Served vs. Serve

Someone, Virginia Talmudge actually, although sadly I don’t know who that is, prayed this:

“Lord, help me to keep Christmas unhurried. Let us make a soft manger bed of worship in my heart for you and take time for adoration of the Babe of Christmas”

A soft manger bed of worship… I like that.

I have been thinking about servanthood over the last little while- perhaps bought to mind by the bartenders and waitors who have been giving me food and drink at various Christmas gatherings.

It is a key trait of the God-man that came to earth. This whole creator of the universe wiping donkey dung from feet scenario.

I like to think of this idea: that when we follow God’s example of humble. humble, humble servanthood we are giving us and other space to adore him. Little acts of secret service can be like building the frame of the soft manger bed of worship in our hearts.

It is Christmas. day Take time to show unhurried love. Grasp the chance to go out of your way to make a drink for someone. Carry someones bags for them. Offer round the mince pies. Hoover up the wayward pines from the tree.  As you do it dwell on this humble King … and worship.

Today is Christmas

It was not about people having too much food together, but it was kinda about gifts. Jesus was born and He is Gods gift to the world.

At the Christmas eve service last night a friend who had a baby 3 weeks ago asked me to hold her baby. actually it was more like… can you take this… she was busy and the baby was in the way for a bit…

can we take Jesus. He is offered for  to us in relationship and in a salvific role. salvific is an awesome word our pastor used recently. salvific. . . salve. ointment that makes you betterer.  salvation. makes you better? maybe . maybe not. makes you as clean. as white as snow. yep.

thanks for Christmas, God.

Relapse…or Response?

I don’t know about you, but I find that Christmas seems to disappear incredibly quickly. After such anticipation, decorations having been up since October, and adequate time to remind ourselves of what the season is really about, after Boxing Day everything seems to slip very quickly back into ‘normality’. Suddenly everybody is focused on New Year’s Eve (and whatever other holidays your country might celebrate) and before you know it, all the hospitality and goodwill and generosity and wonder fade into the background, as sales and work/school and resolutions and losing festive weight become the focus. We relapse.

What’s the point of spending precious time meditating on this precious event if it doesn’t result in a response? And not a response that manifests itself only on Christmas day, but a response that flows through our lives and into the new year?

I was told once that if you were unsure how to respond to the miracle of Christmas, to look at the guys who were there at the first one.

First, there’s the shepherds. After coming to see baby Jesus, their response was to go out and tell people what they had witnessed. The miracle inspired evangelism.

Later, there’s the wise men. After hearing about this same baby, their response was to bring him gifts that symbolised how adored and revered he was – gifts for a king. The miracle inspired worship.

May our reponse to Christmas be one that shows others who Jesus is. A response that worships him with all we are and all we have. A response that lasts well after December 25th. A response fit for a king.

3rd Advent Prayer

This Sunday we light our third symbolic sparkler and remember the meaning of Advent (the visit of Jesus).We wait and we marinate in:
The remembrance of Israel’s yearning for the coming Messiah, to save, forgive and restore them.

Our hope for the second coming of Jesus where everything will be restored.

The realisation of our own need for Gods grace, through Jesus.

God, stir in our hearts excitement about the visit of your Son. God, help us to anticipate you with every bit of us. Help our waiting to be practical; with each small act of servanthood help us to remember you and to be inspired by your example.

If…

If a nightingale sing

If a sycamore leaf spin

If a salmon leap

If a tortoise sleep

 

make your careful way with awe

by appreciating God’s creation

do nothing to alter nature’s course

but with child’s eye

let your wonder arise

 

do not merely sustain yourself,

grabbing what you need

but find time to perceive the world He made,

take in its beauty and form

 

therefore let the Lord speak to you

through the things that He’s created

and give praise to the man upstairs

for the perfection of the picture He’s painted

“Fine” vs. “It’s a long story…”

Tis the season to be jolly- and to give quick fire one word answers to questions such as “How are you doing?”. It seems pretty funny that at the celebration of the one who had an abundance of time to spend with people; hearing about their worries, loving them into freedom, dialoging with them about beautiful, alternative ways to live, we are so rushed off our feet that we don’t have time to really find the answers to “how are you?”

So… subvert it.

Ask for real answers. Allocate 15 minutes each day to sit down with a colleague and hear how they are feeling. Find 2 hours in the run up to Christmas to sit down with a friend and just… chew the fat. Decline the temptation for a 6th visit to the mall for pressies and instead take the person you were pressie hunting for out for a cuppa. Do it in this spirit of Jesus:

Come thou long expected Jesus
Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in thee.

