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.
Since we’re not getting together to worship at Mountain View Academy this morning, I thought it’d be an opportune time to write a short reflection from last week’s Bible reading. I’m not planning on making this post as long as a typical sermon, but we’ll see. When I get going, sometimes it’s hard to stop.
Last Wednesday, we read Luke 4:16-21 where Jesus goes into a synagogue, reads from Isaiah 61, and takes that passage as a description of His purpose. For the sake of convenience, here’s the passage that Jesus reads:
“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES,
AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” (Luke 4:18, 19 NASB)
I was struck by the people that Jesus identifies as His intended audience or His target group. “The poor”, “the captives”, “the blind”, and “those who are oppressed”. These are the people that Jesus preaches the Gospel to. He doesn’t mention anybody else.
Here’s the kicker, when you read that section of Scripture, do you identify yourself as belonging to any of those four groups? If you don’t, I’d submit that you don’t need Jesus and Jesus isn’t particularly interested in proclaiming the Gospel to you.
Back when I was going to college, a friend of mine went home for winter break and tried to share the Gospel with her dad. Her dad rejected the message saying that it’s a crutch for weak people.
And that’s precisely what it is. My friend’s dad said it as an indictment against the message of Jesus Christ, but to those of us who are weak (the poor, the captives, the blind, those who are oppressed) Jesus is the hope of the world.
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.
As we move toward having our LTGs be our primary expression of the church, communication for the church as a whole becomes an issue.
In anticipation, I’ve been tinkering with this website to try to figure out how to make it more appealing, functional, and useful for you all, Baylight people. So far, I’ve identified a few things that keep the website from being appealing, functional, and useful:
1. There’s no easy way to see, at least from the frontpage what content is changing aside from the daily Bible reading and the written synopsis of the sermons.
2. The frontpage is a sea of words that’s hard to sort through at first glance. I think what I’m trying to say here is that the frontpage is ugly, at least from my viewpoint. And call me a snob, but I don’t really like using ugly things.
3. A good number of the pages are outdated (check out the “testimonies” page or the “audio” page).
From scoping out other websites and looking at what WordPress might be able to do, I’m thinking that a slider on the frontpage that rotates through the most important and dynamic content could be a good first step.
And that’s where you come in. What features on the website do you currently use? And what features would you like to see or see updated?
As the website currently stands, looking at the content that’s found on the frontpage, it assumes that the content you most want to access is the Daily Bible passages, sermon synopses, and the Google calendar on the sidebar. I’m not so sure that’s an accurate assumption.
I want the website to work for you, keeping you updated on what’s going on in Baylight as a whole. Any feedback on your part will be much appreciated.
I’ve been sick with hand, foot, and mouth disease for the better part of the last two weeks. For the most part, I’m well now. I don’t have a fever anymore. I don’t have body aches. And I’m not growing new sores in my mouth or blisters on my hands. According to my doctor, I can “go back to work” now.
Last Saturday, I pre-recorded the sermon that was presented the following Sunday. It was rough. I took about a dozen takes of the first 30 seconds before realizing how ridiculous I was. I had a hard time making “eye contact” with the camera on my iMac. After about 45 minutes of fiddling with the editing software, I gave up on trying to put the Bible verses at the bottom of the screen as subtitles. And as someone pointed out, I wasn’t looking so good while doing this.
That being said, it was the first time that I’ve ever done anything like this, and I believe it’s the first time that we’ve done this at Baylight.
I don’t know if I get enough traffic on this particular page to warrant me asking, but if you were at Mountain View Academy last Sunday, how was it for you?
If you have comments regarding the content of the sermon, you can leave a comment on the sermon page, here.
On my blog, here, I’m asking more for comments regarding the video format. Was it awkward for you to watch a video on the projector screen when we gathered on Sunday morning? Did it work for you? Do you have any suggestions for the future?
If you have something to contribute to the conversation, leave a comment, shoot me an email, or talk to me. Barring me catching ebola or some other disease that a North American adult doesn’t normally get, I’ll be there this coming Sunday.
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