121230 Rekindle Christmas: Q&A

What is the American Dream? When you think of people who have realized the American Dream, who comes to mind? What are their common denominators?

We don’t know much about what happened to Jesus between his birth and his adult ministry (which began when he was in his 30’s). In some of the less historically credible books about Jesus that did not make it into the Bible there are some stories, but they don’t fit too well with the Jesus we see in the Bible. Luke is the only book that gives us anything (see for yourself – Luke 2:41-52).

In this account, the twelve year old Jesus and his family celebrated the Passover Festival as usual, and were headed back to Nazareth. But Mary and Joseph realized after the first full day of travel that he wasn’t with the caravan, so they traveled back to Jerusalem the next day, perhaps rehearsing the tongue-lashing he was about to receive. The third day they searched Jerusalem and found him in the Temple chatting it up with the priests, who were greatly impressed by his understanding.

Luke had an agenda with the inclusion of the story. He tied in the Temple once more – central to Jesus’ story and for anchoring him to Judaism. But he also wants us to see what an outlier Jesus is, even as a boy. How many twelve year olds like to talk theology with pastors? I can tell you from experience: none. But Jesus does. At twelve.

Twelve is an interesting age to give us. It’s not really a nod to the Twelve Tribes as it sometimes refers – doesn’t really make sense here. But it does raise a Jewish eyebrow. The age of accountability for Jewish boys is thirteen (for girls, twelve). This is also the age that they go through some educational experiences culminating in the bar mitzvah. We would expect a kid to know a lot of right answers after his seminars were complete. But you wouldn’t expect it beforehand. This is what Luke wants us to see: Jesus is extraordinary.

What rang my bell, however, was what impressed the priests. Because it would impress me, too. They were impressed by his understanding and answers. But what gave them this impression? For three days he sat with them, listened, and asked questions. Sure, they undoubtedly asked questions right back to get him thinking, but he was asking.

People who ask questions are rare. Especially really good questions about the deeper stuff of life.
Most of us get comfortable with our understanding of things. We have to, I suppose, to give ourselves a sense of foundation. But I think we are prone to getting so accustomed to our worldview that we never question it. It works for us on some level, so the thought never crosses our mind to challenge it.

Our worldview shapes everything we do, right down to New Year’s resolutions that some will make very soon. I bet lots of people living in America will make resolutions that somehow reflect the values in the American Dream.

Do you suppose Jesus was asking the priests about the American Dream? Was he wondering what it was going to take for him to be a good American? Some might actually make a case for a “yes”, but I think not.

Priests, rabbis, pastors, and religious leaders of all kinds give their lives to helping people connect the dots of life and faith. My hunch is that the priests that day were impressed because he was asking bar mitzvah questions – what does it mean to be a son of the covenant? I don’t think they were quizzing him on the 600+ laws he would have to obey to live up to the code. I think they were talking about what it really means to walk with God faithfully. What God was really hoping for when God breathed life into humanity. Those kind of conversations are wonderful. Unheard of from a pre-pubescent kid.

So hear is my question for us. When we consider resolutions we publicly or secretly make for New Years or just life in general, what are we asking? Are we wondering how we can pursue the American Dream? What if there are parts of it that run counter to what it means to walk with God? Have we ever asked that question: how is the American Dream and God’s dream for humanity similar and different?

My prayer for you is that you will raise your standard beyond the American Dream. My prayer is that you will follow in Jesus’ footsteps and ask what it means to be a son or daughter of the covenant: what does it really mean to live in a dynamic, life-informing relationship with God? If think if we pursue the answer to that question, bigger dreams than those that are particularly American will be realized.

121223 Rekindle Christmas: How we do

What do Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, Simeon and Anna, and the Wise Men and King Herod have in common? For one thing, they all had unique experiences of God showing up. They all said “Immanuel” one way or another. Apparently, there isn’t just one way God shows up to people. Zechariah was doing his duty in the Temple. He and his wife Elizabeth were known for being good, faithful people. God showed up to them in a very peculiar way in their old age, with an unexpected invitation.

