The Ultimate Gift at Christmas

Jesus’ life, from the cradle to the tomb was a life enshrouded and bookended with miracles: born of a virgin and defying death from a determined King Herod, Jesus at a young age astounding everyone at the Temple, eventually healing the sick and raising the dead, saying profound things that no one else could utter nor could the most eloquent author ever construct, he preached what he practiced and he practiced what he preached. The Word of God came in the flesh.

Only God could do such things. Jesus was who he said he was.

We cannot merely say Jesus was a good moral person or teacher, or that his teachings are a good idea to consider, one of many choices of the spiritual buffet line of America. The miracle of the Christ-child at Christmas, the miracle of Jesus, doesn’t allow such a thing. The utter finality, the complete authority, the total originality of Jesus’ life and arrival, cuts like a knife through the grey morality of our world.

 Jesus is not just an option to consider: he hasn’t afforded us this option. 

 Either you believe he was the incarnate son of God or you do not, but the truth of who Jesus is stands resolute. Only God could be able to come into our world as a baby. Only God would be wise enough to see that this was the proper means for the Son of God to arrive.

Jesus didn’t just love, he was and is love. He didn’t and doesn’t just offer blessings; he is the blessing. He doesn’t only give us gifts; his very presence is the gift. The power and healing authority of Jesus is all sufficient to meet every need in your life. Do you believe this? Jesus raised the dead; do you believe he can raise the dead in you?

Jesus isn’t just an option, he is the incarnate gift of God, and you cannot escape the influence of Jesus Christ at Christmas.

And the influence of Jesus is bigger than just all the Christmas “stuff” we see.

We can call it happy holidays, outlaw manger scenes, create a Festivus pole as they did on Seinfeld, and take down all the Christmas trees. Regardless, the Spirit of Christ will always be here, and always will be. Because God is love, and God’s love can live in a place that no one can touch: in the human heart.

Love doesn’t give up; love doesn’t back down; love always seeks, rebukes, chastens, restores, and patiently endures. Love is not dependent on gifts, trees, or titles. Love is not a thing you can grab or quantify, but you know it exists. 

 You cannot see love, but you know you need it. Such is the same with God.

This whole idea that to experience the Spirit of Christ at Christmas regardless of trees, title or gifts, is eloquently packaged in that classic, theologically correct mainstay television special: "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. “

He lived on a snowy mountain with his sad little dog Max. The Grinch, hating the happy spirit of Christmas, their roast beast, their songs, their decorations, and he sought to destroy Christmas by stealing all of the fluff and stuff, all of the exteriors that the Grinch thought comprised Christmas. He even stole their roast beast! He slid across the floor like a snake and used a magnet to steal their stockings! He folded up their Christmas trees like umbrellas. Their ploo plinkas!

Confident in his success, he sat back and waited for the ensuing wails of upset Who children and their destroyed lives to come up the mountain range. Soon, he heard their songs despite their loss, and the Grinch was perplexed. And as they sang, the Grinch’s heart expanded, and his life was changed. He realized that there was something to Christmas much more special than just stuff.

Maybe he realized that the internal and spiritual was more important than just the external and material.

Greed was replaced by generosity, shame was replaced by honor. The Grinch was even allowed to carve the roast beast; what a beautiful story of grace, of second chances that in many ways God also shows us, for their is a grinch in us all.

As we know, the Grinch failed at his task to destroy Christmas. Why? Because the Spirit of Christmas lived within the people of Whoville, and nothing could ever take that away. What did Jesus say about the Kingdom of God? Ah yes, that it lives within us as Christians.

The Grinch looked at all the externals, but the Lord looks upon the heart.

Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, or at least, they were designed to be so. Christmas is about two things: God and people. God coming close to people as the Christ child, and about people letting their guard down long enough maybe to let Christ in and have their heart grow three sizes.

Theologians may call it “incarnational omnipresent sovereignty”, but let’s just use plain terms: God wants to live in us all and make us new, and no grinch will ever take that away.

The existence of the grace of God implies that we are in need of grace, salvation implies that we are in bondage and in a spiritual prison. And the good news of the Christmas season, and every season, is that Christ is here to set us free.

Take a moment and picture a prison cell in your mind.

"A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes - and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, this is not a bad picture of Advent." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Revelation 3:20 - Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

One of the great gifts of God to us is repentance. 

I know, you'd rather have a new Lamborghini (or maybe a Snuggie?) but let me explain. Repentance is a gift of God, for we cannot open the door from the inside. Repentance is the gateway to the things of God. Repentance is saying, yes Lord, open the door of my heart from the outside in.

Repentance means to change your mind, to turn around. It is not just feeling shame or to temporarily modify your behavior. The prophet Joel would say it is to rend our hearts, not our garments - To change the affairs of our heart, not just change the externals or shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.

