Never Forget to Forgive

Our reading today from Matthew 18 contains what I think is one of the most ignored commands of Jesus. I’m going to ignore too... except to mention it in passing to set up the parable I want to discuss. By the way, I think we largely ignore the force of the parable as well.  First the ignored statement, “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you” (Matt 18:15). There is a bit of a textual issue as to whether Jesus really says “if you brother or sister sins” of “if they sin against you.” It really doesn't matter; we ignore both. Generally whether a brother or sister hurts us directly with a sin or just sins in a more general way, we tend to talk to everyone except the brother or sister, right? Jesus wants us to go and resolve the issue so that we reclaim the relationship.

That teaching on reconciliation and forgiveness led Peter to ask, “Lord, how many times do I have to do that?” Peter rightly sees that this "make-things-right-and-forgive-the-offender" thing would take a lot of time and effort.  So he wants to get this straight.  He magnanimously and generously offers to forgive someone seven times for an offense. Jesus says to make that number seventy-seven times.  Or maybe seventy times seven times.  In other words, forgive them every time they sincerely ask! Perhaps it was the blank look on the faces of the apostles that led Jesus to tell a parable about our forgiveness.

The story begins with a servant who is brought before the king who owes ten thousands talents of gold. A talent of gold was worth about 20 years of a normal servant's wages, so this guy owes a LOT!  We are  immediately curious about HOW someone could run up that kind of a tab! Well, he couldn't have; Jesus is using hyperbole to make His point . The guy can’t pay his bill and he could never pay his bill, so both he and his family were to be sold as slaves to recoup part of the debt. The servant begs for mercy and promises to work to pay off what he owes (which, of course, he would never be able to do). But the king decides to forgive the entire staggering debt, which is a staggering act of mercy and grace

• MERCY because servant did not get what he deserved... to be sold as a slave
• GRACE because he did get what he did not deserve... forgiveness of the debt

So the servant skips out of the king's throne free and clear, but he doesn't skip far.  He immediately finds another servant who owes him some pocket change. OK, it's really more than pocket change; a hundred denarii would be about a three month paycheck. That is a significant amount of money, but it is a manageable debt that could be repaid. But that didn't matter to our forgiven-but-unforgiving servant. He refuses to listen to his own “give me more time” speech and has the servant arrested and thrown into prison.

There is absolutely nothing wrong legally and technically with this servant's actions here. He was justified in expecting that this fellow-servant would pay off his debt. (If you don’t think he was justified in wanting to be repaid, then… can I borrow $100?).   He was justified having the man thrown into debtor's prison; that was what the law dictated. So if he was legally justified, then why is he referred as a “wicked servant?” Because he failed to show forgiveness after he had received greater forgiveness.

• Because he experienced grace, he was expected to show grace to others.  
• Because he received mercy, he could no longer follow the letter of law! 
• Because he was forgiven by the king, he needed to act more like the king.

The parable ends with the revocation of the king’s forgiveness and the imprisonment of the servant (Matt 18:32-34). The problem is when you insist on justice for others rather than giving grace, you get justice instead of grace for yourself. Jesus concludes with this “moral of the story” statement on forgiveness-- "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." (Matt 18:35)

Jesus begins by telling us that we are to forgive those who ask our forgiveness each and every time they ask us.  Our willingness to forgive others or our unwillingness to do so directly speaks to how well we understand the debt that we owe to God

• When we fail to forgive another, we tell God that we have taken His mercy and grace for granted. 
• When we stress the debt that someone owes to us, we forget the huge debt that we owe to God. 
• When we demand justice and repayment of the pennies others owe us, we forget that we have been pardoned of gazillion dollar debt that we can never repay. 

Before we treat others with a legalistic and unforgiving heart, Jesus wants us to ask ourselves if this is really how we want God to treat us. If we want grace and forgiveness (and we do), then we’d better get quite practiced in extending grace and forgiveness  to others!  If we don't forgive, then we had better not sin... ever!

