United We Stand, Divided We Fall

In this Advent season of peace, let’s be the ones to light the way, let’s stand with people and cultivate as much common ground as we can. It’s easy to focus on our differences, it can be darkly energizing to polarize our positions – but that will be our downfall.

What can the lights of peace look like in our world? Does peace mean the absence of violence? If so, can there ever be peace on earth? But what if we can choose a Christmas peace that illuminates and unites amidst the dark turbulence in our homes, our hearts, our nation?

What if being at peace was less about naively ignoring what is destructive around us, and instead, staring it straight in the face, trusting instead of despairing that even now the Jesus of Christmas is working for peace to prevail among us?

dont-give-up-quote-1As we walk through the gospel of Jesus Christ according to Mark in the New Testament, we read a fascinating story where Jesus is misunderstood by his own family– his actions of peacemaking are interpreted as causing dark demonic chaos. Just when you think you’ve struggled with being misunderstood!

In this story Jesus has once again entered a home with his disciples to share a meal together with the host. When the crowds realized he is in town, they swarm the home such that no one could dine. Jesus adjusts, stands, and turns the chaotic moment into a teachable one about the way God works in the world.

But Jesus’ family, and the teachers of the law from Jerusalem believe that Jesus must be filled with a divisive, impure spirit, maybe even a demon – possibly Satan himself! How else to account for the chaos Jesus causes when he comes into town? It’s interesting isn’t it, tragic even, how we can choose to interpret stuff.

If Jesus is really filled by an impure spirit, what advantage would he gain by casting other impure spirits into the abyss? Jesus calls the misunderstanders in close and then uses logic to dismantle their slanderous accusations.  He teaches, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.”

Christmas reminds us of Jesus coming to tie up the evil one who was dividing and plundering the people of Israel. The season of Advent reminds us that Jesus will come again to finish what he started with the evil one in the world: Satan’s end will come.

dont-give-up-1So don’t give up on peacemaking. Despair divides.

Christmas teaches us that peacemaking is difficult, it means standing up to evil, not running away from it, it means forging unity among those who misunderstand, and it means patiently explaining yourself and proving yourself through your actions.

To make peace we will need to forgive all those who sin against us and every slander they’ve ever uttered, like Christ will do for us when he returns. Bitterness divides.

When Jesus comes again, there will be those who will see the just and merciful peacemaking work he’s done and accuse him of chaos-making, of causing dark evil, to be in league with the devil. There is nothing Jesus can do for them – if they see the Holy Spirit in him and call it demonic, they don’t want Jesus’ terms of peace. Yet….

Jesus mother, brothers and sisters eventually came to recognize him as the Lord of Israel and the whole world. It took awhile though for them to see the light and join God’s will to make peace. Reconciliation takes patience, persevering kindness, healing honesty, and sacrificial grace.

don't give up final posterSo if you’re feeling misunderstood, if it seems like chaos is creeping in on your life, if this season of your life isn’t turning out how you thought, don’t give up on being a peacemaker. Keep cultivating more common ground!

Stand by the power of Christmas: that same spirit of Jesus comes still to light our way and unite us, so don’t give up on him, others, or yourself.

 

Christmas Comes To Us In The Darkest of Days

Literally, Christmas comes on the ninth darkest day of the year. Winter Solstice in Fort Wayne will be Wednesday, December 21st at 5:44am – the shortest day of the year, with the least sunlight and the most darkness.

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We make much of the Christmas season, barely waiting until Thanksgiving is over to break  out the decorations and holiday music. We wish people merriment and and happiness during the Christmas, which is great – but… the original Christmas story is also full of sorrow, grief, and darkness. Which is one of the reasons we celebrate it during the first week of the winter solstice. It’s also why we shouldn’t skip the season of Advent.

What is the season of Advent? The early church marked out the four Sundays leading up to Christmas for remembering the second coming of Christ to the world, as a way to prepare us to properly remember the first coming of Christ to Bethlehem. Advent is Latin for “to come” or “to arrive” –  it reminds us that Christ came at Christmas, Christ comes to each of us now by his Spirit, and someday he will come again to establish peace on earth.

And Advent helps us keep the enduring and fascinating story of Christ in perspective – not everything is rosy and cheery in it. When Christ came to Israel in the first century, it was a messy and painful season for their generation. Like us, they are yearning for someone to establish peace on earth and in our hearts.

We read in the gospel according to Mark that early one dark morning Jesus retreated up the rocky slopes of the mountains that ring the Sea of Galilee. On the beaches the previous day he had been nearly crushed by the crowds seeking healing. The day before that he had provoked murderous threats from the power-brokers of the region because of his healings. The coming of Christ, the coming of light into darkness, isn’t always the easiest season to endure.

