Go and Look #adventbookclub – Day 29

•December 29, 2013 • 6 Comments

Luke 2:13-20 (CEV)

13 Suddenly many other angels came down from heaven and joined in praising God. They said:

14 “Praise God in heaven!
Peace on earth to everyone
    who pleases God.”

15 After the angels had left and gone back to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see what the Lord has told us about.” 16 They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and they saw the baby lying on a bed of hay.

17 When the shepherds saw Jesus, they told his parents what the angel had said about him. 18 Everyone listened and was surprised. 19 But Mary kept thinking about all this and wondering what it meant.

20 As the shepherds returned to their sheep, they were praising God and saying wonderful things about him. Everything they had seen and heard was just as the angel had said.

We’ve read on days 21 and 26 of the angels appearing to the shepherds.  Now we see what they do about it.

It would have been possible for the shepherds to hear the angel’s message and do nothing about it.  To dismiss it as a vivid imagination on a cold night, or something altogether too scary to consider, or too much like hard work to move.

But they didn’t, they decided to go and investigate, to see what it was that God was wanting to show them.

As they arrive, things are exactly as God said – Mary and Joseph and the Son of God.  Just as God said.

And they worship.

Mary, she took all this in, and wondered…

What was this all about?  Where was it heading?

The shepherds, they went back to their sheep, but not to forget about it.  I’m sure that night lived with them for the rest of their lives.  They went back praising God – for all they had seen and all he had done.

God calls, delivers his message, It is up to us what we do about it.  But if we ignore it, who knows what we might be missing.  If we follow it, we will find everything just as God says.

See Amid the Winter’s Snow

God speaks.
Do I hear?
If I hear, do I do anything about it?
Do I leave it?

I am Very Busy.
I have Responsibilities.
Perhaps I was imagining it…
That wasn’t meant for me,
surely for someone else?

What might I miss out on?
Encounter with God?
A space of worship?
A chance to know?
Something to learn?

Lord,
when you call
may I hurry to you,
kneel before you,
find you
and know you

This year, several of us are reading Beginnings and Endings by Maggi Dawn and joining together to comment on it.  Do join us at the Adventbookclub Facebook page, follow #adventbookclub on Twitter or comment below.  If you are also reading and blogging on this book, let me know and I will link to your blog.

Posted in Advent Book Club, bible, calling, Christmas, faith, God, Jesus, Religion, theology
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Joseph #adventbookclub – Day 28

•December 28, 2013 • 2 Comments

Matthew 1:18-23 (CEV)

The Birth of Jesus

18 This is how Jesus Christ was born. A young woman named Mary was engaged to Joseph from King David’s family. But before they were married, she learned that she was going to have a baby by God’s Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph was a good manand did not want to embarrass Mary in front of everyone. So he decided to quietly call off the wedding.

20 While Joseph was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord came to him in a dream. The angel said, “Joseph, the baby that Mary will have is from the Holy Spirit. Go ahead and marry her. 21 Then after her baby is born, name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, 23 “A virgin will have a baby boy, and he will be called Immanuel,” which means “God is with us.”

Surely, for Joseph to discover his betrothed is pregnant, there is only one conclusion to draw.  And it can’t have been a pleasant experience to have to do so.

The woman you loved, who you thought you were going to make a future with, and yes, have a family with, is now pregnant – and you know it is nothing to do with you.  But Joseph, kindly, doesn’t want to humiliate Mary further, to make her already embarrassing situation even worse.  So he decides to just quietly call things off, for the wedding just never to happen.

Mary knew she was going to have a baby “by God’s Holy Spirit”, but Joseph didn’t know that.

The BBC broadcast an amazing version of The Nativity a couple of years ago.  That showed Joseph having a real dilemma.  He loved Mary, but could not come to terms with what he assumed she had done.  He gave her a real hard time about it, over a sustained period of time.

Then God comes to him, reassured him that Mary has done nothing wrong, and lets him in on his plan.  This is the one who is going to save people – all people.  And God needs Joseph to be a part of that.

I can’t begin to imagine what Joseph’s feelings on that were.  He knew it was nothing to do with another man.  He realised that Mary was blameless in it all.  But…

I wonder if Joseph thought it was nothing to do with him?  Just something between God and Mary, of which he had no part?