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14–15)

Leaving the World of Worms

In Romans 12, Paul tells us that we are not to conformed to the world but "be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom 12:2). The Greek word translated "transformed" here sounds a bit familiar because it sounds like the English word that comes from it. The Greek word is metamorphoo, the word from which we get "metamorphosis." When a caterpillar crawls out of its cocoon, it is no longer a caterpillar but a butterfly. What was once a homely worm-like critter that ate leaves and crawled around in the dirt is now a beautiful, colorful creature that sips nectar and soars through the sky. The transformation from caterpillar to butterfly is called metamorphosis. That’s the word Paul uses here.

 That is also the word that appears in our reading this morning from Matthew 17 (and its parallel in Mark 9) in a familiar though decidedly strange story--

1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. (Matthew 17:1-3) 

We call this pericope “the Transfiguration of Christ.” One minute, Jesus was standing there with the apostles in his incarnated, flesh and blood body; they next minute Jesus was changed completely into something other than flesh and blood and was chatting with Moses and Elijah! I've always wondered how Peter, James and John immediately knew that these other two people were Moses and Elijah. Did Jesus introduce them and they all shook hands like captains before a football game? Did Moses and Elijah wear “Hello, My Name Is…” name badges? OK, that’s not the main point, but those are the kinds of things I sometimes wonder about.

My point is that the word "transfigured" that Matthew uses in verse 2 is the same Greek word metamorphoo that Paul uses in Romans 12:2, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” In fact, that’s how the NLT translates Matthew 17:2, “Jesus’ appearance was transformed…” So Paul says that just as Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, so you and I are to be transfigured, transformed or changed by Him. Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 sounds like he is drawing from the imagery of transfiguration-- "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed [metamorphoo] into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Just as Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, we are being daily transfigured into His likeness. We cannot continue to look and act like the world around us; we must rather look more and more like Jesus Himself. The grace that saved us also transformed us, and we must live out that transformation daily. We can get so wrapped up in the world of worms, crawling around in the dust of this world and transfixed by its cares and concerns that we forget that we've gone through the metamorphosis of the gospel and have been transfigured and transformed into something very different. We have been changed… so let’s live like it!

The Gospel of the Group

Yesterday'd sermon pointed to the deep and tender relationship that Paul enjoyed with the church at Thessalonica, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown….Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy” (1 Thess 2:19–20). This relationship was all the more surprising because it had developed in the mere 2-3 weeks Paul had in Thessalonica before being forced out.  We contrasted that relationship with the view of many Christians have of the church as simply a place to “go to worship” rather than a group of people with whom to develop relationships. We suggested that too many of us see church in the same way we might see a movie theater—

When you go to a theater, you just want to just sit and focus on the show down front. It makes the experience more enjoyable if the theater is full of people-- when they clap and cheer and boo and boo-woo at the appropriate times, it makes the experience better. But the last thing most of us want at a theater is for some stranger to start talking to us.  No, that would distract us from the show down front.

Isn't that the way many see church? The point of going to church is to worship God...period.  Sure, we need other people to be there to worship (or else the singing would sound terrible), but the point of being there is to give praises to God. To get too involved with the people around you just might distract you from the worship. Some people absolutely freak out if someone leads a song or reads a scripture during communion (both communal acts) because that distracts them from their me and God time. The point of going to church is to focus on God, not to interact with people.

The only problem with that is it’s totally wrong. It’s more than just wrong; it’s totally unbiblical. The New Testament never really gives a lot of detail about exactly what the church did when they came together. Paul has some things to say about the chaos that was going on at Corinth, but his point is that whatever they did in worship (and however they did it), it was to “be done so that the church may be built up” (1 Cor 14:26). The Hebrew writer in telling believers not to give up meeting together said that their meeting together was to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” and was to be “encouraging one another” (Heb 10:24-25). We aren't told exactly how to conduct the service—high church, low church or somewhere-in-between-church. We certainly aren't told that worship is to be a "me-and-God" private and personal experience. What we are told is that whatever we do, it is to encourage and build up each other.

