Tag: Jesus

Someone Has to Break the Cycle of Retaliation – Reflection on MLK Jr

Screen Shot 2017-01-13 at 2.42.50 PM.pngSomeone has to break the cycle of retaliation…

Let that sink in. Read it again.

Someone has to break the cycle of retaliation.

A week doesn’t go by without stories of hatred, bigotry, violence, rape, atrocities committed against humanity. Stories bombard us from abroad and from our own communities.

One way to respond is to build bigger and better walls. Let’s protect what we can. Better alarm systems. Better lighting. More surveillance. Bigger walls. More guns. Keep the evil out.

That’s one way to respond.

And violence and atrocities continue to march on. Nothing changes.

Someone has to break the cycle of retaliation.

The cross of Jesus Christ is the ultimate breaking of the cycle of vengeance and retaliation. The cross is God saying, “I’ll take it all. Bring it! Bring the hatred. Bring the violence. Bring the evil. Bring the violence. Bring the frustration. Bring the pain. Bring it! I’ll take it all!”

On Good Friday, Jesus bore the brunt of sin and evil. Jesus bore it all.

And by rising from the grave on resurrection Sunday, Jesus crushed hatred, violence, frustration, pain, and evil.

What our world needs is not better ways to keep people out and apart. What we need, and what our world needs is a people called and a people who will answer the call the break the cycle of evil and retaliation with the hope and love of God in Jesus Christ.

May we be such people. May this be the generation that turns the cycle of violence and retaliation.

Merry Christmas = God Loves You

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As many gather in churches this evening to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the reality is that many who come to worship know the Star Wars narrative more completely and fully than they do the story of Jesus.

The Star Wars narrative is totally fiction.

The story of Jesus has to do with eternal truth.

This is such a sad commentary for a couple of reasons. First, it’s sad that churches and Christians have managed to make the greatest love story, the greatest epic of good versus evil, the greatest story for the struggle over loved ones into a dull, meaningless, irrelevant fable. It’s also sad that the George Lucas’ of our world are doing a far better job of capturing the imaginations and the hearts of our generation than the church.

So friends, on this Christmas give day, for just a few minutes, please indulge this pastor guy the opportunity to set this right.

Remember. God loves you. God love you more than you could ever imagine.

But because of sin, shame separates us from God’s love. Shame makes it impossible for us to understand and comprehend God’s love for us. Sin causes us to pursue the very things that cause more harm, more death, more darkness.

So God sent Jesus to die for us. Jesus did this because God could not imagine an eternity without you in it.

But there’s a darkness that would love for us to remain blind to this love. There really is an evil that would love for us to remain in the dark.

The darkness loves it when we ignore, distrust, and push aside God’s love story as nothing other than mere fiction.

But Christmas is a reminder that “To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God” (John 1:12).

God loves you. God could not imagine an eternity without you. So the Creator God became a creature in Bethlehem to live and die to rise again that all who believe and receive him might have life in his name. And that’s the God honest truth.

Merry Christmas!

Why Christmas is Christmas

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“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

This is the opening of the gospel of John. What an odd way to tell us about Jesus.

The reading from John 1:1-14 is included in most Lectionary texts for Christmas. What’s strange about this is that there are shepherds, no angels, no manger, no Joseph, no Mary…heck! there’s not even the baby Jesus!

So why is this a part of the reading for Christmas?

You see, the birth we are celebrating is not the birth of a great king, a great teacher, a great religious leader, a great rabbi, a great prophet. The reason why Christmas is Christmas and not like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day is because the Creator of the universe became a creature on Christmas day.

Every living thing that has been born has an innate drive to live, to survive.

Jesus was born in order that he might die.

Jesus was born in order that he might die, so that we who receive him as Lord and Savior would share in our death in order that we might share in his resurrection.

That’s not just a baby. That’s the Creator of the Universe. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is Jesus.

Merry Christmas!