Who did Jesus come for?

This is a blog that I want to post regarding Christmas. Hope you enjoy. In the story of the Events around Christmas we hear about angels, kings, wise men, shepherds and so on. But the central characters are three people. A girl maybe as old as 16, with no money or status. A carpenter, a young man, also with very little to his earthly ”value”. And the baby Jesus. Who is born in a stable and sleeps in a feed trough. All of these are poor people. (Financially speaking) And Let’s think about who this baby was sent to reach. Who, for example were the first people who were told about the savior? Shepherds! The poorest of the poor, the despised, the downtrodden. And Where were they? At work, even though it is the middle of the night. And what gifts did they bring? The bible does not tell us of a single thing they brought! Just that they came to see the baby. Two years later the rich wise men show up with expensive gifts. Here’s the thing… what is more important? I have to admit, one of my favorite Christmas songs is “the little drummer boy”. A great song all about a kid who comes to see the baby Jesus, he is told to bring a gift fit for a king. But when he gets there all he has is his music. So he gets permission from Mary (“may I play for you … on my drum? Mary Nodded… the ox and lamb kept time… I played my drum for him… I played my best for him… then he smiled at me, me and my drum.”) Jesus accepts the little gifts especially when the heart that gives them is doing the giving rightly. Similarly… One of my favorite stories at Christmas is about the bells in a town church where… Let me tell it to you actually. The story is a special one for Christmas. It is ''Why the Chimes Rang''. It was written by Raymond MacDonald Alden. In a faraway country where few people have ever traveled, there was once a wonderful church. It stood on a high hill in a great city. Every Sunday and on holidays like Christmas, thousands of people climbed the hill to the church. The main room of the church was so long that if you stood at one end, you almost could not see the other end. In the farthest corner was an organ. This organ could play music very loud. Sometimes when the organ is played, people from miles around would close their windows and prepare for a thunderstorm. No such church as this was ever seen before. It was especially wonderful when it was lighted with burning candles for a holiday and filled with young and old people. But the most wonderful and most unusual thing about the huge church was the sound of its bells. Connected to the church was a huge stone tower. Everyone who built the church had been dead for hundreds of years. No one could remember how high the tower reached. It rose so far into the sky that no one could see the top, except when the weather was very clear. Even then a person could not be sure that the top was in sight. All the people knew that at the top of the tower was a group of bells, Christmas bells. They had hung there ever since the church had been built. Their sound was very special. Some thought their sound was so special, because a great musician had made them and put them in place; others said it was because of their great height. They said the air was so clear and pure high up where the bells rang. Everyone who had heard the bells said their sound was the sweetest in the world. Some said they sounded like the singing of God's angles; others said they sounded like wind singing through the trees. But the sad fact was that no one had heard them for years and years. There was an old man living not far from the church who said that his mother had told him of hearing the bells when she was a little girl. But he was the only one who knew even that much. The bells were Christmas bells. They were not meant to be played by the organist, nor were they meant to be heard on common days. It was the custom on the night before Christmas, Christmas Eve, for all the people to bring their gifts to the Baby Jesus to the church. When the greatest and best gift was given, the music of the Christmas bells would be heard. It came from far up in the tower. Some said the wind rang the bells, others said God's angels set the bells moving. But for many long years, the bells did not ring. Some said that people were less careful of their gifts for the Baby Jesus, others said that no gift was great enough to earn the music of the bells. Every Christmas Eve, rich people tried to give better gifts than anyone else, yet the rich people did not give anything they wanted for themselves. Each year there were many gifts, each year the religious service was good, but the bells in the stone tower did not ring. Far away from the city in a country village lived a boy named Pedro and his younger brother. They knew very little about the Christmas bells, but they had heard about the religious service in the church on Christmas Eve. They made a secret plan that they often discussed--they would travel to see the beautiful service. Pedro would say, "Nobody can guess, Little Brother, all the good things there are to hear and see. I have even heard it said the Baby Jesus comes to bless the service. Would if not be wonderful if we could see him?” The day before Christmas was very cold, there was snow in the air, the ground was hard and white with ice. Pedro and Little Brother slipped quietly away in the early afternoon. Walking was very hard in the icy air. But before night they had walked far enough to see light from the big city ahead of them. They were about to enter the city when they saw something dark in the snow near their path. They stepped aside to look at it. It was a poor woman who had fallen just outside the city. She was too sick and too tired to keep going. The soft snow made a kind of bed for her. Soon she would be so sound asleep that no one would ever wake her again. Pedro knelt beside her and tried to wake her. He pulled her arm a little as though he would try to carry her. He turned her face toward him so that he could rub the snow on it. Then he looked at her silently. "It is no use, Little Brother, " he said. "You will have to go on alone. " "Alone? " said Little Brother. "And you will not see the Christmas service? " "No", said Pedro. He could not hold back a sad sound in his throat. "See this poor woman. Her face looks like the face of the mother of Jesus in the church window. She will freeze to death if nobody cares for her. Everyone has gone to church. But when you come back you can bring someone to help her. I will rub her to keep her from freezing and maybe I can get her to eat the bread that is in my pocket. " "I cannot leave you and go on alone. " said Little Brother. "Both of us need not miss the service." said Pedro. "You can find your way to the church. You must see and hear everything twice, Little Brother. Once for you and once for me. I am sure the Baby Jesus must know how I should love to come with you and pray to him and if you get a chance, Little Brother, give the Baby Jesus this small silver coin I brought. Give it when no one is looking and do not get in anyone's way. Remember where you left me. " In this way, Pedro hurried Little Brother to the city. He closed his eyes to keep back tears as he heard his brother's footsteps moving further and further away. It was so hard to miss the music and the beauty of the Christmas service. Instead, he was here in the cold and snow. The great church was beautiful that night. Everyone said it had never looked so bright and beautiful. When the organ played and the thousands of people sang, the walls shook with the sound. Young Pedro, outside the city wall, felt the earth shake around him. At the end of the service came the moment to bring gifts to the Baby Jesus. Rich men, important men gave their