by | Dec 21, 2023 | Uncategorized
The plight of Mary and Joseph echoes through generations
When my mom was nine months pregnant with me, she and my dad had to flee their country suddenly. A war had broken out and the fighting was spilling out into the streets of the capital where they lived. Because of my dad’s line of work, he was targeted by the guerrilla fighters. Our family wasn’t safe.
I can picture my mom all those years ago, belly round with innocent life, and I wonder how she felt. I imagine she was fearful, unsure of how the situation would resolve; I imagine my parents feeling lost in the chaos, confused by the way their plans for starting a family had been upended. No one wants to become a refugee at nine months pregnant.
The story contained in Matthew 2:13–23 has become more and more vivid to me over the years as I’ve come to see its similarities to the story that my family lived through. I can picture Mary, arms wrapped around her baby. I imagine the fear, confusion, and desperation as they wonder about the implications of saying yes to what God had called them to. No one wants to become a refugee with an infant. Matthew reminds us of Hosea 11:1 in the midst of this story, full of profound prophecy: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Despite the dark and desperate circumstances, God had a perfect plan and a purpose that would not be thwarted. Although fleeing to escape from a murderous dictator may not seem like God’s love in action, we see the bigger, foundational plans as they are fulfilled. The experience of Jesus’ family fleeing to and then emerging from the land of Egypt is the fulfillment of Israel’s same experience in Exodus. Words that once described the experience of God’s corporate people now …
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by | Dec 21, 2023 | Uncategorized
The plight of Mary and Joseph echoes through generations
When my mom was nine months pregnant with me, she and my dad had to flee their country suddenly. A war had broken out and the fighting was spilling out into the streets of the capital where they lived. Because of my dad’s line of work, he was targeted by the guerrilla fighters. Our family wasn’t safe.
I can picture my mom all those years ago, belly round with innocent life, and I wonder how she felt. I imagine she was fearful, unsure of how the situation would resolve; I imagine my parents feeling lost in the chaos, confused by the way their plans for starting a family had been upended. No one wants to become a refugee at nine months pregnant.
The story contained in Matthew 2:13–23 has become more and more vivid to me over the years as I’ve come to see its similarities to the story that my family lived through. I can picture Mary, arms wrapped around her baby. I imagine the fear, confusion, and desperation as they wonder about the implications of saying yes to what God had called them to. No one wants to become a refugee with an infant. Matthew reminds us of Hosea 11:1 in the midst of this story, full of profound prophecy: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Despite the dark and desperate circumstances, God had a perfect plan and a purpose that would not be thwarted. Although fleeing to escape from a murderous dictator may not seem like God’s love in action, we see the bigger, foundational plans as they are fulfilled. The experience of Jesus’ family fleeing to and then emerging from the land of Egypt is the fulfillment of Israel’s same experience in Exodus. Words that once described the experience of God’s corporate people now …
Continue reading…
by | Dec 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
Scripture is full of stories inspiring awe. Are we allowing ourselves to be astonished?
“Mary was surprised too,” the speaker said to a packed audience of students and families gathered for an evening Christmas carol service in Oxford’s historic Sheldonian Theatre. He was reflecting on Jesus’ birth story from Luke’s gospel, when the heavenly messenger Gabriel appeared to Mary. Upon hearing that she would soon be pregnant—with the Son of the Most High, whose kingdom will have no end—Mary asked, “How will this be … since I am a virgin?” (1:34).
At the conclusion of the Christmas service, our speaker encouraged those gathered not to dismiss this story simply because it seems unbelievable. Apparently, that’s what Mary thought too. Luke tells us that Mary’s being unexpectedly greeted by a heavenly messenger left her in awe, wondering what it all meant, even as she embraced this divine disruption. At the same time, Mary’s elder cousin, Elizabeth, was greeting her own surprise: the promise of a child, conceived amid abandoned hope for parenthood, “for no word from God will ever fail” (Luke 1:37).
The story of Jesus is bookended by surprise—from the narrative of his birth to the plot of his death, to the final scenes of his resurrection and ascension, when Jesus overcomes death in a way no one expected and his disciples are left perplexed, necks craning skyward at his sudden departure.
In fact, the whole of Scripture is riddled with surprise. The Old Testament prophets spoke and acted in ways that evoked awe. The “wrong” person always seems to be chosen by God. When there appears to be no way, God unexpectedly makes a way.
Likewise, the New Testament rarely fits readers’ expectations. Jesus’ responses …
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by | Dec 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
As war disrupts traditional festivities, Palestinian Christians see an opportunity to return to the Nativity story and share the gospel.
At Immanuel Evangelical Church in Bethlehem, instead of Christmas lights, senior pastor Nihad Salman rummaged out a banner from the church closet. The banner has a picture of a woman fleeing bomb-shelled buildings, and printed in Arabic are the words “Let us arise and worship God.”
The last time the church had the banner out was two years ago, during the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas. That banner sums up Salman’s approach to Christmas during wartime this year. He sees an opportunity to preach the gospel to people who live under military occupation while grieving the deaths of their people in Gaza.
“People will be asking more questions,” he said. “We have seen that always after a crisis, people are seeking: What is the truth? Where is the truth? So we have lots of work to do.”
Church leaders in Bethlehem and across the Holy Land have decided to mute Christmas celebrations this year due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Typically, Bethlehem—a Palestinian city of about 30,000 people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank—is jammed with more than 3 million visitors coming from all over the world to celebrate the birth of the Messiah.
Marching bands and carol singers and dancers and fireworks would fill the city with loud cheer and festive energy. Thousands would pack the Church of the Nativity, golden lights would twinkle across Star Street, and a giant tree with a ruby star would illuminate Manger Square.
Instead, the streets are dark and hushed.
It will be a silent night this Christmas—but it’ll still be a holy night, according to local Christian leaders. Stripping Christmas of all its extraneous decorations and Western traditions, they say, will help them focus …
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by | Dec 20, 2023 | Uncategorized
Rebecca McLaughlin takes the topic of friendship beyond warm and fuzzy feelings.
Friendship is under fire.
The Survey Center on American Life recently reported that nearly half of Americans have fewer than three close friends. Twelve percent have no friends at all. In the UK, where I live, one in three men have no close friends. Forty percent of 16-to-24-year-olds say they always or often feel lonely. Young people today, living in an era of social media and digital technology, are in one sense the most connected generation in history. So, why do they struggle with one of the most fundamental human relationships?
This is especially striking given all we know about the goodness of friendship. It has profoundly positive effects on our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Studies consistently show that those who eat badly, lack exercise, and neglect other areas of physical health but have good friends live longer in comparison to those who are socially isolated and keep themselves in shape. And friendship is vital to a life of faith.
It is therefore surprising that there should be, relatively speaking, so few books on the subject. In my own searches online, I’ve discovered more than 10,000 books with leadership in the title and just a fraction with the word friendship. For many in the church, friendship is one of the most important but least talked about relationships.
Into this void comes Rebecca McLaughlin’s beautiful contribution, No Greater Love: A Biblical Vision for Friendship. Her subject matter is both timely and timeless, and I’m delighted she has invested her creative and theological energies into exploring it. This is not a book to make us feel warm and fuzzy about our friends, as it deliberately counts the cost of fellowship and community. But it should inspire us to raise …
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