“Christmas Time is Here”

What I remember and love at Christmas time:
1. “Christmastime is Here”
2. Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree
3. Family, friends and food
4. Christmas Eve presents
5. Christmas Day surprises
6. Sharing cards, presents and Presence
7. Peppermint Mocha
8. Smell of pine and cinnamon
9. Lots of Christmas songs
10. Jesus coming to save us

“Consumer”

This story is written by my friend, a pastor with great observational insight. Prepare your heart and read it with joy!

Pastor Tim

Dear Friends (Both Known and Unknown),

Reese is only three-years-old, but she’s spending long hours each day away from our house in northern Katy.

Don’t misunderstand me. Reese is at our home, but she’s also not there as well. About six weeks ago I noticed that Reese had begun spending long stretches of her waking hours in imaginary worlds of her own making.

For most of these hours she has been Ariel from The Little Mermaid.

Reese pulls herself along the floor on her belly while wiggling her “fin.” She calls this her “swimming,” and I supposed it’s a good thing we have laminate flooring throughout the house. I don’t think wall-to-wall carpet would work too well for her.

During these times I am forced to be Flounder, Ariel’s fish buddy. I wanted to be King Triton, Ariel’s father, but Reese wouldn’t allow it. Apparently she’s afraid of Triton, so I think Reese is offering me a compliment by disallowing me from the role.

Mindy is Ariel’s mother Athena. A little boy Reese had lunch with recently was simply drafted into the production and dubbed “Mer-man.” Even the cat has gotten roles now and again. It’s fun. Sometimes it’s annoying, but more often it’s fun.

I think it’s also a good thing that Reese isn’t just consuming The Little Mermaid story. She has certainly “consumed” The Little Mermaid movie and its prequel more than enough for three children. But, Reese hasn’t simply remained a consumer. She has started to become a creator as well.

She has taken the story in, mixed it up, added to it in a creative but fitting way, and is now expressing this new form of the story in her speech and action. As passive as Reese can seem as she watches the story unfold onscreen, Reese refuses to remain that way. She also imagines and creates.

This is a healthy balance, I think. We are tempted to remain only consumers and to measure our value by that standard. In fact, I bet that “consumer” (and not “citizen” or “child of God”) is the primary way we are taught to identify ourselves in our culture. You are, after all, what you eat (and wear and drive and live in and smell like and etc.), right?

We can’t live without consuming food and drink and air (and even perhaps stories like The Little Mermaid). That’s a good thing. It’s a part of being creatures that depend upon one another and the world itself for life. Christians are taught to pray for daily bread, if I remember correctly. We are human and so depend on others (and they upon us) for life.

But we are also created by God to be more than just consumers. God intends us to also be creators. We are told in the biblical story that we are made in the image of a creating God. A God who creates a world and a universe of different relationships. A God who even creates a new hope and a new beginning for his world through the seemingly dead-end death of a man named Jesus.

And so we create. We create works of art and kind words. We create new inventions and quiet moments of forgiveness. We cook meals and plan events of shocking generosity to strangers. We suggest new ways of blessing people who seem in the eyes of many to be unblessable. We build chairs out of wood and families out of flesh. And, of course, we seek to create communities that are powered by the ultimate blessing in creation – self-giving love.

The way the great Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann puts it is that when we look at a biblical book like Deuteronomy or Isaiah we see God’s people called by God to eat and to be satisfied. In other words, God’s care creates a banquet table for creatures like us. We are called to consume and to see this as part of God’s good intent for us as his creatures.

But it doesn’t end there. In such biblical books God’s people are called to eat, to be satisfied…and to bless the Lord. In other words, being faithful also calls for our consumption to be more than an end in itself. Being faithful is not complete until it calls us beyond consumption and into creative action. Faithfulness is not just about consuming care from God and others. It is not complete until we create blessing, until we act in care for God and for the world God loves.

Brueggemann argues that in the Old Testament when God’s people simply consume everything pretty much goes to Hell.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. We are better than what the world often tells us we are. Each day that we draw breath we consume, and that’s a part of God’s good gift of life. But another part of that gift is creating. It’s turning life back toward God in thanksgiving and toward our neighbor in creative acts of love.

And as we do it we follow the One who took a few loaves of bread, blessed them, shared them, and somehow created enough to feed a crowd of thousands gathered by the sea. With even a little left over to take along for later.

What would it look like to take the story of Jesus into our imaginations and act it out creatively a little like Reese does with Ariel’s tale? What would it look like to bless God by creatively caring for the needs and dreams of someone around you?

Peace in Christ,

Robert

“Not My Job”

It’s not my job to create plans for God.
It is my job to follow God’s plans.
That’s what works
Deut. 31:1-9

What Kingdom?