I think we can assume Mary was a nice enough gal. She had hopes and dreams much like any peasant-class young woman of her day. We don’t know how she felt about her engagement to Joseph, but we can be sure that the invitation she received from God was more like a nightmare, initially. But the broader point is that God showed up, personally, to an ordinary, poor, young woman.

Joseph was a carpenter, which meant he wasn’t going to get much money or respect in his life. But he was getting things in order: a career was chosen, and so was a wife. All set. Until God showed up to him: a poor, less-than-peasant man of little education and no social status.

The shepherds watching their flocks had a decent gig – they may have been tending sheep used at the Temple. But they were commoners at best. They probably smelled like sheep. They probably felt like pawns in a giant game of the gods, where nobody cared what happened to them. And then they got a visitation from not just one angel, but a choir of them. Who could have anticipated that?

Simeon and Anna both spent their time in prayer at the Temple. Both incredibly devout, both looking for God to make a move. When they laid eyes on Jesus, they had eyes to see and hearts sensitive to what God was doing – they experienced God in the baby himself.

The Wise Men experienced God speaking to them through their study of the heavens. The stars aligned, and they sensed significance.

Even King Herod experienced God – through the surprise visit of the Wise Men, and again by their refusal to return with Mary and Joe’s address. He knew something was up that was bigger than him.

God shows up. Are we paying attention? Are we expecting God to show up like God shows up for someone else? And when it doesn’t happen that way, do we wonder if God really shows up? Perhaps a good approach is to bank on a fundamental reality we witness in the birth narratives: God does show up. Building on that premise, maybe we simply need to be open to God showing up, and pay attention more and doubt less. Perhaps then we will have our focus sharp enough to catch a glimpse of Immanuel.

But my teaching really isn’t about God showing up. It’s really about us showing up. My thoughts this week aren’t about believing, but doing.

The characters listed above had another thing in common: they did more than believe.

Zechariah and Elizabeth named their miracle son John – an act of obedience and faith even though their lifelong hopes were probably to have a little Zechariah or Elizabeth running around.

Mary responded to God’s news with humility and willingness to be used however God saw fit. That set in motion lots more doing…

Joseph did as the angel instructed, which required him (like Mary) to eat a lot of crow, face certain amounts of inner turmoil, and endure family scorn. His journey was no picnic, no mere mental ascent that God was up to something. Joseph was in the game. He had grass stains on his uniform and scrapes and bruises from being on the field.

The shepherds didn’t wait until dawn to see what was up with that crazy choral announcement. They hurried to find the scene that was described for them. The sheep could wait. This was too important to push off to another day.

Simeon prayed and prayed and prayed. And once he saw the baby, he embraced the child, and then blessed the parents with love and honesty about the significance of this kid. Similarly, Anna praised God when she saw Jesus. But she took it a step further. She also let other people know what she was experiencing.

The Wise Men didn’t send a Hallmark card when they got they noticed the astrological birth announcement. They went to great expense of time and money to make their way to the land where the new king had been born. Once there, they gave even more as an act of worship: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

We are not called to hear the good news of what God has done in Jesus and then sit on our hands. We are not called to a belief where we just come to some theological conclusions that give us inner peace. The Good News calls for action. Yes, we are saved by faith, but our works work out the salvation in our lives and in our world. Most of the characters in the birth narratives are heroes not simply because they believed, but because their beliefs motivated them to act. As they were enlightened, they were called.

