Deep Calls

OK, we have established that we do know that Jesus was not born in December on the 25th at the year zero ~ but that is when we celebrate...so, go with me on this one, OK?!? It is the 23rd. Christmas morning will be in "two more sleeps". Today and tomorrow will be filled with hustle and bustle ~ crazy, a bit frantic -- OK, at times exhausting ~ but mostly filled with eye-twinkling anticipation because it is CHRISTMAS , right?!! It wasn't exciting and eye-twinkling for Mary and for Joseph. "Right now" (which means at this time...2 sleeps before Jesus was born) 2000+ years ago Mary and Joesph were on the road, headed toward Bethlehem. We have crowds, they had crowds too I imagine. If when they arrived there was no room for them in any of the inns (that would be like our Travel Lodge, or Motel 6) there had to be lots and lots of people also on the road headed off to where they needed to register too. Mary was VERY pregnant. I have been there before. Trust me.....

Joseph kind of fascinates me. We know so little about him ... but in that I can see so much. What do we know? Well, we know that he was from Nazareth. (Luke 1:26-27) We know that Joseph was in the family line of David the king. (Luke 1:6-16) We know that he was a carpenter, because Jesus was called a carpenter and sons learned their trades from their fathers. (Mark 6:1-3) and ...             really ...                             not much more.  OH ~ wait! We know he was betrothed to Mary, the mother of Jesus when she became pregnant with Jesus, and that at the time Mary was a virgin ~ hence, Joseph was NOT the biological father. We know that when Joseph found out Mary was pregnant he was going to divorce her quietly. (Betrothal was serious business! If you were publicly betrothed, y...

The birth announcement to Elizabeth and Mary continues. This part of the story is so sweet. Zechariah comes out of the Holy of Holies ~ mute! He tries to use sign language to communicate what had happened, but ... they know something supernatural had happened, but ? ? ? He goes home, and in the 'natural course of events, Elizabeth his wife becomes pregnant. It says she stayed in seclusion for 5 months. However, it never says WHY. I checked a few commentaries ... nothing! OK, some 'drivvel' ~ clearly biased guesses. (sometimes I wish commentators would just say "Wow! don't have a clue!" That's my answer --- don't have a clue. She wasn't ashamed. She says, " The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people ." (Luke 1:25) What we do know is that in the 6th month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, Gabriel ~ the angel who came to see Zechariah in the Holy of H...

I hope you realize that I am not doing these announcements in chronological order. In a way, the first one -- the Magi -- is the first chronologically. Balaam did get the Word about the star and the scepter quite a long long time before the time of Jesus' birth. But the Magi who came to bring gifts and worship Jesus, probably they had the last announcement. Jesus could have been as old as 2 years old by the time they showed up.  So the next announcement ... really the time frame of the actual Christmas story...this one is first. There was a couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth. He was a high priest ... one of the very select few who could enter the Holy of Holies. The Bible tells us that Zechariah and Elizabeth were "well advanced" in years. One translation says they were "well stricken with age". What a great way to say "old". Also, Elizabeth, we are told, was barren. NO hope for a child. This was beyond sad, it was tragic for a couple, especially one in ...

  Luke 2:1-14  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the m...

Christmas -- I love it. I know, you got that from my last two blogs. I've told you how I love the atmosphere and smells and activity. But what I really love is the huge and gynormous story. It is so full of wonder and awe and mystery and pathos and passion. It drips with miracles. Beyond the mind exploding central miracle of God entering the seed of a woman, taking on flesh to become man -- right?! that is huge enough that when I REALLY think about it, I can know it in my mind, but I can't say I can really really take it in -- yeah, beyond that, you can't take a step in this story left, right or center without bumping into a "wow-that's-so-cool" miracle.  So in this blog I am going to introduce the miracle of God sending birth announcements. He did! I just love it. It tells me that he was shaking all over, can't bare to keep the secret, sit on the edge of the throne excited that Jesus was coming. God -- the Trinity : God, Father and God, Son, and God, H...