On that mountainside Jesus called twelve disciples to him that he wanted to send out into the nation to preach the gospel of God’s kingdom and to drive out demons by the power of God’s spirit. This was why Christ came to Israel, this is what the first Christmas was for: light coming into the darkness, establishing peace in the world.

This is a glimpse of what Jesus does now, in every generation: calling men and women to be with him, that he might then send them out to proclaim good news and deliver people from evil. This is how the Spirit of Christmas lives on in the darkness: not just wishing merriment, but working for peace every day of the year by the power of Christ.

Like the church today, those twelve disciples called by Jesus to serve as apostles (sent ones) were men of questionable character or of no account. Simon Peter was impulsive and braggadicio, James and John were brothers with a fiery, vengeful temperment, Andrew and Philip were excitable, Bartholomew was a good guy, Matthew had been a traitorous tax-collector, Thomas was a doubter, Simon was a violent political activist (terrorist), James and Thaddeus stayed in the background, and Judas Iscariot would betray Jesus with good intentions and noble ambitions.

Scene 07/53 Exterior Galilee Riverside; Jesus (DIOGO MORCALDO) is going to die and tells Peter (DARWIN SHAW) and the other disciples this not the end.

The church still has disciples like this, men and women who in the name of Christ unveil their best and worst sides. But through Christ, in being sent by him to our communities with the power of the gospel to heal and establish peace, we are transformed too. Christmas becomes a reminder that Christ became like us, that we might become a peacemaker like him.

As we prepare to celebrate the Advent of Christ at Christmas (which coincides with the lengthening of daylight and shortening of nighttime), may you be called and sent by God to family and friends with the presence of Christ. It is Christ who delivers from darkness and who fills us with light – may we, through being present with Christ, be sent to bring peace to those that are ready for the light to dawn in their soul earlier and earlier each morning.

Be the light, be a peacemaker, be Christmas.

When You Being You Makes Things Worse…

They say that most people’s weaknesses are their strengths used to excess. Someone who is loyal can also be stubborn, someone who is patient is a procrastinator, someone who is kind is taken advantage of. Sometimes our weaknesses are not the problems, but rather our strengths.

There are times when you are being you, and you being you is the best thing for the people around you and the situations you are in. And then all of a sudden, you being you makes things worse! One minute they love your new ideas, the next they get annoyed because you’re always changing stuff. One day they love that you are chatty and friendly, the next they are frustrated that there’s no peace and quiet in the office. One week they like it because you are productive and get stuff done, the next week they’re exhausted and grimace when you rally them to get more stuff done.

Jesus was sometimes his own worst enemy. In the gospel of Mark  we read a story where Jesus has done too much good, and now things are falling apart. The emerging plot to kill Jesus (because of his provocative healings) by the Pharisees and King Herod’s men caused Jesus to flee the village and head to the lake to cool off. But, the crowds found him there, overwhelmed him, driving Jesus into a boat to avoid getting crushed. So many people had been healed, and so many more still needed it.

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Imagine the chaos, the cries for help, the pleading and begging. And, on top of that, there were plenty of people with impure spirits falling down on the ground screaming out to Jesus in deranged voices, “You are the Son of God!” And Jesus is commanding them to shut up. Jesus being Jesus is seeming to make things worse.

Jesus can relate to your moments of self-frustration – when you being you seems to work for people one minute, and then the next you’re still being the same you but making things worse. Like Jesus, we are probably right that we need to pull away for a bit, figure out what’s going on, and what we’re doing to make things worse. But Jesus pulled away in order to get back into the fray. He withdrew in weakness to return strengthened.

Have you been in a place where you being you is making things worse? Sometimes personal success is our worst enemy. Sometimes lack of self-awareness harms us. Sometimes denial of our past hurts undermines the use of our strengths. Sometimes refusing to forgive turns our strengths into weaknesses. Sometimes lack of boundaries makes things worse.

We think of Jesus always being perfect, but he was fully human. Christmas reminds us of the radical way God wants to be present to people – he becomes like one of us so that we may become like him. What’s it mean to be like God? To love. Which is why Jesus always teaches us to forgive, because love covers over a multitude of wrongs. When you being you makes things worse, repent and forgive. When things get crazy, get away in order to come back stronger in love.

place-of-rest-2What do you need to do to withdraw, like Jesus? Be home alone? Get outdoors for a brisk walk? Go out to eat with a trusted friend? Journal? Sing? Cry? Play? Sleep? Pray? Count your blessings? Go to church? Volunteer in your community? Get counseling? Read a good book?

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Take a break so that you can take stock of what you’re doing to make it worse and recalibrate your strengths so that you can be the loving, healing, stronger person God is helping you become.