God's First Born

 Our modern culture often becomes a barrier to what God is trying to tell us.  We view stories in the Bible through our 20th century eyes and not through the eyes of the people who were writing the biblical accounts.  We focus on things that may be minor parts of a story because they touch a modern feeling or desire and miss the bigger more important message.  

   When we read the story of Jesus birth, we focus on Jesus lying in the manger and him starting out in "low estate" but miss the larger message God is communicating to us.

   The shepherds, the manger and the swaddling cloth are not 3 separate parts of the story. Instead, these pieces work together to communicate a much more meaningful message.

    Shepherding in Jesus' day was not considered to be a high calling career.  Their form of employment would be closely associated with garbage collecting of today.  But even though it was not a highly respected job, it was a very important job for the Jewish religion.  This was because their job was to provide the temple with sacrificial lambs needed for daily sacrifices.  God's law given to Moses required them to set aside the first-born male of every ewe. The law however didn't just accept any first-born male lamb either.  The lamb needed to be without defect.  It couldn't have a deformed limb, or be blind or have a hunched back.   To ensure the lamb was without these defects they had to be inspected by the priests.  This created a problem though because handling a newborn lamb would make the priest ceremonially unclean.  To work around this issue the priests would supply the shepherds with cloth to wrap the lamb in so they could physically handle them.  This cloth was called "swaddling cloth" and the lamb would often be wrapped in it and placed in the manger waiting for the priest to arrive and do the inspection.  

    So here we have Jesus, God's first-born son, lying in a manger and wrapped in swaddling cloth and visited by the shepherds.   The message to the Jewish people of that time would have been unmistakable.  Here is Jesus, God's sacrificial lamb without defect who takes the sin of the world away.  God wastes no time making his message clear to us. 

  One final thought must be made here.  Jesus being wrapped in cloth previous used to wrap unclean baby lambs would make Jesus "ceremonially unclean" from head to toe.  God wastes no time separating his son from him having him jump into our filth. As the writer in Hebrews says, "He who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we might obtain the righteousness of God"

 

Abra Cadabra!

     For thousands of years words were thought to have magical powers.  Magicians for example would use the words "Abra-Cadabra!" before pulling a rabbit out of a hat or doves flying out of handkerchiefs.     Witches would use mysterious poetry to cast spells and hexes on people.  

    Words do have a lot of power.   The written word is still one of the most influential tools we have today.  While modern videos have the ability to communicate ideas as well , as does audio presentations, there is still something compelling about reading the words off a page.  Maybe because its been around longer than the other mediums or maybe just because it requires more mental facilities to accomplish that it has a longer lasting and more deep impression on us. (It is because of this I still prefer to write my ideas out rather than create video-blogs).   The written medium has another advantage over the other mediums.  That advantage is hearing the words written in our own voice and not in mine.  Right now, as you read this blog, you are "hearing" this blog in your head in your own voice as if you were the one speaking it.   This makes the written word even more personal as these words of mine become your words too.

     God's word has even more power.  His word can give life and it can take it away (he created it).  In Genesis God says "Let there be..." and there it is in all its glory.    Jews have always held that God's "word" is one part of God (while is Spirit and Creative force are distinctly different). This is why John in his Gospel writes "the word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth".  Jesus is that Word of God.

    When Jesus calls his disciples he simply says, "Follow me!" and they follow.  This is not to say they had no choice in the matter (they did).   They could decide to not follow Jesus, but they could not decide TO follow Jesus.  His word makes things happen.  When Jesus cleanses the 10 lepers he simply says, "Be clean" and they are clean.   When the storm threatens to drown them in the boat Jesus simply says "Be still" and it happens.  When he calls Lazarus from the grave he says, "Lazarus come out!".  No fancy poetry.  No Abra-Cadabra.  Just commands. 

    When Jesus is later asked to heal the synagogue rule's daughter, he comes to the house to find she is already dead.  When he goes into the room he speaks to the girl in Aramaic "Talitha Koum!" (which means 'little girl arise').   Why did Jesus choose to use Aramaic rather than Hebrew?   I think it is to show the disciples that there is nothing special or magical about Hebrew.   He shows them that his words are powerful no matter what language they are spoken in. This may have been as a teachable moment to Jairus as well,. As Jairus was the local synagogue ruler, he would be well versed in Hebrew and possibly think that there is something special about his people's historical language. 

    When the Bible is translated to another language it has as much power to save and transform as it did when it was first penned in Hebrew and Greek.  It doesn’t matter if it’s German, French, Spanish, Russian or Chinese, Gods’s spirit can touch the souls of those who read it  The medium is not important. The source is what is important. 

