December 21, 2009 – The Divine, Part 4

In the words of John, John 1:14 says, “and the word became flesh and made His dwelling here, among us.”  That is the beauty of this season – that God came here to us, Immanuel, God with us.  Today we look at the baby – The truth that the wise men studied and sought after was this idea that God would come, here, to us, mankind.  That is the Divine, that is Christmas, its amazing, miraculous so paradoxical.  That the creator of this universe for the love of His creation would come here to us so that we could be with Him.  That God himself would walk down the staircase of heaven with a baby in his arms.

You know we use stairs all the time without even thinking about it.  Stairs are neat because they take you from one environment to another, upstairs to downstairs, one level to another.  And you know that is what God did for us when he gave us Jesus - He moved from His environment to ours affording us the opportunity to go from our environment to His.  Stairs connect what is divided and we were separated from Him.

Why during the Christmas season are we drawn to the story, the manger, why are we pulled to the staircase?  Why did God walk down the staircase of heaven with a baby in his arms, why would God do that?  I mean isn’t it mind boggling that the God of the universe would come here to us to afford us the opportunity to be with Him.  That through Jesus we can move from our environment to his environment - God with us.

When God walked down the staircase of heaven with a baby in his arms to save us, to be with us He wasn’t just giving us an illusion that He was here – He came in the flesh.  He identified with us - Emmanuel – God with us.  Think about this: Jesus had a family, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles so He knows about family drama.  Jesus had a job in the corporate world – a carpenter.  A carpenter in ancient days was a skilled position, a trader, a haggler for price and jobs to do so He knows about pay disputes, weather delays and job pressures.  How about on the emotional front – stress, anxiety, betrayal.  He knows how it feels when you need friends the most and they bolt on you.  The Bible says one time Jesus was so stressed out that He sweated drops of blood.  So we don’t serve some sequestered savior, some detached deity.  We serve a God who is with us and Jesus is with us so we can be with Him.

That is what Christmas is all about.  The story that is told in the nativity scene – that God walked down the staircase of heaven with a baby in his arms because He wants to be with you and in you.  He came here out of love for his creation…because He loves you.  It is His gift to us on this Christmas that He provided the stairs.  This week we are going to be giving and receiving a lot of gifts.  Gifts tell us a lot – it reflects the personality of the giver and what they know about the receiver.    That God walked down the staircase of heaven with the indescribable gift of a baby in his arms to give us.

Jesus didn’t stay in the crib, he crawled out of the crib and performed perfectly, died sacrificially and rose bodily and now is standing at the bottom of the stairs with nail pierced hands.  That is what we celebrate this Christmas season.  Will you accept the gift?

The Divine Gift,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler

December 14, 2009 – The Divine, Part 3

We have looked at Joseph and Mary and today we look at the wise men.  Matthew is the only gospel that talks of the place the wise men had in the nativity story.  What can we rediscover about this amazing scene and what can it give us as insight into our God.

These men were truth seekers and the prophesies in the Old Testament moved them to journey to see the child.  In their minds could this Jewish tradition really happen, could the scriptures be true, could what the Old Testament says about God coming down to mankind really be happening right now?  They understood things about the birth of Jesus that many during that event did not except what was revealed to them by angels.  That is what is so great about the magi.  Men in wonder about the event, seeking out the notion that God so loved this world that He would send His Son to die for mankind.  That was their understanding as they went on this journey

What is most telling about the wise men and the truth that they were seeking was what was in their hands at their arrival – the gifts.  Gift are appropriate at Christmas time and here is the thing about gifts – gifts tell a lot about the people giving them.  Do they understand or know the recipient well?  Do they grasp the timing, the occasion of giving the gift?  Many understand the trouble of finding that perfect gift around Christmas time and you know the people in your life who are great gift givers.  Someone who knows you well, is thoughtful and creative and consistently delivers a gift to you of something you didn’t even know you wanted or needed but its perfect.  Gifts are significant in that way.

So what is the significance of the gifts these wise men gave as each gift spoke to who they were, what they understood the occasion to be and who the recipient was.  Revealing to us even today some 2,000 years later who is Jesus (Matt. 2:11).

Gold – the most precious of metals of their time as it is today.  Usually preserved for 1 person – kings.  They were making this statement – they knew this was a king and not just a king but the King of kings (Num. 24:17).  Just listen to their explanation of who they thought they were seeking in vs. 2, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?”

Frankincense – derived from amber that when burned would leave a sweet smell in the air.  Frankincense meant something very special to the Jewish people (Ex. 30:34-38).  It was special and it was holy.  It was the fragrance used in the place where God met man in the Tabernacle.  These magi were declaring in their gift giving that they understood this child was not only the King of kings but also God himself made flesh here to meet us.

Myrrh- myrrh was a spice also used for fragrance.  It could be burned to make the house smell nice or even put on as perfume but in ancient times myrrh was most often used not for the living but for the dead.  A sacred spice used in burial as an embalming agent.  It was often packed in the linens of a dead person to stifle the smell of decay.  A fairly strange gift to bring a child as their birthday present unless you understand that the child’s purpose was actually to come and die.  These wise men had this revelation.  He was not just King, or God in the flesh, but our sacrifice/our savior.

This too is part of the Christmas story that these wise men knew.  They may have understood many things about who they were visiting that day but what they may not have understood was what Jesus’ kingdom was really about - Paul explains in Phil. 2:6-11.  That Jesus did not come to rule with an iron fist, to be a ruthless king like history so often chronicles kings to be - He is the King of kings, He is God made flesh but He came and took the humble position of a slave, obedient unto death on a cross as a sacrifice.

