Beginning

In the month of January, I am going to preach on 4 B words ... beginning, belonging, blessing and bride.  The first of these words, beginning, really will begin at the end.  The end of the Bible is where Jesus makes what I believe is one of the most beautiful and hopeful statements in Scripture.  Jesus, sitting on the throne in heaven, says, "Behold, I am making all things new! (Revelation 21:5)"  

Let's start our reflection today with that little word "new."  We, in the west, have a habit of reading Scripture and thinking it is written in modern-day English.  We think it is all about our little part of the planet, our needs/wants and our perspective.  As the Apostle John writes these words he has received from God, living in exile on a Greek island, near modern-day Turkey, seeing visions from God, I wonder if he is thinking about the context of America?  Probably not!  So, how does John hear these words?  That will give us some clarity about their meaning!

First, John hears, "Behold!"  It is God saying, listen up ... something important is about to come next, so stop what you are doing and listen!  My dad would say "Alright!"  When my dad said, "alright" all was not right.  We were about to hear something we had better get right the first time, because we wouldn't get a second chance to get it right.  When God says, "Behold" I think it is worthy of our time, attention and focus.

Second, let's get into our heads who is taking action here.  It is Jesus!  He is doing something that is very Jesus-like ... He is creating.  John 1:3 says, "Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made!"  Jesus is creating something.  And when Jesus creates, He doesn't stamp out widgets that are part of mass-production.  Jesus creates with intention.  Psalm 139 says, "You knit me together in my mother's womb (Psalm 139:13)."  Jesus is creating something worthy of our attention and of our respect.  What is He making?

The passage says Jesus is "making all things new."  Here is where we must be careful in our interpretation.  I have people tell me (as we get through and past COVID) "I just want us to get back to normal!"  My answer has always been, "I want us to finish this chapter better, stronger and more Christ-focused."  I don't want things back like they were!  Neither does Jesus!  The little word, new, is kainos. It can mean two things ... renewed like the original creation (in this case back to the Genesis creation where God said, "it is good") or qualitatively new.  Jesus' new things are of the quality, design and function that He intends.  They are not the cheap copies we have made.  They are not the fallen world that resulted with our father Adam leaving the garden in shame.  I think the best English version of this word is "redeemed to God's original intent."

In Revelation 21, all of this happens at the end of all things, but I believe God has another reason for giving us this information.  I don't think that His intent is for us to sigh and pine for the "land over yonder" or trudge through a fallen world waiting for God to eventually "zap" us into newness.  I think our clue is that prayer we pray every Sunday in worship ... "on earth as it is in heaven."

We are exiting Christmas, 2021.  While I have encountered a fairly large group of schmucks during the holidays, I have seen glimpses of intentional good behavior.  Some people let me out in traffic.  I saw a woman being kind to a flustered cashier, saying "It's all right ... I can wait."  The cashier was almost in tears seeing the kindness and patience of the woman, and she was grateful for a reprieve from the chaos.  I saw people helping a couple with a dead battery.  With the usual impatience and snarky behavior, there are glimpses of goodness, kindness and, can we says it, heaven?  Francesca Battistelli sings a song called Heaven Everywhere.  One line on the song says, "Maybe there's a little more of love, and maybe there's a little less of us."  I wonder if the newness, described in Revelation 21:5, is all about us being renewed or recreated into beings that are focused on God ... not self!  I wonder if God wants to make us new so that we can bring a little bit of heaven to earth?  I wonder if that is how we (His Church) shows the world the beauty, newness, grace, power and love of God?  I wonder if this is how we teach redemption? Randy

Journey of Love

Over the past week all of us should have heard the Christmas story.  It is proclaimed in Luke 2, and you will hear it on Christmas Eve as we gather for our Candlelight Communion (come and go from 4-6pm and the candlelight service at 6pm).  You heard it at the Community Tree Lighting Service on December 1st and at our Christmas Musical last Sunday.  I hope you listened.

