Nunc Dimittis 2008

Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace;

Because my eyes have seen thy salvation,

Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples:

A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

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So, here we are at the end of another year. We stand at the edge of a new year that promises to be exciting, challenging and dangerous in many ways. I am always amazed at some of the unexpected places that I find myself to have been when I look back over the last 364 days. There could not have possibly been as many unexpected places as there was this year. How could you even begin to know what adventure and mystery God will reveal in the coming year? He does that for a reason, you know. Because, many times, if we knew what was in store, we surely would do something to mess it up. I cannot possibly begin to explain anything about this year and how amazing and unpredictable it was. But I do know one thing about this year and it is this: Jesus meets us in unexpected places, in unexpected ways and is plainly calling us to act in unimaginable ways to love as He did. However many times we are busy doing stuff having convinced ourselves that is what we are supposed to be doing. And so Jesus calls us sometimes with some really big challenges and stretches us out in ways we could never imagine. We sometimes doubt our ability to measure up to the task and wonder why we have been chosen. As I have said many times, the ability of ordinary people to do extraordinary things when empowered by God is truly mind boggling. All through the entirety of the Bible, God repeatedly issued calls to ordinary and sometimes reluctant people to become leaders. Why? Simply, this is what really glorifies God and is a powerful witness to redemption and transformation of lives only half lived. As we contemplate the possibilities of the coming year and review the last, certain truths reveal themselves. We serve a good and loving King and are living in a kingdom and that places us in a unique position to live in ways we cannot plan looking at a calendar. Our obedience to the call that God has placed on our lives will take us in many unexpected directions this coming year. Yes, God calls us to seemingly challenging and terrifying tasks and sometimes to unexpected and unanticipated physical places but He is ALWAYS there. Sometimes our desire for safe, mundane and normal can rob us and others of some amazing and powerful blessings. We are called to live outside what is normal and safe. We are called to be disciples and agents of the kingdom of God and that simply means we carry and spread the message everywhere we go and in everything we do. We are called to engage the world in new and unexpected ways whether on bicycles or on our jobs. We are called as citizens of a kingdom to go beyond simple thoughts and prayers. We are called to go out rather than reach out. The challenge for this coming year is to hear how God is calling us to act within our communities both individual and global. How will this be done? A simple act of compassion is a place to begin or activist campaigns like BLOOD:WATER MISSION who is bringing hope to villages in sub Saharan Africa. Wherever we find ourselves on our journeys this coming year look in the unexpected places for unexpected opportunities to change lives and there you will find the unexpected Jesus calling…

Ho, HO, Whoa...

“So this is Christmas
and what have you done
another year over
and a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young…”
-John Lennon
So, a striking reminder came to me today, while watching Jentzen Franklin, of what Christmas really is all about. It is a joyous season of giving but sadly many of us are pursuing the wrong kind of giving and we become focused to the point of obsession on giving the perfect gift. It is widely reported that the majority of holiday stress and depression is based on buying and giving holiday gifts. I am no different from many others who want to give things instead of do things. But, I am really trying to do better about this. I am learning to be intentional and thoughtful instead of irrational and impulsive. This is where the stores try to use their magical power to appeal to our emotions and create a false sense of the joy of giving. For many, there is no joy because we worry needlessly about THE right gift. We may not even be able to afford a gift, or are limited in the amount of gifts we can buy. I am reminded of “The Little Drummer Boy” when he said “I have no gift to bring that’s fit to give the King”. It is only natural that we want to give good and fitting gifts to those we love. Jesus was no different and freely gave gifts that were not even asked for. In Luke 11:11-13, Jesus said, “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Maybe the bigger question to ask is what gifts will I be giving to Him this year? What gift can I bring? What do I have to offer? Maybe we don’t because we feel our gift is so insignificant and not fit for the King, like the little drummer boy. So he used what he had and played the drum. And then what happened? ”then He smiled at me”. So, I really pondered, and have been this entire holiday season, this idea of how I can give gifts from the heart and not necessarily from the wallet? I really believe that this is a big lesson that God is revealing to me this Christmas. So often I have caught myself thinking about and focused on the gifts that I cannot give as opposed to the ones I can give. We need to turn this around. I think this is at the core of what provokes many of us to reject the commercial aspects of Christmas. As a result of this longing for an authentic Christmas, the ADVENT CONSPIRACY was born. This challenges us in many ways to rethink our entire notion of what gifts lay within us and not buying something external to us to appease our anxiety and fear. This heartfelt desire causes us to be much more thoughtful and purposeful about the recipient instead of mindlessly checking them off of the “list”. One thing about thinking about Christmas in this way, it makes you very aware of the fact that life isn’t about things…it’s about relationships. And, I have been blessed with some amazing relationships this year. You see, I never really was a relationship guy and certainly didn’t see the necessity of relationships with anyone other than my God and my immediate family. But something changed this summer. ME. Yep, that’s right God turned me inside out changed me in a powerful way and showed me some stuff about relationships. And, quite shockingly to me, I came to love this crazy, funny, awe inspiring and Jesus loving bunch of “ordinary people doing extraordinary things” riding our bikes across the US. The gifts we received and gifts we gave are really too numerous to count. Gifts came in the most unexpected ways and from the most unexpected people. How could you ever begin to try to give back what you have been given? This is the question I have wrestled with a lot, especially at Christmas, the “giving season”. So, In lieu of a gift card…uggh, or a smartly wrapped present, I’ll just give to everyone this year what I can give the best. I will give the gifts of love, faith and courage. This is what I have been given in such abundance, many times by people I didn’t even know. I am required to give some back because I am commanded by Jesus to do so and this is the gospel that’s real and life changing and transforming. So, my one desire for you this Christmas is that I could neatly wrap those three things, love, faith, and courage, and put them secretly under your Christmas tree that’s what you would find with a cute little gift tag that said “ all my love, Iron Mike”…

