Christmas Prodding

May I offer a gentle Christmas prodding cleverly disguised as a blog? Floating around this amorphous collection of information we call the internet are chain emails and facebook wall posts encouraging Christians to “take back Christmas.” These messages encourage Christians to only patronize businesses that will say “Merry Christmas” as opposed to “Happy Holidays”or even worse, “Season’s Greetings”. Please allow me to gently push back against this trend for following reasons.

First, we act as if businesses and corporations actually have the ability to define what Christmas is. Why do Christians feel the need to “take back” Christmas? When was Christmas given to them in the first place? Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco are not the arbiters of truth. They are simply organizations out to make a buck. They figured out that people spend money at Christmas. Their goal is not to spread the truth of Christmas, but to get you to spend more money. That’s it. That is their nefarious agenda. They do not have the ability to define what Christmas is, nor can they halt you from celebrating it. If they think it is more profitable to say “Happy Holidays” than “Merry Christmas”, what does this matter to the Church? Regardless of their stance, you should be wise to the fact that they view you as a wallet with legs. How they want to entice you to spend money during this season does not affect the meaning of this holiday an iota. Some perspective would do wonders here. Our brothers and sisters in Africa don’t deal with this issue. They are too busy trying to stay alive in the midst of people who want to kill them for their faith. It’s a little bigger deal than a clerk saying “Happy Holidays”.

Second, one of the biggest complaints I have with our modern practice of celebrating Christmas is how materialistic it has become. Starting in October we receive catalog after catalog of stuff you can buy your kids. Seriously, I saw a TV ad for Christmas shopping in July this year. Christmas for the vast majority of Americans is about giving and getting stuff. This is a mockery of Christmas. Our God cries out to us and says that we can be saved through His Son. Our materialistic culture cries out to us and says that we can be saved by having the right stuff. Which message do you think we more readily receive? The reason some companies hold onto phrases like “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” is that in years past they realized some people were offended by the words “Merry Christmas”. These people stopped buying their stuff. If people don’t buy their stuff, they don’t make money. So, they changed the words. It was primarily a business decision. Today, this business decision makes some Christians upset. Soon, many of these businesses will probably make the decision to change back. It has nothing to do with what they may or may not personally believe. It is all about profit. The irony is that by fighting to make businesses recognize “Christmas”, you are only fighting to make Christmas more of a consumeristic occasion. You are only providing a monetary incentive for businesses to mock the real reason of Christmas.

Third, is this the battle that we want to fight? Everyday hundreds of babies are legally killed. There is ethnic cleansing occurring all around the globe. Christians are killed every day for simply professing Christ. And we get in a huff about whether a clerk will say “Merry Christmas” to us. Where are our priorities? The energy expended on this issue could be channeled to much more productive causes…if only we cared as much about the important issues as we care about our nostalgic notions of what Christmas is “supposed to be.”

So tell that clerk “Merry Christmas”, but don’t think that you have helped to fulfill the Great Commission by doing so. Make your decisions about what stores you will or will not frequent, but think about the long term ramifications before you boycott a store for saying “Season’s Greetings”. Do you want people pretending that they give a darn about the birth of the Savior so that you will shop at their store? Don’t for a second think that a store advertising “Merry Christmas” is an indication that Christ is being honored in our culture as LORD. I offer two pieces of exhortation if you want to our culture to see Christmas differently. First, live your life like Christ makes a real difference to you. Second, tell the world around you about the truth of the infinite God who became an infant in order to save the world.

Advent Haiku - Days 19, 20, & 21

Day 19 - Lamentations
Jerusalem hurls
her desperate hopes against
God's forgetfulness.

Day 20 - Ecclesiastes
Whatever God does
and whoever else may be
who knows? The wise wait.

Day 21 - Esther
Probability
counts for nothing when Esther's
G-d is in the plot.

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Day 18

Day 18 - Ruth
Tough old Naomi
bounces a child on her knee -
her wild hope come home.

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Day 17

Day 17 - Song of Solomon
Yes, he will haste like
a gazelle. Nothing is more
impatient than love.

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Day 16

Day 16 - Job
God answered Job but
not his question. Maybe he
will do that again.