Verses 4-5 of the story says, "And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the City of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house of David and the lineage of David): to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child."

They went on a journey!  It was inconvenient.  I expect Mary would have liked to have her child in the comfort of family, friends and familiar surroundings.  But God-led journeys are often inconvenient and (no pun intended) taxing.  The journey was required by government regulations and the kicker it was all so they could receive a tax from the Romans.  Many people I know would have complained, balked, said they "are not under the law of the governmental authorities" and won't give up their freedom for such a pointless endeavor.  Mary and Joseph "went up."  And God and God's love was in the journey!

They went on a journey!  Many speculate on the route they travelled, but I believe they would have taken the shortest through Northern Israel, down to the south through Samaria.  Friends would have advised them to avoid the 'no count' Samaritans.  But if you follow the life of this family, the lineage of Jesus (Matthew, Chapter 1) and (later) the life of Jesus, you will not find Jesus avoiding Samaria and you will find some pretty interesting branches in the family tree of Jesus.  There is Rahab, the gentile prostitute.  There is Bathsheba, the gentile adulterer (David was also an adulterer).  The journey of love somehow seems to ignore status, race and religious background.  It seems God really does look at the heart of people.  I believe Jesus, in the womb of Mary, traveled past all of those vineyards that were part of 'the promised land,' past Jacobs well north of Jerusalem, past the valley of Armageddon (where the last battle will happen), past the opulent Herodium (a monument to Herod's kingdom) and on the little Bethlehem, called 'the house of bread.'  God's love sees the past, the present and the future and still makes a way for those who believe!

They went on a journey!  They made their way to a city that was destined (in prophecy) to be the place where God's ultimate promise unfolds in the birth, life and death of the Son of God and the Savior of the World.  The two travelers were nothing to those they passed.  They weren't important to those who rejected them in Bethlehem, sent them to a manger and consigned them to obscurity that we seem to invent for those we deem unimportant.  And there, in a stable, was born a child that would change the world!

Do you grasp the magnitude of the birth?  Do you, and your church, see that His call, His work and His plan/journey ... difficult, expensive, inconvenient, frustrating, unpopular ... is why we are here? ... to travel past the opulence of our society, to see and embrace the other oppressed people who we invite to join our journey, to recognize God's ownership of our stuff/church/mission and place our journey with Him first, to give up the popular, to submit to God's plan when it doesn't fit our politics, to love in spite of our feelings?  Does that little child change our world, or is it 'business as usual?' Are we on the journey with Jesus?  Good question!  Randy

When Love Was Born

Mark Schultz sings a song about Christmas called "When Love Was Born."  As we come to the 4th Sunday of Advent I will share these beautiful lyrics.  On Christmas Eve the song will be sung during the service, but I ask you to read and reflect upon these words:

Starlight shines, the night is still, shepherds watching from a hill, I close my eyes, see the night, when love was born.

Perfect child, gently waits, a mother bends to kiss God's face, I close my eyes, and see the night, when love was born.

Angels fill the midnight sky, they sing Hallelujah, He is Christ, our King.

Emmanuel, Prince of Peace, love come down, for you and me, heaven's gift, the Holy Spark, to light the way, inside our hearts.

Bethlehem, through your small door, came to hope we've waited for, the world was changed, forevermore, when love was born.

I close my eyes, and see the night, when love was born.

It all started because God loved/loves us.  "God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting light (John 3:16)."  God first loved us, and that started the unstoppable plan for God to come, live, die and save His people.  "The world was changed, forevermore, when love was born!"  It continued as God invites us to, through belief, enter His kingdom through the small door of a baby born to Mary.  We enter by choosing, loving and believing in that little child.

We light the candle of love.  But the candle is an outward sign of something deeper.  We light it to acknowledge Jesus' New Commandment, to love one another ... Jesus' greatest commandment to love God with our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.