A retired woman at our church came to see me awhile back. After some good catching up conversation, she said she had something for me. During her working life, she would set aside money each month for travel in retirement. But once she retired, she really didn’t feel like traveling! And her family was well provided for, so she pondered what to do with this nest egg. She handed me four envelopes, each holding $2,000 in cash. She said she thought the church could use it. Her funds bought everyone’s dinner at our Thanksgiving Feast, which inspired people to donate more than we ever have before for that meal, generating over $3,600 for Furaha’s feeding program for our orphans in the slum of Huruma, outside Nairobi, Kenya. Her donation provided funding for Rebecca DeMatteo to attend a conference which will no doubt light her fire, and make her an even more powerful force in her ministry here. The rest will help renovate CrossWalk’s building through our Legacy campaign, which means many more people will be impacted by the Gospel. Faith doesn’t sit around and spectate. Faith moves.

Pete Duenas got his life turned around by Christ while serving time in prison. ever since he got out, he has been a force for the Gospel in profound ways. If you ever want to get inspired, spend a meeting with them talking about how they can give back out of the blessings they have been given. Their faith is not simply one about a decision they made once to follow Jesus; theirs is faith in action, and lives are being changed and the world is improving because of it.

What do you believe about God? Instead of telling me, show me what you believe with your life. You believe God is graceful and loving. Are you? You believe God shows up to be with people in need. Do you? You believe God forgives. Do you? You believe God stands alongside the oppressed. Do you? You believe God is generous. Are you? You believe God wants peace. Are you a peace-seeker?

As we celebrate Christmas, let’s remember that the authors of these narratives had an agenda. It wasn’t that we’d sit around arguing about whether or not Mary was a virgin. It was that we would get a thumbnail of what the rest of the Gospel would include. A story about a man greater than John the Baptist. A story about God breaking into history through some of society’s least-appreciated: the elderly, women, the very poor, and all humble. A story about God loving and reaching across the aisle to non-Jews. A story about an incredible person – Jesus – whom God used in such powerful ways that people exclaimed “Immanuel”! A story that describes the response of those who first found themselves engaged in God’s epic movement in Jesus Christ. A story written with the hopes that we would be moved to believe, and that we would do much more than just believe. That we would do.  Because that's how we do...

But don’t just listen to God’s word.

You must do what it says.

Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

– James 1:22

121216 Rekindle Christmas: Immanuel King

Immanuel still? In Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus (Mt. 1:18-24), Joseph is the central character, as opposed to Luke’s Mary. Joseph gets the tragic news of Mary’s “condition”: his fiancé is pregnant, but they haven’t consummated their marriage yet. Naturally, Joseph wanted to dump her. But Matthew paints him nobly – no need to make the situation worse by having her stoned – just let her suffer the consequences of her indiscretion alone. Before he moves forward, he decides to sleep on it first. Usually a good idea. But then he has a profound dream that goes against whatever internal stuff might be going on. God shows up, not to applaud him for his graceful decision, but to correct him and point him in a Kingdom direction.

Immanuel means “God with us” – something people would call Jesus when they experienced what God was doing in and through him. Joseph began experiencing Immanuel before the birth, though, and it changed his life. He wasn’t expecting it. While there were pockets of Jewish folks who claimed to have spiritual knowledge – gnostic – they were definitely not mainstream. The leading Jewish class, the Sadducees, were much more interested in a theology and practice which maintained their prominence as leaders in Jerusalem. Pharisees, who taught mostly outside of Jerusalem, were focused much more on understanding and applying the scriptures. They are painted by the gospel writers as being dogmatic and often judgmental, focusing more on the letter than the spirit of the law they loved. In which camp was Joseph most comfortable? It is nearly impossible to say with certainty. Either he was open to God speaking to him and therefore recognized it when it happened in the vehicle of a dream, or his got his mind blown when God showed up beyond the pages of scripture. Either way, the point is that God showed up and he knew it.

Does God still show up? Is “Immanuel” descriptive of our faith experience?

The in-breaking of God into the human experience is what makes the birth story of Jesus so controversial, isn’t it? This isn’t a neat and clean amazing story. The inference is that something extraordinary happened. Supernatural.

Do we have any room in our lives for the supernatural?