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Day 15

Day 15 - Proverbs
Too clever by half
are the foolish. The wise know
the folly of God

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Day 14

Day 14 - Psalms
If there were glory
only, praise like the last psalms,
would that be the end?

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Days 12 & 13

Day 12 - Ezekiel
In the end it is
all in the name of the city:
The Lord is there.

Day 13 - The Twelve Prophets
Then, as before, will
Bethlehem bear the shepherd
of the scattered sheep.

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Days 10 & 11

Day 10 - Isaiah
In the wilderness
a voice cries for centuries
seeking an echo.

Day 11 - Jeremiah
Rachel refuses
to be comforted - even
when we turn the page.

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Day 9

Day 9 - Kings
She came with riddles.
His more than answers more than
took her breath away.

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Day 8

Day 8 - Samuel
Hannah, drunk as an
apostle at Pentecost,
magnifies the Lord.

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Days 4, 5, 6, and 7

Day 4 - Numbers
Dawn in my distance,
the wise watchers will see him,
star of their searching.

Day 5 - Deuteronomy
Moses from Pisgah
overviews all. It is not
space but time he lacks.

Day 6 - Joshua
Going over Jordan
Joshua above all sees
that the ark goes first.

Day 7 - Judges
Said the trees to the
bramble, 'Come, be our ruler!'
'Wait!' said the mustard.

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Day 3

Day 3 - Leviticus

If she is too poor
to afford a sheep, she may
offer two pigeons.

from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar".

Advent Haiku - Days 1 & 2

The following Advent Haiku is taken from Richard Bauckham's "Haiku for an Advent Calendar". It is located at his personal website here.

Day 1 - Genesis
After paradise
not even Lot's wife looks back.
Memory turns round.

Day 2 - Exodus
The bones of Joseph
in their gilt sarcophagus
travel night and day.

Prayer for a Brother in Afghanistan

Below is copy of a letter obtained from a Christian brother held prisoner in Afghanistan. You can read about the circumstances at World Magazine. Click Here for the article. Please pray for this man and his family. Pray that he would be strong and resolute in his faith.


"We desire in our prayers to remember them that are in bonds for the testimony of Jesus, as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being ourselves also in the body. O send from above, and deliver them from those that hate them, and bring them forth into a large place.
O let not the rod of the wicked rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous should put forth their hands unto iniquity.
O strengthen the patience and faith of thy suffering saints, that they may hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners come before thee, and according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that for thy name's sake are appointed to die."
- Matthew Henry, Method for Prayer, Christian Focus Pub., 2006 p. 108

We're Trying to Run a Society Here...

This week, a professor at the University of Central Florida discovered that nearly 200 of the 600 students in his class cheated on a Mid Term examination. Statistically speaking, if you’re sitting in that class and didn’t cheat, then either the person on your left or your right did. Now, I should be completely honest. When I was a freshman taking Spanish in high school, I cheated. I wasn’t prepared for the vocabulary exam, so I conveniently left my vocab list on the floor where it wasn’t obviously out but was clearly visible to me. Senor Silva walked by and saw what I was doing. He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “You are cheating. I will fail you if you don’t put this up.” I swallowed hard, shoved the paper into my bag and promptly failed the exam. Lesson learned.

This cheating scandal is on the heels of what may be the biggest story of the college football season. The biggest story should be that TCU and Boise St. are on a crash course to destroy the college bowl system. But instead, the biggest story is whether or not Cam Newton of Auburn University is the SEC version of Boba Fett, mercenary quarterback for hire. Did he take the money and run for several touchdowns and possibly a Heisman Trophy? I’ll say this, I’ve watched him play and he is one of the most exciting football players I’ve seen in a long time. The guy can flat out play. But did he break the rules? And if he did, are we surprised? Time will tell, but I don’t want this to be true. I want to marvel in the ability of this athlete and not have it tainted by the fact that he cheated.

The quote in the article about the cheating scandal at UCF that made wince was from a student. He said, “This is college. Everyone cheats…. They're making a witch hunt out of absolutely nothing, as if they want to teach us some kind of moral lesson.” Did you catch that? “As if they want to teach us some kind of moral lesson". How dare UCF hold their students accountable to some moral standard by declaring they can’t cheat? At least, that’s the sentiment of the student.

