Seeing is Revealing: How We Live Reveals What We Believe

Have you ever thought about what you believe? What you trust and have faith in?

I don't mean just in regards to religion (though we'll get to that). Religion is probably one of the first things that come to mind when we ask about "what do we believe" or "what are we trusting?" 

But belief, faith, trust, seems to be central to everything we do. Which is to say, we take a lot of things, almost everything, on faith. Most of our lives, I would venture, is lived by faith or belief in many different things. And those beliefs can vary widely. 

Unless we have absolutely first hand, concrete "I saw it with my own eyes" or "it happened to me" experience on any subject, or tested something and found by your own experience that it is true or verifiable, and unless we have absolute access to the exact unadulterated facts of the case (which, arguably, we never have).....

virtually e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g we believe.... 

everything that we form a strong opinion about, 

everything we base our decisions on,

everything we think we know that guides our lives....

with almost zero exceptions, every single thing that guides us, everything that we base our life decisions on, virtually everything is based on faith and trust in something.

What is good for a cold?

Which is the best television to buy?

Which washing machine is the most dependable?

Which dish soap cleans our dishes the best?

Which diet plan is the most healthy?

What's the best school for our children to attend?

Should I vaccinate my children?

Which computer is best for my needs?

Almost none of us have first hand investigative experience, examining the electronics and workings of modern televisions to know - factually- which tv is the most reliable and dependable.  We talk to friends to see what they've experienced, read reviews, do comparative research, and maybe see what Consumer Reports or Popular Science have to say about it. 

But after we consider all that we've been able to talk about, research, and review on any subject, we have to make a choice. The data is almost always exhaustingly inconclusive. We make our best choice by faith in the information we have, faith that we've done our best to sort it out and we hope our faith will be well founded. We almost never "know" conclusively what is best or right. 

We intuit. We make our best guess. We go with our gut. We take our best shot.

If we fly anywhere, unless you are a pilot and fly yourself, we do it by faith and trust in the airline and airplane.  

Unless you built it from the ground up, you have faith and trust in the engineers and mechanics that built your car. 

If we actually get in and drive our car, we are exercising an enormous amount of faith in our fellow drivers on the road. 

Faith that the driver next to us will obey the laws of the road. 

(I know, we'll all laughingly say "I don't have any faith in the drivers around me" which, I humbly offer, is not true. 

(If we didn't have faith, we wouldn't venture out in our two ton metal deathtraps, driving 70mph, on a freeway full of people we literally don't know and don't trust, driving alongside 18-wheeled, 80,000lb sledgehammers of oblivion.  

(The truth is, we step out in faith every time we turn the key, or push the ignition button and drive down the road.)

It takes faith to even function in this world. Without faith, we literally would be paralyzed by fear and indecision, probably living in a cave somewhere eating I don't know what. Because if someone gave us food and said "eat, this is good and will keep you alive", we'd never take a bite without some faith in what we were told about the food, Without some faith in the person giving us the food, we'd never listen to them anyway. 

Do you realize how much faith it takes to go to the grocery store and casually coast down the aisle filling our shopping carts with food? We literally have no idea where most of the food came from or how it was prepared and packaged, yet we trust that the food is safe. We trust the ranchers and farmers to supply us with fresh meat that, to be honest, almost none of city slickers know how it got to the grocery shelf. We exercise a ridiculous amount of trust and faith every time we go to the store.  

We have absolutely no way of personally verifying the veracity of every claim made, every story related to us, every thing we're told to believe in order to survive in this world. Faith is hardwired into our being. 

It's not a choice, its simply How. We. Live. 

We literally live and move, every day, every month, every year, virtually all by faith. 

We don't really live by sight, since we can't actually see, in real life, 99% of what we're told is truth, in order to verify if it is true or not. Nor can we tell what others are thinking. (With A.I. videos and photos today, we can't even tell if anything in the digital realm is reliable anymore.)

We literally live by faith in things unseen. We live by faith in what is passed on to us by others, by the accounts of their experiences and they by ours, in the form of books, stories, videos, photos, and news accounts (which are simply accounts of happenings elsewhere told via stories, videos, and photos). 

