Post Christmas Blues

It is not often that I feel like sharing what I heard in church two weeks in a row, but such is the case.
I recall a potent Advent sermon some years ago, linking the passage from Isaiah that Jesus read in Luke 4:18-19, with the rest of the context, in Isaiah 61.  It was a rather potent juxtaposition of the message Jesus came to proclaim on his first coming, before his death (i.e., freedom, mercy, and healing), with the whole message in Isaiah, which also includes judgment, which is then apparently reserved for His second coming.  Get your mercy now, before the judgment comes.  A good thing to think about as we anticipate God being "with us."
This morning was on Jeremiah 31, which is quoted in Matt 2:18, just after Herod's killing of the innocents.  There is weeping in Israel, because her children are no more.  But what of Jeremiah's context?  Apparently Jeremiah didn't always write with weeping eyes; this message is happy.
The whole passage read was Jeremiah 31:10-17, of which verse 15 appears in Matthew:

 ¹⁰"Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
   and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, 'He who scattered Israel will gather him,
   and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.'
¹¹ For the LORD has ransomed Jacob
   and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
¹²They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
    and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
   and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall be like a watered garden,
    and they shall languish no more.
¹³ Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
   and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy;
   I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
¹⁴ I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
   and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
         declares the LORD."

 ¹⁵Thus says the LORD: "A voice is heard in Ramah,
   lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
   she refuses to be comforted for her children,
    because they are no more."

 ¹⁶Thus says the LORD:"Keep your voice from weeping,
   and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
         declares the LORD,
   and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
¹⁷ There is hope for your future,
         declares the LORD,
   and your children shall come back to their own country.

(Jer 31:10-17 ESV)

He who scattered Israel will gather him?  Keep him like a shepherd keeps his flock?   They shall come and sing aloud?  Radiant over the goodness of God in blessing the land? Women dancing, and merry men?  The priests will be feasted, and (because?) the people will be satisfied?  This is not hard times.  This is not exile.  This is the good life.
So what the heck is verse 15 doing there?  And particularly, in light of its accomplishment in the killing of all babies/toddlers in and around Bethlehem?  How can that be a happy thing?
The main point of the sermon, I think, was that life after Christmas has Joy and sorrow, good times and bad times, like any other time.  We may spend all we have to feast well with our families on Christmas day, and come to church in new clothes, but what are we going to eat and wear the day after, if our same basic struggles remain?  We should take care how we celebrate, so we do not cause ourselves unnecessary hardships later (Mom, are you listening?), but we should also acknowledge that in this life God has given us happy and sad times.  They come together.
And in this passage, we see one of the saddest and happiest times placed right smack next to (inside?) each other.  Rachel is weeping, right after "my people shall be satisfied with my goodness," and right before "Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work." There is hope, your children will come back.
So what is Rachel weeping for, and what counters that sadness, giving us hope? Certainly there was not the immediate return to prosperity that some may have expected on the return from exile.  There was a lot of hard work, and a lot of resistance.  Israel was not as populous, nor as powerful, as it was before being sacked. (and again.) The Evangelist Matthew sees this fulfilled in Herod killing all males under 2 years old in and around Bethlehem.  I should probably know how many children we're talking about.  But even if it were a couple, how could that be a happy thing?  Mass infanticide, by the guy you have to submit and pay taxes to.  Glad those taxes are supporting good governance. :-{
But where is the hope?  We see for the second time God preserves a child in the midst of a mass infanticide by a head of government.  Whatever Satan's plans to spread death, pain, and suffering (notice Herod did this because he "became furious," v16 ESV), God preserves His remnant, He moves right ahead with his plan.  Not only would Moses not be killed at birth, he would be used to let God's people go, and to give them the law (and lead them through a long period of disobeying it!).  Not only would Jesus not be killed at birth, but He would be killed at the right time, according to God's plan -- through, of course, the wicked designs of evil men.
A friend says (quotes someone?  I don't know) that God likes taking simple evil, and making a complex good.  The trick is, it has to be pretty good, to justify the evil.  Here we have Jesus' birth, and preservation, placed alongside the senseless, furious slaughter of many innocent children.  And Jeremiah tells us that life is Good.  Which, for Jeremiah, is really saying something.  Jesus really is that Good.  And He really will wipe away all our tears, and give us Joy, and a reward for our work.

