Monthly Archives: December 2009
Lost and Found
Sunday we’ll be looking at Luke 2:41-52.
This is the one and only account we have of Jesus as an adolescent child. Many scholars dispute its legitimacy in the text…but frankly, if someone were going to make up a story about Jesus’ childhood and insert it, I would suspect they would make it more exciting than this. I mean…Jesus gets lost at the mall? Really? That’s what someone invented to make the story more interesting? I just doubt it.
I’m going to dig into three theological truths that we learn about Jesus from this story. As you read it, what do you learn about Jesus from what he says and does?
I’m also going to draw three parallels from Joseph and Mary’s perspective concerning our own relationship to Jesus. What parallels do you see to your own journey with Christ in this section?
That’s the stuff to think about until Sunday. See yaz then!
A New Hope
Hope everyone is having a great Christmas so far! I know we are…it’s awesome having the kids come home to visit.
We’ll be looking at Luke 2:21-40 this Sunday.
Joseph and Mary follow through with what the Law of Moses required of them concerning a first-born son. How important do you think it was for them to obey those commands, given the nature of the Son they had? Do we learn anything from their obedience?
We also get introduced to two other characters in this section…two people who had been waiting a long time for their hope to be realized. There are lessons for us concerning hope in the lives of these two people…what do you see in their examples that can instruct you about having hope in the face of delay or sorrow or pain?
We’ll unpack it as best as we can this Sunday. See you then!
God’s Presence; The Christ is Born
Have you ever had a frustrating Christmas? Sometimes we struggle with feelings of disappointment when the holiday doesn’t provide for us what we thought, or hoped, it might.
There’s something about the birth of Christ that really can remind us about what it means that God is with us. The presence of God in the world and in our lives is far greater than any other present we may get or give to others.
This Sunday, we’ll be looking at Luke 2:1-20, and we’ll consider what it can mean to us that God is present with us. As you read the story, what are the challenges that are faced, and what can we learn about the nature of God’s invasion of this earth from them?
See you Sunday!
Benedictus; John Baptizer is Born
As we’ve been going through the gospel of Luke, we’ve found that God seems to go out of His way to turn expectations upside-down. Our passage this Sunday is no exception, as we finish up chapter 1, verses 57-80.
The fantastic promise made by a cosmic sentinel has come true, Beth has given birth to a son. As the relatives and friends gather to comply with the Law of Moses, part of the circumcision ceremony entailed the naming of the child. Everything is going along just fine until this detail…then it all goes out of whack. What details seem abnormal in this bit of the story? Why would it matter what name the child had? As you think about your own role in life, and your identity, what does this story tell you about tradition and custom?
God seems to delight in highlighting the losers. In this gospel, the people of destiny are not the high profile people, they’re not the ones the world has esteemed as important…they are the outcasts and has-beens. They are people willing to take the risk of looking ridiculous in the eyes of their neighbors, because they know that something big is in the works.
Zach breaks out in another song (clearly, Luke was wanting this to be the musical version of the gospels), which delights in God’s fulfillment of a promised Savior, and then of his own son’s role in setting the stage for Him. Zach, again, seems to take the typical nationalistic view of the Messiah’s work, but as he speaks about his son, the premise seems to shift from those normal expectations…and its more about salvation, forgiveness, mercy, light and peace. Enemies WILL be overthrown, but the last part of the song gives us a clue as to how.
The last verse of the chapter sums up John’s life in one sentence. What is it about him that is NOT normal? Obviously, John had a unique ministry, and we wouldn’t use him as a pattern for our own lives per se, but there are principles inherent to his life that we may want to consider as it touches our own journey with God. What could we learn from John’s lifestyle, and apply to our own?
See you guys Sunday!
Magnificat: Song of the Revolution
This Sunday we’ll continue reading Luke’s gospel, and we’ll cover v39-56 of chapter 1.
What gets you really excited…so much so that you do odd things like jump up and down or scream or break into song? For a lot of us, (especially men who are normally very subdued) sporting events have that effect on us. When Bill Belichick decided to go for it in his now famous game losing decision, I stood in stunned silence. When the Colts scored the winning touchdown moments later, I was a full bore lunatic.
There is a lot of that kind of “bouncing off the walls crazy” that comes through in our story so far. And why not. The Savior is about to break in on this world. The REVOLUTION is about to begin! The Hope of Israel is at hand. If you were an Israelite, suffering for 500 years under one tyrannical empire after another…waiting for God to restore the golden age of David, and you heard that someone you were related to was CARRYING the Messiah in pregnancy…I think you’d whoop it up a bit too.
Mary goes to visit Cousin Beth, and finds the sign to be true…she’s pregnant. Confirmation of what the angel told her was going to happen to her. She also has Cousin Beth speak prophetically about what’s happening, without her even saying a word. More confirmation that she hadn’t been hallucinating that day. Mary gets so stoked, she breaks into a freestyle rap…or something. She probably wrote it down later in her “secret pillow Hanna Montana” diary (what?…she’s just a kid remember)….and many years later she gives it to Luke as he’s compiling his narrative. It could’ve happened that way…who knows?
Her song talks about herself…and God’s coming revolution on earth. What does she say about herself, and her interaction with God? From verses 51-56, how does she describe the things God is going to do in the world? How do they help us understand what God will be doing through US?
We’ll talk about it more on Sunday.
