God's Hideous Self-Portrait

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https://mbird.com/theology/gods-hideous-self-portrait/

One of the theological distinctions from the works of Martin Luther that, I’d say, is deserving of more attention is his juxtaposition between a theology of glory and a theology of the cross. These categories might seem like esoteric abstractions. Distinguishing between the two can feel as though you’re splitting hairs, a meticulous theological and philosophical tincture that doesn’t offer much in the way of “rubber-meets-the-road” applicability. But Luther’s discrimination between a theology of glory and a theology of the cross represents a fundamental hermeneutic not only for the crucifixion narratives of the Gospels but also for the entire text of Scripture. 

This theological apparatus finds its roots in Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation of 1518, in which the German reformer was afforded the opportunity to abdicate or affirm some of his statements in the previous year’s infamous Ninety-Five Theses. In so doing, Luther was granted the bandwidth to more accurately articulate his quarrels with the church and the papacy. Gerhard Forde writes in On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pseudo-commentary on Luther’s 1518 disputations, that “the Heidelberg Disputation is the most influential of all Luther’s disputations. It is theologically much more important and influential, for instance, than the Ninety-five Theses, even though the Ninety-Five Theses caused more of an ecclesiastical and political stir.” (19) This due in large part because of Luther’s insistence on the basic tenets of theology itself, particularly in Thesis 20, in which he avers, “He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.” For Luther, the cross wasn’t merely the coronation of God’s saving action through his only begotten Son, it was the culmination of God’s self-disclosure. 

What Does it Look Like to Practice Rest?

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https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/what-does-it-look-practice-rest/

Rest is an important spiritual practice that has big implications for our day-to-day lives. Countless Scriptures, from Genesis to Psalms to the Gospels, remind us that rest is necessary. But rest can quickly become a buzzword that no one really understands. We say we need rest, but what does that actually look like? Is it a nap, a walk, a few minutes along? And so often, as we work to find rest, we end up feeling even more restless.

Because while rest and finding rest are important, there’s more to the answer than just removing something from your life in order to create margin (though that’s important). What we;re really seeking is something more fulfilling, more beautiful, more essential: the Sabbath…………………………….

Anxious About Grace

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https://mbird.com/theology/reformation/anxious-about-grace-some-thoughts-on-max-weber/

Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) has been immensely influential, with the “Weber thesis” being one of the most well-known Interesting Ideas around.  The idea, basically, is that Protestantism, especially in Calvinist and Wesleyan and Baptist and ‘Pietistic’ forms, has been a major contributor to the ‘Spirit’ behind capitalism.

But there’s so much more. In looking at religious ideas not strictly in terms of their truth or doxological value, but also in terms of emphases and influence, Weber helped map out a distinctly modern way of doing and evaluating theology.

When I read his book, I hear a trenchant appreciation of how human hearts take the gifts of divine grace and turn them into methods for propelling ourselves toward God. From the perspective of Christian anthropology, the psychic respon…………………………………………….

We Have to Learn How to Hold Tension With Kindness

Read the whole article at https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/hold-tension-kindness/

Ithink it’s the combination, really. Take a generation of deconstructionists with a touch of entitlement (and a few cynical axes to grind) and drop them in an online environment where every opinion has equal billing, and you get a culture of chronic criticism. No longer hindered by geographical separation that ensured previous generations mostly minded their own business, we now have access to everyone. And we have opinions about their lives. Airing them costs us nothing.

I feel the tremors in………………………………………..

You Can't Take It With You

Read all the article at https://mbird.com/religion/testimony/you-cant-take-it-with-you/

It’s everyone’s travel nightmare: being tossed around from flight to flight, a quick 45 minute layover turning into six hours, and when you finally stand at the baggage carousel as everyone else grabs their luggage and heads home, you stay there, stomach sinking, the great metal contraption going around and around as you realize your bags didn’t make it. 

I’ve somehow successfully dodged the missing luggage catastrophe over my years of flying, and this is with living across the country from…………………………………

Happy Endings for the Underserving

Read the whole article at https://mbird.com/literature/parables-of-grace-happy-endings-for-the-undeserving/

In the Season 2 Christmas episode of Ted Lasso, the players are merrily handing out gifts to one another in the locker room when one of them — the show’s erstwhile villain and perpetual dolt, Jamie Tartt — ducks into the coach’s office. Jamie has forgotten to buy a Secret Santa gift. But before he even finishes explaining his predicament, a gift almost magically appears — wrapped, and with a bow on it. A…………………………….

