An Other Birth

We are anticipating a birth in our family. Crazy! Crazy the emotions that go with such an announcement. This is not just another birth...this is an "other"- adding, expanding our family!
Birth...
Anticipated 
Imagined 
Celebrated 
Feared
Human
Matthew and Luke recount for us the most conspicuous birth of all time.
Anticipated for hundreds of years
Imagined by Israel
Celebrated by billions
Feared by the powerful
Human arrival of the Creator of humanity...
So much more than just another birth.
God secured relationship with us through giving Himself in the man, Jesus.
What kind of relationship does He want with us?
Well,
To the ones waiting, listening, anticipating like Mary and Joseph, He promises: "The Lord is with you." Luke 1:28
and He comforts: "Do not be afraid..." Matt. 1:20

“No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

To the ones who imagine freedom from an iron caste like the shepherds, He gives hope:
"I bring you good news of great joy which will be for ALL people!" Luke 2:10 
Ephesians 2:14-16 "He has broken down…the dividing wall of hostility…making peace…through the cross” 

To the ones who seek and celebrate understanding like the wisemen, He leads them into understanding. Matt. 2:1-12

“We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true." 1 John 5:20

To the ones who fear the loss of power and influence like Herod, He is greater. "...this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets..." Matt. 2:23
 Isaiah 14:27 "For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?"
James 4:6 "But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

To all humanity, Jesus came: 
John 3:17 "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved (rescued and restored) through him."

How's Your Hearing?

I have disjointed thoughts from the week's studies...it often feels like God is not fulfilling His end of the deal. 
He is being too quiet!
Anticipation jump starts the writing process on Monday mornings. Every week my anxieties become over-ruled by the fact that I think I think God IS saying something;
but I have to start punching these keys to hear it. Punching keys helps me ponder.

We are in the Gospels; 
attempting to chronicle Jesus' relationships.
We are beginning with His family, because family is where relating begins.
Jesus' extended family were the first to hear the long anticipated message that God was indeed ready to hold up His end of the deal.
And what was His end? We need to go all the way back to Genesis 12:1-3, when God broke another period of felt silence and promised Abram (Abraham) to give him a really, really big family; big enough to be its own nation in fact with its own land. And this family of Abraham's would actually be so special in the world that EVERY family would be "blessed" by them.
God's end of the deal was honoring this promise. 
Abraham's family though, had repeated hearing problems.
They were human after all. How many of us walk away from times of relating with our loved one's with several different versions of one interaction?
The Old Testament is full of Israel's spin on what God said and who He was. 
Abraham himself had lived in a world of idol worship and godless practices. No wonder God had to send him up on top of Mt. Moriah to sacrifice Isaac. 
That's the kind of "god" Abraham knew...gods demanded blood to make them happy. 
But instead, the God of the promise said, (my version) "I can see that you fear me...but I am not like other Gods. I am not just a god who simply demands to be appeased. I want to love you and I will provide the sacrifice myself, so that you can feel my love; 
love me because I love you Abraham 
not just because you're scared witless."
Abraham made so many mistakes. His listening skills were tainted by his history and his humanity. 
His family continued in this cycle of spiritual deafness, misdirected worship, severe consequences, cries for help, and divine intervention for a very long time before the silence between the Testaments. 
But thousands of years later,  some family members were still waiting to hear God's voice in faith that the promise would be kept.
One of them was Mary.
The Gospels talk about her "pondering" over and over again.
She had developed her listening skills and given her heart completely to God.
Luke tells us that God sent Gabriel to speak on His behalf. Mary heard clearly that God was indeed going to forgive Israel, fix their relationship with Him and make them a gift of His mercy to the world... in a son, Jesus. 
The devastation of sin on the whole human family was about to be reversed so that the family relationship could be restored and reset.
What hope!
She could not contain her excitement!
"My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." Luke 1:46-47
Thousands of years later God still speaks. Maybe not through an angelic visit, but 
He still let's us feel the consequences of sin to say: 
"Everything and everyone else will always come         up short, but Me!" 
He still presents us with moments of profound beauty to say: "You were made for more...it's ME!"
He still calls to us through the Scriptures: "I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly" .(John 10:10)
He still promises: "This is MY body broken for you, this is MY blood, shed for you..."

Are you listening?