gifts. Some brought jewels. A great writer gave a book he had been writing for years and years. Last of all, came the king of the country. He was hoping as everyone hoped to win for himself the music of the bells. People in the seats spoke quietly to each other as they saw the king take his jeweled crown from his head and offered it as his gift. "Surely," everyone said, "we shall hear the bells now. Nothing like this has ever happened before." But all they heard was the cold wind in the tower. The people shook their heads. Some of them said as they had said before that they never really believed to the story of the bells. They said they did not believe the bells ever rang at all. The giving of gifts was over and the singers began the closing song. Suddenly the man playing the organ stopped playing as if he had been shocked. Everyone looked at the old priest. He was standing at the front of the church holding up his hand for silence. Not a sound could be heard from anyone in the church. But as all the people listened, there came softly but clearly through the air, the sound of the bells in the tower. The music was so far away and yet so clear. It was much sweeter than anything that had ever been heard before. The music seemed to rise and fall in the sky. People in the church sat still as though something held their shoulders. Then they stood up together. They looked at the front of the church to see what great gift had caused the bells to ring. All that those in front saw was a child. Little Brother had moved silently to the front of church when no one was looking. He had given the Baby Jesus Pedro's small piece of silver. The point here is that the gift isn’t the important thing it is the heart of the giver. But how often do we get wrapped up in the minutiae of things. How often do we focus on giving the bigger or better gift. How often do we focus on what gift we are getting? I have seen too many times in my life people get hurt because the gift they gave wasn’t “good” enough. Or “expensive” enough or whatever. How many times have we hurt others by looking down at the gift they offer and tsk tsk at them? When Faith was a little girl about to celebrate her first birthday. A friend of ours decided to make a gift for her. He took an empty oatmeal canister. Cut out the bottom of it and wrapped the remaining tube in aluminum foil. For months that was the only toy that Faith wanted to play with. She loved it. How many of us have ruined Christmas for others by trying to outdo one another in the gifts given? I think this is something we ought to think on year round. Maybe we ought to focus on the good points and try to lift people up instead of bring them down. Maybe the next time you see someone struggling to make ends meet while holding down a “menial” job, instead of pointing out how they ought to find a “better” (in your opinion) job. Maybe you should instead congratulate them on the fact that they HAVE a job and that they are trying to provide for their family instead of choosing to live on other taxpayer’s money. For that matter when you see someone who is out of work, especially in this economy, try helping them out a little. Don’t sit there and point out how you are so much richer or better off than they are. In fact let me help you out a little. If you feel like saying something like… “What a cheapskate.” “How lazy s/he is.” “Why do these lazy so and so’s keep stealing my tax dollars?” Then you would be in the wrong! What you ought to say (and think) instead is “wow that poor family is having some trouble making it… maybe I ought to see if there is something I can do to help”. Maybe the people you are looking down on would love to improve their position. But they cannot afford to go to school, or there are no jobs locally that they qualify for. Maybe you can be someone who steps up and says “what can I do to help?” Don’t come storming in saying things like “oh hey here is a great job in another state. Here is a way that you can make an extra buck.” How do you know? How do you know what they might need or want if you haven’t either asked them or been in their shoes? Do you think it is appropriate to offer a job as a stockbroker to a guy who is clueless about what stocks are? Do you think he ought to be an accountant… why? Did you know that he is incapable of doing math? Maybe he has a math learning disability. Some people do you know. Or you think she ought to be a librarian… after all she is good with books and loves to read. Just because she loves to read does not mean the library is a suitable place for her. Also, too many people judge others, because those others don’t have the same motivations in life. My wife once encountered that. She was a high schooler at the time, and she was talking with someone who asked, “so what do you want to go to college to learn?” her response was almost automatic. “I want to study to become a teacher.” This was her dream, her lifelong goal! She KNEW what she wanted and had since she was a little girl. So her response was an automatic one. But the response she got in return was… well… “oh you won’t be able to make much money doing that.” How hurtful! To have her lifelong dream simply dismissed just because it did not measure up to someone else’s ideal. (making money) As I told Christina, “the response you got, that is the response of someone who knows the cost of everything, but the value of nothing.” Think about oh Michael Jackson or Brittany Spears… does it seem to you that their lives are/were all light and roses? Did Michael Jackson really feel happiness? Is that why he went through all the plastic surgery? How about Kurt Cobain, who killed himself. Is that the act of a happy man? But hey he was RICH Loaded. Or as I once heard a comedian put it… loooooaaaaaadddeeeeeeeeeeeeedddddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you think, looking at Brittany Spears’ life, that she is truly happy? How about Lindsay Lohan? How about the long run? What good do you think all that money is doing for people like Christopher Reeves, Farah Fawcett, Elvis Presley, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, James Doohan, J.D. Rockefeller… all of these people were well off or “wealthy” by earth’s standards. How many of them took their money with them? N O N E!!!!!!! were they happy? What difference did Helen Keller’s teacher make? We may not always remember her name (Anne Sullivan) but she inspires us still today. How about Mother Theresa, Ghandi, Saint Nicholas, Emperor Constantine, the apostle Paul… Still today they all continue to make a huge difference… and yet none of those listed in the second list sought fame or riches. (Constantine started out rich). Speaking of Helen Keller, she had a great quote… “there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.” So how about you? Are you going to do the same thing and hurt people just because they don’t want to go to the places you want to go to? Do you want to bring the big expensive gift that cost a lot but means nothing? Or would you rather be the kind of person that realizes the value of things that sometimes may not have much earthly worth? These are standards that mean a lot to some people. Maybe next New Year, you ought to make the resolution that you will seek out ways to help out. Start a scholarship so that working stiffs can still get an education. Or find one you can contribute to. Volunteer some time to help other people know about the options out there. Not in a “hey you ought to.” Way but in a “hey what do you want, and how can I help?” way. If you can do that people will love to have you around. Otherwise you are more likely to cause hurt and pain instead of helping out. Or even better don't wait, start it now. never too soon to do good things.