   When Martin Luther initiated the Reformation in 1520, he would later go on to translate the Bible from Latin into the language of the people , German   He did so because he believed God’s  word should be read by everyone and not just priests   Many of his day felt that this was heresy as God can only speak in Latin   Later, Lutherans moving to the US were hesitant to leave behind their German language and heritage but were forced by WWII to adopt their new country’s main language   They too may have been caught up in the notion that German is somehow more holy than English too  

    We must not let the medium be the message in the church  we must always keep the Gospel as the message and not worry about how God chooses to communicate it  it may be online   It may be an iPhone Bible app   It might even be a rap song   

     God’s  word is powerful in any language!

You are no different

       One of the great learnings a person can become aware of is the truth that you are no different than the person next to you.  A phrase once said was “There but by the grace of God go I”.  In this statement, we acknowledge that we would be in the same situation as that person if things happened differently for us.  It’s a humbling realization. 

      Today many people sneer at people of the past and call people like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson evil because they owned slaves. Their beliefs emanate from a view that if they had lived back then they would do things differently.  

     How wrong they are.  

     We often don’t take into account how so much of who we are is handed down by the culture and environment around us.   We like to think we arrived at our trajectory on our own power and they only thing influencing us is our own DNA.  

    As an illustration, consider the modern day “alligator fish” (also known as “gar”). This fish is often referred to as a living fossil as its appearance hasn’t changed in 100s of millions of years.  Fossils we find today have the exact same bone structure and teeth.  There is one glaring difference however.  The modern day Gar is freshwater and the prehistoric is saltwater. Over the Millenia this fish as changed its ability to live in freshwater and become incapable of swimming in saltwater without dying.  Same fish but different habitat.   Humans are much like the Gar.  We may look the same as people in other centuries but we swim in much different waters 

     Many modern day “period pieces” (movies and TV) try to inject 21st century views and thinking into the 18th and 19th centuries to make you think these people living at that time were just like you and I living today.  One such PBS program called “Bridgerton”.  The series centers around the main character , Daphne Bidgerton, whose views (and even language) could be pulled from a modern day teen romance novel. Her character is purported to be living in England in the early 1800s and is fighting for “social justice” and upsetting the aristocratic system. This mixing of eras gives the wrong impression to the people viewing it that we find the people living at this time no different from us other than the need to wear long dresses , top hats and ride in horse drawn carriages. This could not be further from the truth.  

    The truth is, if time travel was made possible we would need a lot more than a change of cloths to fit in.  We would need a whole change of views , values and also language.  Once I was visiting the Pittock Mansion in Portland Oregon and saw some old newspapers mounted on the wall in glass (Pittock was the owner of the local newspaper).  I went up to the paper to read and see what issues they were concerned with in their time.  To my amazement I could barely read the article as the language and choice of words was far different from why I was used to reading.  I would need several hours and a Thesaurus to decode what many of that time could read without any trouble.  This is just one of many differences I would have to overcome in going back to this time.  

      Every culture from every time is like this.  They are who they are because of when they lived. Take for example those living in the bronze era.  City states attacked other city states on a regular basis to obtain their wealth.  There was no “Free Trade Agreement Acts” to protect them.  The only protection were bigger walls and better swords and spears.  When crops failed from no rain or from pestilence the people of their day did not have weather forecasts to give them hope or people to show them how to better rotate their crops.  Instead they had people who scared them into sacrificing their children or offering up their young girls as prostitutes for Baal worship.  To think that you would grow up in this culture, (illiterate and uneducated) and would act completely different is the height of hubris.  You would be no different than them and only by the grace of God are you saved from that type of life. 

     We need to show grace , not only to those living around us now , but also to those living in the past (maybe even more for those living in the past as they cannot speak for themselves).  We need to say to ourselves as we read about history that we would be very much like them.  

     This not too say you would not be any different.  After all,  you are still you.  The issue is the degree of difference.  Each generation has men and women who do think differently than their culture dictates but only by a few degrees of difference.  But like compounding interest from a bank these few differences over time multiplies over each generation.  

     For example, Thomas Jefferson put aside the idea of an aristocracy (blue bloods verse commoners) when he penned his infamous words “We believe all men are created equal”.  (even though he owned slaves). Lincoln would later use these words in his infamous Gettysburg address to include men of all races (even though he like many felt at one time blacks would not be able to live among whites).  Martin Luther King would build on these changes to end racial hatred still lingering from the civil war and to bring us together in love for one another  (even though he known to have been unfaithful in love to his wife). 

   So as you read about historical figures or people of different eras, remember that these people  , like you, are imperfect and a product of their time and world.  Thank them for how they were able to make the changes they did.  

