Advent Is for Losers (like Clark Griswold)

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Has anyone, in the history of watching Christmas Vacation, thought to themselves, “That Clark Griswold. He’s a real winner!”

Of course not! The entire story tells us of a lovable loser whose day dreams and misadventures are fueled by the anticipation of a yet-to-be-received Christmas Bonus. The movie peaks on Christmas Eve when Clark, who still hasn’t received his bonus, hears a knock on the door.  As he opens the door he finds a mail currier holding out an envelope with his Christmas bonus inside.  

It’s awful timing, but at least it finally came!

Clark takes it into the house and makes a surprising announcement.  The audience has known something all along that not even his family members have known. He has been counting on his bonus, something he feels is owed to him, and now that it has finally arrived he can tell his family about his plans to install an in-ground swimming pool!

As he opens the envelope he discovers not his xmas bonus but a membership into… wait for it… The Jelly Of the Month Club.  You know, “The gift that keeps on giving.”

What follows is a foul-mouthed rant about his boss and the corrupt powers of the rich and his plight as the overlooked.

Now, he may be overplaying his hand a bit. Clark lives in the burbs. He has received a Christmas bonus over the past several years. And like many of us, he has foolishly misspent and chased after more of the American Dream than was due him.

Make no mistake though. Clark, in this moment, is acutely aware of how broken he is and it is in his brokenness that he begins to realize what really matters most.

In this moment, all the kids and cousins see something out of the window that they think is Santa.  But Clark knows what it really is.

“It’s the Christmas star.” Clark says, “And that’s all that matters tonight. Not bonuses, or gifts or turkeys or trees. You see kids, it means something different to everybody and [with his family gathered all around him] now I know what it means to me.”

This thoroughly secular version of the Christmas story has something profoundly spiritual embedded in it and it’s this:

Christmas is, in fact, for losers like Clark.

I know how that sounds. We hate talking about losing. It seems unacceptable, but it is an undeniable common thread throughout the library of Scripture – that God favors those who are overlooked, underserved, and the least suspecting of all. 

In other words, God has a special eye towards those we typically think of as the losers in life.

I think Mary, the mother of Jesus, would understand well the Clark Griswolds of the world. After learning of what will happen within and through her, Mary breaks out into song:

“He has been mindful of the humble state of his servant…” 

“He has scattered the proud…”

“He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble.”

“He has filled the hungry with good things to eat, but has sent the rich away empty.”

Despite what our culture tells us about the Christmas season with our movies and music and commercials and catalogs – Christmas is for those who cannot, for the life of them, figure out why God would come to this earth.

Christmas really isn’t about trees or lights or presents, or stressful meals with family you only see at the holidays. It’s not even about all the traditions we so desperately try to hang on to each year.

Christmas is about finding ourselves at the end of all of this and knowing deep in our bones that no matter what we do or what we pursue will ever be enough if it is void of Jesus.

This is one of the reasons Advent, the season that leads us into Christmastime, is so important for the church. It provides the space for us to pause and realize how lost we truly are without Jesus in this world.

Christmas is for those who know they still need something not from this world, but from truly sent from God into this world, so that we can truly live in this world.

Christmas is for you. Jesus is for you!

The Gospel of Luke reminds us over and over again that God’s favor is for those who find his coming to be surprising and perhaps even unexpected.  This is true of Mary, of the Shepherds, of the Prophet Anna and the old man Simeon.  It’s true of the Demoniac, the Bleeding Woman, the Tax Collector, the “Sinful Woman”, and the entire cast of characters scattered throughout the Gospels.

God’s favor is for the humble who do not find themselves worthy of receiving Christ, but who nonetheless are up to the task of receiving him.

It is to you, Jesus comes. It is to you God announces hope and peace and goodwill to all.

So, this Advent and Christmas, may you find yourself in the good company of all the other losers throughout Scripture and history who have found Jesus to be enough.

Advent and The Resistance

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Remember, “The devil is your enemy and is like a roaring lion on the prowl, looking for someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8

I’m afraid the church (and my own faith for far too many years) has not taken Peter at his word.  Perhaps one of the greatest weaknesses of our current iteration of the Christian faith is that too few of us take seriously the threat of the dark forces at work all around us in our city and the world at large.  We have cultivated an expression of the Christian faith rooted as deeply in love and grace and hope as we know how to, but often at the expense of ignoring the work of resistance necessary for ourselves and others to truly relish in the love of God and the future hope of a world made right.