The irony is that this is the natural repercussion of a society (largely led by educational institutions) that has abandoned a moral compass. Sure they have honor codes, but in the classroom any foundational basis for ethics is undercut and deconstructed. A student is left to determine for himself what is right in his own eyes.

This is similar to the moral degradation that Ancient Israel found itself in the book of Judges. “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). The people were lost. They cried out for help, and God had an answer. God’s answer was to promise them a king. This king would rule and defend them and restrain and conquer all enemies. This king would restore the kingdom to its intended glory. This king was not Saul. It wasn’t even David, but he would come from David. This king is the fullness of God in humility and humanity. He is God with us, Immanuel. This king is Jesus.

We’re trying to run a society here. The problem is that the people are lost. Everyone does what is right in his own eyes and it taints everything. We need the one true King. I have hope that our society will one day be radically and forever changed by the reign of Jesus Christ. This is a hope in which we can trust. This is a hope that will truly marvel those who will believe.

More Thoughts on "How to Raise Boys That Read"

I’ve been thinking about the article I posted on facebook the other day. The article was about raising boys who read. Today, there is a growing gap between the proficiencies of boys and girls in reading ability. According to the author of the article, the main contributor to this trend is the over stimulation of boys with electronic media (e.g. video games). To combat this, parents and teachers often resort to the “gross” genre of books. These are the books that appeal to every boy’s fascination with all things disgusting, gross, and crass. The author makes the statement:

One obvious problem with the SweetFarts philosophy of education is that it is more suited to producing a generation of barbarians and morons than to raising the sort of men who make good husbands, fathers and professionals. If you keep meeting a boy where he is, he doesn't go very far.

I agree with this statement…mostly. We must raise boys who can read well so that they can accurately handle the Word of God and lead the next generation of the Church. As I read through and interacted with the comments, though, something dawned on me. This article (or the well-meaning facebook friend who posts it) could leave a parent with a tremendous sense of guilt or even pride. Let it be said that neither guilt nor pride are healthy for those who find their identity in Christ. There is much wisdom in this article, but that statement has to be tempered. It must also be stated that raising your boys on fine literature is no guarantee that they will become good husbands, fathers, or professionals. Nor is letting boys play video games or not reading them Tolstoy a one-way ticket to Idiot-ville. There is a much greater force at play than our parenting. Don’t misunderstand me; parents have a high calling to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the LORD (Eph 6:4). But God’s sovereignty is much bigger than my effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) at parenting. God works through parents, but parents are not ultimate in determining the future of their children. I was never read good literature as a child. I played a lot of video games. Yet, by God’s grace, I’m a pretty good husband/father (I’m pretty sure Kim would back me up on this.). Let us never be lulled into thinking that a great education will make our sons more righteous. The Apostle Paul wrote, “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). A steady diet of good literature will make your son more literate, certainly more intelligent, and probably less moronic, but it is no guarantee that he will be “good.”

The Blessings of Suffering

The other day I was supposed to share in class about some Devotional Classics I’ve been reading. I sat in front of the class and told them, “I’ve had a lot going on lately. It all seems to have coated my soul in Teflon and nothing I’ve read has stuck. I’m sorry, but I can’t share with you about the readings. Instead, I’m going to tell you about my last few days.” I went on to tell them about some dear friends of mine who found out they were pregnant with their first child. A few weeks into the pregnancy they learned that their baby had a birth defect that would kill their child within hours of birth if not during birth. They carried their child for several more months, enjoying their little boy for the short time they could. During those months we found out that we were pregnant with our third child. A week and a half ago, we were in the doctor’s office viewing our 20 week ultrasound. While the technician was telling us how wonderfully perfect our little baby is my phone vibrated. I instantly knew that it was the text message telling us that our friends’ baby had died. In that instant I was slammed with the heights of joy and depths of grief. I felt sad, joyous, relieved, grief-stricken, guilty, angry, happy… a flash flood of emotions washed over me in a moment.