I hope this Sunday, when you hear the music and think about the stories in the songs, you will remember the love that brings us together.  Come for the service at 10 ... one service for the whole congregation.  Stay for food at around 11:20 in the Family Life Center.  Share music, fellowship and love.  For it is the greatest gift of this season ... for God IS love!  

See you Sunday!  Randy

The Source

Have any of you heard of the law of 'transitivity?'  I learned this word as a mathematical law.  Generally stated, the law says if A = B and B = C then A = C.  It is basic logic, and it is a reminder to us that God has a sense of logic since God, as He created how the universe operates, also created the math that explains the universe.

You might be asking why I would bring up a mathematical concept in a theological blog.  My 'logic' here is fairly simple.  Last week we learned about an "if-then" statement made in Isaiah 9:7 ... If God is in authority (if He governs) in your life, then you can have never-ending peace.  If-then statements are often part of the mathematical process.  But God, in His word, gives us His laws that follow similar concepts.  Isaiah 65:18 is all about the transitivity of joy.  "Be glad and rejoice in my creation!  And look, I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness ... her people will be a source of joy."

Let's break this down.  First, there is God.  God has created all things.  Psalm 24 begins, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.  The world and all its people belong to Him!"  Isaiah says that God being the source of all things and God's creation are reasons to be joyful!  I went out Friday in my kayak and looked up at a beautiful sunrise in the quiet solitude of moving across the water.  It was breathtaking, but the God who made it is worthy of joy, worship and awe!  Be glad and rejoice that God is the source of these things ... nature, people, life!

Second, there is God's claim.  God claims the earth and His people.  I sometimes watch Gold Rush on TV.  These modern day gold miners still need to be wary of the devious schemes of people and the storms that nature sends to derail their efforts.  Claim jumpers are still an issue in 2021.  Have you experienced them?  Are their negative people, national stressors, economic concerns, depression, addictions, anger and jealous thoughts that steal your joy?  These things are claim jumpers that try to derail your focus on the God that says ... "I created everything to be good" ... "I made the people you might be demonizing" ... "I have made the heavens and the earth for my people!"  "All things bright and beautiful,  all creatures great and small ... all things wild and wonderful, the Lord God made them all!"  Be glad and rejoice that God claims us!

Third, God creates a place of shelter, protection, structure and goodness for us.  He wants us to live there.  And God has made our dwelling to be a place of happiness.  Don't let the falseness and rebelliousness of anger, self-righteousness, hatred, paranoia and fear become the message you hear and seek!  Lots of people want to take you to these places, and (in truth), all of these things can provide what is sometimes confused as passion and purpose.  These false doctrines will certainly provide energy for a time.  Then, you will find yourself in a joyless pit, far from God and far from people who love you.  If you are there, cry out to God, for He will lift you out of that pit, set your feet on solid ground and send you off singing joyful praises to the Lord (Psalm 40).  Live in the place God has created ... a place where we can rejoice in God's creation and be happy in the Lord!

Finally, remember where your joy comes from and that you, because you are filled with Christ, become a source of joy.  If Emmanuel (God With Us) = Joy and Joy = The Attitude of God's People/Possession = The Source of Joy Into God's World.  If God is with us and God's attitudes/Spirit are in us, then we should be able to both sing and express (with our life), "Joy to the world, the Lord has come!  Let earth, receive her king!"  In a world filled with claim jumpers that want to steal our joy, we are the people who should BE joy!  That's God's good word ... so how will you respond?  Randy

Never-ending

Non-eternal things end!  I wonder if one of our major issues in the Church, in our lives and in our country relates to placing our trust and faith in things that aren't eternal?  Most of us took the supply chain for granted ... something we see now as a concern.  At Thanksgiving, Walmart had only a few turkey breasts ... we were fortunate to find one of the last ones.  There is a shortage of artificial Christmas trees ... again, we were lucky and found a display model.  I heard this morning that there is even a shortage of Santa Clauses!!!  I guess somewhere in the Pacific there is a boat circling a port, all filled-up with fake Santa Clauses, looking to dock and unload them!  Yep, faith and trust in the wrong things!  But (to quote Dr. Seuss) "He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming, it came!  Somehow or other, it came just the same!"  Christmas is coming and will come, bringing (to all who want something eternal) "peace on earth, and good will to all people!"

