Translating my thoughts into words.
I pray for that you all had a blessed Christmas and wish you all the best as we end this year. If you are like me, you have a number of activities on your list for this next week: articles to read and write, work on the house, and of course spending time with family. I am preaching to myself when I say, try to also take time to relax, reflect, and prepare for the time ahead, whatever that “time” may be.
We all have them, even my Jewish friends (and yes, they all tell me it involves Chinese food and a movie, it is their stereotype, not mine). Before we had children we would attend the midnight service, come home, fill my Churchwarden with tobacco, and have a small glass of champagne in front of the fire.
Now we have an early dinner, my current dish is Cornish game hens with cranberry relish, then attend the early, children’s service, and bring them home, have chocolate crepes for desert (a byproduct of Christmas Day breakfast), and try and get them to sleep. Then we return to our prior tradition, but only after playing a bit of Santa Claus. Our son will be 8 next month and has his suspicions, but we are pleased to continue the illusion just a bit longer. Tomorrow morning after the gift frenzy we will have the wonderful sausage crepes that my wife made earlier (see the chocolate crepes referred to earlier) and then…relax.
Throughout the entire Advent season we focus upon the fact that await the coming of Jesus, then and now. This season, as always, there have been good sermons and bad, politicians abusing the faith, and clergy feeling the need to trample on orthodoxy and children’s fantasies. None of that can obscure the fact: He came as one of us, for us, so that we might live. That is the tradition that we all share.
Have a happy Christmas, whatever your tradition dictates, and may the blessings of Christ be with you all.
And does it help that the first one is actually a billboard put up by a church, or that the ad agency responsible for the second one is run by a Jewish man?
via Comics I Don’t Understand » Offensive or Not?.
I am telling you folks, Coffee with Jesus impresses me. It clearly offends some, but whoever writes this understands the biblical Jesus. Take today’s strip on what should be on a year end Top Ten list.
This Advent I am leading a discussion group at church. Last Sunday was the first and…well, I couldn’t make it. So instead I put together this small set of texts and questions to help them with discussion.
Advent is a time of expectation; we await the return of Christ even as we remember his first arrival as the baby Jesus. But what were the people of the first century expecting? We know that they looked for the Messiah, the “anointed one,” to arrive, but what kind of messiah were they looking, praying, and hoping for? In this series we will consider the biblical prophecies, contemporary Jewish texts like the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the New Testament to understand the historical question of Jesus’ messiahship. More importantly, we will also consider what sort of messiah we are expecting this Christmas.
I am sorry that I will be unable to be with you on this first Sunday of the series, 4 December. The time is not lost, however, since much of what we need to do is consider the biblical texts that form the background to the Jewish world that Jesus was born into. Indeed, this is “the Bible” that Jesus knew. The Gospels were not lived, let alone written, and the apostles and Paul had not yet been born. So today consider these texts from Scripture and discuss the questions presented. If the context of the text cited is unfamiliar by all means go back and consider the broader setting; that is always important and an appropriate thing to do. The questions are offered as nothing more than a catalyst to begin conversation so do not feel constrained by them but allow your thoughts and discussion to travel far and wide. I look forward to joining you in one week to continue the discourse.
— CMMB+
Son of David (Son of God?)
2 Sam. 7.11 “Moreover the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. 15 But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”
This prophecy from Nathan to David assures David that his dynasty (unlike that of Saul, whom he replaced on the throne of Israel) shall last forever. How do you think this was received in David’s time or in those years following his own death?
