Were You Born in a Barn?

Note:   This will be my last blog for 2018.  Thank you.

For almost the first two decades of my life,   I lived in a home without air conditioning.    That could be challenging at times in the hot, humid summers of the Carolinas.     I was in college before our family home even had window air conditioning.    We were dependent on opening windows and doors hoping that a breeze might make a visit.       Sometimes in my eagerness to go outside and play with my brother or neighborhood friends,  I would fail to close the screen door of our home.    When that  would be the case,  Mom would chide me saying to me,   “Boy, were you born in a barn?”

I have visited a few barns in my days.   None of them had screen doors.  All of them had large doors that were usually wide and opened when I visited them.    The barn would be the place where horses or other livestock would be kept along with farm supplies.     If Mom were living today,  I could answer her comment “Boy, were you born in a barn?” by saying to her,  “No, Mom.   I was not born in a barn but I follow One who was born in a barn.” 

  

More than likely,  Mom would have had mixed reactions to such a comment.   I can hear her now saying as she would now and then,  “Don’t sass me, boy.”     She would think that I was making a wise crack.  Yet, when she got to thinking about it she also would be proud that I was a follower of the One who was born in the barn, Jesus Christ.       Though there is nothing in the life of Jesus that gives us any indication that he or his family were farmers, they certainly lived in an agrarian society.   Jesus uses images of that society like a person sowing seeds… a sheep being lost… and the like.    Jesus knew about things that many rural people in our day know much about.    In these Advent and Christmas days, let us rejoice that the One named Christ Jesus was born not only in a barn, but he waits to be born in the hearts of all who welcome him.   Have a joy-filled week and merry Christmas.- Pastor Randy L. Wall

Prayer:    O God,  you became the word made flesh full of grace and truth in Christ Jesus.  Come among us in these days and be born in our lives.  Amen. 

The Lamb and the Lion

During the Christian season of Advent and in the month of December,  I find myself reading the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah.    While I read them other times a year, they seem to have more meaning this time of year.   The other day, I re-read this passage from Isaiah that says:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
    from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
² The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and of might,
    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
³ and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
    or decide by what he hears with his ears;
⁴ but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
    with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
⁵ Righteousness will be his belt
    and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling^[a] together;
    and a little child will lead them.---    Isaiah 11:  1-6

The words that jump out in this passage in these days for me are those words about the wolf living with the lamb and the leopard lying down with the goat.   In the animal kingdom, I suppose it is fair to say that they are enemies.   The wolf is commonly known to want to eat the lamb for lunch instead of living with them.  The goat would be timid about lying down with the leopard knowing  that it had other things in mind.  Isaiah is saying to us that the coming Messiah  brings peace between enemies. 

I find myself longing for those words of Isaiah to be a reality not just in the animal kingdom, but in the human kingdom.    It seems that too often we label a person who thinks, looks, or believes differently than us as the enemy.   In my heart,  I continue to grieve shootings that left dead congregants in a Pittsburgh synagogue and a Charleston church Bible study because a shooter saw them as the enemy.  I long for a day when Republicans can live with Democrats, when anti-Trump folks can share time with the Trump supporters,  and white supremacists can get along with the ones they say they despise.   Come, Lord Jesus.  Come quickly,  Change us, and change me.   Have a joy-filled week.  -  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God,  who came  long ago as a fulfillment of prophecies:  come again among us in these days.  We yearn for you to come into our broken world and to heal our broken lives.  Come quickly, Lord, and heal us;  through Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Be the Gift

It is December and Christmas is only weeks away  For the Christian Church, it is the season of Advent as we prepare our hearts for Christmas.  It is easy to know that Christmas is coming if you watch television or open your local newspaper because both mediums want to remind the consumer of the fact so they will buy, buy, and buy for friends and family.  Consequently, there are many people who are wondering what gifts to buy.  They wonder:   Will they like the gift?   Will it fit?  Do they already have one?   The questions about gift-giving are perhaps as many as the people we have to buy gifts for

. 

I wonder what would happen if instead of pondering what gift to buy that we pondered how we can be a gift?   While I am certain that many retailers would not like the idea as it might affect their bottom line,  perhaps it would be a better choice.   Why, it might even akin to what Christmas is about.

Most everyone knows the essence of John 3:16.   Martin Luther, the great church reformer, called that passage “the gospel in miniature”.     That passage of scripture begins by saying “God so loved the world that HE GAVE….”     God love and showed the same by giving Himself.    What would the world be like if we gave ourselves: our time, our prayers, our skills, our compassion to the people we love and the world around us?    The essence of Christmas is “God is with us” and becomes human flesh.   Christmas is the incarnation of God in Christ Jesus.   What if we made our gift incarnate in who we are and what we do in the world around us?    When you get right down to us, perhaps the most precious gift we can give anyway is the gift of ourselves.  I commend the possibility to you.    Have a joy-filled week.  --  Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God,  we yearn for the essence of Christmas to come to us and to our world.  Forgive us for the times that we fool ourselves into believing that Christmas is only about things and not about You.  Amen.