Come

Family histories are powerful. 
If we don't know them, we wonder about them.
They may bring inspiration and pride or shame and isolation, but in any case...
family histories, full of the  mundane and even cataclysmic, affect us.
Between the Old and New Testament 400 years of Jewish family history grind past. I use the word "grind" quite literally. The Nation of Israel spent these 400 years as a center for conflict between North and South, East and West...the most "fought over" piece of land in the history of the world. Over and over again Israel fought and was fought over in revolts, alliances and power plays. By the time the scene opens on the New Testament, Israel is a tired nation desperately waiting for God to step back onto the stage and rescue them, as their family history promised.
400 years of enduring the silence of their Heavenly Patriarch. 400 years of persecution, exiled from the One who promised that He would keep His promises to forgive them and make His presence with them known again.
400 years of waiting and watching, divided by a mixture of pride and shame, hope and despair.
Then one day a man named Zachariah entered the temple.
An Angel appeared to him:

Luke 1:13-15 ...“Don’t fear, Zachariah. Your prayer has been heard. Elizabeth, your wife, will bear a son by you. You are to name him John. You’re going to leap like a gazelle for joy, and not only you—many will delight in his birth. He’ll achieve great stature with God.

15b-17 "...He’ll be filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment he leaves his mother’s womb. He will turn many sons and daughters of Israel back to their God. He will herald God’s arrival in the style and strength of Elijah, soften the hearts of parents to children, and kindle devout understanding among hardened skeptics—he’ll get the people ready for God.”

What were these prayers, answered with a son? I don't personally think Zachariah was centered on prayer for a son...

His duty as priest was to intercede on behalf of his "family" Israel; to make offering for forgiveness and call out for God's presence with His people. After 400 years, Zachariah represented God's people, in a desperate place.

The time had come for God to answer this prayer and in preparation, God sent Zachariah and Elizabeth and all the people- a messenger: John the Baptizer. 

John spent his short life announcing that God does keep His promises. He does hear our cries. He does forgive. He knows that our only hope for life and peace is with His presence.

By the time Zachariah left the temple to return to mundane life, he felt a cataclysmic shift in his family history.

How much I would like to know the words he had lifted to God...those words of intercession and desperate dependence...

"Father God, whatever he prayed we want to echo Zachariah's prayers and his heart. We are desperate for You. We have no hope but You. No matter the powers that come and go, no matter the small victories or short-lived reprieves...

Only Your forgiveness and presence can give us life and peace.

Come Lord Jesus."

Feeling Lucky (An Unpoetic Ode to Matriarchs)

My great-grandmother, Ina Davis was born in 1899; and I was lucky enough to know her. She cooked a mean fried chicken, the saltiest green beans you ever tasted and the best chocolate cream pie I've had to date. Granny sewed slipcovers and drapes in her barn on an old pedaled sewing machine, hung chickens from a clothesline before they met the frying pan and liked to beep her horn in tunnels just to hear the echo. She also hated when I whistled.
I loved her.
She was my "Granny" and she was a character from the generation of preaching "hellfire and brimstone". For better and sometimes worse...you knew what Granny thought and you heard Granny sing! But she had faith...and it was for me a faith to build on.
My grandmother, Dorthea Davis was born in 1921 and I was lucky enough to have her until I had three teenagers of my own. I used to salivate in anticipation of her yellow cake with chocolate icing and her huge yellow bowl of potato salad. Nanny worked in the dietary department of Brandywine Hospital in her crisp white uniform for YEARS! And Nanny was strong. She regularly arm wrestled her sons-in-law and her grandsons. Then twitched her nose in delight if she could still take them down. She also let me call her ridiculous names.
I loved her.
She was my "Nan" and God doesn't make them sweeter. For better and sometimes worse...Nanny worried or Nanny sang! But she had faith...and it was faith for me to build on.
My mother, Millie (Davis) Morris, was born in 1942 (sorry Mom); and I am lucky enough to have her still! I used to love to come in from playing in the snow to her milky and rivelly potato soup and no holiday is right without her perfect apple pie. Mom has worked hard her whole life..."secretarying", mothering, caring, cleaning, buying, selling, home-making and giving in delight to the delighted. Mom makes even the mundane feel special. She also forgives my scattered mind.
I love her.
She is my "Mumsy" and she continues to be one of my best gifts in this life. For better and rarely worse, mom fusses over her family...( I won't comment on her singing since she reads my blogs!) Mom's life is full of evidences of faith for me to keep building on.
My patriarchal matriarchs are absent from my life experience but I have been told of their faith and seen it in my great aunt, Helen Riggs.  I was lucky enough to know her in my formative years. Before you crossed her threshold, you were handed carrot juice, a vitamin and whole-wheat carob chip cookies; all long before the "healthfood" industry showed its face in Chester County, PA. Helen was a spitfire who jogged in her basement until she had to be 80 years old. She used to play hymns on her old 45's and greet you with so much enthusiasm you felt like a celebrity. She worked at getting her family "saved"...and it worked for me! For better or worse Aunt Helen told you about Jesus...and though she is my blood on my father's side, her singing could make your ears curl in. But boy, did Aunt Helen have faith...faith to build on.
Why do I write of my matriarchal lineage? Because I feel lucky!
And because I'm reflecting on the women in Christ's lineage...
women with strengths and weaknesses. Women whose faith God chose to build on. And though we cannot comment on their vocal talents we can read the songs of their lives and build on their faith.