Too Tired to be Holy

Read the whole article here. Too Tired to be Holy - Mockingbird (mbird.com)

I don’t know about you, but even this early in the year I don’t feel particularly holy. 

Instead, in many senses of the word, I feel tired. I’m tired after a hectic Christmas season full of leading worship services, a (non-COVID) sick kid, and all the traveling that comes with visiting family around this time of year. Add to that the self-improvement drive New Year’s brings to finally lose those 15 pounds I’ve been meaning to lose resulting in getting up at 5 AM to plop down on a rowing machine and it’s anyone’s guess as to why I’m physically tired. 

I’m also tired of all the negative news out there in the world. Maybe it’s just our living in a 24-hour news cycle and having access to events across the glob……………………………………

Why Keeping a Sabbath Should Be Your New Year’s Resolution

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https://www.relevantmagazine.com/faith/why-keeping-sabbath-should-be-your-new-years-resolution-ie/

Sabbath is like holding a newborn for the first time for many of us. We don’t really know what to do with it. It confuses us.

The ideas that we inherit associated with the Sabbath are those of a required gathering for worship, a day of pious practices or a strict mandate to stay indoors where we are relegated to watch TV or take a nap. Honestly, it all sounds rather boring. It’s time that could be spent on the thousand other important tasks we weren’t able to touch during the busy workweek. Sabbath, as we understand it, is another obligation tugging at our over-committed schedules. All we really know is that we’re supposed to not do anything and that doesn’t sit well with the prevailing cultural need to be productive. Not only do we not have the time, we’re not convinced it’s a priority.

I mean really, who are we hurting if we choose not to rest?

Which is a decent enough justification to placate our conscious until we hear how serious God is about Sabbath: “Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people.” (Exodus 31:14) Or begin questioning what………………………………………………………………………………….

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https://www.relevantmagazine.com/faith/why-keeping-sabbath-should-be-your-new-years-resolution-ie/

Why Mary Should Matter to All Christians

Read the Article on the Original Page at Why Mary Should Matter to All Christians - RELEVANT (relevantmagazine.com)

“When I find myself in times of trouble mother Mary comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” – “Let it Be,” The Beatles

Paul McCartney wrote this song after a dream in which his mother, whose name was Mary, came to him and spoke the iconic words, “let it be” at a time when the 20-something musician needed words of comfort. The peaceful, calm lyrics and chant-like refrain still soothe, despite the fact that he penned them 47 years ago.

Is that because we hear “mother Mary” and think McCartney is singing about the Virgin Mary?  Or is it some primordial longing for classic rock spun on vinyl that soothes our aching soul? Certainly, none of us think of Paul McCarney’s mother when we hear this song. There is something about Mary, the mother of Jesus, that confronts and comforts us in all her red and blue cascading fabric during this season. But what do we do with her? What spiritual relevance might she embody if we aren’t Catholic and don’t dream of crawling on our knees to Portugal’s Shrine of our Lady of Fatima?

Bernard of Clairvaux, the 12th-century theologian, spoke a helpful word to those who aren’t ready to take in the full banquet of faith, “If you fear the Father, go to the Son. If you fear the Son, go to the Mother.” Being born of woman, having a mother is one common denominator we all share, yet not all of our mothers were able to take a hands-on role in showing us the way of love. Burdened by boatloads of student loans and unclear job prospects, millennials are known as the “anxious generation.” They have outgrown the comfort of their own mothers’ bandaids, yet a supernatural blanket of protective care might prove a welcome balm in the face of angst and uncertainty.

Mary’s Magnificat provides a clarion call which focuses not on the deficits of our own life experiences, but on the greatness of God’s heart. “He has looked upon the humble estate of His servant … He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts … He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent away empty” (Luke 1:48-53).

Good mothers provide not only comfort and nurturing care, they also take kids to church (Pew Research, 2016). But millennials with divorced parents were more likely to move away from the Christian faith than those whose parents were together in their formative years. They are also more likely to claim no church affiliation (Public Religion Research, 2016). Often referred to as “nones,” this group needs spiritual mothers to guide them.