Here's my question.  How can we (the people of God) grasp, hold and offer God's goodness, grace and peace ... some of the eternal things of God?  Isaiah 9:7 reminds us that God offers something that isn't conditioned on our situation.  It says, "His government and its peace will never end!"  In spite of all the things trying to derail God's plan (and there are many) and in spite of economic, social, governmental and media reports, Isaiah says "His government and its peace will never end!"  Is God looking at the same world we are looking at?  The answer is, yes!

Two things about this passage.  The first thing is a condition of the second thing.  The word is "governance," but in the Hebrew it is related to the entirety of "judging."  It generally means to rule over all aspects of life.  A judge would make governmental policy (how things are done).  When God governs our lives, God decides how we operate.  I see too many moms and dads who are willing to let others set the policy in their households.  I remember accidently picking up a book from a Belk store in Charlotte when I had picked up the items we had bought.  We got home and I found I had a book on stamp collecting that we hadn't paid for.  We didn't wait for when it was easy or convenient.  We got in the car, drove the 30 minutes back to downtown and took that book back to the store.  My mom made me apologize, even though it wasn't my intention to take the book.  She said, "That's not how we do things!"  It was a good lesson on the 'policy' in the Greene household.  If you want peace that is never-ending and everlasting, you gotta let God set the policy.  His governance needs to be the standard!

The result of God's governance is that you can have a never-ending peace.  Martin Luther King's peace in a Birmingham jail.  Eric Liddell's peace as he would not run an Olympic event on God's day.  Mary's peace (Luke 2) as, in the midst of shepherd visits, conflict with local/national government, a child born in a stable and that marital issue with Joseph, "Mary treasured-up all these things and pondered them in her heart!"  I believe she had peace!

Jesus says, in John 14, "Do not let your hearts be troubled!"  He expresses a sense of peace in the midst of terrible turmoil and strife.  How can He do this and command us to do the same thing?  His life is governed by God the Father.  His policy brings peace that is never-ending.  He is the Prince of Peace, and His reign will be forever for those who are willing to let Him rule the roost and run the show.  So, for this chaotic time where we seem to be running out of a lot, we will never run out of God's peace!  AMEN!  Randy

God Does This a Lot!

One little story from Tony Campolo has a child Jesus creating a flower, admiring the beautiful little flower and saying, "again!"  Another flower appears, as beautiful as the first!  When we would read to our children, and it was a book they liked, they would say, "again!"  Sometimes, because we are led to see the darkness in this world, we forget that little thing about God ... that God is into doing great things again.

This Sunday we will begin Advent remembering the prophetic word of Isaiah, "The people who walk in darkness will see a great light, those who live in a land of deep darkness will see a light will shine (Isaiah 9:2)."  I wonder if God is saying ... "remember what I have done before ... remember the creation story where I spoke light into being 'ex nihilo (from nothing)' ... remember I have power over the darkness."  God does it again and again!

Human history has experienced various periods of darkness, and to be truthful, somewhere in the world there is a pall of darkness hiding good and light.  You see and hear of those places as you listen to the news.  You wonder if we are that land as you see terrible events like the Parade Killings in Wisconsin.  And you/we have a propensity to think things are a bit hopeless.  But then God reminds us ... "you will see a great light!"  God gives hope!

What can we learn from Isaiah's familiar words?  First, stop walking in darkness.  1 Thessalonians 5:5 reminds us ... "you are all children of the light and of the day; we don't belong to the darkness and the night!"  Let's follow God and walk where we belong, walking in light and leading others to that light!  We bring hope!

