H₂O

The Gospel of John has more symbolism than the other Gospels combined. John forcefully uses bread, light, and water – all elements necessary for human life – to teach us that Christ alone is at the core of our being. Without food, water, and light, then we are without Christ.

In several consecutive chapters of John, the use of water is powerful. The following paragraphs can be used a devotional meditations during Advent or, as illustrated, during Lent. They can be used to bookend a week of meditations with the first and last used as sermon material and the middle ones as material to be read during the week.

Ash Wednesday

John 1:32-34

Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.  And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

• After the Gospel’s dynamic introduction of Jesus as the Word, we see the Christ approach John the Baptizer to request baptism. John’s witness is that God told him that he, John, would baptize the Messiah. John baptized with water in the Jordan River.
• The first time we encounter water it is a symbol of purification. Jesus and the others who were baptized by John wanted others to see that they wanted and needed a visible sign showing their contrition and desire to be one with God.
• Jesus uses water for his baptism. But more importantly, the baptism is used to reveal the true nature of Jesus, that he is the Son of God. John the Baptizer, the last Old Testament prophet, points to his cousin, Jesus, and proclaims that the Messiah is here and he was privileged to baptize him and introduce him to the world.
• Water covers two-thirds of our globe; it is extremely common. God uses the ordinary to point to the extraordinary. You are I are extraordinary because we are divinely created and inspired. How are you and I pointing to the even more extraordinary – to Jesus the Messiah? How are you and I in our “common, ordinary lives” showing others who Jesus really is?

Water is essential to our lives. Living water is essential to our souls.

Lead On!

Steve

Immanuel

God With Us

God In Us

God Through Us

Advent means “the arrival of a notable thing, event, or person.” Christians celebrate the arrival of Christ – and that requires us humans to get ready during the weeks before Christmas.

The church has five major purposes: discipleship & education, worship & music, care & service, and outreach & missions. Many churches plan their budgets, staffing, and programming around these emphases. These areas can also be a focus during Advent.

Fourth Sunday of Advent: Outreach and Missions

On this Sunday we celebrate the role of the church in telling the Good News of Jesus to the people of the world. God loves all of humanity, whether you consider yourself a saint or a sinner. You are created in the image of God and you have God’s-breath (aka, a soul) in you. The earth has over 7 billion images of God and every single one of them is God-loved. At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his followers to go to “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.” These very places are represented in the Christmas story.

• Jerusalem – where Mary, Joseph, and the Magi passed through; where Herod lived in his palace; and where Simeon and Anna worked and worshipped in the temple waiting to see the Messiah. What are you doing in your own city to share the Good News? What needs are there which you and your church can meet?
• Bethlehem – a city in Judea where Jesus was born and where the shepherds were tending flocks of sheep. What are you doing in your own state or regional area to share the Good News? What needs are there which you and your church can meet?
• Nazareth – a city in Samaria where Mary & Joseph were living when God announced to them that Jesus was coming and the city to which they returned after fleeing to Egypt. What are you doing in the section of the country where you live to share the Good News? What needs are there which you and your church can meet?
• Babylon – where the Magi came from. It was a distant land with peoples and customs beyond the comprehension of the average person living in Palestine. What are you doing in your world to share the Good News? What needs are there which you and your church can meet?

Travel has made your world much more compact. You can get to distant lands quickly. But people from around the world are coming to your city, too. How can you welcome the strangers in your town or even neighborhood so that they see a model of Christ in you? How can you share the Good News with the world whether you stay in your city, state, region, or intentionally go on a mission trip?

Lead On!

Steve

Advent means “the arrival of a notable thing, event, or person.” Christians celebrate the arrival of Christ – and that requires us humans to get ready during the weeks before Christmas.

The church has five major purposes: discipleship & education, worship & music, care & service, and outreach & missions. Many churches plan their budgets, staffing, and programming around these emphases. These areas can also be a focus during Advent.

Third Sunday of Advent: Service to Others

On this Sunday we celebrate the role of the church in the service to others, whether they are Christians or not. God asks every Christian to go through life helping others and even do things that are unexpected and unnecessary. Servanthood is an integral part of Christian maturity. The challenge is for each of us to see and act on the daily opportunities to help others regardless of whether or not they appreciate it. We are doing our service because God asks us, not because humans want or need it. Christian service can be seen in the quiet and steady work provided by the animals in the Christmas story.