The Bible is full of examples of God breaking into the human experience. Abraham sensed God leading him to do life and faith completely different than he had at home in present-day Iraq. His grandson Jacob had a vision of angels, and even experienced wrestling one. His son Joseph had strange dreams that were incredibly vivid. He could interpret the dreams of others, too, with great accuracy. Moses experienced a burning bush that talked, as well as incredible miracles and mountain-top moments. Joshua walked through a divided Jordan River, and got military advice from an angel. Elijah was part of an incredible fireworks display on God’s part, yet also discovered God’s voice in silence. There are many, many more – and these all took place centuries before Jesus was born!

I wonder if we have mixed feelings about this whole thing. We like the idea of Immanuel, but perhaps fear its reality. We like to control things, and Immanuel requires us to acquiesce to Another’s control. I want God to give me good health, good parking spaces, winning lottery tickets, etc., but do I want to be called to a difficult path? I want God to show up, but how much am I really comfortable with?

Immanuel has been experienced in a variety of ways. The trouble comes when we assume one way is THE way God should be experienced. Maybe we need to drop the shoulds. And maybe we also need to drop our need to explain everything – especially if it is really just a way to keep God at arms length.
The witness of the Bible on the whole is that Immanuel lives up to his name, that “God with us” is a good thing and not a dreaded thing. If this is who God is, maybe we need to spend more time discovering just how Immanuel lives up to his name with us. You might have experiences of God’s presence like mine. But you might not. Yours might be very different from mine because we are different. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Immanuel is a reality that Jesus embodied and enabled for many. He opened the door for countless millions to say "Immanuel" with personal conviction.

Do you want Immanuel?

King of who? The Magi were interesting characters for Matthew to highlight. They were men from another tradition who recognized spiritual activity through astrology and other signs.  Perhaps the stars (or planets) aligned, which they interpreted as a sign that a king was born to the people of Israel. Off they went to Jerusalem, the Capitol City, where they assumed they would find a newborn king. With them they brought appropriate gifts that carried great meaning for kings of that era who naturally claimed a certain amount of divinity, since the gods put them in that position in the first place. Gold – always a safe gift for a ruler. Frankincense – a tool for interacting with the gods in priest-like fashion. And myrrh – extremely valuable and used for burial rites (an allusion to his martyrdom, perhaps?). They came because they knew the appropriate thing to do was go pay homage to the king.

Going along with Matthew’s story, we can also safely assume, I think, that Joseph interpreted the message from the angel that Jesus was going to be the long-awaited Messiah – a king-like ruler who had the beloved King David in his bloodline. The Greek name, Jesus (Hebrew: Joshua), means the “Lord saves”. “Saves” could have easily been translated “rescue” as well. Many Jews at that time were looking to God to rescue them from the hands of the Roman Empire – saving them from the sins that got them there in the first place. Joseph knew a king was being born, too. So he rose from his dreamy slumber and did what you do for a king – obey.

Here in the United States, we don’t do well with kings. It’s in our national DNA to rebel against kings. We like our independence, and don’t like anyone telling us what to do or how to do it. Am I right?

How do we, as freedom people, embrace the idea of Jesus as King? Do you want a King Jesus?

I wonder if we really prefer a Consultant Jesus. An on-call Immanuel who is only with us when we really want him, and serves mainly to advise – no real power or authority to tell us what to do. Is this what you prefer?

The problem, of course, is that while we have the freedom to not embrace Immanuel King, it does not reflect God’s dream, which turns out is also our deepest, greatest, and best dream as well. God’s dream is that we experience Immanuel, and that happens the more we let him be King. The abundant life which is found following Jesus on the Way requires us to be on the Way – not just the parts we feel like. God is not forcing Immanuel on us. But Immanuel, by definition, is with us always. The real question whose answer truly makes all the difference between getting through life versus living abundantly is not whether or not God is with us, but are we with God?