To put it plainly, we have finally believed that God has loved us and saved us from our sins (and this is what we ought to believe), but have failed, in many quarters, to believe that we, or God, have anything left to do to rid ourselves of the life of sin.  Peter, living in the days after Jesus began the work to defeat the devil’s work says, “The devil, our enemy, is still on the prowl…”

And so our rush headlong into all that is Merry and Bright about the Christmas season causes us to bypass the darkest parts of the library of Scripture – the very parts that inform a deeper understanding of the work Jesus began – the work he has entrusted to us to continue until his return.  

This is why Advent is needed – perhaps more today than in the years past.
Remember, Jesus came to us not at the break of dawn in the morning of the rising sun, but in the cover of darkness – both literal and spiritual.  Into this world of darkness, Jesus came, and to it he will return some day.

So may we, in these days leading up to a celebration of the birth of Jesus and in the days that look forward to his return, come to believe in the needed work of resistance entrusted to you by Jesus himself.

May we work against the powers and forces that are at work against Jesus and the Church.

May we have eyes to see in the dark because we have come to believe in the need for light to show the way home.

And may we be alert, not caught sleeping, the next time the devil comes our way as a lion on the prowl.

Advent and Waiting on God

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It’s the first week of Advent, and believe it or not it’s a season in the life of the church where we are to slow down and practice hopeful waiting as we anticipate the coming of Christ into our world. For hundreds of years, Christians the world over have seen this a time for us to pause, reflect, and wonder at the most gracious gift of all – the birth of Jesus, the son of God.

If, however, your weekly routine is like mine then it feels anything but slow during this time of year!  

There are trees to put up and houses to decorate and cards to send out and presents to buy and end of the year parties to attend and family to see and…and it never seems to end! When exactly are we supposed to do this slowing down business?

If I’m being honest, this is the tension I feel not just during Advent, but pretty much every single day, as a church planter.  There is always an “and” and never enough time.  And If I’m being really, really honest, I find it difficult to slow down, and practice hopeful waiting for God to do what only God can do.

God calls out to us, much like he called out to Mary one day, and increased not only her vision for her own life, but for the entire world.  God’s messenger said to her, “You will have a son and you are to call him, Jesus. He will be great…” 

Mary rightly asked, “How will this be?” She knew what the messenger had just told her was inconceivable.  There was simply no way Mary could do what was just promised.

Sometimes the word from God just seems inconceivable to us, doesn’t it?

Here is the messenger’s simple reply, “No word from God will ever fail.”

Here’s what I’ve come to believe though: The word from God up there produces the work of God down here.

My job as a church planter and follower of Jesus isn’t to figure everything out, but to repeatedly ask, “Are my actions, and is my life in keeping with God’s promise to bring about things in the North End of Atlanta as they are in heaven?

This simply requires…wait for it…waiting. Hopeful, faithful waiting for God to deliver on his inconceivable promises.

Don’t mistake waiting with wasting time though.

Mary was chosen and called to carry the baby Jesus in her body.  She was literally, physically given a promise from God and she was entrusted with this promise, but it was Mary, who through her patience and faithfulness to God, brought Jesus into this world.  

That’s not waisting time.  

That’s allowing God to work in you to bring about the birth of his promises to you and to this world!

So, may you find time to wait on God during Advent this year. May you take a few minutes in the morning to start your day, or a few at the end to consider what God is up to in your life and the world at large. And may you discover in your waiting that God is bringing about something in this world through you that only God can do!

Netflix, The Magi, and Why Waiting Is So Difficult

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Netflix released a study earlier this year suggesting that nearly half of all couples cheat on each other!

I know that’s not necessarily newsworthy news for most of you. You’ve been lamenting this moral crisis of faithfulness for some time. What Netflix is suggesting, however, isn’t that kind of unfaithfulness…but a lesser kind. What Netflix discovered is that couples have a hard time waiting on each other…wait for it…to watch their favorite shows together!

The problem is compounded by the fact that Netflix doesn’t just host some of our favorite shows, but that they release every episode of our favorites shows all at once! Really, Netflix? How can we be expected to wait on our significant other when we just want to know whether or not Will really ever escapes the Upside Down (that’s a Stranger Things reference for the uninitiated).

