Update December 23rd, 2005

Dear Good Shepherd,

Before anything else, I want to reiterate just how deeply touched Anne and I were by your gift to us last week. You must have read our minds. We missed the Blazer so much and given the latest developments, we need a second car more than ever. Your gift came just at the right time. We will never forget you and the love that you have shown us this year. We are so very happy here. May God bless you all as much as you have blessed us.

The Update continues below the weekly article...

WEEKLY ARTICLE:

I thought it fitting this week before Christmas to devote the weekly article to the Incarnation of God the Son.

The word, “incarnation” might sound daunting, but it is really very simple. The root word is the same as that of the word “carnivore” or flesh eater. To become incarnate is to become “enfleshed” or to take on “flesh.”

Take a look at this familiar passage from the gospel of John:

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:14)

The Word, in other words, became incarnate.

Before delving too deeply into the Incarnation of the Word we should pause here and identify the “Word”

Thankfully, John is one step ahead of us. Moving back up to John 1:1, we read:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1-2)

Pay special attention to the words I've italicized.

First, the Word “was” or “existed” before the beginning. The Word was not created in the beginning, it already “ was” .

Second, this Word was “ with” God. The Word had some form of distinction or differentiation from God. It could be with him. A thing, a person for example, cannot really be with himself. But he can be with another person.

Third, John tells us that though distinct or differentiated in some way like one person to another, this Word ” was” indeed God. That means the Word is not an “it” but a “who”.

It also means that somehow believers must come to terms with a very difficult concept: the Word both “is” God and is “with” God.

John's deep and wonderfully mysterious opening sentences tell us about a paradoxical relationship within the Godhead. The Church later described this relationship with the word “Trinity.” The various creeds describe the Trinity and help us come to grips with what God reveals about himself in John 1 and elsewhere, but they are descriptions not explanations. God is one in Being and yet he is also three distinct co-equal, co-eternal Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is what the bible teaches. That is what the church confesses. It is not a contradiction. But it is a mystery.

Out of that mystery flows another.

John goes on to explain that the “Word made flesh” is none other than Jesus of Nazareth (John1:18), born of Mary the virgin, whose birth we celebrate in only four days.

God, the Word, took on flesh.

He is God and he is Man at the same time.

We have to be careful here. Some in the past have mistakenly assumed that the incarnation was merely a sort of cloaking or covering. God the Son simply disguised himself with human flesh. The disciples, those who lived with him day in and day out, knew better. Jesus was not simply God in human garb.

He was and is fully human. He was born of a woman, grew to maturity, ate, drank, slept, felt pain, sorrow, anger, anxiety, and, ultimately (or “penultimately” I should say), he died.

So, when New Testament writers like John testify to Jesus' humanity, they're not just describing appearances.

They mean the real thing.

Jesus really was and is a man. When God the Son became incarnate, he not only took on the flesh of man, but the very nature of man. Here's how the writer of Hebrew's puts it:

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity” (Hebrews 2:14)

Nevertheless, there is one difference between the human nature of Jesus and our human nature. A clue to that difference is also found in the book of Hebrews: Describing the sacrificial or priestly work of Jesus the writer says:

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

Jesus never sinned. He is the only person in the entire history of the human race who never once violated the law of God. How is that possible?

The bible teaches that sin was not part of God's original creation. If you re-read the story of creation in Genesis 1 and 2 you'll see that Adam and Eve were created to live in perfect communion with God, with one another, and with the world itself, forever unmarred by sin or death.

But when they broke the one command God had given them, not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they also broke that communion and severed their connection to the sanctifying power of God.

Sin entered the human heart.

Every human being conceived since then has been conceived with a sin nature; an orientation away from God and toward the self. As David says, “I was a sinner from the time my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) This does not mean, of course, that David was actually doing bad things while in his mother's womb. Rather, it means that he was conceived with a will turned or oriented toward disobedience that was actualized as soon as he was old enough to know the difference between right and wrong and choose the wrong. So are we all, each and every one of us (Romans 3:10-18).

Everyone that is, except for Jesus.

Jesus' humanity is not fallen like ours. Jesus' humanity is of the same sort or type as that of Adam. It is not marred or twisted. It retains the original created connection and communion with God unmarred by sin. That's why Paul writes that Adam's nature was the pattern for Jesus' nature (Romans 5:12-20)

Why? So that Jesus, the second Adam, might succeed where the first Adam failed. Here's how Paul puts it:

“For just as through the disobedience of one man [Adam] the many were made sinners [sin nature], so also through the obedience of one man [Jesus, the second Adam] the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19)

In other words just as Adam's sin introduced sin into the human heart, Jesus' obedience throughout his earthly life all the way to his death on the cross, provided the means to banish it.