We have almost zero ability to prove or disprove any of what we are presented with.  

Think about that. 

Was someone actually shot at the corner of 5th and Main last night? I dunno, that's what the newsman on TV said.  

Was there an explosion at a warehouse in Salina, Kansas last night? Unless I live in Salina and saw it or I drive by and see the evidence in the morning, I have to admit.... I dunno, that's what the newsman told me. 

Is the economy in the tank or rolling gangbusters? I dunno. I know the newsman told me things were great, but the newsman on the other station said things were in the tank.  

Did that polar beer on the Facebook Reels really kiss a rabbit then climb onto an iceberg and hug a seal? It sure looks like it did! It looks real!

Now I don't know what to think. 

Do you see? 

Do you see how faith, belief, and trust is what we literally live by?

And what happens when the institutions and social organization and structure and story tellers we've come to trust falter? 

What happens when our faith is shaken and we don't know what to believe anymore?. 

When we don't know what to believe, we will often believe almost anything that sounds remotely reasonable to get us back on track, on a firm foundation. Or, we believe the things that coincide with our own biases because they help confirm our faith. Without faith, we are paralyzed. 

So, to bring this to the point 

(see? I literally cannot write a short essay.....sigh) 

If we live so innately and naturally by faith in the stories we are told, and faith in things that, in reality, are unseen......

If we are literally living every day by faith, when we walk, drive, eat, spend, or do almost any other daily activity...... 

Then how we live reveals the things that we believe in, and that we have faith in. 

If we say be believe something, but don't act on what we say be believe, the inconvenient truth is we don't really believe what we say we believe . 

Conversely, acting on what we say be believe is evidence that we really do believe what we say we believe. 

Further, the things we do and the ways we act and live reveal the things we really do have faith in and believe. 

Jesus said you can tell a tree by it's fruit. He's not wrong.

If we say we believe that feeding the poor is important but we don't do anything to help feed the poor, the truth is we don't really believe feeding the poor is important. 

Conversely, if we are involved in ways of feeding the poor, through donating or volunteering or whatever we are able to do, we expose the truth that we do care about feeding the poor. 

Feeding the poor is not a litmus test, mind you. Just using that as an example.

But my point is, for good or ill, we act on what we have faith in and believe. And the things we do reveal what we believe.

Which brings me to my self-examination question:

Does my life reveal that I do have faith in and believe the things I say I do, or not? 

(You know this had to come back to Jesus and faith and life, right?)

Jesus said 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15)

Elsewhere Jesus puts it another way; 

"Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46)

Again Jesus makes the point about how our behavior reveals things about us; 

"You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?" (Matthew 7:16) 

Granted, Jesus is talking about identifying "false prophets", but what else is a false prophet than one who says they believe in Jesus but doesn't do what he commands?

The Apostle John riffs on this idea in his letter; 

"By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.  If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him:" (1 John 2:3-5)

Harsh, but true. 

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I write this not as a judgement, but as an encouragement. Not as a critique, but a diagnostic. A way of letting myself process my own thoughts, my own tendencies, and taking a somewhat honest look at my own life.

For some time now I've been pondering my own walk of faith, and have asked myself,

"Did Jesus really mean the things he said and commanded?"

I have to conclude that he did indeed mean exactly what he said. He said it for our good and for our benefit. Everything Jesus did was for our good and for our benefit. 

Reader, please understand this truth: no matter who we say we are, or what we say we believe, or where we say our faith and trust is placed......

The truth of who we are, what we believe, and where our faith and trust is placed is revealed by how we live.

Who we are is revealed by how we speak. How we love. How we judge. How we treat our neighbor. How we treat our enemies. How we act and behave. These are the things that reveal who we really are.

If you thought John was harsh, listen to James;

"What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 

"Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

"So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds (good fruit in our lives, following Jesus' commands, doing the things we say we believe), it is dead and useless."  (James 2:14-17)

Yikes.

Useless because a life without "good deeds" doesn't show Jesus to the world. A life lived with faith in Jesus is intended to show Jesus to the world. 

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Ok, enough moribund expositing. 

This was for me. 

