December 29, 2024

One More Thing…

The twelve days of Christmas are a real thing

Dear Church:

By the time you read this, Christmas Day will have come and gone.

What’s next?

Beginning on December 25, and continuing to January 5, we actually celebrate Christmas. For twelve days, we are invited to reflect on the Newborn, and perhaps, the New Birth.

The world as it is wants us to hurry up, take down the decorations, and get ready for what’s next…which is the NFL playoffs, I guess (Fly, Eagles, Fly?).

I know I’m often the one who keeps reminding the congregation that you’ve called me to lead in a way that is, “urgent, but not anxious.” To, “be quick, but don’t hurry.” But, in these twelve days of Christmas, let’s give ourselves a break. Let’s hold on to Christmas for a little bit. Maybe we can take a few minutes each of these twelve days to read and re-read the amazing stories of Luke 1-2. Packing up the decorations really can wait. Let’s take up our Bibles and read and reflect on how life’s apple cart was upended for these pious, simple folk: Zechariah and Elizabeth in the Judean highlands. Joseph and Mary of Nazareth. The Bethlehem Shepherds. Simeon and Anna in the Jerusalem Temple. And Jesus Himself during an early Passover experience. Find the calm and centering hope when we slow down with God’s great stories and consider what God was creating in their midst: a way forward into mystery without fear, and a vision for the world as God wants it to be.

The new year that looms large ahead will no doubt have plenty of opportunity for discord, disappointment, and division. But a new chapter (or two) of salvation history is ushered forth in the birth of Jesus. Take a few days to enjoy the promise.

Let’s go, church (and relax, read, and reflect in these twelve days of Christmas)

Pastor Jeff

jeff@bgmc.net

P.S. We are going to take a short break from Monday listening breakfasts and Friday listening coffees. Lord willing, I’ll resume Friday coffees at the Broad Street Grind on January 3, 3:30pm-4:45pm, and I’ll resume meeting up to listen at breakfast on Monday, January 6, 7:30am-8:45am.

December 22, 2024

In the Second Hour Sunday elective group that is studying the book, Divine Gravity, by Meghan Larissa Good, she makes two really important assertions: First, she writes, “Jesus is the authoritative lens through which God is seen and the Bible is interpreted (p.47).” Wonderful! I agree completely! The challenge then, of course, is actually to do the work of reading and interpreting the scripture. Pastor Meghan reflects on how the Reformation of the 1500s was an attempt to recenter authority in the scriptures, and she goes on to write (still on p. 47), “A reformation that centers on Scripture perhaps inevitably leads to a reformation that centers on Jesus…”

This is precisely why we have said that one of our three discipleship values at Blooming Glen is: “We rely on the Bible as our guide for faith and life.” Without the Bible, we don’t know much of anything about Jesus. Imagining a Christianity without scripture is a little bit like imagining Harry Potter without the seven books JK Rowling wrote. Our faith without our Bible is like trying to imagine Aslan without the writings of C.S. Lewis or being on the journey with Frodo Baggins without the writings of JRR Tolkien. Without our paying deep attention to the narrative story contained in the Bible, we Christians are not much more than your local service club – maybe we can do some good in the world, but there won’t be any real transformation.

Pastor Meghan also challenges us when she claims that the Jesus we know through scripture is authoritative in our life. To say this, is, in my opinion, to tackle our time’s two great ideologies. Individualism – which suggests that we are each the moral center and pinnacle of our own universe without ultimate accountability to any other authority structure but ourselves and concerned solely with one’s own interests. The second ideology of our era, collectivism, suggests that all social behavior ought to be and is ultimately dependent on some sort of group solidarity. To say the Jesus we know through scripture is authoritative in life is to radically cut through the noise made by every stripe of politician, economist, and social critic.

And the only way to challenge the ideologies (and idolatries) of our strange, new world is to rely on the Bible…because it is the only tool in our faith that points us to Jesus, our ever-present Savior, Teacher, Friend, and Lord.

So, let’s go, church (reading and relying on the Bible as the ultimate story of God’s amazing grace through Jesus)!

Pastor Jeff

jeff@bgmc.net

P.S. Monday, December 23 is the final listening breakfast at A&N for 2024. We’ll resume meeting for breakfast on January 6 at 7:30am. Our next Friday afternoon coffee and conversation will be Friday, January 3, at 3:30pm, at the Broad Street Grind. Lord willing, see you there!