God was not content to let his creatures or his creation end in destruction. His love is stronger than our sin.

Just because you were born Adam's son or daughter, doesn't mean you have to let sin ruin your life or your eternity.

You can, if you repent and surrender your life to Jesus, the Word, be adopted as a son or daughter of the Father. Through faith in God the Son you can have an eternal relationship with God the Father. Your sins can be forgiven, having been paid for on the cross, and your heart can be cleansed. You can begin a new life with a new hope and a new heart.

You see the point of the Incarnation, the point of Christmas, has been summarized like this:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)

Amen.

UPDATE CONTENTS:
DECK THE HALLS: THANK YOU

CHRISTMAS PAGEANT

CHOIR

PRAYERS FOR EVANGELISM and continued DISCIPLESHIP

STEWARDSHIP REMINDER
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: FAMILY LIFE

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: THE NEXT SERIES
BIBLE STUDIES: CORRECTION

CHRISTMAS WORSHIP SCHEDULE

NEWS

DECK THE HALLS: THANK YOU to everyone who helped put up Christmas decorations. Lots of people turned out to help and the church looks spectacular. Thank you also to everyone who brought food for the covered dish. There was plenty of wonderful food for everyone.

CHRISTMAS PAGEANT : Anne wanted me to remind you that everybody in the pageant should be at the church at 4:00pm on Christmas Eve. Looks like it's going to be a great show.

CHOIR: The choir will not be meeting the week between Christmas and New Years. Enjoy the week with your families!

PRAYERS FOR EVANGELISM and continued DISCIPLESHIP: I'm asking everyone to pray that God might bring many non-believers to the Christmas Eve services Saturday and that he uses the music, readings, sermon, and worship to their hearts to Jesus Christ. Pray also that all believers will be strengthened, encouraged, and nourished for the coming year.

STEWARDSHIP REMINDER: THANK YOU to all who have turned in your pledges. We will be collecting pledge cards all month long and into January. You are welcome to mail them or drop them in the offering plate.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: Since there will only be one service, at 11:00am, on Christmas morning, the Family Life series will continue the following Sunday at the normal time. If you are looking for great stocking stuffers, here are the books upon which I've been basing the course:

Dare to Discipline , by Dr. James Dobson

Standing on the Promises by Douglas Wilson

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: THE NEXT SERIES As I mentioned a few Updates ago, the next series is going to begin the second half of January . This time, we'll be examining the biblical role of the church. What is the church? Is it a building? Is it a group of people? Can it be both? What is it supposed to be and do? The bible answers all of these questions and in it, God provides the mission for every local parish, including Good Shepherd.

The vestry and I encourage everyone to attend this series as through it you will learn and see some of the principles that have been at the core of some of the programs we have established and leadership decisions we have made over the last three years.

BIBLE STUDIES: There is one CORRECTION from last week's note. None of the bible studies will be meeting until after New Year's Day, EXCEPT for the Men's Bible Study and Breakfast group. They elected to meet throughout the season. So, men, see you Friday morning.

I hope you all enjoy this Christmas season with your families and friends. Celebrate, have fun, and keep up your habits of daily bible reading and prayer. :)

Invite your friends to come to church and give praise and thanks to God for sending his Son Jesus Christ into the world on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas morning and then on the following Sunday New Year's Day, the Second Sunday of Christmas!

Bible Studies will resume their normal meeting schedule the week of January 1 st 2006.

CHRISTMAS WORSHIP SCHEDULE: Christmas is on a Sunday this year and there will be church that day, but at a different time so please pay special attention to the schedule below.

Christmas Eve

5:00pm Christmas Eve family service with pageant

10:30pm Christmas Carols

11:00pm Christmas Eve Celebration: communion, sermon, music, lights!

Christmas Day

11:00am Christmas Day Worship: Communion and sermon

Good News for the Week

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.   The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14)

Don't forget to....BRING A FRIEND TO CHURCH!

Daily Schedule for the week of Sunday December 25th, 2005

Monday

Enjoy Christmas

Tuesday
Enjoy Christmas

Wednesday
Enjoy Christmas

Thursday
Enjoy Christmas

Friday

6:30am Men's Breakfast and Bible Study

Saturday

Enjoy Christmas

SUNDAY JANUARY 1st, 2006 CHRISTMAS II

8:00 a.m. Holy Communion II; worship and sermon

9:15 a.m. Christian Education for all Ages

10:30 a.m. Holy Communion II worship, music, sermon

All Bible Studies will resume the week of January 1 st , 2006

God bless you all

 


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