Or perhaps he didn’t feel up to the task of raising God’s son, the responsibility of having him in his life?

But he does.  He listens to God’s word and he takes on the task God is calling him to.  To support Mary, to welcome God into his home.

Maggi sums up the Christmas story for me (p125)

God became like us, so we could become like him

just wow!

Joseph was big enough to let God into his life, into his family, into his home – that the same thing may be possible for us.

Thank you Lord
for the bravery of Joseph,
open to hear your call,
even when it seemed
naive,
potentially embarrassing,
quite outside the “right” thing.

May I be so brave,
so welcoming,
so open;
that you may come
and live in my heart,
home
and life

God With Us – Emmanuel

This year, several of us are reading Beginnings and Endings by Maggi Dawn and joining together to comment on it.  Do join us at the Adventbookclub Facebook page, follow #adventbookclub on Twitter or comment below.  If you are also reading and blogging on this book, let me know and I will link to your blog.

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God Showing Us #adventbookclub – Day 27

•December 27, 2013 • Leave a Comment

By Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken (Bô Yin Râ)

John 1:1-5, 14-18 (CEV)

The Word of Life

1 In the beginning was the one
    who is called the Word.
The Word was with God
    and was truly God.
2 From the very beginning
    the Word was with God.

3 And with this Word,
    God created all things.
Nothing was made
    without the Word.
Everything that was created
4     received its life from him,
and his life gave light
    to everyone.
5 The light keeps shining
    in the dark,
and darkness has never
    put it out.

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14 The Word became
a human being
    and lived here with us.
We saw his true glory,
the glory of the only Son
    of the Father.
From him all the kindness
and all the truth of God
    have come down to us.

15 John spoke about him and shouted, “This is the one I told you would come! He is greater than I am, because he was alive before I was born.”

16 Because of all that the Son is, we have been given one blessing after another. 17 The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus Christ brought us undeserved kindness and truth. 18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is closest to the Father, has shown us what God is like.

Depending on the kind of learner you are, sometimes it is so much easier to see someone do something to explain it, than to just read about it.

God has become a human being and lives among us.  God, the beginning, the source, the creator, the light.  He is here – in human life.  Come to be with us, to walk with us, to share us.  Jesus came to show us what God was like.  To show us how God would live.  Successive generations had failed to understand, or certainly to live out, what God was like, so now he has come to show everyone how to do it.

It wasn’t like God hadn’t said it before, the whole of the Old Testament is God trying to get his people to understand.  Sometimes there were promising signs, but they never seemed to last for long.  People have such short memories and soon get caught up in their own wants and needs.

The prophets did their best, and mainly suffered for it!  And slowly came the understanding that someone was going to have to come and do something about it.  As Maggi says (p121), the Promised Land had not been what was hoped.  I guess the problem being that they took themselves with them.  That’s always the problem if you try and move away from something, you are still there.  It’s not a change of location that is required, but a change of humanity – a change of me!  And the only way that is going to happen is by God coming – coming into the world, and coming into my life.

That God is right here – though we may not recognize him.  Jesus lived among his community without them realizing who he was.  He stood there as the others were baptised, and they didn’t know who he was.  John has to show them

here he is, this is the One, God among us

Do we always recognize God?  Do we always see him where he is, quietly getting on with things?  Do we recognize him when he tries to show us how to live?

God is here with us, not just at Christmas, but everyday.  Though he might not always look like we expect him to…

Forgive me Lord
for the times I don’t see you,
hear you,
or recognize what you are doing.
For the times
I know what you would do,
and yet I do something different.
For the times I run away,
yet fail to allow myself to be changed.

Thank you for coming into the world
to show us
what you are like,
how you would live,
how we should live.
Help me to grasp that
and live it myself

Joy to the World

This year, several of us are reading Beginnings and Endings by Maggi Dawn and joining together to comment on it.  Do join us at the Adventbookclub Facebook page, follow #adventbookclub on Twitter or comment below.  If you are also reading and blogging on this book, let me know and I will link to your blog.

Posted in Advent Book Club, bible, Christmas, faith, God, hope, Jesus, Religion, Thanksgiving
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