In a way, today’s reading from Matthew 16 stresses this corporate importance of the church. Jesus in this text forces the apostles to deal with His identity. He asks them, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"  The apostles respond with a variety of answers. Jesus then asks, "Who do you say that I am?"  Peter gives his famous response in Matthew 16:16-18,

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Peter here makes the confession that will become the basis of the Christian faith. But Jesus does not congratulate him and send him off to Peoria meditate privately on the meaning and significance of this confession. No, Jesus immediately begins to talk about his group, his church. This eternal church will be the kingdom into which He gathers His believers into a confessing community. The reality of what it meant for Jesus to be “the Christ, the Son of the living God” was that all who believe in him would be drawn into a community, a gospel group, a congregation, a church. The point of worshiping God together is not just the worship—it is also the together!

A Fish Story

Everyone who goes fishing has a favorite story about the “big one that got away.” Most of my fishing stories involve me watching other people catch fish, but my favorite fishing story is about someone else (my Dad) NOT catching a fish. We were fishing on Lake Maury years ago, trolling up and down the lake off of a favorite point where we’d often catch crappie and white bass. The problem is that fish often hide around sunken tree or other cover and the trick is to drag a lure just above without getting caught on the snag. And catch a snag is what Dad did… or so we thought. As we went back to get untangled, Dad thought he felt something on line; the closer we got to the snag, the harder the snag started pulling. And then it was really was pulling, so hard that (I kid you not) the boat began moving backwards! We tried to work the boat over into the shallows to we could land the beast, but the line started spinning in feverish circles and then it snapped before we ever saw it. Giant catfish? Snapping turtle? Trophy bass? Bigfoot? Whatever it was, I don’t want to meet it in a dark alley!

 In Matthew 13 (our reading for today), Jesus ends a series of mostly agricultural parables with a fish story. All of the parables in Matthew 13 are old to tell what “the kingdom of heaven is like.” The word kingdom (basileia) refers to God’s domain, reign and rule over our lives. He isn’t really talking about the church, although that is the visible manifestation of God’s rule on earth. And Jesus isn’t talking about heaven, although heaven is the result of God reigning in us. The kingdom of heaven is what happens when God rules over our lives on earth the way that he rules in heaven (Matt 6:10). He ends this series of kingdom parables with one that not about farming; it’s about fishing (Peter, Andrew, James and John would have liked this one, don’t you think?)

47 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. 48 When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but threw the bad ones away. 49 That is the way it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous, 50 throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:47-50, NLT)

Several things pop out here. First, the kingdom of heaven is a net mixed with both good and bad fish. Forrest Gump might say, “Fishing is like box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.” When you fish with a dragnet (the Greek word used here means dragnet), you never know what kind of fish will be caught. So the dragnet of God’s rule has been cast wide and all kinds of people get caught up in it.

There are two types of people in the world—those who divide people into two types and those who don’t. Most of us like working with neat categories— the IN’s and the OUT’s. We want God’s kingdom as we see it in the church to work that way. We want a neat roll of the saved and the lost, and we not only want the differences to be neat and obvious.  And we want to manage the list. If I can clearly know who the bad fish are, then I feel more secure I’m one of the good fish! But see, this is the kingdom of God, and He is in sole control of the roll!

Second, the job of sorting the good and the bad fish belongs only to God. We need to be clear that salvation belongs to our God (Rev 7:10-12). We often sing that text as a praise song; do we really believe it? God is the Judge of all the earth, and He needs no help from us. God knows those who are His (2 Tim 2:19). Jesus knows His own sheep (John 10:14, 27-28). As stinky as some of God’s fish may seem to me, I need to accept that only God gets to sort through them. As long as we are in this life, then we swim in God’s big net with all kinds of different fish

Third, God’s will eventually judge all his fish. We are to be fishers of men, but this parable is not about our fishing. Here the fishing is over, and there is a sorting of the good fish from the bad fish by the angels (see 2 Thess 1:7-9). So the kingdom rule of God is a present reality that also points to a future certainly.

• God’s kingdom is NOW—it’s like a net with all kinds of fish. 
• God’s kingdom is THEN—the fish are sorted and some are thrown out. 

I once heard someone once classify themselves as a “hopeful universalist.” I can relate to that. I do hope God has a “Plan B” by which all can be saved by Jesus even if they don’t accept him in this life. I do hope that God’s sovereign love can somehow trump our stubborn human rebellion in such a way that ultimately "love wins."  But Jesus says so much about eternal judgment and destruction that it is pretty hard to be too hopeful of a hopeful universalist.