I want to live the remainder of my life full of good fruit that I can give away to others through "good deeds", living a kind and loving life that conforms to the faith I claim to believe. 

I want those around me to see Jesus in me from time to time. 

This is a tool I use to help me examine things from time to time. 

Thanks for reading. 

Fruit and Fertilizer and Trees. And a Red Pill. (I Seriously Cannot Write Anything Short)

I've been thinking about something for a while, trying to internalize it and integrate it into the rhythm of my life. Its about change, transformation, and growth. 

Let me try to explain. 

I've been part of a bible study group looking at the fruit of the Spirit, as found in Galatians 5:22. If you've been in church for a while, you've probably heard "the fruit of the Spirit" mentioned.  If not, take a moment and read Galatians 5:13-26 for context. 

The fruit of the Spirit is 

love

joy

peace

patience

kindness

goodness

faithfulness

gentleness

self-control. 

What a great list of "fruit" to grow in our lives, right?

Who doesn't want to feel love? 

Who doesn't want to experience joy?

Who doesn't want to have peace in their life?

Who doesn't want to learn to be more patient?

Who doesn't want to be kind and to give kindness?

Who doesn't want goodness in their soul?

Who doesn't want to be a faithful friend, or have faithful friends?

Who doesn't want to experience gentleness?

Who doesn't want to learn self-control of their emotions and responses and reactions?

As the author of Galatians, Paul, writes "against such things there is no law".

Now, take note, as Paul writes about the fruit of the spirit, he writes as if the fruit were a singular thing. 

It's not 

"fruits of the Spirit", 

its 

"fruit of the Spirit". 

Singular.

I think Paul is trying to communicate that the life that God wants to grow within us, by the Holy Spirit, is an integrated life. By that I mean,  a life not lacking in any of the attributes of this wonderful fruit the Spirit wants to grow in us.  

We don't get to say "I want joy, but patience is hard, and so is kindness, so I'll just take the joy, thank you very much". 

Joy comes with peace and love. 

Love develops kindness and goodness. 

Goodness leads to patience and faithfulness.

Faithfulness develops self-control and peace. 

Gentleness and kindness grow out of love and goodness.

You see?

The Fruit is not a series of individual fruits that we have to grow separately. 

The Fruit of the Spirit is not a fruit salad.  

We don't have grapes and oranges and apples and berries and bananas and peaches and apricots and plums all mixed together in a spiritual bowl. If that was the case, I'm pretty sure we'd pick out the ones we like, and leave the ones we don't. 

What we have is a wonderful, delicious, fragrant, beautiful fruit that the Spirit wants to produce in our lives.  

Its a Fruit that takes time to ripen, but as it grows, the flavors join and meld and become not separate notes of various different fruits, but its own unique, flavorful, delicious and healthy fruit, incorporating all the notes of flavors in the Spirit, that benefits everyone who tastes it. A fruit unique to every tree, but grown by the Spirit to be the best fruit the tree can produce. 

The analogy Paul uses stems directly from Jesus' observation that you can tell a tree by its fruit. 

Jesus taught, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

An unhealthy tree simply won't grow good fruit. 

A healthy tree will always grow good fruit.  

So, to go back to what I've been thinking about, how do we become healthy trees in God's Kingdom. 

If we want to grow in the Spirit and begin bearing the good fruit that Paul describes, we have to develop rhythms and practices that water and feed the tree from which the fruit grows. 

See, we are all bearing fruit, of one kind or another. 

That's important to understand. 

In everything we do, every choice we make, every breath we take (thank you, Sting), we are bearing some sort of fruit on our tree of life that other people can see and taste. 

Good fruit or bad, we are all fruit bearing trees. 

God made us to bear fruit.

Every farmer plants trees in the hope that they will bear good fruit. 

God is no different. 

We don't get to pick and choose which or what kind of fruit we produce. We produce exactly the kind of fruit that the health and make-up of our tree has grown to produce.  

So, if we want the good fruit, we need to attend to the tree itself, too. 

If I'm a tree that produces anger and dissention, but I want to be a tree that grows love and peace and kindness, then not only should I desire those good fruit, but the desire for good fruit needs to lead us to examine the tree growth and find ways to help our tree grow healthier.