They are, by faith, the matriarchs of us all.
Read about them:
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, Mary...
I promise you their stories will make you feel lucky.

Picked

My family is full of quips that do not really need to be re-quipped ...such as:
"You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose,
but just don't pick your friend's nose;"
for one example.
Is it in poor taste to introduce the lineage of Jesus in this way?!
The point is, of all relationships in life...you cannot pick your blood line.
(Please understand that I would still pick mine as mine...if I could. In spite of an occasionally questionable sense of humor, they're my blood!)
When God chose to be present with us, he picked the best representative of Himself...His equal in every way, His son. And Jesus came. He picked a human blood line that is mapped out in Luke 3: 23-38. The genealogy of Jesus includes all kinds of moral failures...liars, cheaters, murderers, prostitutes, adulterers...
Any human genealogy has its share of shame, Jesus picked this one;
A family with victories and defeats, godly and ungodly.
This family of our Savior communicates beautiful things about our God; things way too important to speed read!
Did you know:
That within this Jewish heritage, three of the four women listed in Matthew 1 were Gentiles?
Did you know that through His legal (though not genetic) father Joseph, Jesus fulfilled prophecy as the Messiah who would come in the line of King David?
Did you know that through Mary, Jesus was also part of a priestly heritage?
Did you know that while Matthew describes Jesus legal lineage through Joseph, Luke defines his blood line through Mary?
Matthew explains His connection with the nation of Israel
and Luke, his connection to all mankind through Adam.

 Together these two gospels, form every family connection needed for God to keep His promises to His children, extending forgiveness and a restored relationship with Him. He is our priestly intercessor...the One who makes it all right again. He is our Messiah...the One who rescues us from a life doomed to idolatry and death.
And of all the glorious gifts that Jesus shares with us, my favorite is this: His presence.
He is able to come into the human condition of liars, cheaters, adulterers, murderers, outsiders
and still remain perfectly God, perfectly good, perfectly perfect.
No matter whose bloodline He mingles with, Jesus remains
incorruptible.
Untainted by the ugly,
unchanged in His love
forever loyal to His plan to be our brother through His blood.

The Shape I'm In...

Romans 8:29 "God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. " The Message

Yesterday was Mother's Day. Our family sat around telling stories for two evenings in a row. My Mom and I reminisced about my early childhood shyness and attachment to her and the weird ways this played out. Apparently, My kindergarten teacher expressed to my mom that I was isolating myself at school so in an attempt to help me connect with friends, my mom planned a little party at our house. When the "friends" arrived I brought my toys out to them and then went and hid behind my bedroom door. This is kind of how life has continued to challenge me. I am an introvert...and that's Ok but humanity is meant for relationship, and relationship can be a scary and difficult thing for anyone!

Just like getting in physical shape takes discipline, self-control and perhaps an excellent coach and roll model. Getting in better relational shape is work! It takes effort and intention.
It takes courage and inspiration.
At the core of being human, is this truth: we are all made for relationship, with God and with others. And so, I must continue working out my faith to get into better shape. The shape I was made for.
Jesus was in perfect spiritual and relational shape. His life with God and others demonstrates exactly what being human is all about: faith, love, goodness, kindness, joy, peace, patience...and self-control spilling out onto others. The shape of Jesus life, was the shape of God's heart...and the shape our life is meant to take.
 Jesus is the perfect coach and the ideal role model, and we can study his spiritual fitness plan in the way he related to others in the Gospels.
If I love God, I will want to be like Jesus and if I am like Jesus, I will become better and better at loving people,
 so they can see the shape of His heart.

