Archive for the ‘Christmas’ Tag
How the Battle of Guadalcanal Gave Me Christmas
Filed under: By Bill Winn, Church, Gospel, The Plan of Adoption | Tags: Christmas, Church, Guadalcanal, Jesus, Love, Marines, pagan, paganism, Saturnalia, Trinity, xmas
Comments (2) How the Battle of Guadalcanal Gave Me Christmas
I grew up in a faith tradition that did not celebrate Christmas. I grew up being taught and believing that Christmas was a pagan ritual that Christians had been duped into observing and that God was entirely put out by it all to the point that one may just burn up in a sea of fire for uttering the words “Merry Christmas.” I was taught that Christmas was a rip off of the pagan holiday Saturnalia… and well there is a connection. Let me explain. You see Saturnalia was indeed a pagan celebration kept by the Romans in the last centuries B.C. and throughout the early centuries A.D. Saturnalia was a time of gift giving and feasting. Families gathered for meals and to renew relationships. During the time of the Early Church Christians made every attempt to root out pagan observances so why not replace Saturnalia with a festive celebration of the birth of Jesus? Since no definitive date or time could be established for the birth of Jesus the Early Church saw no problem celebrating it over-top Saturnalia to replace the pagan ritual.
I was in my late twenties before I ever actually celebrated Christmas. It was a difficult time for me. Mythologies die hard and in the back of my mind lingered this nagging
US Marines on Guadalcanal with a captured Type 92 Machine Gun (1942)
fear that God was gonna git me. Yep, “git” me. I know… git ain’t a word but down South where I cut my teeth we don’t much care what is or ain’t a word so long as we know what we’re talking about. 🙂
In any case I struggled with the idea of Christmas as a Christian celebration. The first year of our marriage my wife gave me an early present a few days before Christmas. It was a set of documentary DVD’s about the US Marines in World War II. In one of the documentaries the narrator explained that on one particular occasion on Guadalcanal a squad of Marines attacked an enemy machine gun emplacement. Enduring the withering fire of a fully automatic machine gun these brave Marines managed to capture the gun. It was what the narrator said next that turned the light on for me about Christmas. You see the Marines, being who they are and having traditionally received the left over low-grade equipment the other branches had cast aside, did not have a machine gun of their own but as soon as they captured the enemy machine gun nest they did! What the Marines did that day back in 1942 was to turn the machine gun on the enemy.
Brilliant! What the Marines did on Guadalcanal and what the Early Church did was simply brilliant. Most often the enemy of the Gospel is the wrong-headed mythologies of our own broken minds. We invent false religions and celebrations to soothe the longing within our souls. Jesus Christ, the babe in the manger… Emmanuel is the only salve for the wounded soul. The genius of the Father, Son, and Spirit is that out of our mythologies and wrongheadedness they may just redeem and put to good use what some might dismiss as being “rooted in paganism”.
The Father’s Son has come. The Father, Son, and Spirit love and like you! Hallelujah! Amen!
~Bill Winn
Somewhere In God’s World
Filed under: Bible, By Bill Winn, Christian Living, Evangelism, Gospel, Love, Prayer, Relationships, Trinity | Tags: Christmas, God, holidays, Home, lost, x-mas, xmas
Comments (2)
Recently we celebrated Veteran’s Day in the United States. It is a time when we honor those who have served our country in the Armed Forces. My Uncle Joe Winn is someone our family honors and respects greatly for his service to our country, his selfless life as a family man, and for the legacy he has left us in his children and grandchildren. Joe D. Winn made an impression on all of us in our family but I wanted to tell you about a time in 1945 when the events of Joe’s life impacted one little girl who was only 4 years old. You see after completing flight school in the Army Air Force, Second Lieutenant Joseph Daniel Winn was assigned to the island of Iwo Jima as a bomber escort flying the famed North American P-51D. On 28 July 1945 Joe was shot down during a strafing run over an airfield on the Japanese mainland. He was taken prisoner and (as were all allied flyers) classified by the Japanese as a war criminal. One evening my Aunt Beth could hear her parents and grandmother talking about Joe. She was only 4 at the time but she recounts the story in this way. 