And this is where change, transformation, and growth come into the discussion. 

One of my very favorite bible verses is Romans 12:2,

"Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

"changing the way you think......"

Isn't that exactly what Jesus was doing while teaching is disciples, his apprentices, for three years? Teaching them to change they way they think about.... well..... everything?

I mean, Jesus confronted the behaviors and customs of this world every day with his disciples. 

In Luke 9:51-56, James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven upon a Samaritan village that didn't welcome Jesus or his group. They were probably thinking of Elijah calling down fire from heaven upon the altar of the priests of Baal, who then had the priests all rounded up and killed in righteous fury (see 1 Kings 18 for the story). 

Jesus rebuked James on John. Violence and anger in response to offense is the way they'd been taught, Jesus might of said, but it's not the way of Jesus. 

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught over and over.....

"you've heard it said..... but I say....." 

He challenged his listeners and followers to think differently about life and love and faith and relationships and forgiveness. He challenged them to rethink everything they'd been taught by the world, to instead "seek first the kingdom of God and His (type) of righteousness ", because that's the important thing that leads to a full and abundant life. 

A life in the mold of Jesus, seeking first his Father's kingdom. 

And here's and example of the crux of what I'm pondering: 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his listeners, specifically, to "love your enemies".

More fully, Jesus says, 

"You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

And this is a conundrum for me. 

Go back to growing a healthy tree analogy for a moment. 

If I'm a fruit bearing tree, don't get to pick which fruit I grow. I grow what I grow because that's what my tree grows. 

Jesus understands that, and he begins to help us to grow a more healthy tree by giving us some fertilizer, if you will.  

Love your enemies.

First thought for most folks after hearing that was probably, uh, nope. That's not how the world works. 

 And they'd be right. The world doesn't work that way. 

"Don't copy the behaviors and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think...."

You see, its not a new thought for me but it's becoming front of mind for me.

 I think the rabbit hole of following Jesus is way deeper than I ever thought. 

I think it goes on and on and on, but Jesus seems to promise that if I keep going down the hole, it'll be worth it. 

Jesus wants us to "take the red pill", and don't look back, like in the movie "The Matrix". 

In the movie, Neo, along with all of humanity, is trapped in a virtual-reality prison designed to enslave humanity in order to use their bodies to provide power for an AI industrial complex. Neo, trapped in this virtual world that looks and feels real but isn't,  senses there is something wrong with the VR world he's imprisoned in, and is confronted by a mysterious man who offers him a way to see the real world. Neo is offered a red pill, which if he takes it will lead down a rabbit hole where Neo will find the real world. Neo is given no promises, only that the life will be real. He is also offered a blue pill which, if taken, will return Neo to his blissful VR life with no memories of this inflection point. He can live his life enslaved in ignorant bliss, never experiencing the real life humanity was meant for. 

Jesus wants to free us from the illusion we're trapped in. Free us from the lie that the way of the world is not only the best way, but it's the only way there is. 

Jesus wants us to find the Jesus Way. 

Jesus wants to transform us into His likeness. Like, literally. 

Not a little bit of imitation. 

Not a little bit of incorporating Jesus teachings into our lives. 

Jesus wants to change us. To enliven us. To wake us up to real life in the real world . 

Commands like love your enemies, turn the other cheek, don't judge lest you be judged by the same measure, be merciful and just are just the beginning of seeing into the real world, seeing what that real world is like. It's a world that Jesus calls the Kingdom of God. 

For me, it's like this: love your enemies is fertilizer. 

When Jesus says love your enemies, he is confronting a foundational truth humans have been discipled and taught to follow by virtue of simply being raised in our society. He's highlighting how society has told us the lie that some people are our enemies.  

But Jesus is telling us to think differently about who we would consider an enemy. 

I can choose not to have enemies, to look at anyone else with enmity. 

I can't control what others feel toward me, but I chose how I feel toward others. 

What makes someone an enemy I am commanded to love? 

Consider this: in commanding his followers to love their enemies, Jesus is pretty much precluding that we consider anyone an enemy. 