Repentance is opening up the door of our heart to let God in, and to admit that we have wronged... admitting that we know what we ought to do, but we do not always do it.

Its God that leads us to Christ. Our choice matters, but its God pursuing us. Its God that came down at Christmas. Its God that’s calling you today.

The signs of God’s mercy are absolutely everywhere, and to experience it, you have to admit to yourself that you are a sinner, that you need to receive God’s gift of repentance, that you need the love and forgiveness of God. What better time to start anew that at Christmas?

You are a beautiful, fought for, died for, pursued, wept over, sought after Temple of the Holy spirit. Do you feel defiled? Tired? Ready for a change? Ready for a fresh start? Receive the gift of repentance from God. Give back to God what he already gave you: the gift of your life. We didn’t create our lives, but we can give them back to our Creator to be remade and reshaped into the mold of what they were meant to be: a life lived in holy communion with God. Once you experience it, you are never the same. Once you receive it, you can't help but give it to others. 

This is the ultimate gift at Christmas.

Free Youth Group Christmas Party Game Idea: Bobbing for Canes

Experiencing the new birth of Christmas

Every since I was a little kid, I have loved Christmas. Like, at a hyperactive level. Each morning in December, I used to run down the stairs first thing in order to move the Advent calendar to the next day.

When the movie Elf was released in 2003, one of the good friends at the time told me that Elf reminded them of me.

I’ll take that as a compliment.
But honestly, I was most excited about the presents, the incandescent lighting, the decorations, and that tin box full of sugar cookies. The real meaning of Christmas, as we often hear, gets lost, and looking back when I was as a young teenager, it was awfully hard not to be distracted by all the other Christmas “stuff”.

When we hear about Christmas in church, we hear a lot of “God with us”, and that is true, but what does that mean to us today? More important, why should this matter to teenagers?

The author of the gospel of John doesn’t talk about Mary, Joseph, the wise men, or the shepherds. As John often does, he attempts to display a different angle on our Christology. Instead of beginning his gospel in a literal fashion, he does so in a philosophical and theological manner:

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

Jesus’ birth occurred for a host of reasons, one of which was to bring “his life (that) brought light to everyone”. This life and light that Jesus brings is undefeated, inextinguishable, forever glorious and illuminated.

The Incarnation is a powerful mystery in its origin and reality, and yet it is simultaneously accessible to all humans on our most fundamental levels of existence.

God came to be with us so that God could live IN us. The good news of the Incarnation is that, through the new birth of the Holy Spirit, we can not just “go to heaven when we die”, but actually become like Christ here on earth, (hopefully) bringing light and life to all WE encounter as well. The Christmas story is indeed a gift to receive, but it is equally important as a gift to share.

May you experience this new birth for yourself this holiday season. Let us encourage our teenagers to do the same.

Just be Good for Goodness Sake?!?

If you haven't heard, a group called American Atheists put up a billboard in NC recently:

I'm not going to take the bait and bash atheists, malign them, or decry this billboard.  Atheists are people that God loves, that I love, and its a free country.  They are just as free to post things like this billboard as religious people can post their own billboards, which are occasionally horrible.  I have admiration for atheists:  they don't take pat answers, they are open to engaging to intellectual scrutiny on a variety of issues, and they take pride in using reason.  They don't just swallow whole any teaching that is given to them.  There are lessons to glean there.  

Many of them, however, believe the misconception and stereotype that you have to check your brain at the door in order to be a follower of Christ. 

What I will point out about this billboard, however, is this:  why do we feel this drive to "be good"? (even for goodness' sake).  

What is the origin of this desire?  Why do we even care to try and "be good"?  

For one to engage on a search to "be good" implies that in your current condition you have the capability to not be good.  When I search for something such as "goodness", it implies that I know that I am not always good, and that I need better actions to rectify the situation.

Atheists may agree on this, but we would arrive at a different causation for the effect.  I would call this instinctual/covert movement towards goodness the natural human response to sin.  We know we are sinners, and we attempt to satiate our conscience via our attempts at good works, with or without God.

  Ultimately, this work is fruitless, because no one can make themselves perfectly righteous.  Only faith in Christ, whose perfect sacrifice of righteousness on our behalf, can make us "good", all of it grace.  All of it a gift of God on our behalf.

Many have begun to believe in God when they realized how perfectly impossible it is to try to be good, all the time.  You can't do it.  Why is that?  

An atheist may say they want to be good simply because its sensible and reasonable, even if that flies in the face of a true Darwinian perspective of the world, which on an animalistic level should be each man for himself.

It boils down to this:  when I have a hunger for goodness, it implies that I was made to know goodness, just as my hunger for food and water reasonably implies I need food and water to survive. 

God is the only one who is good, all the time.  We are made for God and to be in relationship with God.  Our actions speak louder than our words, whether we admit it or not.