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.
This past Sunday, we opened up the subject of what it means to love our neighbors and love our cities. This is a topic that I’ve been thinking about since the summer with the unveiling of the prophetic word and one I feel compelled to bring to the foreground again.
The passage we looked at was the word God had for His people while in Babylonian exile/captivity.
Jeremiah 29:4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
Not exactly what we would expect to hear — especially for a culture that is so foreign to theirs, for an empire that destroyed their religious symbols and holy place. God not only tells them to plant gardens and make a home there, but he tells them to seek the good of the entire city and to pray for it to prosper! Really, Lord?
We’ve come a long way from this in our creation of Christian subcultures: Christian organizations, churches, clubs, etc. that are cozily removed from the world and content to be doing what we believe is “God’s work” that, at worst, conveniently leaves behind this notion of city and region-wide transformation or, at best, sees it as optional. Perhaps nowhere better did I see this amazing sacred and secular divide than in Nairobi, Kenya where there were gigantic mega-churches peppered all throughout the mainly Christian city and Christian mini-vans driving everywhere with advertisements like “The Glory is here…” but yet also there is one of the world’s biggest slum, Kibera (up to 1.2 million squashed inside 1 square mile – compare sunnyvale’s 6,000 people were sq mile).
To help flesh out the radical implications of this holy calling in what could be viewed as a “secular” or “unholy” place [Babylon], we heard from one Indian brother, J. N. Manokaran, who wrote this in his book Christ and Cities: ”Christians cannot be unconcerned about the cities in which they are living… Seeking the welfare of the city is the active participation in the life of the city. It is not passive endurance for survival in the city. Christians are to be ‘change agents’ and ‘transformation agents’ in the city” (pp.8-9).
This is our introduction into this important topic. And these are the questions we asked:
1.) How do you feel about this holy calling?
a. Are you invested in the city you live in; how about the greater South Bay and San Francisco Bay area?
b. If not, what is keeping you from investing emotions, energy, time and money into the city/metro area in which God has placed you?
2.) What does it look like for you to seek the peace and prosperity of your city/metro area?
a. What would be some next steps God may be wanting you to take in light of this holy calling on your life?
b. Who are some people [whom God has already given] who can walk with you in this journey?
This coming Sunday, we will be hearing from a handful of people who have been praying for and seeking the shalom peace and prosperity of their cities. It would be great to be able to hear what others are doing — in or out of baylight — so we can begin to expand our imagination for how natural, ordinary and powerful these things could look like in our lives.
So feel free to list stuff that you know of. Small steps, big steps, ANY step is welcome because, as God has been showing us as of late, the most powerful steps we can take are the very ones God has prepared for us in this very hour that we faithfully and obediently step into.
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