• Donkeys – 9-months pregnant Mary probably rode a donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, but a donkey isn’t mentioned in that story. Jesus did ride a donkey into Jerusalem at his final Passover. What loads are you carrying? Are they the right loads or is it previous baggage that you should be rid of?
• Sheep – these animals provided clothing, food, milk, and even warmth. They are useful in many different ways. How are you useful in a variety of means? How are you freely giving away what you have to provide others with clothing and food?
• Cattle – they aren’t mentioned in the birth story but I needed a fourth animal and we know there were cows in Palestine. They also provided milk and meat and other cows for their owners. When your service gone unnoticed, have you been upset? What kind of recognition do you seek for what you do?
• Camels – the camels provided transport for the Magi. They plodded long distances carrying foreigners who had an obsession with worshipping Jesus. How do you carry the Good News to others in faraway lands?

As you go through this day and week, look for the times when you can help others whether it is as simple as holding a door or buying someone’s groceries for them. Do these acts not for your own glory but to follow the hoof-prints of these service animals who did their work because that’s what they were created for. Work for God, always.

Lead On!

Steve

Advent means “the arrival of a notable thing, event, or person.” Christians celebrate the arrival of Christ – and that requires us humans to get ready during the weeks before Christmas.

The church has several major purposes: discipleship & education, worship & music, care & service, and outreach & missions. Many churches plan their budgets, staffing, and programming around these emphases. These areas can also be a focus during Advent.

Second Sunday of Advent: Worship & Music

On this Sunday we celebrate the role of the church in the worship of God. Every Sunday billions of Christians gather to thank God and sing praises for what God has done, is doing, and will do for us. We adore the Christ-child at Christmas and are grateful for his death and resurrection at Easter. Worship music dwells inside us and our minds recall it at weird times and needed moments. We live to praise God because God lives in us. In the Christmas story there are several groups of people and each of them have one thing in common – they all come to worship the baby Jesus.

• Mary and Joseph – Mary & Joseph were privileged to be the first humans to learn that Jesus is coming. How are you helping others who don’t know about Jesus also come and worship God?
• Shepherds – The poor and marginalized of society responded immediately because God intentionally included them. How can you include those who “aren’t like us” in your worship of God? How can you invite them to our places of worship and/or how do we go where they are for worship?
• Angels – Angels praised God for God’s willingness to directly intervene in the human situation. What time(s) in your life have you been unconstrained in your public acknowledgement of God? How do others know that you worship God regularly?
• Wise men – they traveled hundreds of miles because God came for the entire world. God is not exclusive, are you? God loves “the whole world” and Jesus came for all nations. What are you doing to tell the story of Jesus so that the entire world can praise & worship God?

Public acknowledgement lets others know what is important in your life whether it is a sports team, a company, or a belief. God publicly acknowledged that God came to the world because God loves us. In turn, we must let others know who God is to us through our worship and praise of God.

Lead On!

Steve

Advent means “the arrival of a notable thing, event, or person.” Christians celebrate the arrival of Christ – and that requires us humans to get ready during the weeks before Christmas.

The church has five major purposes: discipleship & education, worship & music, care & service, and outreach & missions. Many churches plan their budgets, staffing, and programming around these emphases. These areas can also be a focus during Advent.

First Sunday of Advent: Discipleship & Education

On this Sunday we celebrate the role of the church in the Christian education of our children and adults. Education is a never-ending process – it is not a goal. We strive every day, every week, and every year to be a better person than before. Today we celebrate four components of Christian education. When we take each of these into our lives, we become better people, every day.

• Joy – a radiance of today. Joy is a gift which changes moods and emotions. Do you have joy? Are you a provider of joy to others? What or who gives you joy?
• Hope – a promise for the future. Hope is a future that is better than today, better for you, your family, and your friends. What gives you hope? What takes away your hope? How can you express to others what or who is your hope? How can you be a source of hope to others?
• Peace – an inner calm. It is knowing that all will be well even if it is not well right now. What or who upsets your inner peace? Where or how do you have peace restored? How can you be a source of peace to others?
• Love – an acceptance that you are worthwhile to others and yourself. Love is being a source of unconditional sustenance to others in good times and bad. Are you a source of love to others? What is your level of self-love?

