Tag: discipleship

Posted in Different Moments, Different Thoughts

Advent: For Your Home

Posted on by Wick

For a long time now, the season of “Advent” (which means “arrival”) has helped Christians to prepare for the celebrations of a special worship service celebrating the birth of Christ.  It includes the four Sundays leading up to Christmas – with a special emphasis for each week.  We believe many of these things can offer new opportunities for us to reorient our lives, our relationships, and our homes around anticipation of what Christ is doing even this year.  With this in mind, we believe Advent can be an incredible season of prayer, celebration, conversation, and devotion as we prepare for Christmas. Here is an easy and tangible way to bring this season into your home:

Advent Wreath – Often seen in sanctuaries, but traditionally this was also done at home.  You don’t need to make it look “churchy”, or even use the traditional colors (though you might find that fun too!).  Any 4 candles (one for each week of Advent) and one central candle (for Christ) will work.  If you have kids, feel free to invite them to help assemble a nice (non-flammable) display for the candles.

When?  You might light the Advent wreath during a mealtime, family devotions, bedtime, or whenever it works out.  Remember, it’s not a rigid discipline – but an invitation to reorient our moments & hearts.

What?  Each time you’re able, light the appropriate candles and make time and space for each person to respond.  Close the time of conversation in prayer, and for young kids especially – take turns blowing out the candles!

  1. Week One: Light one candle, and focus on the word “HOPE”.  What are you each hopeful for?  What is something fun you’re hoping for?  How can hope transform someone’s life?  Where have you seen hope today/this week?  READ Isaiah 7:10-14
  2. Week Two:  Light two candles, and focus on the word “PEACE”.  What does peace feel like to you?  Where is an area of your life/world that needs peace? Where have you seen peace today/this week?  READ 2 Samuel 7:10-16
  3. Week Three: Light three candles, and focus on the word “JOY”.  What’s the difference between happiness and joy?  What brings you joy?  Where have you seen joy today/this week?  READ Isaiah 61:4-11
  4. Week Four:Light four candles, and focus on the word “LOVE”. What helps you feel loved?  Who is someone you know who needs to experience love?  Where have you seen or felt love today/this week?  READ Isaiah 40:3-11
  5. CHRISTMAS EVE/CHRISTMAS: Lighting all 4 surrounding candles and the 5th “CHRIST” candle also. Why did God come as an infant?  What message does that send us?  If Jesus was sitting in your home today, why would He get excited that you have received Him? How will you respond?  READ Luke 2:1-21

(Here’s a printable version of this same content, you can edit for your context!)

Posted in Different Scriptures

missing from the “full armor”

Posted on by Wick

As I spent time this morning reflecting on the days’ lectionary passage, I was struck by something for the first time. This passage (Ephesians 6:10-20) I’d grown familiar with, since I was a boy, suddenly contained truth I hadn’t noticed before. More specifically I should say – as I asked God what He wanted me to notice, I became more and more aware of this particular Truth.

I remember learning about Ephesians 6 as a kid. We’d have physical belts, breastplates, shoes, shields, helmets, and even a sword. Putting on these fake pieces of “armor”, and stomping around the Sunday school room like an obnoxious child-soldier, I had opportunity to be the class clown AND teachers’ pet simultaneously. Those moments were always enjoyable for me, as an extrovert who wasn’t always particularly good at answering the teachers’ questions. Thankfully, I’ve matured in some ways since then. (mostly)

As I’ve grown, I’ve come to understand the importance of Paul’s words to the church in Ephesus. Whatever battle scenes I may have imagined Paul painting as a child have faded, and I hear the heart of Jesus in his words. He invites the church to cling to these solid foundations as vital to sustaining our faith in a world that doesn’t yet recognize/know Jesus as Lord fully.

It’s important to know and cling to the Truth of the gospel, no matter what our current experience happens to be, and live in that direction. It’s vital to remember the righteousness (the ways of justice, and right-ness) God desires, that becomes our life as we are found in Christ. We’re called to be people always ready to seek/promote the peace of reconciliation, taking it where Jesus leads us. We’re urged to hold fast to our faith, as a shield capable of deflecting the flaming arrows of the enemy (who is not a person/group, but a spiritual power or force/system). We put on our helmet of salvation, offered by the “head” of the body in Christ. We take up the sword, which is the Word of God empowered by the Holy Spirit (not words from a page, but the teaching of the gospel message).

But even in being fitted with all of this armor, there is usually something incredibly important missing. A crucial piece of being ready, and being able to “stand firm” that we don’t often include when we dress up that student in front of the class. Ready for it?

Paul is speaking with plural Greek words. Not to “you”, but to “ya’ll”.

This is not a battle we are preparing to fight alone. This is not something I can “do on my own”. This was not meant even for my family to seek to do on our own. There is something vitally important about the assumption Paul made to his audience in Ephesus – that all of this was something they were doing collectively. This comes through over and over again in his writing, especially as these words come only a couple chapters after he talks about the uniquely gifted parts of the body in Ephesians 4.

