Glory to God in the Lowest

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

14“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill[e] toward men!” Luke 2:13-14

I am sure you are all familiar with this scripture. If nothing else, you have heard Linus recite it in the Charlie Brown Christmas special. The angels were proclaiming the birth of The Savior, God made flesh, they couldn't contain themselves. This kind of news understandably would ring throughout the heavens, but I think there is more to this story. Let's look at the rest of the story. Here are the next few verses,

"15So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17Now when they had seen Him, they made [f]widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds". Luke 2:15-18

I think this is more important to us down here. The Savior was born in Bethlehem in a stable and laid in a manger. Bethlehem? Shouldn't it be Jerusalem? Or Rome? A stable and laid in a manger? It should have been a palace and a throne. Shepherds? It should have been kings and rulers. But you see, Jesus came to change everything, even the way we view power. Jesus came to reach the lowest. He came for us, the dirty, the insignificant, the lost. How do you reach the lowest? You become one of them. You go to Bethlehem, in a stable, in a manger. You become a carpenter's son in the backwaters of Judea. You spend your life among the poor and sick. You die in their place to pay the price for their sins. 

So yes, the angels had every reason to sing "Glory to God in the highest!" They recognized the eternal significance of the event they were witnessing. I think we also should sing "Glory to God in the lowest!" because that is where He went to meet us at the point of our need.

Too Soon?

     I remember how excited I used to get when the Christmas decorations first went up on the streetlights in my town growing up. It usually happened right before Thanksgiving and it was the signal that Christmas would soon be here. Well, things have changed. Now I complain when I see Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. I have a hard and fast rule, no Christmas until after Thanksgiving. No decorating, no music, let's not rush past Thanksgiving.

     I am starting rethink that position. I am beginning to think 5 year old me knew better than 50+ year old me. Christmas is something to look forward to, it is something to get excited about. The creator of the universe came to Earth as a child to bring salvation for a broken and fallen world, that deserves more than a few weeks of celebration, that deserves a lifetime of celebration.

     Now, I am not going to start listening to Christmas music year round, I will still wait until after Thanksgiving. I am not going to start decorating for Christmas the day after Halloween. I am going to stop complaining about those that do though. I think they may have it right, Christmas is more than just the month of December, it is the entirety of time.

Are We Doing it Wrong?

     So today is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays, it is probably tied with Christmas as my favorite. As a food guy, obviously I like it for the food, but really I like it for the focus on family. Most of my favorite memories are centered around Thanksgivings at my grandparent's house in New Jersey.

     Now a days it has become popular to make a list of the things we are thankful for. I have seen people listing one thing every day for the month of November. I think this is a great idea, but as a Christian I think it may be missing the point. We are called to be thankful, period. There are no more qualifiers after that, just be thankful. Is it okay to be thankful for family, friends, jobs, house, whatever? Sure, but we need to go deeper. We need to be a thankful people; not because of our circumstances but just because.

     It is great to have a long list of the things we are thankful for, but what if we didn't have them? All through the Bible, in fact throughout the history of Christianity, you see countless people thanking God in their lack, in prison, facing death. So don't let your thanksgiving be governed by your circumstances, just be thankful.

Hebrews 12:28 "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe."

Every Sunday

     Every Sunday morning when the alarm goes off he thinks, "Ugh. Sunday morning." He rises and puts on his finest clothes, gathers up the family and heads off to church. Once there, he locates his normal seat; not in the front, but close enough so everyone will know he was there. Glancing around he notices someone wearing jeans and a slightly wrinkled shirt and thinks, "How can someone dress like that in church?" He mumbles through the songs and slips in and out of sleep during the sermon. On the way out he loudly greets the pastor and hurries home, thankful to have done his duty for the week.

     Same Sunday in a different house. He awakes before the alarm and immediately whispers a prayer of thanksgiving, "It's Sunday!" He dresses hurriedly, not really caring what he looks like. His only thoughts are on going to church and joining fellow believers in worshiping God. From the moment he enters the church he is transported to the very courts of God and breathes in every bit of it. Before he knows it it is time to leave. On the way out he lets the pastor know that he will be praying for him daily.