You simply cannot love that which you hate. 

If you hate your enemy, it is not possible to love them. 

Love and hate are exclusionary to one another. 

They cannot exist in the same space. 

We may think they can, but they can't. 

So, when Jesus commands us to love your enemies, I think of it as spreading fertilizer to help our tree begin to get healthy. He's giving us nutrients to take in, things to try, experiences to process, so that we can begin to incorporate the fertilizer, the teaching, into our very being. Eventually it becomes a part of the tree trunk, the wood and the bark, feeding the leaves and the fruit as it grows stronger and healthier.  

You see, I think Jesus is nudging us toward a life where the Spirit is fully incorporated into our lives in such a way that we not only consider loving our enemies (someone we hate), but to a point that we love so freely that we consider no one to be an enemy. 

By which I mean, Jesus is guiding us to an abundant life, indeed a life with the life of Christ within us, empowered by the Spirit of God, where we love our neighbor as ourselves so well that we enmity toward no one. 

He's guiding us to a life where we have love toward all, because that's what love does, loving just as the God the Father does when He lavishes his sunshine and rain on the righteous and unrighteous, the good and the bad, our friends and our enemies alike.

Jesus tells us "be perfect therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect". 

I use this analogy. 

When trying to lose weight, eating carrots and celery is a good way to curtail caloric content while taking in fiber and filler. They are healthy foods. 

So, in a sense, my dietician may tell me to "love your carrots and celery" and eat them because they're good for you. 

So, even though I don't like them, I'll eat them. I'll try to learn to love them because my dietician says its a good thing to do. 

But I don't want to live a life eating food that I don't like, even if it's good for me. 

I don't want to go through life eating food that I hate, just because I was told it was good for me. 

What I want is to become a guy who enjoys and likes eating carrots and celery. 

I want to be transformed from a person following a rule, to a person in whom the rule is fully incorporated as a part of my being. 

At that point its not a rule for me. It's just me being me. 

I don't just want to think about loving carrots and celery in order to eat them, I want become someone that likes carrots and celery and enjoys eating them. 

I don't to think about loving my enemies just because its a command of Jesus (even if its for my good and the good of others). 

I want to love others in my heart in a way that I don't consider anyone an enemy to love. 

I simply want to love.

Everyone. 

Because its become a natural part of my existence.   

I think that's what Jesus means when he says be perfect like our Heavenly Father. God in his nature loves. That's the essence of the being of God.

God never looks at someone as an enemy and makes a choice to love them. 

You may have been told that in order to love or forgive you, God looks at you through Jesus colored glasses. 

Or maybe you've heard God looks upon Jesus on the cross in order to love and forgive you. 

Maybe you've heard that God turns his back on you when you sin or do something you think God doesn't like. 

Those are lies. Every one of them. 

God loves because that's who God is. God simply loves. 

He's can't "not love" anyone or anything, because that that's not God's nature. 

It's not a choice for God to love or not. God simply loves. 

You've may have heard it said that mankind is an enemy to God. 

I say to you, God has no enemies, because He loves us all.

Anyone God loves is not God's enemy. God loves the world, so no one in the world is outside of God's love. No one is God's enemy. 

We may have thought we were God's enemies, or even that God was our enemy, but that was just from our perspective, from what we thought in our minds. 

Colossians 1:21 states "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior."

This is how God loves, and what I think Jesus is trying to fertilize in us. 

Romans 5:8-11 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

God has no enemies. He has only love.

Jesus had no enemies. Even those that persecuted him and nailed him to the cross, were not his enemies. 

"Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing."

What Jesus and the Holy Spirit are spurring in us not a life that follows rules as a way to follow Jesus, although learning the ways of Jesus and his commands is a good start.

The commands are fertilizer for the soil in which we grow. 

Jesus and the Spirit are spurring a life surrendered to the Spirit, so that we are freed to simply be people that love the way God loves, and the way Jesus loves. 

We are being freed to be fully human, the way God made us, to be people of love. 