After I shared, my professor talked about a passage from Julian of Norwich in which she prays for suffering. This is such a strange concept to my 21^st Century ears. My default setting is to avoid suffering at all cost. This is really a silly notion, though. I can’t get very far through my day before I’m standing nose to nose with the affects of suffering. It is part of living in a fallen world. As Julian lay dying, though, she thought of Christ on the Cross:

…I have never asked for any kind of revelation or vision from God – I only wanted to have the compassion I thought a loving soul would have for Jesus by witnessing his suffering. It was at that moment that I saw red blood running down from under the crown, hot and flowing freely, just as it must have been beneath the crown of thorns that pressed upon his head. I fully perceived at the moment that it was Jesus, both God and man, who suffered for me, for I now knew it directly without anyone telling me.[1]

Slowly, I think I’m beginning to see the role of testing and suffering in faith. But this understanding does little to mitigate the pain of living in a fallen world. I’ve heard many well-meaning folks talk about losing a baby like it’s a good thing because the baby is with Jesus now. While I believe the child of these believers is now with Christ because of his covenantal promises, I find that my heart still grieves over this loss. It isn’t supposed to be this way. I cannot look at this as a “happy” thing. I will not look at the deadly affects of sin on God’s good creation and say it is a good thing. But I can be thankful for it. I am thankful because there is a God who stepped into this mess. There is a God who is not only compassionate but empathetic to us in our sufferings. And through his sufferings and victory over death he will redeem this world. Death will be no more and then he will wipe away every tear. I will not like it but I will be thankful that I can lean hard into a Savior who understands the pain of death far more intimately than I do. I will not like it but I will look with faith and hope to the day when the death of Christ fully accomplishes the death of Death.

---

[1] Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, in Richard J. Foster, Devotional Classics: Revised Edition: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups, Revised. (HarperOne, 2005), 75.

Serving Those in Extreme Poverty

Like much of the US, the state of Florida is being enundated with political attack ads. One particular series of ads is centered around whether on particular candidate either does or does not agree with the current Arizona laws regarding illegal immigration. The illegal immigration issue is a serious one that will not be solved by simple pat answers. Border laws and strict enforcement will not prevent people from trying to provide for and save their families. It is a symptom of a much larger issue that is not unique to the US or Mexico. It is a problem, however, that can be understood and resolved only through the power of the Gospel. The Armonia ministry was begun with the goal of alleviating this extreme poverty through the power of the Gospel.

Context is always helpful, so a brief history lesson is necessary. Over 500 years ago, Spanish explorers came to Central America looking treasures and riches. They found many fascinating and profitable things, but they also found a native people who didn’t exactly understand who these new people were or what it meant for their way of life. The native peoples initially thought the Spaniards were gods who were part man/part horse whose skin shined like metal and they arrived on floating mountains. In truth they were simply men on horseback with armor who arrived in tall sailing ships. The native peoples had no grid for this new encounter.

The Spaniards then began a wholesale extermination of the native peoples. This continued until 1552 when a friar, Bartolome de las Casas, published A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. In this book, Casas pleaded the case of the native peoples of Mexico. The King Phillip II of Spain ordered an end to the extermination of the native peoples as a result of this book. Since extermination was no longer an option, the Spaniards forced the native people off the best lands and into the mountain highlands. Now, 500 years later, these native peoples still live in these mountain highlands. They are the poorest of the poor in the Mexico with little hope of a better life. Generally, these are the Mexicans that in hopes of saving their families illegally cross the border into the US. The dispossession and oppression of these peoples drive them from their own land and to the US in hopes of surviving. The roots of our country’s immigration crisis goes back to before the US was a country.

The Armonia ministry was founded by Dr. Saul Cruz to serve the poorest of the poor in Mexico. Many of the kids in these villages have no chance of getting an education. They have no chance of doing anything in their villages to improve life. They often have no chance. Armonia brings kids from these villages to Casa de Margarita (The Daisy House) to educate them and give them a chance at getting into a university in Mexico City. After graduation, these kids commit to coming back and working with the younger students before they return to their villages to serve. While in the house, the kids are often exposed to the Gospel for the first time. To this day, many of their villages are essentially unreached people groups.

