Wondering

reboot

I am sitting here this morning thinking about all those, in this big-wide-world, who are wondering if the amazing story, about what happen at midnight on that first Christmas morning, is actually true.

Or do they think that Christmas is like Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny, or the valentine cupid -- just make believe?

We do live in a culture that has a great imagination.  An imagination that can create all sorts of make believe events.

If you ask a small child about Christmas the first thing that comes out of their, smiling, mouths is “Santa Claus.”

Now truly, if there is anyone that loves Santa Claus it is this writer.  

Santa Claus brings all the thing we love the most.  

Santa Claus has a jolly face and wonderfully accepting smile.

   

And a laugh that makes us all glad.

Who wouldn’t love someone who makes them glad?

However, aside from all of that, I want to shout out loud: There is much more to Christmas than Santa Claus, Christmas tree lights, jolly music and nicely wrapped boxes.

It is actually about a love, a deep down joy, that came to bring the truth of life in that dirty manger full of icky hay scooped off the barn floor.

It is about a promise of abundant life for all who are willing to believe it all.

It is a truth that surmounts all that is truth.

The Power To Create

I've been reading 'A Room Called Remember," written by Frederick Buechner.  He has an extraordinary mind.  

This morning I read his piece on The John 1:1f: -- where he opens one's mind to some amazing  thoughts on how God's Word is:  

"But the imagery of John is based rather on sound than on sight.  It is a Word you hear breaking through the unimaginable silence -- a creating word, a word that calls forth, a word that stirs life and is life because it is God's word, John says , and has God in it as your words have you in them, have in them your breath and spirit and tell of who you are.  Light and dark, the visual, occur in space, but sound, this Word spoken, occurs in time and starts time going. "Let it be" the Word comes, and then there is, Creation is.  Something is....." (p.86)

There is a line in Ted Loders prayer:

“It is a wonderful, fearsome thing, that you share your power to Create.”

If we would look closer to this claim, of this power to create, it becomes an awesome revelation.

It is saying God give us -- you and me -- his capability to make something.

Something positive, helpful, a beginning of something, ....

Have you ever thought you had God’s power to create?

Just imagine it!

Loder is not saying that it is power to create something grand and extraordinary.

Rather he is suggesting the small and amazing things that bring joy, or grace, or inspiration, or pleasure to the environment we live in.

But

      a song that we sing or music we play,

          a masterpiece that leave one in awe.

              bringing laughter to one’s heart,

                   a poet’s truth telling,

a gentle word or touch.

This morning when I read that line — A line I have read countless times before — I thought about when I write, or teach, or preach.  There is the possibility, in my words, to bring wonder, questions and maybe even doubts. Doubts that challenge someones mind or heart. Or make their faith a tiny bit stronger.

Loder writes; 

“…and it is mine by your genius or madness this power to speak and have light burst upon a minds or darkness descends upon a heart.” (p. 110 Guerrillas of Grace)

Something to ponder as you move through this ordinary day.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) ¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. (John 1)

 

Life's Distractions

 My head was still sleepy on my Pillow when I began to think about the concept of   ‘distractions.’

Distractions that disable us from doing a simple task.

More specifically things that interest, and move us, away from.  Away from Jesus’ invitation to live our lives as we desire to live. Or at very least hope to live.

Distractions are so clever, sometimes, we don’t even realize that we are captured by their power to move us past our center.

So I got up, made my coffee then looked up the Greek word for distraction: 

“ecstatic, ecstasy, a change of place, confusion of spirit, alienation.”

In Hebrew — an "illusion or terror."

 “Ecstatic means to remove oneself, to alter/ shake, to confuse, to bewitch, to lose one’s wit, go out of one’s mind.”

I am thinking about how easily we allow ourselves to be taken in by all the world’s distractions.

How we move, step by step, in directions the lead us further, and further, away from God’s way for our lives.

Two recent Sunday Gospels are good examples of how this distraction works.

The first Gospel comes in Luke’s chapter 10.  Where Martha got all in a knot because Mary was not doing her part to help with the meal preparations -- just sitting with Jesus listening to his every word. 

The distraction is Martha's putting Jesus in the middle of the problem.   Jesus says to Martha:  "Martha, Martha you ar worried and distracted by many things...

The other examples comes in Luke’s chapter 12.  Where the rich man decides to tear down all his barns and built larger ones to store his abundant harvest.  And then sit down to enjoy, for himself, his good fortune. The response: 

 ²⁰But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” ²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

But stop, just before that little story, about the rich man, we are told of another issue:

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ ¹⁴But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ ¹⁵And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ :...(Luke 12)

Now, if we are not careful we can miss the obvious distractions here.  

We can miss the point of Jesus’ story.

The point is not about the brother's inheritance, the rich man abundance or Martha's whining.   It is about them just thinking about them selves.  it is about not thinking about what God would want for their lives.

Do you remember what happened to Jesus after his Baptism?

He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to live for forty day. There he was tempted by the distractions posed by devil.

He was tempted by all of the things we get tempted by:  playing God instead of listening to God.                                                                                                                        

My simple interpretation.

God knows what kind of world we have been born into.

God also know the temptations we face; the distractions surrounding us each minute.

In our world we live with a lot of distractive noise. 

This noise is so much more real, and clearer, and easier to hear and understand. Then God’s word.