God do amazing things in the lives of others. Followers of Christ live in this constant tension between the "already" and the "not yet" in so many ways. God has already done "exceeding abundantly above" all that we could ask, yet we long for more. We long to see His kingdom established in greater ways in our hearts and in our world. It's a constant challenge to keep the two in balance. Too much focus on the "already" and we find ourselves getting complacent, too much focus on the "not yet" and we become ungrateful.

So as we celebrate Christmas, I rejoice in the birth of our Savior, yet I look forward to His return. I rejoice in what He has done in my life, yet I look forward to living a more Spirit-controlled life in the future. I rejoice in what He has done in our church, yet I long for more. I rejoice in the answers to prayer we have received, yet I long for other prayers to be answered as well. I rejoice in the lives that have been changed by the power of God this year, yet I long to see so many more transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As you celebrate Christmas, remember that the joy of Christmas is not just that He came, but that He is coming again. Rejoice in what He has done, but don't forget that He's not finished yet. There is so much more He has in store.

 Trevin Wax has a wonderful post regarding one of my favorite Christmas carols over here. Check it out.

HT: Jesus Creed

There's an interesting scene in The Nativity Story where Mary asks Joseph, "Do you ever wonder when we'll know that he's more than just a child? Will it be something he says, a look in his eye?" In response, Joseph wonders if he'll even be able to teach Jesus anything. This reminded me of a question that has interested me for many years. When did Jesus become "self-aware"? When did He realize that He was the Son of God, the Messiah, the sacrificial Lamb? And how did that realization come about?

The scriptures are nearly silent about Jesus' childhood and early adulthood. Beyond the nativity story, we have only the story of Jesus' visit to the Temple when he was twelve years old in Luke 2. We have no direct witness to reference on this question. Perhaps that is why I've never seen it addressed in any books I've read. Nevertheless, I find the question interesting and I think it's possible to make a few safe assumptions based on what we know and perhaps develop a reasonable theory. What follows is my theory, for what it's worth.

First of all, I think it's obvious that Jesus didn't emerge from the womb fully self-aware. There's no indication He was gathering disciples and teaching in parables as a child. There are apocryphal stories of Jesus performing miracles as a child, but nothing in the canon. The story of Jesus at the Temple indicates that Jesus was an amazing child and exceptional in His understanding of scripture, but it also indicates that He was asking questions and listening to the teachers; learning as any normal child would. He does, at this point, recognize who His Father is, but that is no surprise. Joseph and Mary certainly would have told Him about His miraculous birth and the messages the angels gave them. Did He realize at this point the magnitude of His mission? Did He know that he would suffer and die? I don't think so. $bible(Luke 2:52) states "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." His understanding developed gradually just like any other child.

I believe Jesus' wasn't aware of the full magnitude of His mission until He began His earthly ministry. In fact, I think it's possible if not likely that he received that revelation during His time of prayer and fasting in the wilderness ($bible(Matthew 4:1-11)). I also believe that His understanding of His mission on earth developed primarily through His study of the scriptures and through prayer. Why? Because I believe in the most basic of Christian doctrines, Jesus' full divinity and full humanity. If Jesus was fully human while here on earth, then He received His commission from God the same way we do. Once He understood His calling, He had to choose to follow it just as we do. If He was "tempted in every way, just as we are" ($bible(Hebrews 4:15)), then He was required to live by faith just as we are. Doubting His understanding of God's plan and His place in it must have been a possibility for Jesus, and clearly was. Satan's first two temptations of Jesus in the wilderness were prefaced with the phrase "If you are the Son of God...". Satan was clearly trying to chip away at Jesus' faith in who He was and whether or not the Father was with Him. If Jesus' had actually just received the knowledge of His impending sacrificial death, then Satan's temptations were all the more sadistic. Either way, I believe Jesus was just like us. He received His instructions from God via scripture and prayer and was required to follow by faith, which He did.

You may ask, what is the point of this theological flight of fancy? Simply this. I think we often minimize the reality of Jesus' humanity. We think that because He is the Son of God, He had special access to God that we don't have. We think (though we may not say it out loud) that because He is the Son of God, we can't truly be Christ-like, therefore we don't really try to attain it. We choose some lesser measure of godliness to be our standard of achievement. This attitude keeps us from being all that God has intended us to be. Jesus said we would do everything He did and more ($bible(John 14:12)), but we don't really believe it...or at least we don't act like it. We settle for so much less. A true understanding of Jesus' humanity will lead us to a deeper understanding of the power that is available to us through the Holy Spirit and the responsibility that is ours to truly become Christ-like.

First the good. The movie is fairly faithful to the biblical account. Most of the key passages of Matthew and Luke are included in some form. Zechariah's Song is missing, and the Magnificat is displaced, but I didn't have any major quibbles. The theological and supernatural aspects of the story were certainly not downplayed in any way. The cinematography is beautiful; there are some very stunning shots throughout the movie. From an acting standpoint, Shohreh Aghdashloo is particularly effective as Elizabeth. Despite the challenges of playing such an iconic character, Keisha Castle-Hughes is able to give Mary both innocence and gravitas, which is no small feat.

The movie really is Mary's story, and that is where it finds its strength. We're pulled into Mary's world and clearly shown the struggles faced by her community. The tyranny of Herod and Rome, the poverty and hopelessness, and the hope for a savior are clearly in view. We see the shame and scandal of Mary's unexpected pregnancy, the ramifications she and Joseph must endure. We see the perils of the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Catherine Hardwicke does a really good job of transporting the audience into first century (or more accurately, last century) Palestine. The script, however, is uneven. Switching from Hebrew to "biblical" English to modern English is disorienting. I wish they would have picked one and stuck with it.

The last act is where the movie seems to lose its footing, falling into Hollywood cliches. Bringing the Magi in on the night of the birth provides the visual of a traditional nativity scene, but it just didn't work for me. Maybe I'm getting too technical here, but that's just me. Making the Magi the most theologically aware characters in the movie, however, really put me over the edge. Having these pagan astrologers spouting Pauline theology took a good movie back to the realm of a bad Christmas pageant. The same is true for the decision to have the Bethlehem massacre happen on the night of the birth. It did nothing except provide the nice Hollywood climax with the "exciting" narrow escape.

Despite its flaws, The Nativity Story is a decent movie. It's just not a great movie. It does a good job illustrating the daunting challenges faced by Mary and Joseph and the great faith they displayed. Most Christians will enjoy this movie, and gain a better understanding of the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus. For that alone, I can recommend this movie, even if it isn't Oscar material.

I've seen other bloggers posting such lists and thought I'd join the club. In no particular order...

Christmas In Detroit - Various Artists (out of print)