Nones are entering parenthood without a church small group bringing them casseroles or natural mothers on the scene offering to babysit for date nights. The Holy Mother serves as a go-to model of authentic love and sacrifice when these helpful relationships are missing. Even her conduct affirms that it’s OK to make a parenting mistake. “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I’d be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49) Jesus asked His parents this upon their return to Jerusalem, after caravanning home for an entire day before they realized He was gone. The Scriptures reveal precious few details about the breadth of her life, but we do know from the Gospel of Luke that she displayed a radical faith, wisdom and submission to God beyond her years.

Experiences are what millennials are seeking, with 71 percent of 18-35 year olds citing “experiences” as the most important thing in their lives (Contiki Travel, 2017). Well, a visitation from the Virgin Mary would rank pretty high on the list of unique experiences and she is reportedly showing up more frequently than ever, particularly in Muslim contexts. Muslims revere Mary. She is mentioned 34 times in the Quran and large numbers of Muslims are making pilgrimages to Christian Marian shrines.

Yet, Mary’s encounter with the angel Gabriel marks more than a divine experience. Her submission ushered in the beginning of a lifelong “yes,” a fidelity to her son from annunciation to the cross. Sometimes loyalty and love cost us more than we can imagine, but loyalty strengthens the heart and Advent is the perfect season to receive a holy strengthening. According to millennial career coach Daniel Reynolds, “Millennials are coming to have no faith in the concept of loyalty.” Loyalty is a foundation stone of Advent devotion. Like Mary, we wait. In Advent, we wait for the return of Christ. We prepare the way of the Lord and as we wait, He strengthens the heart. “Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage, wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).

The greatest work often goes unseen. Imagine if Christ died in our age what Instagram feeds of Mary would look like. Fortunately, Mary’s hidden work of cradling His body from the cross, mourning along the rocky path to Joseph of Arimathaea’s tomb and waiting for the fulfillment of His resurrection are images left to the imagination.

The reality of her sacrificial “yes,” her mothering example and submission to God’s call can inspire faith and strengthen the heart of not only millennials, but all who seek the way of love in our broken age.

The Strangeness of Advent Joy

Read Article on Orignal Page Here The Strangeness of Advent Joy - Mockingbird (mbird.com)

I‘m a little bit antsy at this point of the Advent season. We’ve dwelt in the darkness of the world for what seems like a long time (it’s really been all of 15 days). Can’t we just move ahead and get to Christmas already? Maybe that’s why the third Sunday in Advent is “Gaudete,” Latin for rejoice. We are given a break from the deep shadows of the rest of Advent to rejoice in the fact that Christ is almost among us.

It’s appropriate too that we hear Paul’s admonition to the Church in Philippi: “Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad!” (Phil. 4:4) That’s the Common English Bible. The more recognized version would be “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!” We’re to rejoice because “The Lord is Near” (Phil. 4:5).

Sometimes I want to roll my eyes at Paul. Yeah, easy for you to tell me to rejoice. You’re the one with the special calling from God. You’re the one to whom Jesus appeared. You’re the one blazing the way for Gentiles to be welcomed into the Church.

And then even though I long to experience a break from the shadows of the world, they also stop me from fully rejoicing. I just read 1 in 100 persons over 65 have died from COVID. A devastating tornado ripped through 4 states and devastated a town in Kentucky (I personally know some affected). The record-setting heat in December only further shows the effects of climate change. And that’s not even including the shadows I deal with because of just who I am.

But then I remember this wonderful quote from the 20th-century martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “A prison cell like this is a good analogy for Advent. One waits, hopes, does this or that—ultimately negligible things—the door is locked and can only be opened from the outside.” He wrote that in a letter from a prison cell he was thrown into by the Nazis in late 1943. The shadows of the world have been long for as long as we’ve been East of Eden. And we need help from the outside to deliver us from the predicament of living in a sinful and fallen world.

That doesn’t mean, though, we don’t try our best to avoid the reality of the prison we happen to find ourselves in. Maybe we take our cue from the Advent song “People Look East” and try to “Make your house fair as you are able, Trim the hearth and set the table.” Maybe that’s why we see Christmas decorations going up sooner and sooner and Christmas music simply being played year-round. We’re trying desperately to avoid looking at the reality of life, and give ourselves a brief respite from the drab prison walls of life. Christmas as a distraction, forcing ourselves to be holly and jolly all the time. 