How are you learning about these emotions and concepts? Are you farther down the road than a year ago? Take time to do a self-inventory to see what is your level of each of these and where do you want to be.

Lead On!

Steve

In his book How Good Do We Have to Be? Harold Kushner writes (pages 73-74): “I confess that I have never liked or understood the story in chapter 22 of the Book of Genesis, where God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, born to him after many years of childlessness, and then intervenes to stop it at the last moment. I never like the way it portrayed God, making such an outrageous demand, or the way it portrayed Abraham, so ready to obey it. But some years ago, I read an article by a physician suggesting that Isaac may have been a retarded child. He shares many of the traits of the retarded. He was born to older parents. He periodically gets into trouble by not understanding the consequences of his actions. He is the only man in all the Bible whose parents worry about his getting married, and ends up marrying a woman whose outstanding quality is her kindness. If that theory is correct, the doctor wrote, maybe that is why Abraham thought he heard the voice of God telling him to slay his son, as many societies in the ancient world did to imperfect children. And God’s intervening would then represent His proclaiming to Abraham that even such a child is fashioned in God’s image, that even such a life is holy.”

This potential interpretation of the story of the Sacrifice of Isaac helps me understand the story better. This would explain why

• Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac in the first place (surely God would give Abraham a much better heir the second time)
• Isaac allowed himself to be tied up (12-year-old boys can be very strong, especially when struggling against a 112 year old man)
• Isaac never harbored ill-will against his dad after that event (Hey, Dad, remember when you tried to kill me and the angel intervened?)
• Abraham sent a servant to get Isaac’s wife (the first time Rebekah saw Isaac was after she was committed to marry him and traveled a long way from her home)
• Isaac couldn’t tell the difference between his sons’ voices when Jacob deceived him and how Rebekah could fool her own husband for her favorite son
• Of the three patriarchs, Isaac did the least, virtually nothing, except being the grandfather of the 12 tribes

It also helps me understand the mantra “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

• I am the God of Abraham: a rich and powerful man yet who was willing to pimp his own wife in Egypt
• I am the God of Isaac: a man with mentally challenged who accomplished nothing in life except be the father of twin boys
• I am the God of Jacob: a man who struggled with God’s angel all night and was also a thief, cheater, liar, and deceiver

God is the God of everyone – even the infirm – and he welcomes and accepts as His own all of us, regardless of our frailties. We will never know whether Isaac was mentally challenged or not, but if he was, then that tells me that God is not bound by my human condition and can use me (and you!) for whatever God chooses.

Lead On!

Steve

My wife and I taught middle school kids in Sunday School for three years. Nearly 20 years later we’re still good friends with the four core kids. For those three years we were the additional adult voice that said the same things their parents were saying, but sometimes the kids ignored their parents (imagine that!). At that time I said that I hoped when my kids grew up there was an adult who could speak truth to my kids when they chose to ignore me. It is still a constant plea from me to God.

What I wanted to do for those three years and what I want my own kids to experience is that during middle school they need to begin developing their own faith. Parents begin faith development in children as infants and it continues for about ten years. But somewhere in the tween years (11, 12, and 13) kids begin to see that as a child’s faith. Their options are to remain with a child’s faith, develop a faith of their own, or ditch faith altogether.

A checklist faith is merely a faith in which the adherent ticks things off to say they’ve done this, agreed with that, and will do whatever. It is not a personal faith – it is placating someone else; frankly, that isn’t faith.

I struggled with my faith. I screamed and cursed God when my dad died when I was a teenager. I hated him for that. I questioned everything. I read the Bible, cover to cover twice, while still in my teens to see what the “owner’s manual” says. I still wrestle and push back and ask questions. I have a deep and abiding faith in my Creator and Sustainer. It is not a checklist faith.

I hope my kids will develop their own viewpoints. I want them to read the Bible through at least once if not multiple times. I will have hard conversations with them about my faith and theirs. I want them to have a rooted belief in God – roots which they have planted and watered and nurtured.

Don’t settle for a checklist faith and get the t-shirt. Make it yours and not the faith of our fathers.

Lead On!

Steve