SO! News flash: Jesus was not born on December 25th, year 0. OK ~ for those of you who are freaking out ... yes, that is a fact. And yes, I am sure, and yes ,we can know for sure. HOW can we know, you ask?                                      ... (so glad you asked) It is like a word problem in math              what? ... yes, I know, everyone hates word problems in math...don't worry. I will do the work. To start our quest for when , we go to the gospels. First the gospel of Luke. Luke 1:5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah ; What does that have to do with anything? Well, a long time before that, in the time of King David, the priesthood from the li...

I love Christmas! I love it all: I love having a Christmas tree. When my husband and I got married, our first tree had a few little ornaments and I decided to add to our collection each year by  just buying a few new ones. Then when we had children, I gave them new ornaments each year so they would have a collection to take with them when they left home. So, decorating the tree is a trip down memory lane ~ "OH remember this one...I love the little church mouse ornament...here's my Santa on a reindeer!" I love the lights on houses, I love the scent of spices, the scent of pine trees. I love the baking! I love the excitement. I love the frantic rush to finish the wrapping -- I never finish before Christmas Eve and year after year I have spent the wee hours of the morning getting the finishing touches finished, falling into bed for what seems like a couple of winks before there is a knock at our door and the voice of one of the children saying, "Can we see if San...

Luke 6:12-19 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. NIV ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ "One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God." It was getting dark, the last bits of l...

Before I begin this blog... I want to give full and unequivocal credit for what I understand about the Luke Sermon on the Mount to my first pastor, George Caywood ~ the man who discipled me and grounded me in scripture. He is the ONLY person I ever heard give the insights about the differences between the 2 sermons. Thanks, George. The "other" sermon on the mount ...      other:  different ~ contra-distinct:  distinguished by opposite qualities. I think they were different sermons -- not just the same sermon heard and reported differently by two different men. There are practical reasons why I think so ~ one being that, as I mentioned in the last blog, in the Matthew gospel, Matthew was not yet a follower when Jesus preached the sermon. The sermon "happens" in chapter 5, and Matthew is called in Matthew 9. And it is MATTHEW'S account. . .that is, I think he knows when he left the "tables" and followed Jesus. But when you read the context of the...

So ... my supposition:  the proximate cause of Matthew's abandonment of his life as a tax collector could have been Jesus' first Sermon on the Mount. Ok...lets clarify some terms: proximate cause :   a cause that directly or with no intervening agency produces an effect abandon:  (synonyms:   relinquish, renounce) means to give up all concern in something. Abandon means to give up or discontinue any further interest in something because of discouragement, weariness, distaste, or the like: to abandon one's efforts. Relinquish implies being or feeling compelled to give up something one would prefer to keep: to relinquish a long-cherished desire. Renounce implies making (and perhaps formally stating) a voluntary decision to give something up: to renounce worldly pleasures.   first I do think that Jesus preached 2 sermons on hill/mountain sides, two sermons that wer...

OK, I started writing about the sermons on the mountain given by Jesus and recorded in Matthew and in Luke ... and I stalled. Somehow I couldn't do it -- even in my head it kept coming out like "wahwah wahwah wah. . ." Now, don't get me wrong ~ I do love the SoM's -- both of them, the differences, the power statements, the passion of the values Jesus so clearly elucidates. But somehow I just couldn't write it out. I really do recommend that you go yourselves and check out the OT references for the Matthew sermon: Isaiah 60-61, Isaiah 55 especially. What kept filling my head was Matthew himself. I kept getting caught in the MATTHEW / LEVI-ness of his story. I mean - why did Mark and Luke call him Levi, and yet he called himself Matthew. Was it a nic-name? Mark and Luke were the 'non-disciple' gospel writers. I suspect that Mark was actually there for much of Jesus' ministry and did actually hear Jesus himself ~ but as a 'kid brought along'...