“Mama, where’s Joe?” No answer. “I heard you say Joe’s gone to ‘War’. Mama, where’s ‘War’?” “Honey, there are some things children shouldn’t hear. Please don’t ask any more questions.” Later, I heard Mama and Daddy talking about Joe again. They used words like “Japan” and “missing” and that enormous word, “War.” Mama was crying. Young as I was, I knew where to get an answer. “Grandma, please tell me, where’s Joe?” Grandmother put her arms around me and held tight, so I wouldn’t see her tears, but I knew. “We don’t know exactly,” she said, “but wherever Joe is, that place is somewhere in God’s world.” Fear slipped away, just like that, as Grandmother’s words drew a picture in my mind: a circle of light surrounding and shrinking the dark place called “War.” Then Grandmother said, “Let’s say a prayer for Joe.”
Being sent to Omori civilian prison in Tokyo, Joe and the rest of the boys in his cell block endured conditions too horrible to mention. One ray of hope came from their guard who had gone to school in the USA. As Japan’s surrender grew near the guards could be heard going from block to block executing the Allied P.O.W.s. Joe’s sympathetic guard locked the large steel door to their cell block and slid the only key under the door with instructions not to open it for any reason. Moments later Joe and his comrades heard the other prison guards shoot their friend who had just saved all of their lives. Joe made it home after the war, raised a wonderful family, and lived the rest of his life in peace. He is one of our family’s greatest heroes, though I doubt he ever thought of himself as such.
So this Christmas if you find yourself unsure of where a loved one may be or if there is some reason you and a loved one are apart remember: Jesus is the Light of the Cosmos! (Jn.8:12) Jesus called his Father the Lord of Heaven and Earth. And Jesus himself declares that we are in him and he is in us. (Jn 14:20) This is indeed Triune God’s world and whether we know exactly where someone is at any given time, whether we worry about loved ones serving in the military, a son or daughter that we have not heard from in a while, whether we are estranged from family because of brokenness or divisions we must remember that where ever that person is they are in Jesus and in God’s world. It is no small comfort to know that we are all in Jesus and we are all ultimately safe as long as Jesus is safe. Just ask my Aunt Beth.
~Bill Winn
On Step-Fathering
Filed under: By John Stonecypher, Children's Ministry, Christian Living, Love, Relationships | Tags: Children's Minstry, Christianity, Christmas, Church, Holy Family, Jesus, Parenting, Perichoresis, Trinity, Youth Ministry
Comments (3) Traditionally, the second week of the Christmas season focuses on ‘the holy family’—Jesus with Mary and Joseph. If there is a patron saint of step-dads, it should certainly be Joseph. He did the holy work of fathering another guy’s kid. Joseph was not the father who gave little Jesus his origin or his destiny. I like to think he understood that it was important that he not impose his own agenda on this boy he was tasked with raising.
That makes me think of how I raise my sons. I am their biological father, so it’s not the same, but it’s not entirely different, either. I am not their ultimate Father. My boys do not belong to me in the way they belong to Father. I have begotten them, but I have not in any sense created them. My status as ‘Dad’ to them is about stewardship rather than ownership. Father has granted me the opportunity to ‘play dad’ to two of HIS beloved sons.
Step-fathering requires a certain restraint that comes from knowing ‘This kid is not MINE, and I must not treat him as such.’ As I grow to identify more with Joseph, I am learning to adopt that mantra as my own.
As spiritual stepfather to my biological sons, it is not my place to have an agenda for them. Whatever my unfulfilled dreams are, woe to me if I foist them onto my spiritual stepsons. Their destiny does not belong to me, not even a little. Their True Father has his own agenda for them, an agenda for their glorious freedom and joy, an agenda He has sworn to accomplish.
Thank you, Father, for giving me to share in your work of parenting your sons. Help my lingering foolishness not to get in the way too much.
