[Sunday] Await Holy Night

Questions for the week

1. Describe a time when an unlikely or unwelcomed person came to an event.  How did the other people at the event react?

2. Read Matthew 2:1-12.  What would Matthew’s Jewish audience have thought about the wise men or magi worshiping Jesus?   If you were to guess, which god would you think they had worshiped before this?

3. God leads the magi, these unlikely people, to worship Jesus.  What hope does this give you?

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

Christmas Day Service 2021

Click To watch Service

Questions for the week

1.  What are some of the most beautiful mountains you’ve seen?

2. Read Isaiah 52.  According to Isaiah what is beautiful upon the mountains?

3. Looking specifically at Isaiah 52:8-10, how does the Lord comfort his people?   What does this have to do with Christmas?

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

Christmas Eve Service 2021

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

Why Mary Should Matter to All Christians

Read the Article on the Original Page at Why Mary Should Matter to All Christians - RELEVANT (relevantmagazine.com)

“When I find myself in times of trouble mother Mary comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.” – “Let it Be,” The Beatles

Paul McCartney wrote this song after a dream in which his mother, whose name was Mary, came to him and spoke the iconic words, “let it be” at a time when the 20-something musician needed words of comfort. The peaceful, calm lyrics and chant-like refrain still soothe, despite the fact that he penned them 47 years ago.

Is that because we hear “mother Mary” and think McCartney is singing about the Virgin Mary?  Or is it some primordial longing for classic rock spun on vinyl that soothes our aching soul? Certainly, none of us think of Paul McCarney’s mother when we hear this song. There is something about Mary, the mother of Jesus, that confronts and comforts us in all her red and blue cascading fabric during this season. But what do we do with her? What spiritual relevance might she embody if we aren’t Catholic and don’t dream of crawling on our knees to Portugal’s Shrine of our Lady of Fatima?

Bernard of Clairvaux, the 12th-century theologian, spoke a helpful word to those who aren’t ready to take in the full banquet of faith, “If you fear the Father, go to the Son. If you fear the Son, go to the Mother.” Being born of woman, having a mother is one common denominator we all share, yet not all of our mothers were able to take a hands-on role in showing us the way of love. Burdened by boatloads of student loans and unclear job prospects, millennials are known as the “anxious generation.” They have outgrown the comfort of their own mothers’ bandaids, yet a supernatural blanket of protective care might prove a welcome balm in the face of angst and uncertainty.

Mary’s Magnificat provides a clarion call which focuses not on the deficits of our own life experiences, but on the greatness of God’s heart. “He has looked upon the humble estate of His servant … He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts … He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent away empty” (Luke 1:48-53).

Good mothers provide not only comfort and nurturing care, they also take kids to church (Pew Research, 2016). But millennials with divorced parents were more likely to move away from the Christian faith than those whose parents were together in their formative years. They are also more likely to claim no church affiliation (Public Religion Research, 2016). Often referred to as “nones,” this group needs spiritual mothers to guide them.

Nones are entering parenthood without a church small group bringing them casseroles or natural mothers on the scene offering to babysit for date nights. The Holy Mother serves as a go-to model of authentic love and sacrifice when these helpful relationships are missing. Even her conduct affirms that it’s OK to make a parenting mistake. “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know I’d be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49) Jesus asked His parents this upon their return to Jerusalem, after caravanning home for an entire day before they realized He was gone. The Scriptures reveal precious few details about the breadth of her life, but we do know from the Gospel of Luke that she displayed a radical faith, wisdom and submission to God beyond her years.

Experiences are what millennials are seeking, with 71 percent of 18-35 year olds citing “experiences” as the most important thing in their lives (Contiki Travel, 2017). Well, a visitation from the Virgin Mary would rank pretty high on the list of unique experiences and she is reportedly showing up more frequently than ever, particularly in Muslim contexts. Muslims revere Mary. She is mentioned 34 times in the Quran and large numbers of Muslims are making pilgrimages to Christian Marian shrines.

Yet, Mary’s encounter with the angel Gabriel marks more than a divine experience. Her submission ushered in the beginning of a lifelong “yes,” a fidelity to her son from annunciation to the cross. Sometimes loyalty and love cost us more than we can imagine, but loyalty strengthens the heart and Advent is the perfect season to receive a holy strengthening. According to millennial career coach Daniel Reynolds, “Millennials are coming to have no faith in the concept of loyalty.” Loyalty is a foundation stone of Advent devotion. Like Mary, we wait. In Advent, we wait for the return of Christ. We prepare the way of the Lord and as we wait, He strengthens the heart. “Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage, wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).