Paul isn’t encouraging the faithful to rejoice as a way of denying what particular hardships they are going through. Like Bonhoeffer, Paul wrote his letter from a prison cell. He doesn’t deny that life in this world can (and probably will) beat us down. Instead, he’s shifting our eyes away from our current malaise toward the hope of Christ coming from outside ourselves.

Just like we were saved by grace through faith, the light from God comes into this world whether we do anything or not. In the end, it’s not up to us; it’s God’s action. Even our rejoicing is simply a response, a reaction almost, to what God has done, is doing, and will do for us.

For Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. And I think that’s worth celebrating.

O Bad Little Town of Bethlehem

Read original Article at https://www.1517.org/articles/o-bad-little-town-of-bethlehem

Mention the city of Waco, Texas, to most people today and they associate it with Chip and Joanna Gaines of “Fixer Upper” fame. That is a positive image, of course, and has brought the community popularity and economic prosperity.

But it wasn’t always so.

Beginning in 1993, and for many years thereafter, Waco was pejoratively known as “Wacko.” It had a bad reputation nationally and even internationally. Why? In April of 1993, the Branch Davidian compound, headed up by David Koresh, was raided by ATF agents. The resultant gun battle and fire left not only adults but many children dead.

The compound was located outside Waco.

That infamous incident, while not the fault of the city, soiled Waco’s reputation. The mere mention of its name, for many years, caused people to cringe, shake their heads, or engage in gallows humor.

Chip and Joanna greatly helped to change all that. The city that once was associated with a cult, bloodshed, and violence, was “fixed up,” we might say. It received a much-needed makeover.

And, in that way, it is similar to the bad little town of Bethlehem.

Two Repugnant Stories about Bethlehem

Bethlehem is mentioned a handful of times in the first six books of the Bible, but only in passing. With Judges, however, that changes—and not in a good way. In the final section of this Rated-R-for-Violence book, we have two stories, both repugnant, both associated with Bethlehem.

In the first, we meet Mr. Priest-for-Hire. He’s a Levite. And no less than three times we are told that he hailed “from Bethlehem in Judah” (17:7-9). What does this Bethlehemite do? Nothing good. He’s hired first by a real “pillar of society,” a fellow named Micah. This man had stolen a boatload of silver from his own mother, later confessed to the crime, and his mom had the silver melted down and made into idolatrous images that her son then placed in his family’s shrine.

When the Levite from Bethlehem happened to mosey by one day, looking for work, Micah hired him on the spot to be his personal priest.

Later, when some ruffians from the tribe of Dan, like a horde of Israelite Vikings, stomped in and pillaged the silver images and other religious paraphernalia from Micah, they offered the Levite a job being their priest. He jumped at the deal and joined their entourage, bidding adieu to his former employer, who barely escaped with his life.

Only at the end of the story does the hammer really come down. This priest-for-hire? This Levite? He was none other than the grandson of Moses himself, Jonathan by name (18:30). And his hometown, let us not forget, was Bethlehem.

But we’re not done. The second story from Judges makes the first seem like playground antics (Judges 19-21). In this story, we meet another Levite, along with his concubine. The girl’s hometown was Bethlehem. At some point, she is sexually unfaithful to him and skedaddles to her father’s home. Four months later, the Levite shows up on her doorstep in Bethlehem. After a few days of wooing and feasting, he succeeds in convincing the girl to come home with him.

Dear God, would that she’d have stayed in Bethlehem.

Along the way, one of the most horrific stories in the Bible takes place. The Levite, the girl, and a servant opt to spend the night with an old man in the town of Gibeah. Under cover of darkness, a mob of men from the city surround the house and demand the old man send the Levite outside so they can sexually abuse him. Instead, the Levite seized his concubine and handed her over to them. Gang rape ensued. All night.

The next morning, the Levite found this poor, ravaged woman from Bethlehem, motionless on the porch, her hand on the threshold, reaching, as it were, for the haven that was not to be.

The Levite loaded her on his donkey, took her home, and dismembered her corpse into twelve pieces. These gruesome body parts he sent all over Israel to deliver the message of what had happened to her.

There’s more to this nightmarish story, but you get the point. If the first narrative was about a cult, idolatry, theft, and the actions of a corrupt priest, this second is about a Levite with a heart of ice, a beastly mob of murderous rapists, and a poor girl without hope or life or even a decent burial.

And both stories, each in their own way, begin in Bethlehem.

