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Category: Incarnation (Page 5 of 10)

Why Christmas?

December 9, 2017 / / 0 Comments

 

Christmas is a unique holiday. What separates Christmas from all the other holidays is that Christmas is the only Christian holiday that’s also a major secular holiday at the same time. It’s the culture’s biggest holiday, but it’s also religious. So we’ve got millions and millions of people celebrating Christmas, but in two different ways. It’s strange. And it brings a little bit of discomfort.

Christians are noticing that more and more of the public expressions of Christmas are avoiding any mention of the Christ. It’s a Winter Festival and a Happy Holiday, but it’s not a Merry Christmas. It’s a time for family, it’s a time for giving and joy and peace, but not worship. Christians notice that. The background music in the stores is less Joy to the World and more Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. The Culture and Media Institute claim that 98.7% of all Christmas stories on network TV do not mention Jesus. They talk about holiday shopping trends and holiday travel alerts and the economy, the weather, and the food. But only 1.3% of the news stories about Christmas mention Christ. That bothers some Christians.

On the flip side, the non-religious among us complain that the Church is intruding on the season, forcing its beliefs and practices on people who don’t care. A column in last Sunday’s Amarillo Globe News pointed this out. An increasing number of non-Christians are saying that religious expressions during the holidays are offensive and oppressive. They want the songs without the baby in the manger. They want the joy and peace without the religious symbolism.

It can be a little confusing. It can lead to lots of questions. And those questions are all good questions.

Why Christmas? Why is it such a big deal, why is it so emotionally charged? Where did it come from? Why do we spend so much time and energy hanging up lights right after Thanksgiving? What’s the connection? Why do we spend so much money on so many presents? Who started that? Why do we think about the needy more during Christmas? Why do people feel more charitable during December?

Is Christmas a religious holiday or not? And does it really matter?

Can’t we just have Christmas without religion?

Well, I mean, you could. But it doesn’t really work. All those ancient connections are there. It’s the foundation of the holiday. And, yeah, we believe it matters. And we believe it’s all actually really good news!

We’re beginning a three-part series tomorrow morning at Central: “Why Christmas?” If you’re in Amarillo, why not join us at 10:15 Sunday mornings. If you’re not in the greater Amarillo area, I’ll be posting a lot of what we’re preaching in this space in the coming days.

Peace,

Allan

God Has Spoken

August 22, 2017 / / 0 Comments

“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” ~Hebrews 1:1-2

We live in a confused world. Our culture is bowing down to the relativism of postmodernism. There is no ultimate truth. Whatever works for you is great for you. Discover your own truth. Whatever is working for them or for that part of the world is fine for them. There can’t be just one truth.

Christians are buying into this, too. It’s everywhere. Truth is whatever you need it to be, depending on when it is and where you are and what’s going on. We’re more bewildered and unsure and trapped than we’ve ever been. And the answer to all that chaos and uncertainty is this:

God has spoken!

He has spoken through the exalted Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can purify us from our sins. He is the only way to draw near to God. Only Jesus can give us help in our time of need. He alone can deliver us from death and lead us to ultimate glory. Only Christ Jesus! He who has ears, let him hear!

But we are so tied to the practical. We want pragmatic. We want real and immediate benefits from our Bibles and our faith. If the Bible study doesn’t address “real life” issues, we’re bored. If the devotional time doesn’t have immediate implications, we neglect it. If the sermon doesn’t help me with a problem I’m having right now, we ignore it.

Listen, God is speaking to us! God is revealing himself and speaking to us in Jesus! That’s the most exciting thing that’s ever staggered the human imagination! It’s everything!

In Jesus, God’s only Son, we have the ultimate solution to all the world’s problems. God has acted and spoken once for all in Jesus. And it changes everything. Without Jesus, yes, we should all sleep in on Sundays. But with Jesus, we never miss a gathering of his holy people. Without Jesus, yes, we should despair. But with Jesus, we persevere. We keep going. We keep running. Because God has spoken to us by his Son.

That’s why I preach. That’s the reason I pray all week and I read and I study and I prepare so hard. That’s the reason I climb those four steps every Sunday morning and read the Word of God out loud in the Central worship center and proclaim the words of God to all those ears — I really believe those words can change lives. I really believe the words of God have transformative power. They can change your life. They can change our city. And they can change the whole world. That’s why I preach. I believe it.

God has spoken to us by his Son. Jesus Christ is not just the first word and the final word; he’s also every word in between — and the dictionary that defines all the words! He is the ultimate Word of God. And nowhere does the Word say this is easy or painless. Nowhere does the Word tell us this is going to be socially acceptable or quick. But everywhere the Word tells us this is real and it is true and it is certain.