shirts

Sometimes you see the weirdest shirts around here.  Like the Curves shirt on a middle aged guy.  And people wear whatever they have to church; though they usually pick something they think looks nice, whatever it happens to say.
So last week I saw, for the second time, a guy wearing the shirt for the 200(2?) women's snowboarding championship in Japan.  I'm guessing he didn't go himself.
And today I saw one of the members of the second choir that sang, wearing a nice, new black shirt with "Suiciders" across the front.  Probably a kind of hard apple cider; sounds like something Rogue Ales would sell.  Anyway, I asked her after church, and she had no idea what it meant.  But it was a nice looking shirt.  Just not what I would normally expect to see while hearing "Jesus is born to save us."  Except maybe here.

Preparing for Christmas

This morning the sermon was on preparing for Christmas, and I was impressed by what I heard.  The preacher compared what people do to prepare for Christmas here (i.e., buy and come to church in new clothes, and feast), and what was described in three passages of the Bible.  It sank in just how important this message was, when I asked James if he was getting ready for Christmas, and he said "yeah, I put a wreath on my door."  So I thought this worth noting down.  I don't recall all the sermon, and it was all in French anyway, so some of this is a translation of what I remember, and some of it is my own thoughts/observations filling in the gaps.
First, let's consider what Joseph did to prepare for Jesus' birth:

 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
   and they shall call his name Immanuel"

   (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. (Matt 1:18-25 ESV)

First, Joseph approached the birth of Jesus with Justice and Compassion.  Any one of us, on finding our fiancée pregnant through no act of our own, would feel perfectly free to let her go to whatever punishment and shame she received.  Perhaps more so here, I don't know.  But Matthew calls Joseph a "just man," who sought to keep her from the public shame, and get rid of her quietly. I see compassion as well as justice here.  The just would want the sinner punished; he has compassion on her, as well.  What would Christmas be like for us if Joseph had insisted on following the law and stoning to death the (presumed) adulteress?
The other thing we see in Joseph is obedience to the angelic message.  The Angel basically tells him to do two things: Take her as wife, and name the child Jesus.  Do not fear, she's not actually an adulteress, like you (and everyone else) thinks.  Its even more bizarre than you can imagine, but not sin.  The call to name the child is something I have never noticed (as important) before, but in some places (like here) that responsibility is taken seriously.  Like Adam, who showed his dominion over creation by naming everything, a man shows his authority and responsibility over a child by naming it (well, in some places, anyway).  On both counts, Joseph obeyed the message of the Angel.  As we approach Christmas, do we pay particular attention to obeying God's word?  When He asks us to do (or not do) something, do we obey Him?
Next, we turn to Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist:

 ⁵In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ⁶And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. ⁷But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

 ⁸Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, ⁹according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. ¹¹And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. ¹²And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. ¹³But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. ¹⁴And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, ¹⁵for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. ¹⁶And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, ¹⁷and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared."

 ¹⁸And Zechariah said to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." ¹⁹And the angel answered him, "I am I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. ²⁰And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time." ²¹And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. ²²And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. ²³And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. (Luke 1:5-23 ESV)

Zechariah and Elizabeth are described as righteous, "walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord." They were both of priestly descent. How did they prepare for the birth of Jesus?  The did so with righteousness, as we saw in Joseph, but they also did so with prayer.  They had no child, and when Zechariah goes into the Holy of Holies to burn incense, the angel says, right off the bat, "your prayer has been heard." This prayer has not yet been introduced, but it is clear by what follows that the angel is talking about the prayer for a Son.  This couple did not simply wait for God's salvation, they prayed for it.  They had no idea, I'm sure, that a child, which would save them from the public shame of barrenness (as well as from a lonely old age with none to care for them) would also turn many from their sins and provide the Lord's salvation in a much broader sense.  But they prayed, and God answered.
Another thing we notice about their preparation for Jesus' birth was the Angelic instruction regarding their own son: "he must not drink wine or strong drink." Sounds a bit like a nazarite oath, but in any case, there is cause for discipline.  In explaining discipline to my son this morning, I came up with discipline as doing what you should do, even (or especially) when you want to do something else.  We discipline our children, because we want them to be disciplined (that is, able/willing to do what is right, though they really want to do something else).  I'm not really sure why they were not allowed wine (I'm presuming this prohibition extended to Elizabeth, so long as she was pregnant, and probably while breastfeeding as well), but some times situations of life call for practicing doing what you don't want, if only to be ready for the time you have to.  (If your response to the above is "I don't drink alcohol; what's the difference?", then pick something else that you like, that you may some day be better off without, and consider disciplining yourself in regard to that.)
Zechariah and Elizabeth prayed, and they approached the birth of their son with discipline.  If we were to combine the two?  How often do we want to pray, but prefer something else? How often do we give in to hunger, fatigue, or busyness, rather than go to the only Source of Good for what we truly need?  What if we approached Christmas with a focus on praying to God for what we need (and want?!) -- that might make a good replacement for the lists to Santa... And what if we practiced doing what we knew was right, particularly when we wanted something else?
The third example of Christmas prep comes from the wise men:

 ¹Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, ²saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." ³When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

 ⁶ "'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
   are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
   who will shepherd my people Israel.'"

⁷Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. ⁸And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him." ⁹After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. ¹¹And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. (Matthew 2:1-11 ESV)

I won't go in to speculations about what these men went through to get to Israel.  Certainly it was a long voyage, and there were many preparations to make.  Certainly there was much study in finding the star, and knowing its significance.  Certainly there was something in them that wanted to worship this new born king, or they would not have gone to such trouble.  But How did they worship him, and what kind of preparation did they make for the time that they did, in fact, find him? They brought him gifts, and not just any gift.  Gifts fit for a King, a priest, and/or one who would die.  Gifts that acknowledged the character and value of the one born, however they could have known that.  When we come to celebrate Christmas, do we come bearing gifts?  Sure we give gifts to each other.  Anyone would do that:

"If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. (Luke 6:32-33 ESV)

But do we prepare for Christmas by readying gifts for Jesus?  He is the one we are here to celebrate, after all.  What would that look like?  What kind of gift would you offer your Lord, who bought you with His own life, and gave you everything of value that you have? David gives us one idea:

¹⁶For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
   you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17 ESV)

So how will we prepare for Christmas, by preparing for Jesus a gift that he will not despise?  How will we search the depths of our sinful hearts, and scorn the evil wicked motives we find there, and run yelling and screaming for Grace to the only One who is willing and able to give it?  It would be nice if God would be happy with us killing a cow (especially if we got the meat!) But He wants us, not a cow. Nor anything else we might try to buy Him off with.  How will we prepare this gift, as we come to worship Jesus in the celebration of his birth this year?
So let us prepare for Christmas in righteousness (including justice and compassion), obedience to God's word, prayer, discipline, and the gift of our own lives, broken and useful for the advancement of Christ's kingdom.

Getting the Chicken Across

When I was in high school, we did lots of brain teasers and logic puzzles. One was about a fox, a chicken, and a bag of corn.  You have to get them all across the river, but your boat can only carry one thing at a time.  If you leave the fox and chicken alone, the fox will eat the chicken.  If you leave the chicken and the corn alone, the chicken will eat the corn.  So how to you get them all across, one at a time?
You get the chicken across first.  Then you bring over either one of the other two, it doesn't matter which.  Then you bring the chicken BACK, then the other item over.  Then you go back and get the chicken again.  That way, the only two things you've ever left alone are the fox and the corn, who don't care about each other.
As fun as these puzzles are, I was thinking about this recently, because this seems like a recurring motif in our lives. In order to get something done, we have to do something else first.  Then to do a third thing, we have to undo the first thing we did, then we have to do it again later.  Put everything from the boxes on the table, so you can see what it all is.  Then put it back in boxes, so it doesn't take up the whole room.  Build a makeshift counter to get some stuff off the floor, so you can see the floor to plan the real cupboards.  Figure out your Email, so you can know what people are writing you, so you can figure out what to write back.  Collect everything that is being asked of you in one place so you can prioritize it, then start on the most important.  When I put boards on stacked bricks (not cinder blocks!) to get some books off the floor, I never imagined they would still be there now.  But the makeshift works for now, and there are other higher priority items to be done today.
Make space to be able to think. Use the space. Clear the space for something else. Get some rest. Get out all that stuff you threw in boxes to make space earlier, and figure out where it should go.  Then put everything back in boxes until you get real furniture. Get more money. Order more furniture. Then go and ask (again) how your furniture is coming.  Get the furniture. Get stuff out of boxes, and put it up.  Now use the space made by those boxes to get out more stuff, and figure out where to put it.
Anyway, there seems to be a lot of chicken-moving to get the foxes and bags of corn in this world where they belong.