     If you look around your church next Sunday, you will find that both of these people attend your church. In fact, if you look in the mirror, you may find that one of them is you. Jesus spoke about these two people in Luke 18: 9-14. It is the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. In Jesus' words only one went home justified. I pray that when I look in the mirror I see the face of the tax collector. What about you?

Luke 18:9-14 9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' 13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' 14"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

Second Mile People

     Much to my surprise, I find myself an experienced volleyball coach. I now have over ten years of coaching under my belt when I never had any intent to become one in the first place. In those ten years I have discovered a fairly easy way to tell which players were never going to be much more than average players and which ones were going to excel, and it may not be something you would expect. Most beginning players will only do the minimum amount of work necessary to get to a position where they can just barely stretch and reach the ball. The difference comes as they gain experience, the ones that are going to develop beyond merely average learn to do the extra work, go the second mile, to beat the ball to where it is going and be waiting for it when it gets there. The ones that will never be more than average never learn to do that.

     As Christians, we are called to do much the same. It is easy to get comfortable and just slide along just doing the bare minimum. Why not? It's easy, it's comfortable, and it doesn't require much effort, but it also doesn't lead to much growth. We shouldn't be the same Christian today that we were 10 years ago, 5 years ago, or even last week. We should be pushing ourselves forward, out of our comfort zones and doing things we never thought we would be doing. We need to be "second mile" Christians. Jesus said it this way,

             

38 “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’[a] 39 But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. 40 If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. 41 If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile,[b] carry it two miles. 42 Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’[c] and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies![d] Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends,[e] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Matthew 5:38-48 NLT

Journey's End

      Some lessons are harder to learn than others. Some are downright painful. As a Christian there are sayings that almost become automatic responses to other people's grief. It is easy to read that, "...life is but a vapor" or, " to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord", but it is different when you are the one experiencing the grief. These things just sound hollow when someone that just said goodbye to the person that has been her best friend of almost twenty years is sobbing uncontrollably on your shoulder. They sound hollow, but they do provide a sure foundation to stand on. Yes, the waters of grief and pain are swirling around you and threaten to swallow you but you find that the promises of God provide a solid piece of ground to stand on. Does it make the pain go away? No, but it keeps your head above the waters. Just yesterday I asked, "Now what? Did Easter really change anything?" Well today, I can tell you that, yes, it does. Jesus' victory over death means that those that leave this earthly existence aren't gone, they have merely arrived at their destination before us. We weren't made for this world, we are just traveling through it. Today, one of my precious former students arrived at her destination before us. We mourn because we are separated for a time, but we find comfort in the promise of being reunited with her when we complete our journey.

2 Corinthians 5:1-9

5 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.[a] 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. 10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. 

Now What?

      For a lot of people it starts with an Ash Wednesday service. It may continue with giving something up for the next month and a half in observance of Lent. Then they will remember the Last Supper in a Maundy Thursday service. Next they will solemnly remember the Crucifixion on Good Friday. Lastly they will celebrate the Resurrection on Easter, followed by a big dinner and lots of candy. Then it is Monday.

      Now what? Did anything really change during that nearly 2 months of Lent? Was there really anything to the observation or was it just what you were expected to do? On Easter we celebrate Jesus, The Christ, conquering death and providing a pathway to eternal life for us all, surely that should cause some kind of change. If Easter is really what it claims to be, if you really believe that Jesus rose from the dead, what are you going to do about it? It is Monday, Now what?

I know Dolly Parton's version of this gets a lot of play and I really like her version. However, Don Francisco wrote it and his version will always be my favorite version.

The Servant Savior

      All of the disciple's conversation stopped when they saw Jesus get up from the table and grab a basin and a towel. As Jesus began washing their feet, their minds raced. "How can this man, the Son of God, be lowering Himself to wash our stinky, dirty feet?" They were all thinking it, but only Peter had the guts, or lack of self-control, to say it, "You will never wash my feet!" Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." (John 13: 1-7)

      I think a lot of us would be right there with Peter. The image of Jesus on His knees washing our feet is not how we usually picture Him. We see Him in sparkling white robes riding a white horse or high up on His throne; not on a dusty floor washing dirty feet.