~ John Stonecypher
He Came to Ascend
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Gospel, Trinity | Tags: Christianity, Christmas, Church, Gospel, Incarnation, Jesus, Perichoresis, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity
Comments (4) The song says:
I wonder, as I wander, out under the sky / How Jesus the Savior did come for to die
As much as I like this old Christmas song, I find I have to take exception with the implication that the only purpose of Jesus’ existence was his death. Certainly Jesus’ death is important, but I’ve come to believe that his ascension is even more important.
In Ephesians 1:5, Paul tells us that the whole purpose of Jesus Christ is the adoption of humanity. For us to be adopted as children of the Father, living and participating in the Trinity, the Son had to unite our human nature to himself by taking up existence as the man Jesus Christ.
This adoption of humanity into the Trinity took place at the first Christmas.
That’s when the Son of God was born into our nature and thus we were born again as children of the Father. The Son of God became the man Jesus Christ in order to bring us home to our Father, and that homecoming took place in Jesus’ ascension. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:6, were raised up with Jesus when he was raised up and we are now seated in him in heavenly realms.
Jesus’ death was one necessary step in this process of adoption and ascension.
Since we had fallen into sin and death, these had to be put to death in Jesus’ body so that our sinfulness and death would no longer be a barrier to our participation as children of the Father in his life with the Son and the Holy Spirit. So, yes, Jesus came to die – but more importantly he came to ascend to the Father’s right hand and take humanity up into the heavenly life of the Trinity.
We need to think of the shape of Jesus’ life as a “U”.
The Son of God descended from heaven into our human nature, even descending into the depth of our sin and death. But then he rose up again in the power of his resurrection and ascension – and as he returned to heaven he took us with him.
At Christmas the Son of God descended into humanity and at his Ascension he rose up again to the Father’s right hand and took humanity with him.
I wonder, as I wander, out under sky/How Jesus the Savior did ascend on high!
~ Jonathan Stepp
Merry Christmas!
Filed under: By John Stonecypher | Tags: Christmas, Incarnation, Jesus, Perichoresis, Theology, Trinity
Leave a comment Hear the Word of the LORD: In Christ, you are born this day. Yes, YOU. You are Papa’s holy infant, tender and mild. He made this silent, holy night just for you. In his arms, all is calm. All is bright. Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace.
~ John Stonecypher
Christmas Parties, Giving, and Fun ARE God’s Idea
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Gospel, Trinity | Tags: Christianity, Christmas, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Parties, Christmas Shopping, Church, Jesus, Perichoresis, Trinity
Comments (6) In many religious circles, the emphasis of the Christmas season is rightly pointed toward Jesus Christ, Humanity’s Greatest Gift and Good News! After all, without Him, there is no season and no us! (Colossians 1 or Acts 17:28!).
However, I have noticed a trend that I don’t like very much or consider to be very Christian. It sometimes immediately follows, and even precedes, our emphasis on Jesus. Maybe you have noticed it too.
That trend is the seeming continual need to emphasize how partying, rushing to buy gifts and putting up all the lights is NOT what the season is about, and if we would all just focus more on Jesus, we would all be much happier (and God would certainly be more pleased, wouldn’t He? Nooooooo!!!) Overemphasis on that kind of talk is one of my stresses during the holiday season! Now, I can admit that being overstressed, in debt, and getting so plastered in alcohol that I can’t even remember my own name is NOT the way we were designed to experience our inclusion in Christ! Ha! Hardly! But neither were we designed to sit in our living rooms by the fireplace and think and talk about Jesus 24 hours a Christmas Day! Ha! Hardly! Believe it or not!
Do you see the either/or trap of that thinking?! I think we believers DO want to emphasize Christ on Christmas! But we don’t want to forget that emphasizing Him is understanding that our entire Human life is already included in His shared human life and we can (and should) engage in both activities (Talk more of Jesus and party hearty in our gift giving under the bright lights!!) Ha-Ha! How about that?!
As we point toward Jesus we want to remember that He is human, and that Advent and Christmas are REALLY about Him sharing His full humanity with us!