• Sheep are blessed of the Father; goats are for eternal fire (Matt 25:34,41) 
• Lazarus was by Abraham’s side; rich man was in torment (Luke 16:23) 
• Those who overcome inherit God; sinner go to a lake of fire (Rev 21:7-8) 
• Saints enter the holy city; sinner are cast outside gates (Rev 22:14-15) 

We need to be reminded that this world is hurtling toward a conclusion, and at the end God is going to sort things out. Literally. So we are to live this life to the fullest, but always with an end in view! We can live confidently, because we know that our Father is Judge. But we also live carefully because we know that we will be judged! (see Hebrews 4:13)

By far the most popular fish harvested for human consumption is tuna; it is also the most controversial.Why? It seems that yellowfin tuna like to swim along with dolphins, and so the nets used to catch tuna also catch lots of dolphins (which drown in the process). After a lot of outcry and publish pressure, tuna nets had “escape hatches” built into them to allow Flipper to be spared. And now most of the tuna you buy for your tuna fish sandwiches have a label that says “dolphin safe.”

The net that Jesus uses as a metaphor for the kingdom of heaven is definitely not dolphin safe! All of us get caught in that net. The question is, “What kind of fish are we going to be?”

Forceful People

Jesus says some very surprising things in our reading today in Matthew 11.  He says that John the Baptist was greatest of those born of women.  OK, maybe that not so surprising, but then he adds “whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” But it what Jesus says next in verse 12 about that is the most surprising and perplexing.  It is also translated very differently in our English translation—

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. (NIV)

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. (NIV85)

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. (ESV)

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and forceful people lay hold of it. (NET)

We can understand how the kingdom had been rapidly advancing since John began his preaching. After all, John’s message was, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” But what does it mean that the forceful or violent were “laying hold of” or “forcing their way into” the kingdom of God?

Jesus is here commenting on the totally different reactions to this message of the kingdom. If we expand the context here a little further in this chapter, it becomes obvious that Jesus is referring to two different groups of people and their response to Him:

• First, some rejected him. They had rejected both John the Baptist and Christ (v. 18-19), and they had even refused to believe the testimony of the miracles Jesus had performed (vs 20-24). It’s obvious, is it not, that those he discusses here were the Pharisees and religious leaders of the Jews. They had been the ones to reject John and denounce Jesus, and they explained away the miracles as Jesus being demon possessed. They considered themselves the children of the kingdom, but they had rejected the king and would miss kingdom of God.
  
• Second, there were others who were listening to Jesus and John and were taking hold of the kingdom. These were the so-called “sinners” rejected by the Pharisees. They are “desperate men” and “desperate women” whose desperateness came from the fact that they knew their own sinfulness. When they heard the good news of the kingdom, they were ready to act. In Jesus' imagery, these were forceful men who storm the walls of heaven in an effort to get in.

No matter how the verses is translated or understood, Jesus is talking about these two groups. He could be saying that the people of violence who were trying to seize the kingdom were the Pharisees and religious leaders who were trying to manage, twist and control the kingdom for their own purposes. The kingdom was forcefully advancing despite the effort of the religious traditionalist to keep it controlled and manageable.

Or it also could that the forceful people taking hold of the kingdom were those willing to believe and seek God despite the roadblocks created by their religious leaders. In Matthew 23, Jesus pronounces a series of woes on the Pharisees and teachers of the law that include these two—

“They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” (Matthew 23:4)

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Matthew 23:13)

Even though religious leaders were putting heavy burdens in their way and shutting the door of heaven in their faces, Jesus says that there were forceful men and women who fought their way into the kingdom anyway. They wanted God so desperately they took the kingdom by force!

Either way, there were some who were trying to control and manage the kingdom of God for their own purposes and there were others who were taking hold of the kingdom even though it meant fighting their way in despite the other group.  It seems like we have to be ion one group or the other-- those desperately fighting to enter the kingdom or those who are standing in the way.

A Great Crash

On a cold, miserable January afternoon in 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 was waiting for clearance to take off from Washing National Airport to fly back to sunny Tampa. Twice the plane had been de-iced according to FCC regulations, and the copilot noticed that the wings were icing up yet again. He said, "This is a losing battle trying to de-ice those things." He wasn't really all that convinced that the procedure did much good, and the pilot agreed that it only "satisfied the Feds." Neither were alarmed that the idle plane was accumulating more and more ice. And they didn't de-ice a third time.