The greatest work often goes unseen. Imagine if Christ died in our age what Instagram feeds of Mary would look like. Fortunately, Mary’s hidden work of cradling His body from the cross, mourning along the rocky path to Joseph of Arimathaea’s tomb and waiting for the fulfillment of His resurrection are images left to the imagination.

The reality of her sacrificial “yes,” her mothering example and submission to God’s call can inspire faith and strengthen the heart of not only millennials, but all who seek the way of love in our broken age.

[Sunday] Await the Empty Tomb

Questions for the week

1. Why can Christmas be hard for people who have lost loved ones?

2. Read Isaiah 25:6-9.   How does Isaiah beautifully describe what happens to death?

3. What about this great feast, brought about by Jesus’ return, do you look most forward to?

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

[Bible Study] Chapter 9+10 | 2Corinthians

The Strangeness of Advent Joy

Read Article on Orignal Page Here The Strangeness of Advent Joy - Mockingbird (mbird.com)

I‘m a little bit antsy at this point of the Advent season. We’ve dwelt in the darkness of the world for what seems like a long time (it’s really been all of 15 days). Can’t we just move ahead and get to Christmas already? Maybe that’s why the third Sunday in Advent is “Gaudete,” Latin for rejoice. We are given a break from the deep shadows of the rest of Advent to rejoice in the fact that Christ is almost among us.

It’s appropriate too that we hear Paul’s admonition to the Church in Philippi: “Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad!” (Phil. 4:4) That’s the Common English Bible. The more recognized version would be “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I say, rejoice!” We’re to rejoice because “The Lord is Near” (Phil. 4:5).

Sometimes I want to roll my eyes at Paul. Yeah, easy for you to tell me to rejoice. You’re the one with the special calling from God. You’re the one to whom Jesus appeared. You’re the one blazing the way for Gentiles to be welcomed into the Church.

And then even though I long to experience a break from the shadows of the world, they also stop me from fully rejoicing. I just read 1 in 100 persons over 65 have died from COVID. A devastating tornado ripped through 4 states and devastated a town in Kentucky (I personally know some affected). The record-setting heat in December only further shows the effects of climate change. And that’s not even including the shadows I deal with because of just who I am.

But then I remember this wonderful quote from the 20th-century martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “A prison cell like this is a good analogy for Advent. One waits, hopes, does this or that—ultimately negligible things—the door is locked and can only be opened from the outside.” He wrote that in a letter from a prison cell he was thrown into by the Nazis in late 1943. The shadows of the world have been long for as long as we’ve been East of Eden. And we need help from the outside to deliver us from the predicament of living in a sinful and fallen world.

That doesn’t mean, though, we don’t try our best to avoid the reality of the prison we happen to find ourselves in. Maybe we take our cue from the Advent song “People Look East” and try to “Make your house fair as you are able, Trim the hearth and set the table.” Maybe that’s why we see Christmas decorations going up sooner and sooner and Christmas music simply being played year-round. We’re trying desperately to avoid looking at the reality of life, and give ourselves a brief respite from the drab prison walls of life. Christmas as a distraction, forcing ourselves to be holly and jolly all the time. 

Paul isn’t encouraging the faithful to rejoice as a way of denying what particular hardships they are going through. Like Bonhoeffer, Paul wrote his letter from a prison cell. He doesn’t deny that life in this world can (and probably will) beat us down. Instead, he’s shifting our eyes away from our current malaise toward the hope of Christ coming from outside ourselves.

Just like we were saved by grace through faith, the light from God comes into this world whether we do anything or not. In the end, it’s not up to us; it’s God’s action. Even our rejoicing is simply a response, a reaction almost, to what God has done, is doing, and will do for us.

For Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. And I think that’s worth celebrating.

All Carols Sing and Storys

Wednesday! 6:15pm

Share your Favorite Christmas Story.
Coli will share one of her’s
Pastor Cris Will share a few.

Live Stream https://youtu.be/FBOj8UMSqgw

Children's Ranch Gift Wrapping

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O Bad Little Town of Bethlehem

Read original Article at https://www.1517.org/articles/o-bad-little-town-of-bethlehem

Mention the city of Waco, Texas, to most people today and they associate it with Chip and Joanna Gaines of “Fixer Upper” fame. That is a positive image, of course, and has brought the community popularity and economic prosperity.