Sects and the Bible

I had a conversation with a couple ladies today, on the way home from church, who offered me some of their literature.  They are part of a group that calls themselves Christian, while they deny basic tenants that Christians, in general hold, and which started in the US not long ago (as religions go).  They have a surprisingly strong presence here, and a good chunk of money.
I talked about false prophecy and methods of Biblical interpretation, and they toted some party lines, but also some creative defenses of their materials. One of my goals in the conversation was to find out if there was a chance they would listen to reason, or if they were beyond listening to contrary viewpoints.  Unfortunately for that goal, one of the characteristics of people in this area in Congo, which I have had pointed out to me by several Congolese, is the habit of agreeing to your face, then acting as they please.  So several times I got things like, "yes, that was a false prophecy, I see." followed by a roundabout defense of the the prophecy as just.
In one attempt to cut to the chase, I grabbed some of their material, and skimmed for heretical interpretations.  I have looked through there material several times, and it seems like it doesn't ever take long before I found something wacky. But I didn't find anything immediately (under the pressure of the conversation, probably), so we went back to the Bible, prophecy, and Jesus.
The short version of that conversation is that both women turned out to be strongly convinced that they are in the True church, and nothing I said was allowed to inject the slightest perceptible doubt.
But I had some doubt myself, that perhaps their church had gotten less wacky since I last looked at their materials, since I didn't immediately find something in that booklet.  So tonight I took a more leisurely gander at it, and boy, I was not disappointed.  One short article took you through Ezekiel, Daniel, 2Kings, and a couple other books to prove exactly how, why, and when the Judgment day would begin (when it would end was in another article). There were, of course, the confusions about who exactly Jesus is, but I won't bore you with the details.
The thing that struck me, again, was how reasonable and logical much of the writing is.  Take lots of correctly interpreted scripture, throw in one wacky interpretation, and everything that follows sounds right, but isn't. The above trip through Daniel, etc. started with a statement of Jesus, which is clearly in the future tense.  But for some reason they interpret his comment to refer to a period that started 600 years earlier. hmm... They kind of glossed over that part.
Like one of the last things they said, of 1Tim 2:3-4: "This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth," in the ESV. Leaving aside the meaning of "all people" here, this verse was quoted to demonstrate that accurate/precise knowledge was necessary for salvation. They are saved because they come to the knowledge of the truth (their French version said "exact knowledge," though that may be their own translation, as the two French versions I have here don't have "exact").  No, actually, salvation and knowledge here are two independent items desired by God. Whether there is any other relationship between them is not mentioned here (not that it couldn't be demonstrated elsewhere, just not here). They sound logical, but their logic is flawed.
As I reflected on this later, I realized that, for a number of these concerns, most people would probably just glaze over them.  These ladies had pretty good French, and probably sound much better in Swahili.  Most people would probably look up to them, and not really question what they say, if it sounds reasonable.  Most people here have a hard enough time reading the Bible for themselves, that they probably welcome an educated person who makes sense, and who will tell them what the Bible means. Most people would not be able to get past the language, much less the logic and content embedded in the language. Which brought me back to the urgency of our task.  People in America who fall prey to these influences are somewhat responsible for their own demise.  They could read the Bible for themselves, if they wanted.  They could go to church and learn from others, fairly easily (without crossing language or cultural barriers, anyway).  But people here generally have to read the Bible in a second or third language, and it isn't easy for them like it is for me (and you?).  When did you last read Shakespeare for fun, much less something in French or Spanish?  We need to get the church here solid defense against heresy.  We need to get her a foundation that she can build on, that will withstand tests in time.  We need to get her the Bible, in languages that her people can easily understand. And we need to do that sooner, rather than later.