In the Meantime

"Christmas Time" is funny.  Funny in the way you have to laugh to keep from crying or punching a wall.  I can not speak for other countries, but here in good ol' America, it's consumerism at it's best.  Best of course meaning worst.

But this is not about that.

It's not even about how December 25th really isn't the calendar day Jesus was born.  (Many scholars believe it to be some time in the spring.)  It's not about Christmas Trees having nothing to do with Jesus.  If anything they are related (by way of stage plays) to Adam and Eve.

It's about your heart, my heart, and the heart of God.

We see slogans all over the place from well meaning Christians: "Keep Christ in Christmas," or "Jesus, the Reason for the Season."  I see many people get bent out of shape because someone says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

Where is your heart this season?

Is it caught up in buying the perfect gift?  Are you worried about what you'll get this year?  That one more thing will finally make you happy?  Today, in concept, is not about what is under the tree for you, or what you put there for someone else.  But what about better to give than receive?  Yeah that is good, so long as you're not giving to make yourself better.  (Besides, Paul uses that concept in Acts to show we need to help the weak.)

Is your heart torn to pieces by where you are in life right now?  Is it angry?  Hurt?  Lost?  It would be shallow and mean spirited of me to say, "get over it."  But I will say do not wallow in that pain.  There is Hope.

What today, "Christmas," represents is the physical collision of the Spirit of God with humankind. 

For God so loved the world that he sent his only son,  so whoever believes in him will not perish, but have life eternal.  He did not send his son to condemn the world, but that through him the world could be saved.  (John 3:16-17)

This is God showing us his intentions toward us.  He's saying, "Hey you, World.  I love you.  I want to be with you.  So here I am.  For you."  It's the greatest love story ever.  Nickolas Sparks, Stephenie Meyer, and Shakespeare can't hold a candle to the Author of Creation.

Jesus grew into a man.  He performed miracles.  He called his disciples.  He taught.  He healed.  He turned the tables.  He told stories.  He died.

He lived.

For you.  For me.  For that lady we cut in front of at the store this week.  For the guy we cussed out from the safety of our car for not giving us the right of way.  For the parent who just doesn't understand.  For the friend who doesn't want anything to do with God.  For the young family around the corner that is not married.  For God so loved the World.

That is what has been given to us.  We accept it or we don't.  If you accept it, the story doesn't end there.  In fact it's only the beginning.  If you call yourself a Christian, follower of Christ, or whatever the label du jour is, you do get a happily ever after...at the end. 

In the meantime, there is work needs doing.


Jesus gave us a lot to do.  In a few seemingly simple sentences he gave his disciples a monumental task.  The greatest commandment is to Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind.  Then, love your neighbor as yourself.  He later said to go into all the world making disciples and baptizing.   Also to teach them everything he commanded.

Simple yet massive.  Christmas is about remembering what Jesus came to do.  His birth and life are not just to be celebrated one day of the year.  As followers of Jesus, it should be our daily directive.  Celebrate him by living out what he asked us to do.  By loving him, our neighbors...and yes, yourself.  Not in a self serving way.  But see yourself as the fearfully and wonderfully made creation he intended you to be.

Christmas isn't a holiday.  It's a way of living everyday.  Let us get to work doing our father's business.  Cause the happily ever after will come, but in the meantime...

Happy Christmas!
-Bear

Uninvited

Have you ever planned a party or event just to have no one you invited show up?

Yes?  Good then I'm not alone in that department.  If your answer is 'no,' well, keep reading anyway.

Jesus gave his disciples a parable that featured this concept.  It was an allegorical story painting a picture of the kingdom of heaven.  I want to point out that the phrase kingdom of heaven is lowercase here, so it's not a physical place we can go to.  It's more like a state of being.  A way of life.

In Matthew 22 Jesus tells this great story about a king throwing a wedding banquet for his son.  He sends out invitations and prepares the event.  When the time came he sent his servants to gather those who had been invited.  They refused to come.

So the king sent more servants.  They were to let the invitees know that all was prepared, the food was ready and all that was needed was their arrival.  The still refused to come and mistreated and killed the servants.  (They really didn't want to go!)

Then the king says to his other servants, "Those who were invited did not deserve to come, go out into the streets and invite anyone you find there."  So they went and brought anyone they found to the wedding banquet, good and bad, and filled the banquet hall.

Now the story goes on (follow the link above to read all of it) but I will stop there for now.

I know this parable is not directly tied to discipleship but it has a principle we can apply to that concept.  When we want to disciple, we might want to reach out to those we know, those we would invite to a party.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  We should reach out to those we know.  But they refuse to come, time after time, stop spending time trying to get them to come and move on.

Invite those you don't know.  Reach out.  Be bold.  I know that it's easy to say that sitting behind a computer screen, but it's not impossible.  To go with Jesus' parable, if you're the servant getting sent to invite someone to the banquet, you know it's going to be a good time right?  Of course.  So why not tell others about it?

The challenge is determining how to invite those you don't know.  How to approach them and share with them what you know to be good.  There are many ways to do so.  Check out M28's website for more info and ways to do this.

And for those who refuse the invitation, remember this, we are not the king.  We don't have the final say.  So don't give up on them in your behavior.  Keep praying for them.  Keep showing them love and kindness.  But you don't have to keep 'barking up the same tree,' for lack of a better expression.

Reach out to the uninvited.  You may be surprised what doors God opens up in their life, and your own.

Grace, peace and hope
-Jersey