Luke 1:1-4 "So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story’s beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus" (whose name means 'one who loves God'), "so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught." The MSG
                                   "Everything was created through him (Jesus);
                                                 nothing—not one thing!—
                                               came into being without him.
                                          What came into existence was Life,
                                            and the Life was Light to live by.
                                        The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
                                             the darkness couldn’t put it out." 
                                                John 1: 3-5 The MSG

Word for the Day

I heard a *story recently about a pastor who was rebuked by a young congregant for wearing a suit and tie to church on Easter Sunday. The pastor unknowingly represented the harsh judgment this woman experienced in a church that viewed formality as mature spirituality. The casual nature of her new fellowship had been healing, so naturally to be reminded of a painful past seemed justifiably inexcusable...in her mind her new pastor was guilty. Funny thing was, she was now guilty of placing as harsh a judgment on her new pastor by viewing IN-formality as mature spirituality.

What would have been different in her response to a suit and tie had she forgiven those who had judged her for dressing casually? Instead, she had condemned the people who had condemned her.
Then spewed the un-forgiveness onto her new pastor.
Reflecting on this story, has granted me fresh insight into why there is so much dissension in our country and in our churches. There is a word missing in the wrongs being addressed. It is a word for our times...a word for the day.
The word is: forgiveness.


Our culture is suffering the brutal consequences of widespread un-forgiveness.
Black and white
Left and right
Straight and gay
Male and female
Parent and child
Faithful and faithless


We are angry, bitter people; spewing out of our wounded beings and limited perceptions of God, distorted views on justice and love.
We all carry mantles as a way of sharing His Kingdom in this world. And with them often a sense of moral superiority. The causes of our day weigh on us: The refugee, the single-mom, the unborn baby, the poor, the sick, the widow, the neglected, the orphaned, the enslaved...
Does God call us to address injustice? Absolutely. As He does.
Is anger a motivating force that propels us into action, yes! As He is.
BUT
His anger serves to address the wrong for the purpose of restoring relationship...always.
And could any relationship be more devastated than the one between rebellious, sinful man and a Holy, perfect God?
Is there any greater line of distinction than Creator and created?
Jesus walked about, addressing the wrongs of His day...but ALWAYS for the sake of pointing people to His Father, to relationship with Him; NOT simply to relieve their suffering. Any believer must admit the power of suffering in leading us to Him...He is the only One able to fix all that is wrong through relationship with our Father in Heaven, through His sacrifice and victory and by the power of His Spirit.

Jesus, at the moment of  history's greatest injustice cried, "Father, forgive them...they do not understand"
So true, we think we understand but we do not understand...none of us fully understands.
What would be different if we introduced ourselves to the thought..."I might not fully understand"!
What would be different if we forgave those who have caused pain by their lack of understanding and by twisted perceptions of godliness, as we ourselves most assuredly have?

WHO AM I TO SAY?**

If men may wander
from their homes
and leave a wife
and children prone
to borrow, beg and steal...
who am I to say?

If wives, alone are
left to fend
and spend their time
with other men
whose wives are left as well...
who am I to say?

If children left to
raise themselves
and entertain
with lusts un-shelved
a fading, starving soul...
who am I to say?

If those who lead in
office, grand
with gross resource
at their command
wield their vice with heavy hand...
who am I to say?

If someone's wid'ning
emerald eyes
feast upon
another's prize-
to glut and then reclines...
who am I to say?

If enemies swing
guns and swords
believing
they've divine support
to fight and maim and kill...
Who am I to say?

If all that's in a
hidden muse
Reeks rancid
poison to infuse-
blotting beauty from the world...
Who am I to say?

But there is One who may.


His heart was and is always for the sake of ALL...the sinning and the sinned-against, the oppressed AND the oppressor.
God does not wear a t-shirt spouting love for all on the front...and picturing a dissenter hanging from a noose on the back.
Could it be that in addressing what we define as hateful and judgmental, we are guilty of judgment and hatred?
It seems to me, that whatever political, spiritual or social side we find ourselves fighting, we are often fighting out of un-forgiveness.
As a result, no matter how good we believe our cause or how just our mantle, without forgiveness, we do NOT represent our Father, and we will ultimately NOT do good in this world.


*Story from Matt Chandlers video series "To Live is Christ"
**JCarnuccio 3/2015