Jesus is from and thoroughly immersed in THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL Relational Being in the cosmos, that of the Triune God (I John 4:16), and we are only experiencing His relationship with His Father in the Spirit along with him (2 Cor 13:14.) The meaning of Christmas is that Jesus, in His Fully God/Fully humanness, is sharing that exact Godly fellowship with us, RIGHT NOW, and believe me – it is a life of communication, partying, and gift-giving!
There is a Word in God, so we know God communicates within His Relationship! (John 1:1-14!) There is a partying and fellowshiping Spirit in God! (Luke 15 – where every parable ends in a party!). And each distinct Person in God gives Himself away to each other (John 16:12-15!) Yes, giving, partying and rushing to serve others and meet their wants and needs is Triune God’s idea, no other creature or human being made that good stuff up (James 1:17!)
This relational being of Father, Son and Spirit even gives fully of Himself under stress (see Jesus’ entire human life, especially as seen in the book of John, and Philippians 2!) He even wrapped His gift up in something fleshly, FOREVER (Matthew 1:23, Luke 23:36-39, Col 1:19!) I think you get my point! The idea of relating around a party is God’s idea, as well as adding the music, putting lights in the sky, eating and drinking things hot and cold, etc. In Luke 14:15-24 the parable even seems to imply that when you want to do things in your own self-centeredness, instead of joining in on the relational party, you will MISS the party and fun! That seems natural and logical doesn’t it?! How can you enjoy a party you never participate in? Ha-Ha!
Jesus is not some egotist demanding 24/7 worship from us, in the sense we tend to speak of! In Jesus, the totality of our lives is already a 24/7 act of worship! We glorify Him by being truly human, just like a Bluejay glorifies Him by flying around and being a Bluejay!
So, whatever you do this Christmas season, BE MORE HUMAN by sharing in Jesus’ Humanity. It is a humanity SHARED with all of humanity and creation in our Adoption into the life of Triune God (Ephesians 1:3-6). After all, Jesus wasn’t called a “glutton and a drunkard” because he stayed at home worshiping God all day! His life of worship definitely INCLUDED being out and among the “rowdy” crowds as a genuine, down-to-earth, relatable, human being (Luke 7:33-35!)
Go ahead and do both…you know you want to!!
~ Timothy Brassell
Merry Christmas Charles Dickens
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Christian Living, Gospel, Love, Trinity | Tags: A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Christianity, Christmas, Incarnation, Jesus, Theology, Trinity
Leave a comment I went to see the new, animated version of A Christmas Carol last weekend and I was amazed at the way the gospel shines through in the story.
It had been a long time since I had read the story or seen a movie adaptation of it and I was surprised to recall how Christ-centered the message of the story really is. Here are a couple of examples:
The ghost of Scrooge’s business partner appears to him wrapped in chains.
Jacob Marley tells Scrooge that he is suffering in the after-life. “But you were always a good man of business,” Scrooge replies. This prompts Marley to exclaim:
Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!
Isn’t that a good summary of who Jesus is? Mankind is his business and the common welfare is his whole reason for existing. When Marley says this should have been his business too, while he was alive, he is implicitly acknowledging how we are all included in Jesus and are all participants in Jesus’ work to take care of each person. Without getting into a whole long discourse on what hell may or may not be, I can take Dickens basic point as being rooted in the gospel: if we don’t learn to live as the children of the Father that we really are in Jesus then we are going to be miserable.
And there’s a phrase in Marley’s speech that you don’t hear much nowadays: “the common welfare.” One of the themes that shines through in the story, and is well illustrated by this new movie version, is the outrage that Charles Dickens felt at the way people treated one another in England in the 1840s. Even though they celebrated the birth of Jesus, whose business is mankind and the common welfare, they weren’t doing a good job of living like those who are included in Jesus’ life. Children went hungry, men worked 6 and 7 days a week for low wages with no vacation, and someone like Tiny Tim could actually die from lack of health care.
Books like A Christmas Carol helped change these circumstances in England and America. (Well, all except the health care part. People can still die here in America because they don’t have money for health care.)