Help is calling

     Recently I read a news story about a man who went hiking in the mountains and got lost.  People searching for him tried to call him on his cell phone as there was a chance he might have service in the area, but to no avail no one answered.  After several more days, the man was later found and recovered alive.  He told his rescuers that he had received their calls, but because he did not recognize the phone number he didn't answer the calls (we are so conditioned to ignore solicitors).   It seems so silly in retrospect that this man spent several more nights in the woods and could have potentially died all because he didn't recognize the phone number of the caller but we are really no different when it comes to God.

    God is desperately trying to reach us in our times of fear, darkness and loneliness.  He wants to rescue us from our despair over our past sins and current problems.   Too often, however, we don't "pick up" on his call all because we don't recognize Him working in our lives (or may be we do but we are too stubborn to let God be the rescuer).  He wants to restore us and save us.  

Jesus cried over Jerusalem as he approached the city saying, 

"Jerusalem! Jerusalem!  Killer of the prophets and those sent to you!  How often I wanted to gather you like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you would not!"

   He cries over you too in much the same way! 

    Unlike, the rescuers in the story, God doesn't hang up on us and stop trying.  Instead, as Jesus said, 

"He leaves the 99 in the pasture and pursues the one lost sheep and searches for it until he has found it.  When he finds it he puts it on his shoulders and tells his friends, "Come and celebrate with me for I have found my lost sheep!" 

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!

    Those are the infamous words repeated by Buzz Lightyear in the movie series "Toy Story".   The phrase is a bit of an oxymoron in that there is technically nothing beyond "infinity".   Infinity can never be defined or limited such that you can ever go beyond it.  Make up any large number with any number of zeros after it and all you have to do is add 1 more zero and you have a number 10 times larger than the one before it.

Let me illustrate:

      You say this is large number: 

                   1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

       But add a zero on the end and it becomes: 

                 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

        As soon as you think you have the largest number possible, I can make a larger one.  

     Infinity is a problem mathematicians have had to grapple with over the centuries.  As they study various mathematical functions and theorems the question always arises: 

                    "What happens when X goes to infinity?"   

     The solution to the problem may work for reasonably small values of X but may not work for problems were X is very large. Because of this many of their theorems have "clauses" written into them that limit the use of their purpose to "when X is small" or "X is between 0 and 1". 

      Infinity is difficult for humans to grasp.  We are finite humans.  We live in finite worlds, with finite bodies, with finite life-spans and have finite physical and mental capabilities. So how do you grasp something that has no beginning and also no ending?  Because we can't, we tend to limit the universe in some way to suit our finite limitations. 

     We also do this with God's love and grace. We think God's answer to sin (his grace) only works for small bounded problems like those math theorems.  We think to ourselves, "Well that may work for someone who hasn't committed any major sins or has lived a fairly descent life, but not for someone like me!"  

     But Paul writes:

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

     In Romans 5:20 he also writes:

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,

     Only through God's Holy Spirit can we even attempt to know the infinite love of God in Christ. Like the large number you thought was a big number , only to have a bigger number made by adding a zero at the end so also is God's grace towards you.

     Then why should I stop sinning if God's grace expands to infinity?

     The problem is not with God but with us.  Because we may say God's love is infinite our finite selves reject this notion as it applies to us.  Oh it may apply to "others" but we often view ourselves as having a unique place in God's Kingdom that is outside of God's grace.  Because we will ultimately limit the grace God can supply, we will run out of it by constantly sinning or committing a sin which we view as too great for God to forgive.  (this is why we ask God to "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil") 

     This was the case of Judas.  We will never know the reason why Judas betrayed Jesus.  It might have been out of anger or frustration with Jesus not being the "Mighty Messiah" to kick the Romans out.  Who knows!  Often we get too caught up in the "Why did he do it?" and not the "Why did he kill himself?".  Judas spent 3 years with Jesus. He heard all his sermons. He saw all of his miracles.  He even participated in those miracles when he was sent out 2 by 2 to the local towns.  He saw Jesus forgive the sins of countless people, but Judas believed he had done something so egregious that God could not forgive him.  Peter denied Jesus to a little girl within ear shot of Jesus.  His sin was just as bad as Judas.  The difference is in their perception of God's love to them.  I believe 100% that Judas would have been forgiven by Jesus just as Peter was forgiven.  After all, didn't Jesus forgive the men standing below the cross who had lied to put him there?  If he could do that to them, he would surely have done it for Judas as well.

      Maybe you have done something you thought you would never ever do.  Maybe you think you are outside of God's grace in Jesus Christ.   Let me tell you that you are not.  Whenever you feel this way just remember this:

GOD'S LOVE IS "TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!"