Of course, its a journey, and the Apostle Paul gives us all sorts of insight that tells us this life of becoming like Jesus is a long slog. Paul says he beats his body into submission. He trains like an athlete. He runs the long race. 

But Paul also says its worth it. 

So does Jesus. 

"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

"Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. 

"My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life".

God has told me (seriously, I heard these words in my head just New Years Eve this year), "This is your journey, Mike, not anyone else's. Don't make any judgements on how anyone else follows me. You follow me."

So, I write this not to tell anyone else what to think, but to tell the world what I'm thinking. 

If you find it helpful, then praise the Lord. 

If you find something to think about, then I thank God. 

If you read all the way to this point, I am fully astonished and amazed. 

Thank you. 

Looking Forward in This Season of Advent

I was introduced to the story of Advent some ten or fifteen years ago. In my evangelical upbringing, Advent wasn't a story that was told, or at least not a story told well, or a story I paid notice. 

As an adult I learned about the year-round Christian calendar, which tells the story of Jesus and the Gospel each and every year, from his birth to his death and resurrection. Advent is a part of this year long story.

Advent, as presented in my church experience, is a time of reflection and anticipation to the celebration of the birth of Jesus, centered around December 25th. Jesus wasn't born on December 25th, but after some centuries the early church decided it needed a day on which to celebrate Jesus' birth. It's an account worth investigating, which I won't go into here, but the church decided on December 25th.

For several years, I've become increasing unsettled in the way I've experienced Advent. It seems that we mostly zero in on the "waiting", or "anticipation" of the birth of Jesus. We tell the Christmas story and try to transport ourselves to first-century Israel to experience the story as if through the eyes and ears of those living in that time. 

Now, there is nothing wrong with trying to read and understand the Bible through the contextual lens of the culture in which it was written. In fact, I think that is an essential aspect of studying the Bible.

But, I've come to feel that the Advent I've experienced is lacking in the full story of what Christians "wait" for, and "anticipate". It seems to me, there is something lacking in what we observe as part of the full telling of the gospel story through Advent.

The early church, those worshipping in the first three or four centuries, didn't have an "Advent" as we think about. Of course, the traditions we have today are the result of many centuries of reflection, revelation, and experience. The early church observed Advent, but Advent meant something different. 

The early church didn't celebrate the birth of Jesus as we do today. They didn't look back and enter into a season of "waiting", or "anticipating" the coming of the Messiah in Bethlehem.  In most of their ideology, the idea of "waiting" for the Messiah to be born was not a thing, because the Messiah had already come! 

Advent in the early days didn't involve looking back to the story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of the coming Messiah. Of course they taught the story as part of the gospel, just as we do today. But any sort of "advent", or "waiting" or "anticipation" had to do more with the awaited, future return of Jesus the Messiah.  

For the early church, the Messiah had come! There was no waiting or anticipation of the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, because that had already happened! 

What they anticipated, and what I think is missing from many modern Advent observations, is the spirited, joyful, and hopeful anticipation of the return of the Messiah, and the time when God will redeem all things. 

The birth of Jesus two-thousand years ago is certainly a thing to be celebrated with great gladness and joy! It was the occasion when 

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."  (John 1:14)

God took on a form people could touch and see and experience in the form of Jesus. The long awaited Messiah, foretold in the words of the Old Testament and anticipated by Israel, had come. That which had been anticipated for so long in the history of Israel, had come. 

The first coming of the Messiah had come and was to be celebrated. The second coming of the Messiah was what they anticipated and waited for with hope.

Advent today is celebrated over the four Sunday's prior to Christmas. Each Sunday has a theme assigned to it. The themes are Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love, each of which point to an aspect of the life lived in submission to God and Jesus. 

A couple of years ago, I had the occasion to facilitate an Advent class on the Sunday of Joy. As I worked up my presentation, I did a Bible-search for passages where joy was mentioned. I noticed many New Testament references to joy had to do with the joyful anticipation of the return of Jesus. I read through those passages and an interesting trend developed for me. Christian joy seems to be heavily associated with the promise of the Messiah's return, and for all things to ultimately be made right, new, reconciled and redeemed by God, and the eventual resurrection of the dead to new life!

