Happy Friday,
An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:20f
It’s common to hear that life is easier with Jesus. The New Testament suggests otherwise. Consider Joseph. After his fiancé turned up pregnant, he wanted to walk away, but God called him to something very hard – something that messed up his plans. And yet, “When Joseph awoke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife.” The Gospels and the book of Acts make it clear Joseph was hardly an outlier. Those who followed Jesus suffered and sacrificed. They had no regrets. In light of eternity, following Jesus is full of reward. Just do not expect it to be easy.
Book of the Year: If you’ve read these updates, you know I’ve advocated two Brant Hanson books: Unoffendable and The Truth About Us. Both cover important topics in a readable way. I will continue to push Hanson, but his books are a bit too breezy for Book of the Year. For those honors, I’m pointing to Alan Jacob’s, Breaking Bread with the Dead. In this work, Jacobs – a Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Baylor – argues for “personal density.” I realize that being called “dense” is seldom a compliment. But trust me, you want – and need! – this kind of density. I marked up just about every page.
Matthew Homes Video: A few weeks back, Chicago’s CBS affiliate ran a story about the Matthew Home program championed by Renew Communities. Renew – which is an NFP (Not for Profit) organization started by Christ Church – is seeing good things happen under David Weil’s leadership. The CBS report doesn’t get the story exactly right – e.g., they referred to David as a “builder” (instead of a pastor) and failed to mention we have eight more homes in development – but it’s an encouraging three-minute story. You can watch it here.
Last Chance for Word of the Year: A few additional nominations have trickled in this week: the Great Resignation, tribalism, and polarization. Nominations (and bribes) must be in by next Wednesday. BTW, the word of the week is “grey zone.” I do not remember seeing it much before last week, and suddenly it was everywhere. Journalism is trendier than fashion.
Quotes Worth Requoting:
- During a reflection on the incarnation, Henri Nouwen marveled at the “self-emptying, humble way” of the man from Nazareth. He went on to write, “So much in me seeks influence, power, success, and popularity. But the way of Jesus is the way of hiddenness, powerlessness, and littleness. It does not seem a very appealing way. Yet when I enter into true, deep communion with Jesus, I will find that it is this small way that leads to real peace and joy.”
- In The Hungering Dark, Frederick Buechner wrote, “When that child was born the whole course of history was changed. That is a fact as hard and blunt as any fact. Art, music, literature, our culture itself, our political institutions, our whole understanding of ourselves and our world—it is impossible to conceive of how differently world history would have developed if that child had not been born.”
- “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies.” Robert Murray McCheyne
Without Comment: 1) The Oxford Economic Report, claims the “misery index” is now at “recession-like” levels; 2) Though many claim otherwise, religious Americans are less likely to divorce even though they tend to marry at a younger age; 3) The average person touches their phone more than 2,500 time per day; 4) Over forty US cities will break – and some will shatter – previous homicide records; 4) Bruce Springsteen recently sold his music catalog to Sony for $500M; 6) The Dollar Store is raising its prices to $1.25; BTW, there are more Dollar Stores than Walmart, McDonalds and Starbucks combined; 7) The Washington Post is reporting that there are now more $100 bills in circulation than $1 bills.
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Without Comment – the COVID edition: 1) 19% of Americans say disagreements over COVID-19 vaccinations have caused “major conflict” in their families; 2) Vaccinated Democrats are twice as likely to be angry at those who refuse to get vaccinated than vaccinated Republicans are; 3) Meanwhile, unvaccinated Republicans are significantly more likely than unvaccinated Democrats to get angry at those who tell them to get vaccinated; 3) The number of reported COVID-19 deaths in the US surpassed 800,000 this week, with roughly 75% of them occurring in patients 65 years and older; 4) Data through early October suggest more than 90% of deaths occurred in unvaccinated patients; 5) The first 43 investigated cases of the Omicron variant identified in the US revealed one hospitalization and zero deaths.
Fellowship > Imitation: Those who think of Jesus as our model more than as our Savior sign up for a life of disappointment. The transformation and joy we are after grows out of our union with Christ, not simply our imitation.
Merry Xmas: I recently read that 6 out of 10 Christians take offense when they see the term “Xmas.” Please do not join them. For starters, it’s probably not an attack on Christians or Christmas, but even if it is, what of it? As this article notes, in the Greek, the first letter of the term Christ is the letter Chi, which is spelled with an X (Christos or Χριστός). In light of this, those who have studied Greek routinely use the term X for Christ. I do. There are real problems out there. Seeing Xmas is not one of them.
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Closing Prayer: O Lord, in whom is our hope, remove far from us, we pray, empty hopes and presumptuous confidence. Make our hearts so right with your most holy and loving heart, that hoping in you we may do good; until that day when faith and hope will be abolished by sight and possession, and love shall be all in all. Amen. (Christina Rossetti – 1830 – 1894)