Resources
1. Faith is meant to be a dynamic relationship, not simply a belief system o guide our moral behavior. All people find themselves at times feeling disconnected from God. Just speaking practically, how do you manage your life to foster a relationship with God? Do you have times of quiet when you can simply breathe, listen, think, express, etc.? Are you serving in some capacity – giving back with no interest in being repaid in some way? Are you reading anything that will help grow your relationship with God (the Bible; books that touch on God themes – even if not overtly; fiction lovers: read Les Miserables – lots of God in there). Are you talking on deeper themes with trusted friends that will give you support and nurture growth? Most of us struggle to do this “quality time” stuff. If it were any other kind of relationship, we would know that we haven’t invested in quality time, and that was what was causing relational distance. What changes do you need to make in order that the most important relationship in life works?

2. Our relationship with God is unique in that we believe God knows more and better than we do about everything. Sometimes we have roadblocks in our faith because there are things we know God is asking of us and we refuse. This would hamper any relationship, right? Is there an area of your life, or a behavior, or an attitude, etc., where you sense God calling you to trust and obey but you aren’t? What is keeping you from going for it?

3. Watch and share Dave Matthew’s Band Mercy video shown today and pray the message catches fire. Read and ponder the lyrics below:

Mercy

Don't give up
I know you can see
All the world and the mess that we're making
Can't give up
And hope God will intercede
Come on back
Imagine that we could get it together
Stand up for what we need to be
‘Cause crime won’t save or feed a hungry child
Can't lay down and wait for a miracle to change things
So lift up your eyes
Lift up your heart

Singing mercy will we overcome this
Oh one by one could we turn it around
Maybe carry on just a little bit longer
And I'll try to give you what you need

Me and you and you and you
Just wanna be free yeah
But you see all the world is just as we've made it
And until we got a new world
I've got to say that love is not a whisper or a weakness

No love is strong
So we got to get together yeah
Gotta get gotta get gotta get
Til there is no reason
To fight

Mercy will we overcome this
Yeah one by one could we turn it around
Maybe carry on just a little bit longer
And I'll try to give you what you need

Mercy will we overcome this
Have we come too far to turn it around
Ask too much to be a little bit stronger
Cause I wanna give you what you need

Mercy what will become of us
Oh one by one could we turn it around
Maybe carry on just a little bit longer
And I'll try to give you what you need

121209 Rekindle Christmas: There's more to the Story

It’s Christmas time again, which means the Peanuts Christmas will be airing soon.  For many, Linus' recounting the Christmas story is the only time they will hear it.  His rendition comes from the Gospel of Luke, which was written sometime between 70-80 AD by a person commissioned to put the story together on one scroll.  Luke get’s the billing, but it probably wasn’t him – just a distant admirer of Paul’s missionary companion.

For critical thinkers, Luke’s story is difficult to swallow.  A virgin teenager gets “with child” by God?  That’s hard to believe.  I think some people get so hung up on whether or not the virgin birth literally happened that they fail to see what the author (whom I will refer to as Luke for convenience’ sake) was really trying to communicate.

Luke was a masterful writer whose command of language makes his education obvious.  He wasn’t simply writing a biography about Jesus, which many scholars thought was the case until the last few centuries.  He had an agenda: to give Theophilus confidence in the Jesus who captured his faith.  Luke cared about accuracy, but he also cared about shaping the story with themes that he felt represented Jesus and God well.  Luke had his own theology – and it wasn’t always similar to that of Paul, or Matthew, or Peter, or James or the other Gospel writers.  And, since Luke wrote after Mark, and after the fall of Jerusalem, his tone is different than Mark – shaped by the reality of a not-as-soon-as-we-thought eschaton.

Luke makes some big statements about Jesus in his first two chapters.  He begins with the story of John’s incredible birth to very aged parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah.  These two prayerful people certainly thought their hopes for a child were long gone.  But they weren’t.  An old woman gets pregnant by and old man, and carries to term.  Even today some would call that miraculous!  God certainly must have had a hand in it...

