There’s nothing worse than being stuck in the middle. It can feel like all the important things are on either side of you while you’re stuck feeling like you’ve missed the good parts. Sometimes that’s how it can feel when we talk about Jesus. He isn’t here now, he’s coming one of these days, but doesn’t look like it’s today. And now we just sit reading old stories and hoping for new ones. Yet it’s those old stories that assure us that the new one is on the way. And it’s both stories that leave us, not stuck, but embracing the middle.
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Music is one of, if not THE, biggest parts of the Christmas season. It helps us to not just pass the time as we listen to music, but it helps us to mark the time because it is specifically music for Christmas. In scripture, music is used throughout the Old and New Testaments to teach us to mark the time. So we sing Christmas carols to mark the first Advent and we look to the song of heaven in Revelation to anticipate the second advent of Jesus. And in the middle of it all, we have a prophecy that is stunning in it’s beauty…that God is singing and he’s singing a song over us.
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We sit between two advents. This places us with a unique vantage point that theologians call the “already/not yet.” The season of Advent is designed to highlight the tension that arises from this unique vantage point. Has prophecy already been fulfilled or is our hope delayed? And if it is delayed, does it make our hearts sick as the writer of Proverbs teaches? Should the first coming of Jesus give us hope because he has come or despair because the Kingdom has not been established? The answer to these questions are all in understanding our unique vantage point of God’s working in history.
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God’s people are a waiting people. That has been true since the prophecies that were delivered right after the fall. In the Old Testament, they were waiting on God’s promised deliverer- The Messiah. However, in the New Testament, Jesus has already come. If He has come, then are we still a waiting people? If so, what are we waiting for?
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“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.” Simple saying rooted in simple observations. Yet for Jesus, it represents a powerful truth that should be a warning to us all.
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Around Christmastime, there may be no more title synonymous with Jesus than, “The Prince of Peace.” We celebrate “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.” Yet Jesus’s own words seem to contradict this. He tells us he did not come to bring peace, but division- to set this world ablaze. How do we reconcile these two things that are unambiguously proclaimed in the text?
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Sometimes the most loving thing we can hear is not in the form of encouragement, but instead in the form of a warning. In dealing with the Pharisees, Jesus issues a warning that is really there for all of us to heed- this moment, this life, this world is temporary- we’d do well to prepare our hearts accordingly. On that day when the master returns, he will not chastise us but instead will don the clothing of a servant and care for us.
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Who is church for? Is it a place where the rule followers and rule enforcers find a home? Is it a place where those that can’t seem to get life right are excluded and pushed away? Why is it that the rule followers can feel so comfortable in church while the rule breakers feel so excluded? After all, the church is the only organization in the world that requires us to confess that we are people that get it wrong and break the rules all the time! As Jesus confronts the rule followers and rule enforcers of his day, he doesn’t hold back. Just because we look like we have it altogether, doesn’t mean we actually do.
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There is no “middle road” in the life of faith. Our path cannot split the difference between God and the world. Either we are walking the path of wisdom or the path of wickedness. So what does it look like to follow the path of wisdom? Is it just a matter of being better? Of doing better? Psalm 1 paints the picture of a life rooted and delighting in God and his word. It is in this delight that we find the first steps along the path of wisdom, but the best news may be that ultimately we can’t do it at all.
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Seeing is believing, at least that’s what we’re told. We all know it’s not quite that simple. Sometimes our eyes play tricks on us. Sometimes what we see is so unbelievable even when we see it, we hold our minds in disbelief. And sometimes it takes believing before you can see. When Jesus performed his miracles and taught the crowds, people saw and heard amazing things. Jesus’s warning to them was to be careful with how they responded to what they had seen.
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The way we approach God and the language of prayer is often filled with much reverence, pomp, and circumstance. While the heart behind that approach is rooted in a high view of God and his majesty, Jesus’s own instructions about prayer look and sound very different. What happens when we approach God with pleading that borders on obnoxiousness? When we put aside all the niceties and just plead to be heard? According to Jesus, we are not dismissed or chastised, but instead, God responds like a Father who delights in giving good gifts to his children.
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Jesus invites Mary and Martha into a deeper understanding of what it means to be a disciple. This encounter may have more to teach us about Jesus’ call to discipleship than how to have both active and contemplative faith.
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The Good Samaritan ranks as one of the most well-known stories in all of scripture. The lessons it teaches are numerous and readily applicable to our world today, but its biggest lesson might be its most unexpected. In showing us a good neighbor, Jesus also teaches us the power a faith free from obligation, but full of grace and power.
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There is only one place in all the gospels where we see something explicitly described as bringing joy to Jesus. A passage like that should get our attention and provoke joy in us too. Yet when we read Luke 10, it can lead to more confusion and debate than joy. What is it that made Jesus rejoice and why is it so hard for us to find the same joy in that thing that Jesus did?
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Following Jesus can lead you to some unexpected places. For 72 of Jesus’s first followers, it put them out as “sheep among wolves.” Yet when they returned from their mission, they rejoiced in the power they had while out on mission. As followers of Jesus, how do we reconcile these two characterizations of our mission: one sounds vulnerable and scary, and the other sounds powerful and victorious. In Luke 11, Jesus helps us see the way the kingdom works and what are role must be as we follow him as disciples.
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