Saul’s ministry flies in the face of conventional wisdom in the West. Our ideas of alleviating poverty often includes giving hand-outs and essentially Marxist or socialist philosophies. He was actually mocked and attacked by a Marxist professor during his PhD defense. His Gospel solution is the only one that will work, but the enemy seeks to continue to oppress people.

Even in the evangelical world, we will descend on a poverty stricken people, hand out bibles, money, and clothes. Then we leave and feel good that we have “shared the Gospel with the poor.” In fact, we’ve only taught them that they don’t need to embrace the call to build cultures that honor God.They simply need to rely on rich western Christians. We teach them that work is something that rich people do. If the poor are lucky, the rich will share with them. We cannot make the poor our “pet projects.” The poor need to recognize that they are created in the image of a Creator God. They have a call to create. They have a call to work. This honors God because it reflects his character. They are stewards of God’s riches every bit as much as Christians in the West. They have to learn this. We have to teach them. When the Church parachutes in and redistibutes our Western wealth, we only hurt and further disadvantage and oppress the poor. The Church must come alongside the poor and empower them to create and to work. Do the poor need our resources? Yes. Do the poor need our money? Yes. Do the poor need our time? Yes. Do the poor need our relationships? Yes. Our obligation is to be radically generous and divinely wise so that we help and not hurt.

In the process of this relationship we verbally proclaim the truth of the Gospel. These two wings (social action and verbal proclamation) allow the Gospel to soar. This is the ministry of Armonia. Armonia helps the poor by sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ and by empowering the poor of Mexico to serve others.

It is far too tempting in the US to answer the symptoms of poverty. We can try to shut down the border to keep out illegal immigrants. But the answer to this problem is to address the causes of poverty at its root. And that answer is the power of Gospel to redeem broken people. Is this not what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer? “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven.” May the God of Grace give us the wisdom of help the poor and disadvantaged.

Gregory of Nazianzus on the Mystery of the Incarnation

“He was tempted as man, but he conquered as God; yea, he bids us be of good cheer, for he has overcome the world. He hungered—but he fed thousands; yea, he is the bread that gives life, and that is of heaven. He thirsted—but he cried, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.’ Yea, he promised that fountains should flow from them that believe. He was wearied, but he is the rest of them that are weary and heavy-laden. . . He prays, but he hears prayer. He weeps, but he causes tears to cease. He asks where Lazarus was laid, for he was man; but he raises Lazarus, for he was God. He is sold, and very cheap, for it is only for thirty pieces of silver; but he redeems the world, and that at a great price, for the price of his own blood. As a sheep he is led to the slaughter, but he is the shepherd of Israel, and now of the whole world also. . . He is lifted up and nailed to the tree, but by the tree of life he restores us; yea, he saves even the robber crucified with him; yea, he wrapped the visible world in darkness. . . He lays down his life, but he has power to take it again; and the veil is rent, for the mysterious doors of heaven are opened; the rocks are cleft, the dead arise.”
- Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 29.10
Thanks to Dr. Swain for sharing this in class.

Modern Day Corinthians

"The problem with the Corinthian church was not so much that they were relapsing into paganism, as that their Christian faith, however sincere, had not yet transformed the worldview they had adopted from the surrounding culture. They had not grasped how the theology of the cross not only constitutes our basis for our salvation but also and inevitably teaches how to live and serve - and such teaching is in radical contradistinction to a world dominated by self-promotion and social climbing" - DA Carson & Doug Moo, Intro to the New Testament p. 427

Gotta Work on My Vocabulary

I'm taking a class that surveys the Biblical books of Judges through the Poets. One of the texts I am using is Bruce K. Waltke's An Old Testament Theology. It's a great book that outlines the themes and structures of the books of the Old Testament. Dr. Waltke (who is teaching my class) does have an amazing vocabulary. I mean, it's sick. Here's a list of words I had to look up just in the one chapter I read tonight:
regnal
fecund
peripeteia
irruption
onomastic
redivivus
nugatory
majordomo
surd
usufurcts
My dictionary didn't even have all these. I had to look some of them up on the internet. Crazy. I'll give bonus points to anyone who can define these without a dictionary.