This brief conversation is history. It is available on tape. That tape was fished out the Potomac River into which the plane plunged after hitting a Washington bridge. As the plane began to take off, the ice that the pilots had chosen to ignore cost them their lives and the lives of 74 of their passengers and 3 other crew members. The pilots didn't mean to kill anyone, but they had become just too comfortable with the "routine" of de-icing procedure. And they had failed to put their knowledge into practice.

In our reading for today from Matthew 7, Jesus ends His "Sermon on the Mount" with a stern warning about hearing and doing.

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24–27)

It is not enough to simply appreciate Jesus teachings or come to believe them as true. It's not enough to accept the wisdom of what he said about turning the other cheek, letting your "Yes" be "Yes," not judging other people harshly and treating others the way that you would want to be treated.  We must be willing to put those words into practice in our lives.  A ritual "going-through-the-motions" won't move us any closer to the heart of God; we must live out that which we have come to know is true from God's word.  "Lip-service" religion that does not touch our heart will only lead us to "a great crash." May God give us the faith and courage to seek to live out the things that we learn from His word.

A Voice Still Calling in the Wildnerness

John the Baptist was one of the most significant Bible characters. To begin with, he is mentioned more often in the gospels than any other character except Jesus and his inner circle (Peter, James and John). OK, I grant the point that he isn't mentioned much (or at all) after the gospels. But then he does receive a rather ringing endorsement from Jesus, "Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist" (Matt 11:11). John was the "voice crying in the wilderness" who prepared the way of the Lord (Matt 3:3), essentially developing a large following who would then become followers of Jesus (John 3:30). But we learned in in our reading today from Matthew 3, John was not ONLY concerned with gathering a following:

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” (Matthew 3:7-9)

That seems harsh, doesn’t it? John is finally ready to hit the big time and attract a following among the religious leaders who have the influence to put his ministry on the map. The problem was that these religious leaders were coming to John either simply out of curiosity or to participate in the outward ritual of his baptism. They were more concerned about their status ("Abraham as our father") than they were with humbling themselves before God. So John lets them have it with both barrels.  He calls them a "brood of vipers" and he then demands that they produce the fruits of repentance before they are baptized. John's message had been summarized as "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matt 3:2). Before these religious leaders could participate in the kingdom of heaven, they had to humble themselves and repent.

So why didn't they? Why was repentance such a problem for the Pharisees and Sadducees that John blasts them like this? Simple: they didn't think they needed to repent! After all, they were the holy and chosen ones who carried the traditions of the fathers. They weren't perfect-- only God is perfect-- but they were the faithful ones with the right morals, the right religion and the right rite. No shaggy-bearded, camel-hair-wearing bug eater was going to tell them that they had to repent!

Rule of Thumb: Any time you hear Jesus (or in this case John the Baptist) talking to the Pharisees, pay attention— he is talking to you! Like the Pharisees and Sadducees, we come with a received religious tradition that assures us that we have the truth, are accepted by God and are the children of God (which trumps being the children of Abraham any day of the week and twice on Sunday). It is that tradition and that identity that can make it hard for us to realize when we need to repent and change. For example, why were so many white churches so slow on the uptake to realize their need for change during the civil rights movement? Well, it never dawned on them that racism and segregation was something that they needed to repent of and change. Some still don’t realize that and a lot of other things as well. It’s not that we aren't willing to repent—we haven’t gotten nearly that far. We haven't realized that we are even being called to repent!  Just like the Pharisees and Sadducees.

God is calling us to the kingdom of heaven today, but that invitation still comes with the challenge to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” We cannot be pen to the voice of God unless we are willing to repent and then live repented.