A New Lease on Bethlehem’s Life

Both of these Bethlehem stories happened in the book of Judges, but there’s another Bethlehem story that happened, not in the book of Judges but in the time of the Judges. It’s the narrative about Naomi, Boaz, and Ruth, recorded in the book that bears the latter’s name.

In the book of Ruth, the evil and sinister themes of the other two Bethlehem stories are replaced by their opposites. We find here not a horde of Danites on the way to conquer some unsuspecting city, pillaging along the way, but old and widowed Naomi, coming back to her hometown of Bethlehem. We find not a sexually unfaithful concubine whose life ends violently and tragically, so that even her dismembered body bespeaks disunity, but a faithful woman named Ruth, who gets married and bears a son who will be the grandfather of the king who unites all Israel. And we find, in this story, not a Levitical priest-for-hire or a stone-hearted butcher, but a redeemer named Boaz who will make the sacrifices necessary to save Ruth and Naomi.

In other words, in Ruth’s story, Bethlehem’s story too begins to be retold. The bad little town of Bethlehem, with such a soiled and stained reputation, gets a much-needed makeover. And once the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, the boy David, is anointed king of Israel, the town that once seemed shackled to an unsavory past is given a new lease on life.

A Single Drop of Light

Long before the Messiah was born, the prophet Micah had told us that the Ruler of Israel would have his nativity in Bethlehem (5:2). Since he was the promised Son of David, this made perfect sense. David’s Son, David’s Lord, David’s hometown.

But I can’t help but marvel at how utterly appropriate his birthplace was in light of the other, darker stories about Bethlehem. The story of spiritual and sexual infidelity. The story of rape and murder. The story of cults and robbery and dysfunctional families and all the shrapnel from bombed-out souls that litters the landscape of our sad and forlorn world.

Jesus was not born just for the Naomi’s and Ruth’s and Boaz’s of the world. He was born for the forgotten, who sleep cold and scabbed in the trash-strewn alleys of our cities. He was born for the refugees, who have seen the underbelly of a world that would make most of us vomit from horror. He was born for the repeat offender, the stripper and prostitute, the preacher hooked on porn and the politician hooked on an ideology concocted in the mad mind of hell itself.

He was born for them all. He was born for us all.

In the little town of Bethlehem, which itself was neither good nor bad, we see a microcosm of the vast and mangled mass of humanity, each individual, perhaps known to them, perhaps not, thirsty for even a single bead of light to be dropped into the blackened depths of their souls.

See there in that manger, the boy swaddled, the child fresh-born: he is that light. And in him there is no darkness.

Jesus is the Light of the world. Our hope. Our Life. Our Everything.

Oh come, let us worship him.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL AND GRACE IN PRACTICE

Read article at Mbird.com A Christmas Carol and Grace in Practice - Mockingbird (mbird.com)

I will make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. Isa 49:6 

“I’m getting to the airport at 5 am, I don’t think I’ll hit bad wait times,” I thought to myself. Seeing curbside drop off caused me to reconsider. I was greeted by a line of cars with flashing lights, and weary passengers weighed down with suitcases waiting in line.  So I stood in line waiting, waiting to print my boarding pass, waiting to drop off my suitcase. Everyone around me seemed to be forgetting how to move through an airport properly, and I found my own patience pretty scarce at 5am sans coffee. “Yes, you need to have your ID out and ready,” I muttered, tapping my foot. The security lines were even longer, with more confusion, more forgetting to remove shoes, more foot tapping from me. These long lines were encroaching on my precious “sit-at-the-gate-reading-books-and-people-watching” time. Even when I got to the gate it was pretty packed. I had my coat resting on the seat next to me, and then, glancing at the crowds, I resentfully moved my coat to the ground, to open up the seat. All these fellow humans were really encroaching on my personal comfort and happiness. 

As I waited (and waited) for the boarding process to begin, I stopped aimlessly scrolling on my phone and looked up, taking out my headphones, mostly to listen for boarding announcements but also letting in some of the clamor around me. And then I made eye contact with a smiley little toddler who was staggering around. She was the most chipper person at the gate, just content to be walking around with her dad. I saw an elderly couple, talking about how big their grandkids would be and how eager they were to see them. Every person in those long lines was eager to be going somewhere or see loved ones, not nuisances, fellow sojourners. And I’d been viewing their journeys as lesser than my own. I am constantly struck by my own myopia. How easily I get caught in the snare of my own comforts and emotions! I pulled out A Christmas Carol sitting at my gate and was struck (again) when I read the lament of Jacob Marley:

Business! Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business! At this time of the rolling year I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!