Christmas in July?

I am kind of curious, How many of you out there start getting a little itch for Christmas halfway there? Be honest now. I sometimes start to feel like I would like to celebrate Christmas around mid June, I think I am not the only one at least in part based on the fact that so many people talk about or even participate in Christmas in July events. It is interesting when you are going through all that though. Still... We are told that we ought to think and live as if it were Christmas every day, so I guess that it is a good thing to remember and focus on Christmas now. In honor of that next week's post will also be Christmas oriented. But I would like to encourage you to think on what Christmas means to you. And while you are at it maybe you could go out and do something for someone in the spirit of Christmas. We can serve Christ every day, I just want to encourage you all to do something extra special nice this week. Until next time.

So how are Christians supposed to act?

I have to tell you that I am very worried about the way that people behave in the here and now while calling themselves Christians. For those of you who are not Christian I would ask you that you would give those who are the benefit of the doubt. Just like many of you are trying to do with Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus or… See just like it was a small subset of Muslims who attacked and destroyed so much on September 11 it is a small but obvious group of people who call themselves Christian who give the rest a black eye. Many of these people have no clue what it really says in the bible. They never read theirs though they may have 5 or 6 in their homes. Some of us try to read our bibles but get easily distracted. And some of us manage to get into the word of God regularly. It does not help when people who are NOT Christian try to tell everyone what is in the bible when all too often it is taken out of context. How would you like it if I told you all about your favorite idea/s but never really learned what those ideas really were? So give the Christians you know a bit of a break. They are not perfect they are people too just like you, they make mistakes just like you. And while some of them might seem to be a little quick to hold things over others, haven’t you done the same thing once or twice? As it says in Roman’s “all have sinned and fallen shirt of the glory of God.” Even those who are Christians.