At the end of the story, after the three Christmas spirits have visited him, Scrooge goes to his nephew’s house where a Christmas party is in full swing.
The day before his nephew had generously and lovingly invited Scrooge to join them and Scrooge had heaped scorn on the young man. Now, his whole perspective changed, Scrooge enters the house and the party comes to a dead stop. Everyone turns and looks at the withered old man standing in the doorway. And Scrooge quietly says:
I’ve come, if you’ll have me.
At that moment everyone rushes to embrace him, joyfully welcoming him into the party. Scrooge reminds me of the older son in the parable of the prodigal – the one who remains standing out in the dark, refusing to come into the Father’s house to celebrate the reconciliation of all things. Dickens, I think, has given us in Ebenezer Scrooge an image of what it might look like when the self-righteous, angry “older sons” of the world repent and come into the celebration.
I don’t imagine that Charles Dickens was much of a theologian, or perhaps would have expressed the gospel in the Trinitarian terms which we at The Adopted Life are working so hard to promote. I do, however, think that I see in A Christmas Carol a story written by a man whose imagination was baptized in the Holy Spirit and who could see the practical implications of the gospel.
Dickens paints a picture of humanity bound together in the fraternal bonds of the incarnation of the Son of God as the man Jesus Christ. This is what we are celebrating at Christmas, that Jesus has made one new humanity in his flesh and blood (Eph. 2:15.)
Merry Christmas Charles Dickens.
Thanks for reminding us that Christmas is about Christ and humanity in union with each other and with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
~ Jonathan Stepp
Mary and Eve
Filed under: By Jonathan Stepp, Gospel, Trinity | Tags: Advent, Christmas, Incarnation, Jesus, Mary, Perichoresis, Theology, Trinity
Comments (2) While doing research for my upcoming sermon on Mary I came across an interesting passage from the writing of St. Irenaeus.
In this section he draws a parallel between Mary and Eve. In part he says:
. . . Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin (for in Paradise “they were both naked, and were not ashamed,” inasmuch as they, having been created a short time previously, had no understanding of the procreation of children: for it was necessary that they should first come to adult age, and then multiply from that time onward), having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race. . . . And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith. ~ Against Heresies, 3.22.4 (Emphasis Mine)
One of the basic tenents of Protestantism is to “demote” the Blessed Virgin (Luke quotes her as saying that all generations would her “blessed” and so they have – Luke 1:48.) In reaction to what we perceive as the over-exaltation of Mary by our Roman Catholic brethren we Protestants have a long history of ignoring Mary.
Here’s what I’ve been wondering about as I put this sermon together:
If Mariology hadn’t become such an issue in Christianity in the last 500 years wouldn’t we all be encouraging our kids to look up to Mary as a hero of the faith? We Protestants love to talk about Ruth, Esther, and the Proverbs 31 woman but when it comes to the “Second Eve” who was the one through whom the salvation of humanity entered humanity we fall strangely silent.
I think it should be obvious that I don’t advocate bizarre titles like “Co-Redepmtrix” for Mary but I do think it’s high time we Protestants gave the girl her props. The faith that the Holy Spirit gave her to trust the Father and receive the Son (as no one ever had or ever will again receive him) is a faith worth celebrating this Advent Season.
~ Jonathan Stepp
P.S. If you want to hear more about Mary check out the sermon I’ll be preaching this Sunday. I’ll have the audio of it posted at The Adopted Life on Monday.
You’d Better Get Used to Being Human!
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Gospel, The Plan of Adoption | Tags: Ascension, Christmas, Gospel, Heaven, Incarnation, Jesus, Perichoresis, Resurrection
Comments (3) If you’re like me, and infested with a fallen human nature, that probably sounds negative and uninspiring at first, doesn’t it?
There is simply something about being human that we have been taught to disrespect, dishonor and not appreciate, regardless of Jesus and the scriptures (Psalm 8, Heb 1). Kermit the frog came close when he sung “It’s not easy being green!” Its not always easy being human! Plus, the rotten experiences we have had and are having in this flesh don’t seem to match up with the logic of wanting to remain human forever. After all, isn’t Christianity really about getting out of these human bodies and into a spiritual non-human body?