“But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control." (Phil 3:20-21)

"So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.” (John 16:22)

 "Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” (John 4:1-3)

I also noticed the Christian theme of Hope is almost exclusively associated with the work of the Messiah in forgiving sins, and the future return of Jesus to make all things right. The promise to wipe away every tear, and heal every hurt. The promise of God where God says, 

"Behold, I am making all things new"  (Rev 21:5)

and 

  

“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God." (Rev 21:3)

Hope does not seem tied very tightly to promises for this mortal life, but for the life to come. The life we wait for, and anticipate. 

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." (2nd Corinthians 4:17)

The theme of Peace is that peace is a gift of the Holy Spirit, grounded in the promise that God is with us, God is for us, and that everything will eventually be alright. God's peace is an other-worldly gift grounded in the hope that God is not done with this world, and that one day, we will see that "eternal city" that the author of Hebrews describes. 

"The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil 4:5-7)

"For he (Abraham) was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Heb 11:10)

The theme of Love is, of course, the central theme that ties all of Christianity together. God is Love. For God so loved the world. Love the Lord with all your heart. Love one another as yourself. Love as I have loved you. Love your enemies. I could go on and on with Bible passages on God's love, and the application of love in our own lives in gratitude for the love of God given us in Jesus our Messiah. Without love, Christianity is meaningless. 

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." (1st Corinthians 13:1- 3)

"For God so loved the world, that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, would not perish, but would have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." (John 3:16-17)

"We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other." (1st John 3:14)

I think the true joy, hope, peace, and love found in our Advent season is best found in our expectant hope for the promised return of Christ the Messiah. It's not easy to wait in patient anticipation. But, although the early Christians anticipated Christ's immanent return, clearly its going to take longer than they thought. 

"Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near." (James 5:7-8)

It's probably going to take longer than we think, too. 

But Christ will return. We have the Holy Spirit sealed upon us as a promise, as a downpayment or deposit on our future glory with Christ in God. 

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory." (Eph 1:13-14)

May the joy of the Christmas Season fill you with gratitude and thanksgiving for Jesus Christ and the gift of Emmanuel, God with us on earth. 

May the joy of the Christmas Season also fill us with hope and anticipation for the day of Christ's return in glory, when all that is wrong will be made right, every tear will be wiped away, in a world where all will be redeemed, restored, and made right to the glory of God.

After all:

"Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
    He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 
for through him God created everything
    in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
    and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
    Everything was created through him and for him. 
He existed before anything else,
    and he holds all creation together. 
Christ is also the head of the church,
    which is his body.
He is the beginning,
    supreme over all who rise from the dead.
    So he is first in everything. 
For God in all his fullness
    was pleased to live in Christ, 
and through him God reconciled
    everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
    by means of Christ’s blood on the cross." (Col 1:15-20)

 

I haven't posted on this blog for a long time. I think its time to change that. 

Unless noted, all Bible references are from the New Living Testament version of the Bible)

I was reading John 6 today.

This is where Jesus fed the five thousand (probably closer to ten thousand, when we include women and children) with five barley loaves and two fish. The crowd was so amazed at this miracle and his teachings that they tried to make Jesus their king, but Jesus slipped away into the hills.

The disciples waited for Jesus, but by nightfall he didn’t come back, so they got in their boat and sailed across the lake. A storm came up, and they were terrified, but Jesus walked to them on the storm-tossed waters, saying “Don’t be afraid! I am here!”.  Then he stepped into the boat, and the winds died down. The disciples were amazed, and everyone arrived safely at the other side of the lake.

The next day the crowds went back to where Jesus had fed them. Jesus and the disciples were gone, so they got into their own boats and sailed across the lake looking for Jesus. Finally, they found him.  

Seeing the crowd, and knowing why they came, Jesus told them, “You want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs.” (John 6:26)

Feeding the crowd was not the point of “why” Jesus performed a miracle and fed them. He fed them because they were hungry and he had compassion for them, true. But the miracle was in the manner that they were fed, a miracle that highlighted God’s provision. It was a miracle highlighting the promise that God will provide for the cares of this world that naturally need attending to.