I was reading Mark 9 today and found myself wondering what it would be like to have followed Jesus in those earliest days. What would I have done or believed about this man? You can read the whole passage yourself and get a full context, but here is what I took away.
Mark 9:1 – “…some here will see the Kingdom arrive in great power…”
I’m sure it wasn’t easy for these disciples to understand what Jesus meant. “Us, some of us will see the Kingdom?” ‘Alright, bring out the swords!’ Their concept of kingdom was one of a civil and/or political power with a ruler who conquered the enemy, in this case the Romans, and would bring Jewish dominance to the region.
That explains the palm branches and “hosannas” and cloaks on the ground during Jesus “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem the week before he was murdered. They were holding on to a king who would conquer. Rightfully so? Yes, but this was not to be the context of Jesus’ kingdom. His kingdom was not going to be an earthly, political system. His conquests were to go much farther and deeper than flesh and land.
In verse 2 and following Jesus takes a few of the disciples to a mountain top experience. There they are amazed by Jesus appearing in a glowing light along with Moses and Elijah, a leader and a prophet from thousands of years before. The disciples were so amazed they were speechless. There was no need to say anything, just to observe and try to understand the meaning of it all. So – Peter spoke! I would have, too. It’s hard not to fill in silence with keen observation or brilliant ideas. Neither of those apply here, however.
Peter offered to build three shrines for the three great men being “transfigured” before them. These would be three physical things they could point to and hold on to. They could show them to people and worship at these tents. Wrong! Moses and Elijah disappeared and God answered the suggestion himself with a dark cloud forming swiftly over the area, “This is my beloved son, listen only to him.” Yep, that was the answer. Sorry Peter. There’s a sub-lesson here that I struggle to learn – when you don’t know what to say, don’t say anything. Maybe God’s speaking in the silence. We certainly don’t want to miss it.
In other words, Peter, Jesus is the only one to listen to or follow, not an earthly leader or prophet, just Jesus. And, by the way, he doesn’t need a shrine. In fact, he is soon going to give us his earthly shrine, body, in exchange for the coming of the kingdom. Oh, and the kingdom will not come by way of politics or sword, rather it comes by death and resurrection of its’ king! What?! They didn’t understand.
As they walked down the mountain, verse 9-10, Jesus told them to keep this little episode to themselves until he would “rise from the dead.” Again they were confused. They even asked themselves on the trek home what he must have meant by that. If one is to rise from the dead then one has to BE dead. Yep. Dead like Lazarus? Dead like the girl Tabitha? Yep. They still weren’t getting it. How can our king conquer the Romans and set us up as rulers if he is dead? He must be dazed by all the dazzling lights and stuff. Maybe he is light headed from the altitude. Conquering Kings don’t rise – because they are alive to conquer. So much to learn, so little time. Their world was about to change, as did ours, forever.

Peace,

Pastor Tim

Ten Things I Hope – 2 Corinthians 5

Ten Things I Hope
#1 – I hope that I will NEVER allow fear to trump my faith…and that we, as a church, will always be willing to take huge leaps of faith–even when things may not make sense. (II Corinthians 5:7)
#2 – I hope that I will NEVER live for the applause of men and thus negate the applause of heaven! I desperately want to please Jesus with every decision that I make…and I hope that is always my goal. Please people has never amounted to anything significant that changed the world. (II Corinthians 5:9)
#3 – I hope that God will continue to enlarge my view of Him…and that as I continue to see how awesome, Holy and Powerful He really is that fear of Him rather than fear of man will compell me to do exactly what He has called me to do. (II Corinthians 5:11)
#4 – I hope that the ministry of Creekside Community Church will never become about me…that you won’t see a picture of me and Val right when you walk in the door (and in every hallway!) We are called to make much of Jesus…and nothing else. It’s not what the pastor does for the people…but rather what the body does for the body!!! (II Corinthians 5:12)
#5 – I hope that I/we will never be considered “normal!” Hell is more crowded because of the churches desire for “normal, average and safe!” (II Corinthians 5:13)
#6 – I hope that I/we will not try to make Christ a part of our lives…but that we will realize that HE IS OUR LIVES…and that He doesn’t desire to be ranked in our top five…but He desires to be FIRST!!! (II Corinthians 5:15)
#7 – I hope that I/we will not look at people as mere human beings…everyone has a soul…everyone will spend eternity somewhere. (II Corinthians 5:16)
#8 – I hope that our church will be FULL of people who have experienced II Corinthians 5:17!!!
#9 – I hope that our church WILL NOT IGNORE the CLEAR call from God to make sure EVERYONE hears the GOOD NEWS! (II Corinthians 5:18-20.)
#10 – I hope that I never stop being in awe of what I read in II Corinthians 5:21 – HE’S THAT AWESOME!
(Reprinted with permission of Pastor Perry Noble, New Springs Church, South Carolina)