Peace,

Allan

The Light is Dawning

December 24, 2016 / / 0 Comments

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”
~Isaiah 9:2

candleoneI hope this is not a ‘newsflash’ for you, but we are living in a very dark place. It’s dark in Amarillo, Texas.

The homeless rate across the country is going down, but in Amarillo it’s actually going up. Today there are more than 1,200 homeless people in our city. A lot of them are young children, which explains why the average age of a homeless person in Amarillo is eleven.

Sixty-eight-percent of the students in the Amarillo I.S.D. are classified as economically disadvantaged. That number is 71% down the street from our church building at Bivins Elementary — almost three out of four.

Teen pregnancy rates are going down across the U.S., but they’re going up in Amarillo. Texas ranks fourth in the nation in teenage pregnancies and the panhandle has the highest rates in the state, much higher than the national average.

And last year a record number of women were killed in domestic violence incidents in Texas, with Randall and Potter Counties clocking in with the highest rate per capita in the state.

It’s dark in Amarillo.

But our Father in heaven, our God, the eternal Creator of Heaven and Earth, looks down with compassion on his children and says “I will not leave them in this darkness!” God says a light will dawn and his people will rejoice. The yoke will be shattered. The burden will be lifted. The enemy’s tools will be destroyed. Light will shine in the darkness. Victory will come from defeat. Life will spring from death.

“For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given.”
~Isaiah 9:6

As followers and imitators of the incarnate God who saves us, we are charged with proclaiming that life-giving light of Christ — to preach it and live it, to embody it and share it. God through Christ is defeating the Evil Empire, and we shout that from the rooftops!

And we pay better attention to exactly where our Lord is shining his light around us. We look for it. We anticipate it.

Just in this past year — just in 2016 — Downtown Women’s Center has opened up a transitional housing complex one-and-a-half blocks north of our church building. CareNet has relocated its regional headquarters five blocks east of our building. And two miles west, the brand new principal at Bivins Elementary is giving our church unprecedented — and maybe even questionable — access to the hurting families there.

candleglow

God with us is good news of great joy for all people! And I feel like his light is shining right here, like it’s really concentrated right here in our church neighborhood and there’s this giant star right on top of our building and people in Amarillo can see that this is a place where their yoke can be shattered and the rod of their oppression can be broken forever by this light that gives life to all people!

The people of Amarillo and the people of Texas and the people of the United States don’t need a new president or a new form of government. We don’t need more security or more jobs programs or more creative ways to wage war. What people need is Jesus. People need his light.

“Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”
~Isaiah 9:7

May the joy and peace of the season by yours today and forever.

Allan

Heaven and Nature Sing

December 24, 2015 / / 0 Comments

“Praise the Lord from the heavens… praise the Lord from the earth.” ~Psalm 148

JesusBirthAngels2

Scripture tells us clearly that our God is one and that God created with his Word everything that is and he calls it good. God loves his creation. He delights in nature. And in response to that love and delight, all of creation sings praise to God. Heaven and nature sing.

Psalm 148 — the title to the song is “Praise the Lord” — is the most obvious example of this. The psalm is divided into two parts. The first half begins with “Praise the Lord from the heavens” and mentions heavenly bodies and creatures that worship God in song: angels, heavenly hosts, sun, moon, and stars. The second half of the psalm begins “Praise the Lord from the earth” and lists the things of nature that sing to God: great sea creatures, lightning, hail, snow, clouds, winds, mountains, hills, fruit trees, cedars, wild animals, cattle, small creatures, flying birds, kings, all nations, princes, young men, maidens, old men, and children.

Psalm 65 says the meadows and valleys shout for joy and sing. Psalm 98 tells us the rivers clap their hands and the mountains sing together for joy. Isaiah writes that the mountains burst into song, the forests and the trees sing for joy, the hills sing, and the trees of the field clap their hands.

“Let the heavens rejoice, the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. The trees of the forest sing for joy; they sing before the Lord, for he comes.” ~Psalm 96:11-13

All of creation recognizes the Creator and responds with joyful praise and worship. In other words, heaven and nature sing. So when we praise and worship God, we join all of creation in praising and worshiping God together.