John Wesley even called this aspect of “Christian conference” one of the “Means of Grace”. We don’t discover “what is true for ourselves”, but rather wrestle together about what the Truth means for us all (and in each new season). We are shaped in His “Righteousness” as we come alongside one another, confessing our sins and being shaped vulnerably in His Light together. We promote peace graciously in the context of forgiving community, becoming a living refuge in a world where anxious communities form/bond in response to threats/fears. We lock shields of faith with those surrounding us, believing and testifying to the Love of God that has transformed us (and those before us), even when we feel attacked. We are bound together by our trust in the salvation offered in Jesus Christ, the “head” of which we are made one body. Finally, we wield the sword of God’s Word – not as something I grasp fully and completely on my own. Empowered by the Holy Spirit for understanding, we humbly approach the message of the gospel we have received and joined, with the global Church across all times and places.

May we never forget this incredibly important piece of “putting on the full armor of God”, so that we may “be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power”…

Posted in Different Learning, Different Thoughts

shortages

Posted on by Wick

As we were living in Hungary, one thing we could not miss when watching international news coverage, was the fascination and humor most of the world watched with as the United States somehow panicked for the last remaining rolls of toilet paper. It was mind-boggling to us, as we’d never seen such a scramble for the white rolls of bathroom tissue. Surely it was just being over-dramatized, we thought. Perhaps this is just happening in the large cities. But as we talked with friends, and checked online, we saw that the strange phenomenon was happening widespread, even as most people confessed to being mystified by it themselves. Even as it was happening, memes popped up and late night talk show hosts made fun of…well….Americans who seemed to find comfort when facing the unknows of a pandemic with the dependable reality of knowing we could at least “take care of business” through it all.

Since returning to the US, it does seem like “Shortages” continue to pop up in the news. It doesn’t even take someone with a conspiratorial eye, to begin to wonder if many of these are simply well-placed advertising campaign strategies. But some legitimate shortages (most recently, Maple Syrup in Canada or Cream Cheese in the US) are still causing people and companies to think strategically, or to alter plans for consumption altogether.

Some might say that the reason Western Culture seems to notice “shortages” in ways that seem newsworthy, is that many of us have grown up or become accustomed to knowing that pretty much every “commonly-used” product we could imagine was readily available somewhere within a drive or an online order. It hasn’t taken long for this to impact our kids as they grow – with Christmas lists that often show no known limitations or boundaries. There are aspects of this we can be proud of – whimsical notions of “anything is possible” that we believe is healthy for our children as they grow. But it can also create a false sense of reality that most of the world still does not experience. Most places in the world continue to live with limitations, (and we do, if we’re honest enough to confess it), and that does not always mean a negative thing.

Now toilet paper is in a very unique category of “things I really hope we don’t have to learn how to do without.” But there is a sense in which limitations, and shortages, should be embraced a bit more readily as a positive path to spiritual growth as they come.

We live in a giant world with changing seasons, shifting climates, varying cultural backgrounds, many geographic features, and challenges as we tend to sowing and harvesting products in ways that justly care and provide for all of those involved. With so many variables, we should have limitations. We should have some foods that are only available in certain seasons. We should be thankful for what we can attain easily, and have a bit of wonder about what they have in other areas.

One of the beautiful aspects of Advent, is that we not only imagine what it was like to anticipate Jesus arriving for the first time, we imagine what it will be like when Jesus arrives fully. When Christ is revealed finally to be Lord over all things, and the Love of God swallows up all the cosmos, bringing together Heaven and Earth like never before – all things are made New. In those days (yet to come), there will be a growing shortage of shortages – as the full provision of God and His Good creation are revealed as enough (and also our hungers and consumption are brought into full alignment with His good and pleasurable ways).

In response to remembering this, we can celebrate in many ways. I would highlight two today:

  1. When possible, we can order/purchase something simple that doesn’t seem like it should be available to us because of season or location. Enjoy it on purpose, and share it with a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or child – imagining with them the coming age when all necessary things will be available and provided by Lord Jesus right on time.
  2. Purposefully choose to limit yourself of something. Sure, it may be at the store – but it’s not technically in season, or you’re not sure of the just working conditions/pay for those who labored. Choose something that you purposefully will “go without” this year. If it impacts the lives of others, don’t get all preachy – but if it involves kids – explain to them why you’re choosing to go without. Talk about being purposeful in our anticipation of the day when all that we need will always be provided – and not only us, but those brothers and sisters all over the globe.

No matter how we respond to Advent in particular, may we Christ-followers be leaders of the Way when it comes to responding to product shortages with peaceful confessions of our limited resources. We should not be surprised, and should be among those who generously seek community-beneficial adaptations when such shortages impact those around us.

May the peace of God who has already begun providing everything we truly need, fill and dwell in our hearts – and arrive through us as we share life together in community…both this Advent, and into the new year…

“But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33