I set the book down and did another glance around the airport. Everyone in that gate was my business, a fellow passenger. I don’t want to be Scrooge, I really don’t, but I saw my own ugly Scrooge-ness as I stood waiting in those lines. You can’t help but feel that Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol for the Christian, reminding us that our gaze should be fixed on a blessed star and the first founder of this season. It’s in following the star the wise men were led to Christ, and so it is in our journey. We are pointed to Christ, and after that we see newfound opportunities to love those around us. 

Dickens was trying to show us, indirectly, that we are capable of great selfishness but also of great compassion. That a cantankerous morning in the airport doesn’t have to have the final say on how I treat other people for the rest of the day. Even a life of selfishness can be redeemed in Christ. This little Christmas tale pushes all of us to consider what to do with the time we’ve been given and to learn there is something far greater beyond our own desires and pride. We can open up our hearts to those around us, and what better time to do so than the season of Advent. 

In Advent we wait; we wait as sojourners standing in a TSA line, but with far more hope. I have about as much control over my life as I do making sure the plane safely lands, but I can soak in the beauty of the sunrise from the plane window. I can help get an overhead bag down for the elderly couple in front of me. In my little row I might just have the potential to make a little difference, even if it’s just viewing my fellow travelers as humans. 

The short speech Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, gives after his uncle chastises him for his celebratory spirit captures well the theme of the season: 

I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they were really fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

I’m not much of a crier, but I do cry reading A Christmas Carol every year, and I’ve choked through every performance of it, this year was no exception. The message of it doesn’t change and always compels me to be kinder and gentler to my fellow sojourners. We are all of us continuing to wait, but our time here isn’t forever. And when we look at our own lives as the gift they are, a spark of gratitude kindles a fire of generosity. When we realize the founder of Christmas came for all of us while still in our Scrooge-ness, our hearts change. It’s a miracle that Christ came to us, loving the unlovable. He came to a world of sheep desperately needing a shepherd, to selfish humans reluctant to share a seat, and to be light in great darkness. With Him we our selfishness gives way to see our neighbors as individuals to be loved and served. 

In the last few lines of A Christmas Carol, we see a transformed Scrooge, a redeemed Christian living a life of joy and peace. We see the miracle of what happens when an embittered miser is met by divine grace: 

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city ever knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world… It was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that truly be said of us, and all of us!

What if We Are The Unfaithful Ones?

This article is by Taylor Mertins: 

How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her — but now murderers! (Isa 1:21)

There’s a reason that Isaiah 1:21 doesn’t appear in the Revised Common Lectionary. When we think of Advent we conjure up in our minds the Chrismon trees and the lights surrounding the altar. We remember the purple and pink Advent candles and the red plumage of the poinsettias. We consider the plight of Mary and Joseph to the small town of bread knowing not at all what their future would hold. We like our religious observances to be orderly and helpful and we don’t even mind a sermon that steps lightly on our toes because we know that everyone has room for improvement. But then when we hear these words from what some call the “5th gospel,” we experience some painful theological whiplash.

The faithful city has become a whore!
She was once full of justice but now she is full of murderers!
Who wants to hear about that kind of stuff in church?

In her book Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ, Fleming Rutledge writes:………………………………………..

Read the whole article at https://mbird.com/bible/what-if-we-are-the-unfaithful-ones/

An Ever Widening Future

The many lives of the ancient Israel — and you.

This morning’s devotion comes from Daily Grace, the latest 365-day devotional from Mockingbird.

Sing, O barren one who did not bear; burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor!

For the children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of her that is married, says the LORD.

Enlarge the site of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.

For you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will possess the nations and will settle the desolate towns. (Isaiah 54:1-3)

You’ve known those people who, like cats, seem to have at least nine lives. They’ve survived illnesses and accidents and really toxic relationships, and they are, miraculously, still standing. The Israel that Isaiah addresses here is like that cat — possessing, at the very least, four lives.

• She is the barren woman of the exile in Babylon, fearing that Israel’s family tree is in danger of being uprooted (v. 1).

• She is the widowed woman of that same exile, feeling at times like God, her husband, has died (v. 4).