The foundational first act of the Story of God is that the Father created the world and everything in it. He loves his creation. God blesses his creation. And at the very center of the Story is the Incarnation. This is our bedrock Christian belief: God so loves the world that he becomes part of it. God Almighty puts on our flesh and blood and comes to his world to bless the world and redeem the world. Incarnation is a confirmation of the world. God comes to this earth in the form of a human baby. And that says something important about the sacredness of creation, how important the world is to God, how valuable to God is the human life into which he came. God is not too good to join us right here. He is not too high and mighty, God is not too holy or proud to come to us on our level and to participate in this earthly human life.

And it really happened.

In this baby Jesus we have God With Us. Immanuel. He came to us. God came here to his creation. And it’s not just a beautiful idea or an abstract theological truth. When we consider God coming to us in the baby Jesus, we’re not talking about a “feeling” of God’s presence or something in our hearts. It really happened. It’s history.

We’re talking about a particular time. The Gospels say it happened in the days of Herod, when he was the king of Judea. When Quirinius was governor of Syria. We’re talking about real geography: in Bethlehem, in Palestine. We’re talking about real politics: a census was being taken, there was the threat of revolution in the air. We’re talking about real economics: his family was poor, Jesus was born in a barn. It really happened.

And when it happened…

“A great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to all people!” ~Luke 2:13-14

And…

“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard.” ~Luke 2:20

God comes to his creation, he comes here to bless his creation and to live among and redeem his creation. And both heaven and nature sing. Both mighty angels and lowly shepherds sing.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing!

Peace,

Allan

Incarnation Revelation

December 22, 2015 / / 0 Comments

JesusBirthThe Incarnation is a remarkable and powerful thing: God chose to come into this world the same way all of us come into the world — through the pain and water and blood of human birth. Just like you and me, God was born. God came here as a baby. The Gospel of John says the Word — the creative Word of God, the creation power of God — became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

God with us. Immanuel. He came to us. God came here to live with and to bless his creation. And it’s not just a beautiful idea or an abstract theological truth. It really happened on that clear starry night in Bethlehem.

But what do we do with this? We rejoice and we express thanksgiving, yes. We join heaven and earth in praise and worship, absolutely. But we don’t really understand it. God Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, coming to this world as a helpless baby — that blows our minds. We don’t really have a category for that.

So, usually, we kind of chop Jesus up. Fully human and fully God, we don’t know what that means. So we say everything in the Bible about Jesus’ weakness and pain and suffering points to his humanity, and everything in Scripture about his wisdom and power and authority points to his divinity. But if that’s the case, the coming of Jesus doesn’t really tell us anything new. It’s nothing to sing about. We don’t need Jesus to tell us that God is big and powerful and strong and that human beings are little and weak and powerless. We already know that. We already believe the relationship between God and humans is about above and below, about superior to inferior, about master to servant. We already believe that.

Well, that’s not what the baby Jesus is about. Immanuel, God with us, is about the shocking reversal of everything we believe about heaven and earth. It’s not about big God and little humans. It’s not about the Creator asserting his divine greatness and power in contrast to human weakness. This is about God becoming weak and powerless so that humans can become affirmed and exalted. It’s about God lowering himself so his creation can be lifted up.

Irenaeus, in the second century, wrote: “Jesus Christ in his infinite love has become what we are in order that he may make us entirely what he is.”

Jesus prays to his Father the night before his death, “I have given them the same glory that you gave me!”

JesusBabyAdorationGod did not create heaven and earth to get joy or to receive love. He created in order to share his joy and love. Yes, all of creation is an explosion of God’ glory. All of heaven and nature point us to God’s goodness and beauty, his power and love. But he didn’t do it so we would believe in him. He doesn’t do it for our inspiration or spirituality. He does it because he wants to share his joy and love.

So he comes to us in Jesus. He joins us as a baby. He shows us in the birth of the Christ that his Kingdom is not founded on bloodlines or race or nationality or money. His nature is not about power or strength or violence or war. God’s character, what he’s all about, is grace. He and his Kingdom come to us as a gift of his amazing grace.

“He came to that which was his own… To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband’s will, but born of God.” ~John 1:11-13

We’re not born into the Kingdom like we have some special birthright or like we’re entitled in some way. We’re adopted into the Kingdom. We are given our eternal rights and blessings by grace. It’s a gift. Jesus was the Son of Mary by faith, yes, and by water and blood. But first, he was her son by divine grace.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” ~John 1:14

The King of the World has come. And he’s not like any king this world has ever seen. What sets him apart from other kings and what sets his subjects apart from other people is not his strength, but his weakness like us; not his majestic power, but his suffering with us; not his eternal authority and rule, but his obedience and suffering for us.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing!

Peace,

Allan

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