      Yes, Jesus was there at the creation. Yes, He is the all-powerful Son of God, but I think this is the best picture of Jesus. For He came, not to be the king high on his throne, but to meet people at the point of their need. If Jesus came to serve His people, how much more should we? We should be ready with our towel and basin to wash our brother's feet when they come in from a long journey. Service should be something we do as a daily thing, not as a special event.

When God Says, “No.”

      “Man plans, and God laughs.” That is an old Yiddish proverb, and apparently a Public Enemy album. Our speaker for high school chapel today challenged the young people to consider what they will do when they face setbacks and that got me thinking back to when I was their age. If you had asked 17 year old me where I saw myself in 35 years, here is what I probably would have answered.

I would be winding down my career as an electrical engineer. I would be married and probable have a couple of kids. I would own a nice house and probably have some acreage to go with it. Of course I would have the car to go with the house. All in all, I would be living the American dream. If you had listened closely while I was answering you, you would probably heard faint laughter in the background as God chuckled at my plans.

      Here I am, 35 years later. I am in my 24^th year of teaching, not engineering. I am still single. I have no children. I rent a 900 square foot townhome with a yard I can cut with a weedeater in 15 minutes. I drive a 1992 F150 with over 250,000 miles on it. Not exactly the American dream.

I had my life all planned out and it sounded great to me. God, however, said, “No.” God told me no and I am so thankful for that. God directed me to education and speaking life into the next generations. Thanks to my job, I have hundreds of people I consider my children. I have been able to do things that I never would have done if my plans had come to fruition. Do I wish my plans had come to pass? Some of them, yes. I would love to have a wife and children. I would like to have a car that isn’t old enough to drink. I would like to own my own house. I still pray for some of those things daily, but I have come to understand that when God says, “No.” it is for a good reason.

      How do you react when God tells you know? Do you complain and still try to make it happen, or do you accept that God knows better than you what is best for you? As the Psalmist said, “Be still and know that I am God.” "No." isn’t the end of the story, it is just the beginning of the next chapter.

A TALE OF TWO SEAS

      First a quick geography lesson. The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are separated by about 65 miles. They both share a similar climate and they are both fed by the Jordan River. It is here the similarities stop though. The Sea of Galilee is full of life; fishing has been a major industry on it for centuries. It is also one of the main water sources for the surrounding areas. The Dead Sea is, well, dead. It does not support life beyond some very hardy brine shrimp and some plants. It is the saltiest body of water on the planet. How can two lakes fed by the same source of water be so vastly different? Why does one teem with life while the other one is almost literally dead?

      I recently heard our pastor use this quote in one of her sermons. “The Gospel comes to us on the way to someone else.” (After some hunting, I found it attributed to Erwin McManus.) I think too often we as Christians think we are the end of the line for the Gospel. We hear the Word of God and apply it to our life where we think it needs to be applied and then we are done with it. We pat ourselves on the back for recognizing our shortcomings and doing something about it and getting back on the path God has laid out for us. We miss the point when we do this. Yes, we should apply the Word of God to our lives every day, but that shouldn’t be where it stops. We are charged with passing the Gospel on to others, it isn’t supposed to stop with us.

      So why the geography lesson first? You see, the difference between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea isn’t what goes into them, they are both fed by the same Jordan River. The difference is what goes out. The Jordan River flows into the Sea of Galilee at its northern end and then continues out at the southern end. The Dead Sea, however, has no outflow and that is what causes the difference. With no outflow the water stagnates and evaporates and becomes the salty water incapable of sustaining life. The same water supplies the two lakes, yet one teems with life and the other one is dead simply because the water doesn’t flow out of it. If we don’t let the Gospel continue on its way through us to others it will stagnate in us and we will find ourselves a spiritual Dead Sea, fed by a life-giving river but dead because we did nothing with it and let it evaporate. As Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (NIV)