Do you know how much someone loves you – how thoughtful they are – how well they know what you need – how much they understand the occasion – by the gift  - this is the message of Christmas.  This is the truth that the wise men pursued and at least hoped to discover on their journey.  They had the book knowledge of what all of this could mean – a King of kings, God made flesh, a sacrifice for our sins and their gifts reflected just that.  But the story of Christmas shouts of the love God has for mankind and we see that in the gift He gave us that holy night – the divine gift.

Nothing says I love you more than a gift given face to face – God came here as Jesus, as a gift,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler

December 7, 2009 – The Divine, Part 2

Today we look at the other central figure in the nativity story – Jesus’ mother, Mary.  The goal in the series of The Divine is to look at the nativity story to see what we can learn about God both within the story and whom He chose to participate within the story to rediscover the mystery of a story we have heard many times before.

Mary is not an iconic painting or fresco on the wall nor is she this idealistic character that we see in a plastic lawn ornament or wood carving in your home nativity set.  She was a young girl in the first century whom God chose to participate in some incredible circumstances to help usher Jesus into this world (Lk. 1:26-38).

So why Mary…of all the times, in all the places, of all the people, why did God look down and choose this young girl from Nazareth.  This seemingly insignificant teenage girl the angel says to have found favor with God.  Why did God find favor with Mary – listen to the strikes against her:

Strike 1 – She was young, probably a teenager

Strike 2 – She was a girl in a male dominated society

Strike 3 – She would have been extremely poor coming from Nazareth

Strike 4 – She lived in an occupied land so she was oppressed (Roman Empire)

Because of those things you can see even in her the confusion of the assignment (vs. 29) but God chose her and called her favored because true significance comes from the Creator not the created.  If there is one theme that you can see many times in the Bible is that man looks on the outside but God looks on the inside.  The Message Bible puts the angel’s greeting best, “You are beautiful with God’s beauty, beautiful inside and out!  God be with you.”

Its not stature, or position, or prestige, or influence, or accomplishment OR the lack there of.  Esteem, significance, purpose of a life doesn’t come from those things – it comes from how God views you.  God chooses what the world would deem as insignificant and says, “You know what, there is something about Mary.”

You may have strikes against you.  Things you think disqualify you from being used by God but in all the hope that is found in the nativity story God’s choosing of Mary should show you – He is in the business of using the seemingly insignificant to do significant things for Him.  Mary had nothing going for her accept her availability and her willingness to serve.  In her words, “I am the Lord’s maidservant, ready to serve.  Let it be with me just as you say.”

To do something significant for God He asks a simple question…not what is your resume, who are you, what do you have, what have you done – no His question is – are you available because I am actually in the business of making much out of seemingly insignificant lives.

The nativity story and what we celebrate at Christmas time is a story filled with hope.  Hope, first because God stepped out of heaven and provided us a way to have access to him through Jesus, something we could not do on our own.  But there is another hope we find in this story and what we learn of God by Him choosing Mary to be the mother of Jesus – He does great things in the middle of messed up situations with seemingly broken/insignificant people.

Lets be that willing servant,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler

November 30, 2009 – The Divine, Part 1

There is so much we can learn about God in how He chose to introduce His Son Jesus Christ into the world.  So much has been said, sung about and preached about on the topic.  Many times years come and go listening to the story that we don’t stop and think that this happened to people, like you and me, who had to choose, like you and I do, how to respond to God’s voice and what place they would take in His story.

Joseph is a person in His story that I think is often overlooked but in the choosing of who Jesus’ earthly father would be we see so much about the heart and character of our heavenly Father.  Matt. 1:18-25 tells Joseph’s part in the nativity story.  A blue collar, work with your hands, teenage, carpenter from Nazareth – faced with the news that his fiance was pregnant on her account by the Holy Spirit.  At first I am sure Joseph felt confused, betrayed, embarrassed, humiliated – in a moment lives changed, dreams crushed, plans ruined.  If he says the child is his he’s lying before God, putting his reputation on the line.  If he says its not his he will be asked his choice of whether he wants a divorce, possibly sending Mary to her death for adultery.  The gravity of the situation that Joseph faced is so often overlooked.

The verse that says it all to me, Matt. 1:19, “Joseph was a good man” another version says “a righteous man.”  A righteous man was someone who has extreme honesty, justice of heart, noble,virtuous and full of goodness.  Those traits are not something that comes with maturity or years of experience.  Rather it comes from a life lived beyond yourself, your plans, your agenda.  A person who lives with the belief that their life is not their own.  That God’s purposes, whether you understand them or not, are truly greater than your own plans.  And when you are hurt, or embarrassed out of those feelings you respond with justice and virtue.  To chose to do something right and in the right way.

In that word righteous we get a glimpse into why God chose Joseph to be the earthy father but in his righteous response to wrongdoing it also reflects the heart of God himself.  All throughout scripture the Bible uses the word righteous to describe God (Ps. 33:4-5, 89:14).  He loves justice – doing things right and righteous – to do it in the most loving way possible.  Our God is righteous – His essence is righteousness.   The foundation of his throne is righteousness and justice.  With sin there is consequence – someone has to pay for it to make it right / but also loving – responding with compassion and care and understanding all in an effort to lead to restoration and healing and growth.  That is our God and that is the Christmas story that God is telling in choosing who He did to be Jesus’ earthly father.

The Divine revealed in the Christmas story,

Jonathan

Tags: Jonathan Spuler