• She is the momentarily deserted wife (vv. 6-7), whom God walked out on in anger over her flagrant unfaithfulness.

Yet somehow, in God’s plan, Isaiah prophesies that all those past and tragic lives will be swallowed up in a new “covenant of peace” (v. 10). And her new identity will be that of the reunited wife of God and beloved mother of God’s growing brood. In fact, verse 2 suggests that she will need to keep patching that tent, keep widening those stakes in all directions, in order to hold all the children God will bring into her home.

I don’t know you, so I don’t know how many lives you’ve had nor which life you are currently living. I do pray, however, that God’s presence in your life will enlarge your tent to shelter an ever-widening future.

Stressed Out About Thanksgiving

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I‘m already stressed out about Thanksgiving. I should amend that previous statement. I’ve been stressed about Thanksgiving for months now. As the holiday approaches, my anxiety level is going sky high. 

It’s going to be my first experience cooking and hosting the gobble gobble day. Two years ago, I cooked most of the meal and then carted it to someone else’s home. This year, though, I’ll be cooking and hosting. It’s a marathon only made somewhat easier by the fact that I don’t have to worry about roasting (or frying?) a turkey; no one particularly likes it in our family.

If all else fails …

But I’m already stressing … How am I going to cook and bake everything with only one oven? When are we going to eat because the daughter usually is napping when I like to have Thanksgiving Din…………………

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I Hate Presents

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I hate presents.

I swear, though, that I have not always been such a Grinch. It hasn’t always been this way. I can distinctly remember a time when I was still Cindy-Lou Who. There was that glorious Christmas when all my presents had to do with the Nutcracker, marking my brain so indelibly that ambulance alarms in France sound to me like the opening notes of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. When I was a kid, I counted down the days each May till my birthday, and when the big day finally arrived, I was astoundingly grateful for everything. (Well, that’s how I remember it, anyway.)…………………..Read the rest at I Hate Presents - Mockingbird (mbird.com)

Eugene Cho: ‘Christians, Stop Being Political Jerks’

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very November, the online political discourse ramps up as elections across the country take place. Politics have become increasingly divisive in recent years, leading to people fighting with family, loved ones and strangers online and in-person. And no group is exempt from this. Christians can often be found in the comments of Facebook posts exchanging harsh words with one another.

Rev. Eugene Cho, pastor and the president/CEO of Bread for the World, the huge Christian anti-hunger and poverty organization, sees the ways the Church is handling politics. He wants …………………

The Tragedy of an Incidental Christ

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As obvious as it may sound, Christianity is all about Jesus Christ. In the person and work of Jesus, God is revealed to us. The entirety of the Old Testament, in ways both subtle and bold, tells us about the need for and promise of a Savior. In the Gospel accounts, it is revealed to us that Jesus is the Savior the Old Testament promised us. He is fully man, obeying all the commands of God, all the while being fully God himself. At just the right time, he laid down his life to make a blood sacrifice that paid for the sins of all mankind for all time. Jesus is the Savior of the world. Jesus for us is the subject of Chrsitianity. He is the beginning, the end, and everything in between………

Laughing at our Weakness

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These days, we are so politically segregated that we often read, watch, eat and play according to our own values. Democrats wear Levi’s denim, watch the NBA, and drink Starbucks; for Republicans it’s Wrangler jeans, NASCAR, and Chick-fil-a. Of all the big data metrics, one’s political leanings are a reliable indicator of what you might consume. The realm of comedy is hardly an exception, offering a wide array of both red state comics and blue state comics. If you are a fan of John Oliver, there is very little chance you are also a fan of Larry the Cable Guy — both have significant followings but hardly ever within the same zip code…………….

Death and Forgiveness

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In January of 2018, I took a plane to Albuquerque to sit in a hospital with my dying father. To say my dad and I weren’t close is an understatement: we had cut ties when I was twelve, and rebuilt them for a time in my early twenties only to have them quickly fall apart again. His life had since become a mystery to me. I knew, however, that heart problems had kept him in and out of the hospital for years, and despite several surgical interventions his health had long been in decline. So when the call came from S., his girlfriend of nearly two decades who hadn’t spoken to me since I was a preteen, I wasn’t exactly surprised. That she called at all meant things were serious. I took a brief leave from my obligations and packed my bags for New Mexico…………..