On Gypsies and Magic Men

This is Day #2 of our Daily Bible Reading plan for 2013— a chapter by chapter reading of the New Testament. One chapter a day (except that because we started late, 1 Cor 8-9 and 2 Cor 8-9 had to be doubled up to get the whole New Testament in by the end of the year).  Of course that means that we’re right back where we were a couple of weeks ago before the Christmas season—reading the birth narrative in Matthew. In a previous blog, I suggested that while it doesn't matter how you observe or don't observe our traditional holiday season, it does matter very much whether you believe the story of God coming in the flesh in the person of Jesus. And the way that Jesus came in the flesh is told in Matthew and Luke (and also in Revelation 12, though it has a bit of harder edge there). So we can’t read this story too much, and today we read it once again.

Matthew 2 tells of the visit of the wise men or “magi” to see and worship the one born king of the Jews. The word “magi” is from a Persian word for “priest,” and it is the root of our word “magic.” Most of what we think we know about the magi actually is from church tradition. We think of their being three (based on the gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh) though Eastern church tradition has twelve (they went in together on the three gifts). By the 3rd century, the magi were see as kings, and thus the carol is “We Three Kings” and not “We Three Priests.” Daniel would have been a magi in his role as “chief of magicians, enchanters, astrologers” (Dan 5:11). Jeremiah refers to “Rab-Mag” or “Chief Magi” (Jer 39:3).

So the magi were a well-known class of ancient wise men. They saw the Bethlehem star in east because that is what they did-- they looked at the sky. They saw the star as a divine sign because that is also what they did— they looked for signs in the stars. And they reported their findings to King Herod because that is also what the Magi did—they advised kings. Think.  Why was Herod and all of Jerusalem disturbed by Magi’s visit (Matt 2:3)? Well, Kings and their court took the reports of magi seriously-- that is what they did. If Magi were Persian (as is generally thought), they travelled over 1000 miles and it took them more than a year to get to the holy family (that’s why Herod killed all the boy babies under two years old). They took the sign and their quest very seriously.

The question is, “Why?” Not why did they take the sign so seriously. Why did God announce the birth of Jesus to Persian astrologers 1000 miles removed from Bethlehem? For that matter, why did God choose to announce the birth of Jesus to shepherds out in their fields watching sheep? Shepherds in the first century were very much social outcasts, seen as dirty, smelly, low-class gypsies who would rob you blind if had chance. In other words, the shepherds were the kind of social outcasts that Jesus would hang out with during his ministry. So I guess it makes senses that they’d get an invite to Jesus’ baby shower. But what the magic men from Persia?

The birth of the Messiah was too big to limit the size of His baby shower! Israel and Israel’s Messiah would be God’s light to the nations (Isaiah 42:6). God was not intending for Jesus to have a message only for the chosen people; the light would shine too brightly for that. Luke tells a little side story of Mary and Joseph going to the Temple with baby Jesus for the sacrifice of purification. There they met a man named Simeon who was waiting for the Messiah and who praises and prophesies over baby Jesus (Luke 2:29-32)

29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

Joseph and Mary heard Simeon speaking of their son Jesus as God’s light to Gentiles and then sometime later these foreign magic-men show up following a star and worshiping their boy? I’m sure that made perfect sense to Joseph and Mary (Luke 2:19).

It seems that we learn something about Jesus from the story of his birth. Right from the beginning, the people Jesus attracts— the shepherds and the Magi—are not the people that you would expect to be interested in a Jewish Messiah. The established authorities want nothing to do with Jesus-- Herod tries to kill him, and the priests would later pull that off. But it was Jewish gypsies (who were not accepted in polite company) and pagan magi (who weren't accepted in any company) who are the ones who hear about Jesus and come running to see him.

I wonder if Jesus’ church has every really come to grips with the fact that those outside of polite company are more likely to be attracted to the story of Jesus?  And I wonder if we have missed that fact because we have been too busy trying to be polite company?

Happy New Year 2013

There is this old joke about a man who asks God (this is not a true story), “Is it true that with you one day is like 1000 years?” God says, “Yes.” The man then asks, “So would mean that one dollar to you is like a billion?” God says, “Well, with inflation and this fiscal cliff thing, it’s more like a trillion.” The man pauses and then asks, “So… can I borrow a dollar?” God answers, “Tomorrow.” I said it that it was an old joke; I didn't say it was particularly funny. But it does point to a fundamental problem that we have when dealing with God. Time.

