We will not be getting together at Mountain View Academy to worship God this Sunday. Instead, we’ll be getting together in our LTGs (small groups) to hang out, watch the Super Bowl, and eat food together. Invite friends and have a good time. If you’re not part of an LTG, use this as an opportunity to check one out. Check out the LTG page for details and more information about each of the LTGs that are currently running.
Our passage for this morning is a really familiar one: Luke 2:1-7, the birth of Jesus Christ. There are a few things about it that I think are easy to skip over because we’re so familiar with it.
The first is that this Jesus is Joseph and Mary’s first born child. For those of you who have kids, think about the time when you were having your first born. Recall the feelings. All that anticipation. All that excitement. And yet, at the same time, all that fear. All that anxiety. Joseph and Mary were likely an emotional mess.
The second is that the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, that trip that they took late in Mary’s third trimester was an 85 mile trip through some steep inclines. And if you’ve ever ridden an animal, you know that that’s still a physical exhausting mode of transportation. Think of the time when you were late in your third trimester. How far were you able to walk? Jospeh and Mary were physically exhausted. They were running on fumes.
And lastly, Bethlehem was Joseph’s “own city”, verse 3. Though it’s unclear whether Joseph’s parents were still alive, it’s almost certain that Joseph still had close relatives in Bethlehem. And considering Middle Eastern hospitality, it would’ve been inconceivable for Joseph and his new family to stay the night in some random barn as it’s portrayed in many of our Christmas pageants and plays.
Joseph and Mary likely stayed in one of his relatives’ home as did many of his other relatives, hence, why there wasn’t enough room for their entire family to sleep. With everybody coming back to their hometown to be registered for the census, there was likely a family reunion in the house where Joseph and Mary stayed. There’s music, dancing, massive amounts of food, laughter, and hugging. Jesus is getting passed around the room from family member to family member. And at the end of the day, after the party’s subsided well into the night, Joseph and Mary lay him down in a manger, a step below the living area but under the same roof.
There is very little that’s silent about this night. Very little is calm. And there’s little sleeping in heavenly peace.
If anything it’s a chaotic night. They’re emotionally and physically exhausted before they even get to Bethlehem. And when they do get there, they’re greeted by Joseph’s extended family who are excited to see the new addition to their family.
But Jesus is there with them. And for that reason, one of the lines from Silent Night rings true. It was a “holy night”. Being holy isn’t about being composed and calm, about having it all together with your sins properly managed. Being holy is about being with Jesus, abiding in Him.
I know that many of you are in a place right now where you feel like life is too chaotic to be connected to Jesus. Well, our relationship with Jesus is a two-way street. Jesus reaches out to us as well. Jesus loves you.
But will you notice? Will you notice Jesus loving you in the midst of the chaos of your life?
To notice, consider group life, being part of an LTG. When we live life alone, in seclusion it’s all too easy not to notice Jesus. Our spiritual vision gets near-sighted as we just live through the routines of our lives. But as we share about our lives, chaos and all, others in our LTGs can speak into them revealing Jesus at work in it. And as we pray together through the chaos of our lives, we can tangibly feel Jesus ministering to us through His body, the Church.
Discussion Questions:
31 Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. 32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.
33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34 “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
35 “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
God has been doing something here over the last two months. This past Sunday I brought out into the open some of the changes we’re observing. For those of you who missed, I wanted to put a summary up here for you because it is important for us to be on the same page.
1.) False assumption #1 that God is resetting: that God doesn’t speak to us all the way down here from all the way up there.
a. examples listed – one LTG that spent 2.5 hours in prayer together — much of it listening — and is considering spiritually mapping the city where many of them work or live. Another LTG listened for what items to get at Safeway for a family in need, trusting that God would tell them specific things to buy; God not only revealed things unknown to them (e.g., country music, diabetes, etc.) but brought them almost exactly to their budgeted total. Several people have been hearing God tell them to give money to various people, and they are obeying!
There is a new hope in our midst as people are hearing from God and beginning to ask, “Why wouldn’t that be God?” And God is answering. We are becoming a hear and obey church.
2.) False assumption #2 that God is resetting: that the supernatural doesn’t happen here and now in our lives.
a. examples listed – personal breakthroughs in experiencing freedom from years of bondage, the breakthroughs in relationships with not-yet-Christian friends who would never go near a church, people walking into new and latent spiritual gifts of prayer languages, prophecy, and faith, people are obeying Scripture and praying for the sick and seeing them get healed.
There is a new openness to what God can do, and people are following through on it in faith and obedience and seeing God move right before our eyes. We are becoming EYEWITNESSES to the power of God — not just hearers of other people’s stories. The veil is thinning between the natural and supernatural at b.c.c.
3.) False assumption #3 that God is resetting: that God primarily works through formally trained or recognized Christian leaders.
a. examples listed – Our experimentation over the last few months of spontaneously following the lead of the Spirit and seeing the Spirit teach, influence and show us things through [non-staff] baylight people’s giftings as well as struggles that are current and authentic. The church is the healthiest it has been and [shhhh...] not had much formal preaching on Sunday! The best example of this: Miriam and Alissa leading us into the heart of God on human trafficking Sunday. We are learning the truth of the indispensability of each body part (1 Corinthians 12), and seeing many people contribute in all our gatherings– big to small.
We are rediscovering the “priesthood of all believers” that got air time in the Protestant Reformation but quickly faded by the replacing of popes and cardinals with clergy and pastoral staff. A new time is dawning here at baylight where the most influential people are no longer the staff, Church Oversight Team, or LTG leaders; the most influential people are those who walk with God, hear from him, and take radical steps of faith and obedience.
Frankly, I am shocked at how quickly this change has happened and how wide-spread it is. And I wonder aloud with all of you the following questions:
Why is God unlocking all this now? And where is God taking us?
The oversight team is asking these questions now as we seek to understand God’s initiative and direction. Please join with us in pondering these questions, and when you hear something from God on any of these fronts, please share it with one of us immediately. I believe that many of your lives and the decisions you will be making this season will unfold the answers for the above. You have been and will remain an intricate part of the surprising and unfolding story happening here at baylight.
Thank you for journeying patiently with us. We recognize it has not always been a stable or a comfortable ride, and that many things you may have held dearly have been challenged in this period of deconstruction. But the good news is that we are in a period of reconstruction now, and if these last two months are any indication of what’s ahead, then WOW, it’s going to be a fun ride.
Looking forward to an awesome year with you.
Your happy scribe of God’s workings, Mike
National Human Trafficking Awareness Day
11 January 2009
This past Sunday at BayLight we observed National Human Trafficking Awareness Day with a short presentation on the issue. Here again are a some of the resources mentioned in Sunday’s presentation:
Organizations Fighting Slavery
Global:
International Justice Mission – www.ijm.org
The Salvation Army – www.salvationarmyusa.org/trafficking
WorldVision – www.worldvision.org
Regional:
AIM / Rahab’s House in Cambodia – www.aim4asia.org
Generación Institute in Peru – www.notforsalefund.org/projects.html
Hagar International in Southeast Asia – www.hagarproject.org
Regina Pacis in Italy – www.reginapacis.org/en
Transformational Business Network based in London – www.tbnetwork.org
San Francisco:
Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach – www.apilegaloutreach.org
Not For Sale Campaign – www.notforsalecampaign.org
Standing Against Global Exploitation – www.sagesf.org
YWAM’s Because Justice Matters – www.becausejusticematters.org
Books on Slavery
Kevin Bales, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy
David Batstone, Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade—and How We Can Fight It
Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
Siddharth Kara, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery
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