What could be more impressive than that?  How about a betrothed teenage virgin who gets pregnant without the help of a man?  That’s even more miraculous than John’s birth.  And that was the point.

Let go of your ultra-literal tendencies for a moment and see what Luke is doing.  He is using a tool called step parallelism where two characters have similar (parallel) stories, but one is a step greater than the other.  It was a common storytelling technique back in the day.  What is Luke really trying to tell us here above all else?  Is he wanting us to focus in on Mary’s virginity?  Would he want us to spend lots of time wondering how God got her pregnant?  No!  Luke simply wants us to see that John was great – everybody knew that – but that Jesus was even greater.

While Luke is crafting a story about Jesus, however, he is also telling us much about the God he believes in.  This amazing person isn’t born to royalty, but to peasants.  These were low-on-the-totem-pole folks.  He was born in a stable alongside farm animals, cradled in a feeding troph.  What could be more humble than that?  And the first to hear the news?  A bunch of graveyard-shift shepherds.  Humble beginnings, indeed.  What kind of God would start his star character off this way?  A God who wants to make a statement about who God values: everyone, and especially the least in the world, because they probably need God’s favor the most.  Interestingly, in Jesus’ genealogy, Luke takes Jesus’ family line back further than does Matthew – all the way back to Genesis’ Adam.  Jesus is related to everyone, great and small alike.

Luke doesn’t just give us a picture of Jesus and God, though.  He also plants some seeds for his readers regarding what good followers look like.  Simeon had been praying fervently for years.  God showed up to that man who prayed so much and told him he would see the Christ with his own eyes.  Anna, a widow who devoted herself to praying at the Temple for decades, knew who she saw when her eyes met Jesus.  Some famous people have been attributed for saying, “the harder I work the luckier I get.”  I think the more people pray the more they hear God.  Coupled with Zechariah, the dedicated father of John the Baptist, and the picture gets all the more clear: pray more to hear God more.

Of course, the picture-perfect example of discipleship here is Mary.  She is given the news and humbly offers herself to God’s service, knowing that doing so will be incredibly challenging.  The picture of a whole-hearted follower of Christ.

Did you notice, by the way, that Luke’s story begins in Jerusalem?  Guess where the climax of the story is?  John is killed by the region king, Herod.  Jesus is sentenced to die a far more painful, more humiliating death by Pontius Pilate, the king overseeing all of Israel.  Jesus was born bigger, and dies bigger.

As you move through the Christmas season this year, I pray that your wonder will be rekindled.  May you move your gaze beyond the nativity scene and look at what Luke is trying to communicate.  A God breaks into history in a special way through Jesus, born to the humblest of peasants in the most humble of places, to call the same to trust and love and serve in order that the world, somehow, might be saved.  Will you heed such an inherent invitation?

121202 Rekindle Christmas

Remember that song, The Twelve Days of Christmas? When that song was penned, would anyone have guessed that by 2012, the Twelve Days would have grown to twelve weeks? It seems to me that every year, Advent has begun earlier. Nothing has changed in the liturgical calendar that has guided the Church and its faithful for generations. The season of anticipation which once donned our lives for four weeks has stretched now to more like twelve. It used to be that we would think little of Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Now, as we all know, Christmas for Wal-Mart, Costco, and most of retail begins in early October (even late September in some corners of the stores), long before Halloween. Our culture has stretched – tripled – our season of anticipation.

Can we get too much of a good thing? Christmas is certainly a favorite holiday for many people, so is it so bad to have more than less Christmas in our lives? I think so. I think Christmas can get overwhelming. What is meant to be a season of joy and giving can becoming over stimulating. The pressure to give more and more and more and more drains our resources. I think we can actually get a little burned out on Christmas – I love holiday food, but twelve weeks of it would get old. How is your passion for Christmas this year? A robust flame, or a diminishing flicker?