Here’s what these couples have in common with every single one of us, and why Advent is so important for us to experience: they know that waiting is the hardest part. Continue reading

Twas the Long, Dark Night Before Christmas // A Devotional for the Fourth Week of Advent, 2016

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“Because of the tender mercy of our God,

by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven

to shine on those living in darkness

and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

— Luke 1:78-79

Mary and Joseph walked for days and miles from their home in Nazareth to the town of Bethlehem.

They walked for 70-90 miles and for 4-7 days depending on who you ask.

Why?  Well, Luke tells us it was because the Emperor told them to.

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One of our favorite traditions is to put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving.  It’s a tree that has been in my family for THIRTY YEARS and the ornaments span from the childhoods of my wife’s and mine all the way up to our own children’s ornaments.  All that to say that putting the tree up means something to us.  It’s an event chocked full of tradition and memories and each year we attempt to create an experience worthy of such an occasion! Continue reading

Dylan’s Advent // The Times They Are A Changin’

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Advent is a time of sitting and waiting, but also for anticipation and preparation.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us that our preparation for the coming of God’s great gift is about preparing ourselves, and the world around us, for the change that will take place before our very eyes.  To some, this change will be redemptive – and for others, condemnation.

A prophetic singer-songwriter in our own era heralded similar words.  Bob Dylan, though his singing ability is questionable, has often been spot on with his message:

For the loser now / Will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin’…

The line it is drawn / And the curse it is cast

The slow one now / Will later be fast

As the present now / Will later be past

The order is / Rapidly fading’ / And the first one now / Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin’

One can undoubtedly hear echoes of the Gospel in nearly every line of Dylan’s prophetic tale.  What we often miss, however, is that the heart of the Gospel is beating to the rhythm of Israel’s ancient prophets – especially Isaiah.  What John prepares the people for (remember, Isaiah 40?) is the coming fulfillment of God’s desire for justice.  The Gospels, then, illustrate in various ways how this will come about, but this one thing is clear:

Some will benefit from this coming justice more than others. Continue reading

How (Will This Be)? // A Devotional for the Third Week of Advent, 2016

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I love Christmas!

I love the trees, the lights, the presents.  I love the all the variety of nativity scenes, carols about the coming of Christ, and the profound attempts to discover joy this time of year.

I need you to know that before you read what comes next.

But (you knew it was coming didn’t you?) I’m afraid we’re missing quite a bit of what’s going on this time of year in the original Christmas Story.

One of the things our modern version of the “Christmas Story” misses out on is the uncertainty of the whole enterprise. Continue reading

Waiting on God // A Devotional for the Second Week of Advent, 2016

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3 Things You Can Do While Waiting on God

Kids are so impatient!  Well, at least mine are.

Maybe yours have learned from an early age to sit quietly and wait with hands folded for a response from you – never interrupting conversations between you and another or pulling on your sleeve while you’re responding to a text.

Not only are they impatient, but they are also insistent I acknowledge every time they ask a question or tell me something.  Dad, she won’t leave me alone.  Dad, did you hear me?  Dad, did you hear me?  Dad. Dad. DAD! Continue reading

An Unexpected Gift // A Devotional for the 1st week of Advent, 2016

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Have you ever gotten a Christmas gift that you didn’t necessarily expect? Or maybe one you didn’t even appreciate?

Socks & Underwear, anyone?

I could tell you about the times this has happened to me, but my family might be reading this!  So, instead I’ll tell you about a time it happened to one of my family member! Continue reading

REPOST Advent: Week 1 // Sitting & Waiting

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The bus driver called for the police. She did not move, but instead sat and waited. She did not invoke violence, neither in word nor in deed. Instead, she sat and she waited – sixty years ago on this very day.

Rosa Parks would not have to sit and wait for long, though; the police were on their way. When they arrived, they arrested her and took her to prison – not for sitting in the “white” section of the bus as some have mistakenly supposed – she was not a lawbreaker after all. No, the arrest was made because she refused to move back even further than required by law after the white’s only section of the bus became so full that white passengers were forced to stand. At this point, the bus driver came to the first row in the back section reserved for “colored” passengers and demanded that Parks, and three others, move back. The others moved. Rosa Parks sat and waited.  Continue reading