Second, darkness might be a place to enter so we can rescue others, but it is no place to live.  Ephesians 5:8 says, "for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light."  The Lord has come to all who call His name, so we live in the light of the Lord!  We live out hope!

Finally, we (as people of Jesus), are people who see things.  We perceive and see both the darkness and the light.  We look for God's leading which always brings us to the hope of light.  We see hope!

All of this is why we, as the Church, must relearn the virtues of hope and light.  We should be the people who are known for positives ... not negatives ... hope, not hopelessness ... light, not darkness.  God has told us this in His word again and again!  God has spoken light, even from the nothingness of the primordial void!  God can (and will) do it again!  AMEN

Grateful

We just celebrated Veteran's Day, reflecting on the wonderful gift of people who serve, live and (some) die for the freedom we enjoy.  Sometimes we get a little jaded as we think about the stresses on our freedom and the challenges we face.  There are certainly many examples of these challenges, and if we enter into the Thanksgiving/Christmas season with this baggage, it can be a long, relentless journey.  But today, I would like to take a different approach.  It is inspired by our Savior, Jesus and a little song by Mary Chapin Carpenter called, Thanksgiving Song.

First, the foundation of our Thanksgiving Freedom.  Paul writes, "Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.  Instead He gave up His divine privileges and took the humble position of a slave, and was born a human being (Phil. 2:6-7)."  Wesley writes (in And Can It Be That I Should Gain) "emptied Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race." 

I could tell you the history of our American Thanksgiving.  I could share presidential proclamations and legislative actions that 'create' our holiday.  But Christ created our reason for Thanksgiving.  He gave up divine rights, His own security, safety, authority and royalty to become a slave ... all for people like you and me!  He is the 'giving' in Thanksgiving.  You say, "Preacher, we know all that ... what does this have to do with freedom?"

My take is this.  Some of us enter Thanksgiving fearful of the family situations we will encounter.  Our politics, our 'rights,' our personal and factional agendas, our losses, our fears and our stubbornness all work together to divide us as people, families and Americans.  This is not a good context for giving thanks.  So, I want to recommend the little prayer in Mary Chapin Carpenter's Thanksgiving Song.

The song begins with a word we should begin with ... grateful.  The Latin root word is gratus, meaning pleasing or agreeable.  Will you commit to being pleasing and agreeable this season?  Will you be "grateful for each hand you hold, gathered round the table?"  Can you give up 'self' to give thanks for those you should love?

Will you express gratitude for the shelter you enjoy, however lavish or plain it is?  Never forget that our veterans have served and fought for that shelter we call America, however broken we might be at the present time.  And never forget the shelter of a God who said, "He will cover you with His feathers, He will cover you with His wings, His faithful promises are your armor and protection (Psalm 91:4)."  Are you grateful?

Are you "grateful for what's understood, all that is forgiven?"  Jesus did this ("humbled Himself in obedience to God [Phil. 2:8]") so that you could, and would, be forgiven.  Do you, in gratitude to God, pass this forgiveness along, modeling and teaching others about the God you believe in!?

Are you/we people who, because of the freedom we have in Christ, come into this holiday season, so full of Christ that we can enjoy the light and life Christ wants us to experience?  He offers this to us by His example by (as the Philippians passage says) "emptying Himself."  Carpenter writes, "welcome, welcome, share this feast, come in away from sorrow!"  Will you share the 'feast' of the season?  The meals, events, fellowship, family and other opportunities, all present those times we can truly show others the nature of the Savior we call Jesus.  The word is "Grateful" ... pleasing, agreeable.  Paul calls us to the fruit of the Spirit (joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control).  Philippians says give up self.  The little song says, "Grateful for each hand we hold, gathered round the table."  Thank you, Jesus, for the freedom and every hand to hold, gathered round to table!  Randy