God runs beside us

Recently while exercising at the gym I was watching ESPN and their coverage of the Paralympic Games.  I was watching the Track-and-Field portion of the program and was fascinated by the Women's Visually Impaired (blind) 100 meter dash. The event put the runners in odd numbered lanes and a seeing-aid in the even number lanes.   In this case, each woman was paired with a man running beside them all the way to the finish line.  Their aid helped with keeping in their lane by giving them instructions, but also to encourage them and let them know what place they were in.  

I couldn't help but see the connection to our "race" as Christians.  Christ is not waiting at the finish line to see if we make it or not.  No!   Like the runner-aid, Christ runs right beside us.  He urges us on to keep going and finish our race.  He also helps guide us with his words to help keep us going in a straight path and staying in our lane that is marked out for us.

Strength is Weakness and Weakness is Strength

 Saint Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

...because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

This verse seems to be a contradiction. How can one be strong when they are weak. Why would God give Paul a "thorn in the flesh" that would seem to make his work more difficult.  

    To illustrate why this is so,  I'm going to use two famous quarterbacks in the NFL: Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. When Tom Brady first auditioned for the NFL his statistics were not very good. The people at the combine noted that Tom was slow, didn't throw a good tight spiral, didn't look like he had ever been in a weight room, and didn't have a strong arm. By contrast, Aaron Rodgers got very good remarks at his first combine after college. On paper Aaron Rodgers is a much better quarterback than Tom Brady.  He is quick and can use his legs to get out of a jam.  He can really zip the ball and can throw it very far down the field if needed.  Yet it's Tom Brady who has seven Lombardi trophies Aaron he has one. Why is that?   I think the answer is that Tom Brady's weakness is his strength. He knows that he can't do it on his own and needs to rely on others on the team.  He works his hardest to improve those areas he is not good at, but in the end he knows that can carry him only so far.  He works hard to be the best team leader he can be both on the field and off the field.   Aaron Rodgers on the other hand does not do those things. He relies on his own capabilities (his speed, his throwing ability, his agility) to carry his team on the field.  While this has worked for him at times in the past, it has become his downfall as of late.  For example, this last spring he decided to sit training camp out and not spend time working with his teammates.  He clearly thinks he doesn't have to train with them and doesn't appreciate what his team does for him.  He has become puffed up and arrogant, to the detriment of his team (shown in their 38-3 pounding by the New Orleans Saints on 9/12/21).

So you might say Tom Brady's weakness is his strength and Aaron Rodgers' strength is his weakness.

So also it is with us Christians and our relationship to Jesus Christ. When we recognize our weakness and that we are incapable doing it ourselves, we see that we need to rely on him more and less on our own abilities.  Our weakness becomes our strength.  God gives us these thorns for a reason.  As with Paul, to remind us that we are weak and to prevent us, like Paul, from becoming "puffed up".  He doesn't want our "strength" to take our focus off the need for HIS strength.

EARN IT!!

     In life there are two kinds of earning.  One where we work a job, save our money and pay for what we want/need.  The other is where we are given what we did not ask for and use our lives to pay our thanks back.  Christians often mistakenly focus on the first and think that they must DO something to EARN their salvation, when it is really the second type of earning God wants us focused on.      

    In the gospel of John we have the following story of Jesus being confronted with a person caught in the act of adultery in John chapter 8:

2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

        The last few words uttered to this woman may seem harsh to those who don't understand the full context of the problem.   Was Jesus telling her to shape up or else next time I might not be here to save you??   Was it Jesus chastising her after everyone else is gone?  Was he saying her salvation hinged on her living a good life?

       Not at all.  It is Jesus who will be paying for those sins in a few days on the cross and he knows there is literally nothing this woman (or any of us for that matter) can do to repay God. 

       To better understand this let me use the following video clip from the WW2 movie,  "Saving Private Ryan".  For those who may have not seen this movie, Tom Hanks character is sent with a team of soldiers to find and send home a Private Ryan whose family has lost 3 brothers in other battles and Private Ryan is the sole surviving son.  In the end, Tom Hanks character is shot in a battle to protect a bridge from the Nazi's and his dying words to Private Ryan (Matt Daman) are:  "EARN THIS!"

The scene cuts to an old Private Ryan standing in a cemetery where his friend is buried

          In this scene the man talks to the grave-stone telling his friend he hadn't forgotten what he asked him to do and that he thought about him every day of his life.  He then asks for his wife to assure him he was a "good man".  He spent his life "earning" the gift given to him and paid for by others sent to save him.  

         Jesus was sent to save sinners and give us eternal life with him.   The gift is already paid for and given to us without our asking for it.  All Jesus asks is for us use our lives in thankfulness and to "earn it".  We have all been given much by God and we should let our lives reflect that great gift as well.  We do not live good lives to earn our salvation, but we live good lives in honor, love and respect for all God has done for us to give us salvation.

Just like Private Ryan.