Christmas 2008...

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.... And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.'— (Luke 2: 8-10-11.)

As the song says, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year… ” . Or is it really? The Christmas season is a paradox and each year we don’t get any closer to the understanding of this than the year before. Or do we? I find myself, many times, being torn between the crass materialism and consumption mentality, that plagues the holiday season, and wanting something “different” this year. I think the situation that many of us find ourselves in currently with the economy reeling and on virtual life support from the government demonstrates the necessity to just stop this pursuit of the “right present” at the right price. I am completely disgusted by the masses of people who have turned the day after Thanksgiving shopping experience into a chaotic life threatening full contact sporting event. Sadly, someone got killed this year while just doing their job. This really returns us to our most primal hunting, gathering and killing roots. I can just imagine a proud shopper boasting on Christmas morning, “You like it? I had to kill for it…” WOW. Too extreme?? Is that too harsh? What have we become this season? We talk out of two sides of our mouth. We say we know the “reason for the season”. So, if we really do then why don’t we act like it? Seriously, it is time to just say ENOUGH.

As Shane Claiborne says, “Enough to the myth that happiness must be purchased. Enough to an economy that is awarding CEOs salaries 500 times that of their workers and still manages to seduce people in poverty and wealth alike to give more money to these predatorial corporations. Enough to the American dream that now consumes over 40 percent of the world’s stuff with less than 6 percent of the world’s resources. Enough to a dream that would need four more planets if the world pursued it … a dream the world cannot afford. Enough to the advice of government leaders who fearfully order us to “just keep shopping” after tragedies like September 11 and November 28. ENOUGH. Maybe God has another dream”.

You know what, I believe He does. I believe there is a better way and it is called the Advent Conspiracy. A couple of years ago, people who had enough of this madness, from four churches, got together and did something totally radical. They changed their spending habits at Christmas, shunned the spending mania, and gave presence instead of presents—the way Christ modeled for us through his gift of himself. They took the money they saved—nearly half of a million dollars—and gave it to Living Water International so that desperate communities could have the gift of clean water. Families from those churches are still telling stories of how Christ returned to their Christmas. Communities were renewed. Lives were changed. It was a Christmas to remember. Last year, 1,000 churches banded together for Advent Conspiracy 2007. Three million dollars were given to the neediest people in our neighborhoods and in communities across the globe. Simply, this Christmas the idea is to worship fully, spend less, give more and love all. You too can be a conspirator. I love these words from author Alex Gordon, “There is no Santa Claus, no, there is something better. Every Christmas Eve a Great Spirit comes to this world and flies around it and scatters energy over the earth, and wherever that energy falls, like fairy-dust, it changes despair to hope, tears to joy, want to abundance, and when it touches a hard heart, it seeks to melt it, and when it touches a hateful soul, it seeks to change it, just like the spirits tried to change Ebenezer Scrooge. If you listen carefully, just before mid-night on Christmas Eve, you may hear this Spirit, and you will be blessed. But this Spirit is tired, and the times of its coming are few now. Time is of the essence”. Of course, you and I know what that that “Great Spirit “is. It is the Spirit of the Lord God that has come in this season to bring hope and tidings of great joy. It is this same spirit that in Isaiah 61:1 it says,“ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;” So, let’s open some prisons instead of presents, let’s bring good tidings of the redemptive and restorative power of love to someone broken and lost and let’s give presence, NOT presents, unlike any Christmas ever before. And maybe, just maybe the real Christmas will come back. Merry Christmas, y’all.