Where did you and I inherit poison like that? Christianity is absolutely NOT about not being human?! Just the opposite!
It’s about being truly human forever! It’s amazing to me how much I have missed this truth and, as a result, missed much more of the Kingdom here on earth NOW that the Father makes available in His Son Jesus and delights for me to share in with you!
I just had the wonderful opportunity of proclaiming this Good News at a local congregation of Grace Communion International in Baltimore, MD.! It is called New Life Fellowship, and I think you would love visiting there if you ever got the chance! They are alive and well in Jesus AND learning to celebrate their humanity NOW! “Wowsa” and “Good gravy!” Go Baltimore! They invited me up for International Day where we celebrated the fact that all of us will be human forever, and that all of the distinct expressions, colors, races, and general ethnic cultures and foods we love to eat will still exist in the resurrection!
Check out this set of verses in the Scriptures in The Message version of the Bible: Luke 2:27-52, Luke 24:36-48, listen to the message here (soon!), and claim this wonderful truth in Jesus:
Jesus was born as, lived in, died as, and was resurrected and ascended to His Father as the Jewish God/Man that originally came on the scene!
Notice in Luke 24 how he keeps exclaiming that it is Him, Jesus, Who has Resurrected and is the Resurrection? “Look at MY hands and my feet!”, he exclaims! “Ghosts do not have muscle and bone as I have!” He remarks! “Do you have some of my favorite food, fish? Give me some! I want to gobble it up and eat it to show you how human I still am in my FOREVER resurrection…AND HOW HUMAN YOU WILL BE IN YOUR FOREVER RESURRECTION WITH ME WHEN HEAVEN COMES TO EARTH!” (Rev 21:1-4)
Do you see what Jesus is doing in His own permanently human body? (Acts 1:1-11)
He is validating YOUR culture! Your Distinct Expression! Your Music! Your Favorite Dance! Your Favorite Food! Your Nationality! Your color of Eyes! Your DIFFERENTLY shaped ears, nose, mouth and body shape!! (Ha-Ha! I can hear many of you groaning as you debate the fact that maybe your current weight and looks are REALLY acceptable to God and may not change as much as you currently desire IN YOUR SINFUL PERCEPTIONS OF YOURSELF!!!Ha-Ha! I’m with you in that struggle!)
Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to literally and exactly describe how you will look in the resurrection!
I’m lost about the old vs. the young thing, too! Neither am I trying to give more answers than raise questions. I’m not! I am trying to be faithful to the Gospel – Jesus – and the Jewish and human HIM he took seriously AND resurrected! So much so that in His human self he keeps saying, “It is me!” and they (his disciples) recognized HIM as himself!
Sure your body will be raised incorruptible, and YES, everything that is not truly human in you and is broken in your body will be fixed and made right! BUT, what is “right?” I don’t think a large nose, ears, or belly are necessarily wrong or broken in every case, do you?! Don’t we even say as fallen humans that “Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder”? And don’t we REALLY know that and mean it when we say it? Ha-Ha! Where does that come from if not from the Triune God in Whom we are all created and sustained in our distinction and union, and Who loves us UNCONDITIONALLY?
Imagine eating something that tastes as delicious as YOUR favorite dessert, candy, chocolate snacks or wine forever; with a vitalized tongue that tastes even more of the sweet goodness?! And think of the weight you won’t gain or have to lose, regardless!! Ha-Ha! Heaven!! This is the way we are supposed to be reading the scriptures in the Light of Jesus Christ (Luke 24:41-43).
So enjoy the foretaste, literally!
The Baltimore congregation and I did as we feasted on those many international dishes! Boy do I look forward to “eating to bursting” WITHOUT BURSTING in my forever resurrected and incorruptible human being! Good Gravy – for REAL! Thank you Jesus – I, for one, LOVE IT!!
~ by Timothy Brassell