Then Jesus said something that I think he said many times during his ministry. “Don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.” (John 6:27)

(Jesus says something very similar in Matthew 6, in his Sermon on the Mount. “So, don’t worry about these things, saying ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’  (which is what the crowd in John 6 was thinking about and wanting from Jesus). These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your Heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God first, above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” (Matthew 6:31-33) I think Jesus taught this teaching often.)

Back to John 6. Then the crowd replied to Jesus, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?” (John 6:28)

You see, the crowd still didn’t understand what Jesus was saying. They wanted to do God’s work, to have God’s power, to keep themselves fed, and to provide for their own needs. They asked to “perform” God’s works, to be able to perform miracles like Jesus so they could save themselves, but they didn’t understand what God really wanted for them. God wanted to save them. All God wants is our hearts.

And Jesus knew their hearts, just as he knows our hearts. So, Jesus told them not what they wanted to hear, but what they needed to hear. What we all need to hear.

“This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29)

Other versions of the Bible quote this phrase in different ways.

“The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” New International Version

“What God wants you to do is to believe in the one he sent.” Good News Translation (US)

“This is what God requires, that you believe in him who God sent.” Common English Bible

“This is the work of God: that you believe [adhere to, trust in, rely on, and have faith] in the one whom he has sent.” Amplified Bible

This is the heart of why I’m writing today.

I think sometimes we make being a Christian too complicated.

Jesus just wants us to believe in him. Believe that he was a real person, a real character in world history, and that he was serious about what he taught and who he said he was. I think we need to keep it simple, and focus on Jesus, the one who was God and was sent by God.

We’ve developed complex systems of theology and written expansive confessions on what we are supposed to believe about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, faith, heaven and hell, evangelism, marriage, baptism, confession and communion, and so many other things.

Different denominations have different beliefs and different doctrines that they teach to their parishioners.

I can get very confusing and distracting.

But here’s the kicker for me: nobody completely agrees with any one doctrine. No one I’ve ever met agrees with or believes every word of a written confession, no matter which one it may be. Doctrines and confessions can be helpful as we think about God and try to know Jesus and God better, but they are not the way to salvation.

We all experience faith in different, personal ways. All of us bring our life experiences, education, fears, joys, passions and pains, and so much more, to our faith.

Doctrines and confessions can get complicated and can leave us wondering if we have a “true faith” or believe in the right things. It can also leave us worried and unsettled that we might be believing the wrongs things.

But nobody knows exactly what the right doctrine is, or all the right things we are supposed to believe.

But Jesus tells the crowd that the work of God and the only thing he requires is, simply, that we believe in Jesus, that he was sent by God for the good of us all.

Jesus didn’t tell the crowd that God wants them to believe the right things. They were taught all sorts of things about God that they were told to believe in that led them in the wrong direction. You and I are told all sorts of things to believe about God, too, and they sometimes lead us in the wrong direction.

But Jesus alone IS the right thing to believe in. Jesus alone is truth and good doctrine.

Jesus said this about himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” (John 14:6)

When it comes to ‘believing the right things’, when Jesus was talking to some Jewish leaders who knew the Hebrew Bible backward and forwards and were questioning Jesus about his claims that he was the Son of God, he said to them, “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! You refuse to come to me to receive this life.” (John 5:39)

Jesus just asks us to believe in him, a real person who lived, died, and was raised from the dead, and is still alive. And he asks us to believe in the One who sent him.

That’s it. That’s the start of it all. Because Jesus changes everything. 

Elsewhere Jesus told the crowds “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

That invitation doesn’t sound all that complicated.

We start with Jesus. We remain in Jesus. We stay with Jesus and take on his yoke. We learn about Jesus, who he was, what he taught, how he lived, and what he commands those that follow him to do. It’s not an abstract exercise.  It’s a real-world, real-life experience, friendship, and relationship with the living Son of God.

Believing in Jesus and following him, truly taking his yoke upon ourselves and letting him teach us, is really all God wants from us. Because if we do that, we will be changed and transformed to be more like Jesus, for our good and for the good of everyone around us.

Jesus IS the good news. Jesus IS the gospel. In Jesus we find life.