Everything we do is regulated and controlled by time. We eat, sleep, go to work, and come home based on a timed schedule. One of the crazy things about this time of year is that we get off schedule— I'm not sure exactly when they will pick up my trash this week because they are on their "holiday schedule" (which means they come when they get around to it). We define everything by the past, present and future. Time. We can’t understand life without thinking in terms of time.

That’s our problem when thinking about God. God is timeless and eternal; He is at the same time the first and the last (Rev 21:6). God is “from everlasting to everlasting” (Psalm 41:13). That means that he goes forever back backwards and forwards. But that’s not even right, because that still describes God in terms of time, and that is concession to our time limitation. God is timeless.

I remember Lou Holtz talking about an opposing team’s star player, “He’s so fast that when he turns out the light at night, he’s in bed before it gets dark.” Obviously, Holtz was trying to be funny, but that in a sense is true about God. God is not only everywhere; He is everywhere at the same time. We know that the light we see from the stars at night has traveled thousands of years to reach us... when we see their light, we are looking at the past. And yet God is there and here at the same time. He is in the past and the present simultaneously. God is both before the beginning of time and after the end of time... at the same time.

That’s really important for us, because that assures us that God doesn't change. We can count on God always being God because He is timeless. God told Malachi, “I, the Lord, do not change” (Mal 3:6). Jesus is same "yesterday, today and forever" (Heb 13:7-8). We can count on God because God doesn't change "like shifting shadows" (Jam 1:17). We don’t have to worry about God changing, because He doesn't. Sure, God makes concessions to our brokenness and sometimes changes how He relates to us-- animal sacrifices and a special priesthood show a change in the law (Heb 7:12).  But the nature of the God behind the law and requirements hasn't changed. God is timeless.

But then God deals with us in time. God seeks a relationship with us in the present, in our now. The God who cannot be limited by time deals with His creation as if He were. The Bible is filled with stories that suggest that the immutable God changes in relationship with his children.

• There was a time when God “regretted he had made human beings” (Gen 6:6). The word “regretted” means “repented” or “changed his mind,” and he decided that he will destroy the world that he had created. But then because of the righteous Noah, He changes His mind about that.
  
• When Israel breaks the second commandment even before Moses makes it off the mountain, God is so angry He is ready to again destroy his people and start all over with Moses (Exo 32:9-10). But then Moses intercedes and God changes His mind.
  
• God later decides that He will send Moses and Israel to the Promised Land but that God Himself will not go with them. Why? He thinks that He may change His mind and destroy the rebellious nation (Exo 33:1-3). But then he changes his mind about that and goes with them.
  
• The prophets had a job because God was willing to change His mind. For example, Jonah brief message to Nineveh was “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” (Jonah 3:4). That message is pretty clear, right? But Nineveh repents and God changes his mind and spares the city.

Is God really changing his mind here? Is this (as some suggest) simply symbolic, accommodative, anthropomorphic language to help us understand what we can't understand?  Maybe.  Or is this (as some suggest) God choosing to limit His knowledge of our future choices and destiny in order to be in relationship with us in the present?  Could be?  The point is that God is presented in scripture as One who changes His mind in keeping with the choices and actions of those with whom His has relationship because that is how relationships work!   God is immutable-- He keeps his promises and His word doesn't change. God is loving-- He lives with us in our present in a real relationship with us.

This change from 2012 to 2013 is a big deal for us. We read or watch the year end retrospectives to remember the events of 2012; we also read watch the “what will be big in 2013” predictions to get us ready for the coming year. We’re now trying to get used to the new normal schedule after all the changes during the holidays. I’m trying to get used to the idea that it's really 2013, which just seems to be an awkward number.  The fact that no one sent us a free wall calendar this year and it’s still December 2012 on our kitchen cabinet isn't making things easier. But as we face this new year, we can know two important things--

• First, God is God and God is always in control. That never changes because God never changes. He is enthroned on high even as it seems that we're plummeting off edge of the fiscal cliff. God is God and God is timeless.
  
• Second, God is reaching out to us in the present to live in relationship to us. He is not distant or remote nor is He removed from the struggles and trials of our present lives. God is God and God is with us.

Have a happy 2013.  Hold to God's unchanging hand... and seize the day!