How our culture approaches Christmas bleeds into our spiritual life, too. I think that all the commercial noise makes it harder to really spend time reflecting on what this season is all about. It’s not just about buying stuff – our desire to celebrate in this season means TV schedules are packed with favorite movies that I don’t want to miss, and a plethora of Christmas Season festivities can easily crowd our calendar. Maybe we all suffer from Advent-induced ADHD?

This is a problem because there are some deep things to think about at Christmas. Big questions that go unattended because we don’t have time. Left on their own, the questions churn away in our consciousness. As we grow in our intellectual capacity, we naturally wonder about the credibility of the Christmas story itself. Nobody of any academic merit denies that Jesus was an historical person. But conceived by the Holy Spirit to a virgin teenager? A journey to Bethlehem for a census that doesn’t make sense? A host of angels singing to some half-asleep shepherds? Wise men from a distant land following a star that marks the spot where Jesus was born? Herod killing innocent toddlers to protect his throne? These credibility questions beg to be addressed. The meaning of the story regardless of historicity longs to be the subject of deep dialogue. But to do so requires time and attention, which are both in short supply this time of year. Instead of being a season aflame with beauty and mystery and awe and joy and reverence, it can be reduced to just a flicker of faith, filled with doubt and disconnect.

It is kind of like booking a trip to hike Yosemite's Half Dome without thinking of the implications. You just show up in your Converse All Stars and get moving. At some point, you are bound to wonder if you really though it through. Even though you had your heart set on peering over the cliff, you realize that this hike is going to require more time and thought. Christmas is like that. We just jump into it unprepared, and we miss some of the beauty because we wear down sooner than we thought we would.

As we come within view of Christmas, how bright is your faith’s flame?

A word of hope for Christmas skeptics… If you find yourself struggling to get on board with Christmas theologically, it may be challenging for you to connect with God during this season when so much attention is given to the in-question birth narratives. Go ahead and doubt. You are in good company. The historical accuracy of the birth narratives have been debated by God-loving, academic-oriented Jesus fans for a long time. One of the most revered and published biblical scholars of our time, N.T. Wright, is open to the possibility of the birth narratives happening as Matthew and Luke portray. But, he writes, if the first two chapters of Matthew and the first two of Luke had never existed, I do not suppose that my own Christian faith, or that of my church to which I belong, would have been very different (The Meaning of Jesus, by N.T. Wright and Marcus Borg, p. 164). If one of the most respected scholars has serious questions, then you can, too. At the same time, however, realize that these question need not impact your flame’s strength.

I think focusing on the historical part too much can be as blinding and deafening as doubting it all. We miss some themes that the writers wanted us to see when we don't step back and take a look at the bigger picture.

The Christmas Stories are replete with beauty, symbol, and meat for any stage of a spiritual seeker’s journey. We don’t have to have all the answers to appreciate the depths of the story or apply its principles. As we move forward in this series, I think you might find yourself thoroughly impressed with the message Matthew and Luke worked hard to share. I think your appreciation for Jesus will increase if you listen carefully to what they have experienced and feel compelled to share.

Christmas can be overwhelming theologically. Our flame can be reduced to a flicker.

Is there a way to rekindle Christmas? Yes, there is. But it won't happen quickly. To get to the heights we have to use tools that are available to use. We have to pace ourselves, too, realizing that we are talking about more than a 30-minutes cardio walk. We are talking about a trek that is unbelievably challenging yet profoundly inspiring.

How will we choose to approach Advent this year? Will we simply let it pass by? Or will we choose to ask ourselves if there might be more to discover here? Will we slow down enough to breathe? Will we quiet ourselves long enough to ask the writers what their intent was when they put their stories together?

This truly is where discovery begins: when we choose to admit that there is more to see, and are willing to take the time to look. Let's rekindle Christmas together over the next few weeks.

Homework: read Luke's first and second chapter in preparation for next Sunday.