(Charles Wesley)

Inn…or Stable?

Is my heart looking more like an inn or a stable?

The inn could not accomodate Jesus. It was full. In comparison to the stable, it was probably a clean place. A self-sufficient place.

We all know that their was no room for Jesus at the inn. But it’s easy to overlook the characteristics of the inn when they exist in our own hearts.

Are we too ‘full’ - too preoccupied and busy to turn our attention to Jesus? Are we too ’clean’ - too organised and precious to let him come in and mess up our thinking? Are we too self-sufficient – not realising how much we need him?

The stable on the other hand, could – and did – accomodate Jesus. Whether the ‘stable’ was in fact a cave or an enclosure or a hut or anything else, it was available. It was open. Inclusive. Humble. Raw. Real.

That’s what my heart should look like. As messy and unlikely as it may be, it needs to be available.

Jesus only had one birthday. It happened a long time ago in a stable. But I want to make sure that every single day, I’m as open and real toward him as that old stable was. And I never want to be like the innkeeper, and tell Jesus that I have no room for him.

It’s a cheesy analogy, but if you can’t be cheesy during the festive season, then when can you

Choices

At this time of year in particular, we are faced with a million choices a day.

What to buy, what to wear, where to go, who to see…

I just passed my driving test today (whoo) and I feel like as well as being handed a pass certificate, I have also been given a certificate of freedom to go and do what I want, when I want (as long as my husband doesn’t want the car!), and roam wherever my volkswagen will take me.  No more depending on others for lifts, getting picked up all the time, restricted in visiting with people and nipping out when I feel like it.  My choices are plenty now, a whole new world of freedom has been opened up to me.

It’s ironic that amidst all the choices of our modern life, in our quest to be like Jesus, we read that Mary & Jo didn’t even have a choice of places to rest their head and give birth to the Christ-child, the Messiah…the Saviour of the world!

…they were humble, taking cover in a dirty back room with the animals and livestock.  Jesus seemed to always talk about the freedom that comes in giving up our rights…laying down our desires for the true freedom that comes in living life for Him and for others.

This Christmas I pray for true freedom…not the kind that comes with having your license.  Not the kind that comes from having more money.  Not the kind that comes from having a full fridge of food.

I’m talking about the kind of freedom that comes from choosing others before myself; from denying my desires to try and live a holy life.

May we find it and in the living, encourage others to pursue it.

acceptance vs. disgust

The picture we have of the first Christmas is probably a lot more acceptable than it would have been in reality. Birth. While it is an amazing thing it is kinda disgusting in parts. Hospital. sterile. doctors. nurses. The birth we know of today is a little different to there being “no room in the inn” and having to give birth in a place where animals lived. But it still aint pretty. I know it goes easy for some mums, but a friend once shared that it was the most traumatic, violating, epic thing she has ever done. And so many people dont want to know that. they want to know that the baby and mum are healthy. the mum has been ripped/cut to bits, and is more exhausted than ever before. the baby is premature, and might survive… but when people ask. we say “things are “ok”.. they’ll turn out alright.

Acceptance is really important. But can we ignore the disgusting bits when we accept somthing. In our faith…do we grapple with the disgusting bits.  Jesus a nice man who taught good things we should follow.. I believe he was also fully God and fully man. This is easy. The same God who is Jesus “bringing the people into the promised land”. Genocide. genocide. genocide. This is a litle more difficult to deal with, but we can’t, and we must not just choose the bits of Christianity we like and dismiss the rest. Sure we check the accuracy of things. we dont just blindly accept things we are unsure of, but lets not have the faith of the sunday school line drawings I grew up with. Joshua fought the battle of jerico and the walls came tubling down….. then Joshua and his army when and slaughtered men women and children…..

I’m not suggesting that we re write kids songs so that kids dont sleep at night.. but lets be real with what Christianity is. lets get our hands dirty in the old testament, and through that we might see the over arching plan God has for us. It might just make us all the more humble next time we take communion or think of jesus dying on the cross for us.

( I write this as a hypocrite who is trying to become less hypocritical… I’ve been getting my hands dirty in the book of Joshua and working through some of this over the last year..)

these dreams…

these dreams
inviting possibilities
whisphering promises
etching ideas upon my mind
a yearning deep within
the distant drumming
of an unsung song
beckons the dance to begin
an ache remains unsatisfied
its time will come
hold on my heart
hold on

these dreams…..

 

‘Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of man’ Goethe
‘Dream BIG dreams….’ Tony Campolo