But it wasn’t always so.

Beginning in 1993, and for many years thereafter, Waco was pejoratively known as “Wacko.” It had a bad reputation nationally and even internationally. Why? In April of 1993, the Branch Davidian compound, headed up by David Koresh, was raided by ATF agents. The resultant gun battle and fire left not only adults but many children dead.

The compound was located outside Waco.

That infamous incident, while not the fault of the city, soiled Waco’s reputation. The mere mention of its name, for many years, caused people to cringe, shake their heads, or engage in gallows humor.

Chip and Joanna greatly helped to change all that. The city that once was associated with a cult, bloodshed, and violence, was “fixed up,” we might say. It received a much-needed makeover.

And, in that way, it is similar to the bad little town of Bethlehem.

Two Repugnant Stories about Bethlehem

Bethlehem is mentioned a handful of times in the first six books of the Bible, but only in passing. With Judges, however, that changes—and not in a good way. In the final section of this Rated-R-for-Violence book, we have two stories, both repugnant, both associated with Bethlehem.

In the first, we meet Mr. Priest-for-Hire. He’s a Levite. And no less than three times we are told that he hailed “from Bethlehem in Judah” (17:7-9). What does this Bethlehemite do? Nothing good. He’s hired first by a real “pillar of society,” a fellow named Micah. This man had stolen a boatload of silver from his own mother, later confessed to the crime, and his mom had the silver melted down and made into idolatrous images that her son then placed in his family’s shrine.

When the Levite from Bethlehem happened to mosey by one day, looking for work, Micah hired him on the spot to be his personal priest.

Later, when some ruffians from the tribe of Dan, like a horde of Israelite Vikings, stomped in and pillaged the silver images and other religious paraphernalia from Micah, they offered the Levite a job being their priest. He jumped at the deal and joined their entourage, bidding adieu to his former employer, who barely escaped with his life.

Only at the end of the story does the hammer really come down. This priest-for-hire? This Levite? He was none other than the grandson of Moses himself, Jonathan by name (18:30). And his hometown, let us not forget, was Bethlehem.

But we’re not done. The second story from Judges makes the first seem like playground antics (Judges 19-21). In this story, we meet another Levite, along with his concubine. The girl’s hometown was Bethlehem. At some point, she is sexually unfaithful to him and skedaddles to her father’s home. Four months later, the Levite shows up on her doorstep in Bethlehem. After a few days of wooing and feasting, he succeeds in convincing the girl to come home with him.

Dear God, would that she’d have stayed in Bethlehem.

Along the way, one of the most horrific stories in the Bible takes place. The Levite, the girl, and a servant opt to spend the night with an old man in the town of Gibeah. Under cover of darkness, a mob of men from the city surround the house and demand the old man send the Levite outside so they can sexually abuse him. Instead, the Levite seized his concubine and handed her over to them. Gang rape ensued. All night.

The next morning, the Levite found this poor, ravaged woman from Bethlehem, motionless on the porch, her hand on the threshold, reaching, as it were, for the haven that was not to be.

The Levite loaded her on his donkey, took her home, and dismembered her corpse into twelve pieces. These gruesome body parts he sent all over Israel to deliver the message of what had happened to her.

There’s more to this nightmarish story, but you get the point. If the first narrative was about a cult, idolatry, theft, and the actions of a corrupt priest, this second is about a Levite with a heart of ice, a beastly mob of murderous rapists, and a poor girl without hope or life or even a decent burial.

And both stories, each in their own way, begin in Bethlehem.

A New Lease on Bethlehem’s Life

Both of these Bethlehem stories happened in the book of Judges, but there’s another Bethlehem story that happened, not in the book of Judges but in the time of the Judges. It’s the narrative about Naomi, Boaz, and Ruth, recorded in the book that bears the latter’s name.

In the book of Ruth, the evil and sinister themes of the other two Bethlehem stories are replaced by their opposites. We find here not a horde of Danites on the way to conquer some unsuspecting city, pillaging along the way, but old and widowed Naomi, coming back to her hometown of Bethlehem. We find not a sexually unfaithful concubine whose life ends violently and tragically, so that even her dismembered body bespeaks disunity, but a faithful woman named Ruth, who gets married and bears a son who will be the grandfather of the king who unites all Israel. And we find, in this story, not a Levitical priest-for-hire or a stone-hearted butcher, but a redeemer named Boaz who will make the sacrifices necessary to save Ruth and Naomi.