Why is the Lord of the rings and the Chronicles of Narnia OK for Christians to read but Harry Potter isn’t?

Well on the surface this seems both easy and hard, and it is, just not in the way it looks. I once helped to teach a Sunday school class for third graders. That question came out right after the LOTR trilogy was released (which also happened to be when A Narnia movie came out as well as a Harry Potter. And it raised some real questions for “our” kids. A friend of mine tried saying that it was because Gandalf and the characters in lord of the rings were true to their form. In other words Gandalf was MADE to be a wizard as Legolas was MADE to be an elf and Frodo was made to be a hobbit. But the thing is that really the same could be said of Harry Potter. The ones who were wizards were ones who were BORN to it. You do not ever see in those books Uncle Vernon trying to pick up a wand and wave it to make magic. Aunt Petunia never puts a cauldron in the kitchen and start adding eye of newt or toe of frog. And Dudley never tries to fight dementors… EVEN WHEN THEY ARE ATTACKING HIM. Harry, ( and Hermione and Draco and Ron etc…) were BORN Or created the way they were, the same as Gandalf and others. So that doesn’t hold up. It isn’t about magic per se. obviously look at the comparison. It isn’t about the monsters. There are trolls, goblins, Wargs and other nasties in LOTR the same as in Potter. And there are even more of those kinds of things in Narnia then there are in HP. So where is the problem? Could it be that it is simply because J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis use initials instead of a full name? Oh wait J.K. Rowling… nope guess that wasn’t it. Maybe it is because Lewis and Tolkien wrote from a Christian Perspective and Rowling did not. Ah yes… and no. Tolkien’s books were not meant to take the place of any thing Christian, neither were they supposed to be allegorical (though Lewis’ works clearly were.) Tolkien was simply writing about good verses evil period. Some would say here that that is the same thing Rowling does. Of course Rowling's characters were children placed in harm’s way while Tolkien went to great pains to point out that his Characters were all grown up. “AH” you say “but Lewis’ characters were children too!” But here we come to the real crux of the problem. See the real difference (and it is really a simple one). Tolkien's good guys never lied. Lewis’ good guys didn’t lie either at least not after they were redeemed. See the real problem with Harry Potter is one of simple morality. Whatever Harry chooses to do is OK either simply because it’s Harry, or because everything worked out ok in the end. Harry, Ron and Hermione accuse, lie, cheat, disobey, steal and basically sin their way through it all and in the end it’s ok because the ends justify the means. Yeah they put themselves and others in danger when they disobeyed and went up against the troll but they beat it so it’s ok. Yeah Harry cheated and snuck out to go to town when He shouldn’t have but he is ok so no harm done give him a treat. Yeah they flaunted authority but the authority was in the wrong and so it is ok that they did that. They get to make (or break) the rules as they go. However they want to do it. They never are brought to justice. They just “follow their heart/s” and it is all ok. No need for adult supervision, they all just get in the way or make things difficult. No need for obedience to the law never mind that those laws are there to protect them. CLEARLY they must know better then whoever made up that law. After all they ARE ok aren’t they? See in Narnia we see what harm can come from telling a lie. In HP telling a lie can be a good thing. In Narnia we see that we need to find forgiveness when we hurt others. In HP however not only do we not have to try to get along but we can be rude and spiteful at the same time. In Middle earth we see a huge struggle between good and evil. In hp we see a struggle between evil and… the not so bad maybe after all when you realize how well it all worked out in the end right? Now maybe HP seems more like the way the world works in reality where we have to compromise (not that Harry is ever willing to compromise where Snape is concerned) and things aren’t always picture perfect. But Christians are supposed to think on “whatever is GOOD whatever is HOLY” and that AIN’T Harry Potter. Sometimes we need to be aware of what message we are sending to our kids. And while sometimes the world requires compromise, we, ALL OF US, should be trying to pursue loftier realms. Watch a movie Like Seabiscuit, Rudy, The Rookie. The Sound of Music (all based on real life events) or Chariots of fire (again…). Here are people REAL LIFE PEOPLE who did not compromise their faith or beliefs and the world was made a better place for it.