In other words, in Ruth’s story, Bethlehem’s story too begins to be retold. The bad little town of Bethlehem, with such a soiled and stained reputation, gets a much-needed makeover. And once the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, the boy David, is anointed king of Israel, the town that once seemed shackled to an unsavory past is given a new lease on life.

A Single Drop of Light

Long before the Messiah was born, the prophet Micah had told us that the Ruler of Israel would have his nativity in Bethlehem (5:2). Since he was the promised Son of David, this made perfect sense. David’s Son, David’s Lord, David’s hometown.

But I can’t help but marvel at how utterly appropriate his birthplace was in light of the other, darker stories about Bethlehem. The story of spiritual and sexual infidelity. The story of rape and murder. The story of cults and robbery and dysfunctional families and all the shrapnel from bombed-out souls that litters the landscape of our sad and forlorn world.

Jesus was not born just for the Naomi’s and Ruth’s and Boaz’s of the world. He was born for the forgotten, who sleep cold and scabbed in the trash-strewn alleys of our cities. He was born for the refugees, who have seen the underbelly of a world that would make most of us vomit from horror. He was born for the repeat offender, the stripper and prostitute, the preacher hooked on porn and the politician hooked on an ideology concocted in the mad mind of hell itself.

He was born for them all. He was born for us all.

In the little town of Bethlehem, which itself was neither good nor bad, we see a microcosm of the vast and mangled mass of humanity, each individual, perhaps known to them, perhaps not, thirsty for even a single bead of light to be dropped into the blackened depths of their souls.

See there in that manger, the boy swaddled, the child fresh-born: he is that light. And in him there is no darkness.

Jesus is the Light of the world. Our hope. Our Life. Our Everything.

Oh come, let us worship him.

[Sunday] Await the Christmas Ham

Questions for the week

1. Describe a time when you messed up preparing a holiday dinner.

2. Read Isaiah 19:16-25.  What do you find surprising about Egypt and Assyria?   Why would they be able to worship just like Israel?

3. Think of a group of people that you dislike; how would it make you feel if they were part of God’s promise?

4. Through Christ, how does God make all the nations part of his promise? In regards to Christ, how are you no different than all the other nations?

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

Christmas Cookie Decorating

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LWML Christmas Tree Decorating.

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A CHRISTMAS CAROL AND GRACE IN PRACTICE

Read article at Mbird.com A Christmas Carol and Grace in Practice - Mockingbird (mbird.com)

I will make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. Isa 49:6 

“I’m getting to the airport at 5 am, I don’t think I’ll hit bad wait times,” I thought to myself. Seeing curbside drop off caused me to reconsider. I was greeted by a line of cars with flashing lights, and weary passengers weighed down with suitcases waiting in line.  So I stood in line waiting, waiting to print my boarding pass, waiting to drop off my suitcase. Everyone around me seemed to be forgetting how to move through an airport properly, and I found my own patience pretty scarce at 5am sans coffee. “Yes, you need to have your ID out and ready,” I muttered, tapping my foot. The security lines were even longer, with more confusion, more forgetting to remove shoes, more foot tapping from me. These long lines were encroaching on my precious “sit-at-the-gate-reading-books-and-people-watching” time. Even when I got to the gate it was pretty packed. I had my coat resting on the seat next to me, and then, glancing at the crowds, I resentfully moved my coat to the ground, to open up the seat. All these fellow humans were really encroaching on my personal comfort and happiness. 

As I waited (and waited) for the boarding process to begin, I stopped aimlessly scrolling on my phone and looked up, taking out my headphones, mostly to listen for boarding announcements but also letting in some of the clamor around me. And then I made eye contact with a smiley little toddler who was staggering around. She was the most chipper person at the gate, just content to be walking around with her dad. I saw an elderly couple, talking about how big their grandkids would be and how eager they were to see them. Every person in those long lines was eager to be going somewhere or see loved ones, not nuisances, fellow sojourners. And I’d been viewing their journeys as lesser than my own. I am constantly struck by my own myopia. How easily I get caught in the snare of my own comforts and emotions! I pulled out A Christmas Carol sitting at my gate and was struck (again) when I read the lament of Jacob Marley:

Business! Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business! At this time of the rolling year I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!

I set the book down and did another glance around the airport. Everyone in that gate was my business, a fellow passenger. I don’t want to be Scrooge, I really don’t, but I saw my own ugly Scrooge-ness as I stood waiting in those lines. You can’t help but feel that Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol for the Christian, reminding us that our gaze should be fixed on a blessed star and the first founder of this season. It’s in following the star the wise men were led to Christ, and so it is in our journey. We are pointed to Christ, and after that we see newfound opportunities to love those around us. 

Dickens was trying to show us, indirectly, that we are capable of great selfishness but also of great compassion. That a cantankerous morning in the airport doesn’t have to have the final say on how I treat other people for the rest of the day. Even a life of selfishness can be redeemed in Christ. This little Christmas tale pushes all of us to consider what to do with the time we’ve been given and to learn there is something far greater beyond our own desires and pride. We can open up our hearts to those around us, and what better time to do so than the season of Advent. 

In Advent we wait; we wait as sojourners standing in a TSA line, but with far more hope. I have about as much control over my life as I do making sure the plane safely lands, but I can soak in the beauty of the sunrise from the plane window. I can help get an overhead bag down for the elderly couple in front of me. In my little row I might just have the potential to make a little difference, even if it’s just viewing my fellow travelers as humans. 

The short speech Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, gives after his uncle chastises him for his celebratory spirit captures well the theme of the season: 

I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they were really fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

I’m not much of a crier, but I do cry reading A Christmas Carol every year, and I’ve choked through every performance of it, this year was no exception. The message of it doesn’t change and always compels me to be kinder and gentler to my fellow sojourners. We are all of us continuing to wait, but our time here isn’t forever. And when we look at our own lives as the gift they are, a spark of gratitude kindles a fire of generosity. When we realize the founder of Christmas came for all of us while still in our Scrooge-ness, our hearts change. It’s a miracle that Christ came to us, loving the unlovable. He came to a world of sheep desperately needing a shepherd, to selfish humans reluctant to share a seat, and to be light in great darkness. With Him we our selfishness gives way to see our neighbors as individuals to be loved and served. 

In the last few lines of A Christmas Carol, we see a transformed Scrooge, a redeemed Christian living a life of joy and peace. We see the miracle of what happens when an embittered miser is met by divine grace: 

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city ever knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world… It was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that truly be said of us, and all of us!

[Bible Study] Chapter 7+8 | 2Corinthians

[Sunday] Await the Nativity

Questions for the week

1. Describe a time when you were so focused on perfection but were actually just shallowly covering up your faults?

2. Read 2 Kings 20:12-19.  Why is Isaiah upset with Hezekiah?  What have they tried too hard to be like?

3. In what ways have you sought pride, power, and prestige trying to be like Babylon?   

4. Read Isaiah 13:6-16, 14:1. The day of the Lord comes to call us from pride, power, and prestige. How does the day of the Lord bring about God’s wrath as well as his compassion (hint: connect this to Jesus on the cross)?

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What Had happened at Grace this week. 

What if We Are The Unfaithful Ones?

This article is by Taylor Mertins: 

How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her — but now murderers! (Isa 1:21)

There’s a reason that Isaiah 1:21 doesn’t appear in the Revised Common Lectionary. When we think of Advent we conjure up in our minds the Chrismon trees and the lights surrounding the altar. We remember the purple and pink Advent candles and the red plumage of the poinsettias. We consider the plight of Mary and Joseph to the small town of bread knowing not at all what their future would hold. We like our religious observances to be orderly and helpful and we don’t even mind a sermon that steps lightly on our toes because we know that everyone has room for improvement. But then when we hear these words from what some call the “5th gospel,” we experience some painful theological whiplash.

The faithful city has become a whore!
She was once full of justice but now she is full of murderers!
Who wants to hear about that kind of stuff in church?

In her book Advent: The Once & Future Coming of Jesus Christ, Fleming Rutledge writes:………………………………………..

Read the whole article at https://mbird.com/bible/what-if-we-are-the-unfaithful-ones/

[Bible Study] Chapter 6 | 2Corinthians

Wednesday Advent Christmas Time Carols + Photos Dec 1st

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[Sunday] Await the Ornament

Questions for the week

1. Describe a time when you’ve been tempted to listen to voices to doubt God’s love for you.

2. In Isaiah, the King of Assyria is trying to convince God’s people to doubt God’s power and presence. What prayer does the king of God’s people pray?  Read Isaiah 37:14-20.  

3. What does he remember about God, even in this dark time?

4. Read Isaiah 37:21-38. How does God deliver his people from the King of Assyria?

5. Ultimately, how does God deliver you from the dark times in your life?

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What Had happened at Grace this week.