Christmas Isn't Over!

When I was a kid, I remember our Christmas decorations were always put away just a few days after Christmas. My mother’s birthday is December 28th and it has always been her wish that she not celebrate her day under the lights of Christmas. Mama is not anti-Christmas or anti-Jesus or any thing like that, she simply wants to prevent her birthday from becoming an after thought to the biggest holiday of the year. While her logic is sound, I remember being so disappointed as a kid when I would wake up to a seemingly empty house and reminded that after a six-week build up, Christmas was over.

Now that I am married, I am so happy that I have a wife with a birthday in the middle of summer who loves Christmas and the decorations as much as I do. Christmas was five days ago and we have continued to watch our favorite holiday movies, listen to the music, and enjoy our decorations. This typically goes on in our home until a few days after New Years at which point we reluctantly pack up and wait for next year. Just last night, Allison asked if it would be weird to keep some of the decorations up through winter and after a little thought, I said no.

The corporate consumerism that has become our favorite holiday begins to call us as early as September to get into their definition of the Christmas spirit. This usually consists of our fill of shopping, big crowds, and tons of stress. We are met with sales, jolly music, and sights that are simply irresistible and only add to our excitement as we look forward to December 25th. In all of this, Christmas comes, and simply ends. Every year I stay up until midnight on Christmas day and try to soak up every last bit of Christmas I possibly can by watching movies and listening to music. The second the clock strikes 12am, the movies and music stop and Christmas is over. But its not!

Christmas ends on December 26th for corporate America and those who subscribe to this style of celebrating because at that point, there is no longer anything in it for them. The money has been spent, the presents are opened, its time to stop. But for those of us who truly understand the meaning of the day, Christmas didn’t end at midnight; it was just beginning!

Christ has come, advent is over, the savior is here, let’s celebrate! Why don’t we let the Christmas music play just a bit longer and help remind a world that has forgotten of the hope we have because of the incarnation. Let all the Christmas movies continue to remind us of true love and good will to men. Keep your decorations for just a few more days at let the lights guide you into a better understand of the light of the world. Keep celebrating.

Even as I look at the liturgical calendar I am reminded that historically, Christmas is celebrated until the first Sunday of the New Year, which is appropriately called The 2nd Sunday of Christmas. Even as late as January 6th, the Epiphany of Our Lord gives us reason to continue celebrating as it is attributed to the visitation of the wise men so we should at least leave our nativity scenes on our mantles.

I say all of this not because I am a redneck and too lazy to take down our lights and tree and not just because I am overly sentimental; I just don’t want to see us buy into the corporate lie that Christmas is over. As Christians, our celebration should have only just begun.

In closing, I’m not saying leave your decorations up all year. I too, probably after a few weeks will give in and tell Allison its time to pack up. I am a classy guy and am appalled of Christmas trees in February, which just happens to be the month of my birthday. So while I do not say leave your stuff up all year, maybe wait just a bit longer before moving on this year. Let the truth of the holiday sink it just a little more. Be silly and listen to Christmas music a few days into January. Watch that favorite movie one more time. Remember that Christ has come, and is here, and we can celebrate Christmas in our hearts throughout the year.

I think this great man said it best…

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.” - Ebenezer Scrooge


Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Merry 2nd Sunday of Christmas!


ACG

Advent 4 Animals

This week I have struggled to find the words needed to conclude my writings on the Advent season as I had originally hoped for a triumphal climax that paints the perfect picture of Christ’s coming. I think this struggle has been due to the fact that, as least at the time, there wasn’t really anything triumphal about Christ’s entrance into this world. The King of Kings spent his first night on this earth in an unsanitary manger among dirty filthy animals. Doesn’t exactly shout “prepare ye the way of the Lord” now does it? I thought then that it might be appropriate on this last week of advent, with Christmas only three days away, to hear a message from those who were present at Jesus’ birth; the animals. The following is the best Christmas message I think I have ever heard, and it came from animals only yesterday.

About a foot of snow blanketed Winston-Salem, North Carolina and its surrounding areas this past weekend taking me closer than I have ever been to a white Christmas. Unlike what I am used to back home in Atlanta, salt and plow trucks were immediately on the scene clearing the roads to maintain a steady traffic flow. The snow didn’t keep us from our routines; it just slowed us down a little and gave us a chance to think. Although I am on break from my studies, I have still ventured to campus every morning to check my mailbox and pick up a copy of the New York Times. Yesterday, as I walked under the archway at Reynolda Hall and directed my movement towards Wait Chapel, I noticed that the campus wasn’t as empty as I had expected. Sure, classes are over, students are all home for the holidays, but there was a life happening at Wake Forest despite the break and the foot of snow.

A chipmunk scurried across the path in front of me, squirrels were out gathering nuts, and I saw the reddest of cardinals dancing as he seemed to decorate his nest. I was amazed because I became immediately aware of the fact that throughout the school year, as I am focused on my own stressful world filled with chaos, there is yet another world literally under my nose that operates in perfect harmony. Yesterday, as I watched these woodland creatures as they went about their respective winter tasks, I felt more in the Christmas spirit than I think I ever have. It was as if these animals knew more than I that Christmas was only a few days away, and they were preparing for the coming of our Lord. As I watched the animals simply living their lives as they were designed, I could have sworn I heard them proclaim “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

And that is the best Christmas message I think I have ever heard. Those animals, not too much unlike the animals that might have been present at Jesus’ birth, were preparing for Christmas, and glorifying their heavenly father simply by doing what they were created to do. Instantly, I thought to myself that this just might be the reason Jesus came after all: to free us and allow us to become ourselves as we were created so that we could truly worship and glorify God.

I am no Saint Francis, but this Christmas I am reminded of the words of Saint Irenaeus who declared, “the glory of God is a heart fully alive.” Christ has made us alive, and provided us the freedom to be ourselves; this is what we celebrate at Christmas.

In closing, and with Christmas only days away, I hope we will allow Christ to lead us to become the people we want to become. I hope we will chose to lives of passion and happiness. I hope we will all be as we were made, proclaiming now until we see Jesus face-to-face “Glory to God in the highest.” The animals do…


-Alex

A New Entourage: Advent Week 3

It was just another night. For these men however, unlike the shepherds mentioned in my previous post, this was just another night in the comfort of their lavish royal tower or cozy observatory. They were the educated, well respected, and according to some early traditions even royal men who interpreted through the presences of a star that something great and out of the ordinary was about to take place.

Here it seems appropriate to take a step back and ask whom exactly these guys were. In Matthew 2, they are called “wise men from the East” which would indicate that they were perhaps astrologers, scholarly and religious scientist who were believed to be able to make futuristic predictions based on the stars. Some early Christian traditions claim that these “wise men” were actually kings, which would be in keeping with the prophecies that declared the messiah would be worshiped by kings (see Isaiah 60:3, Psalm 72:10, and Psalm 68:29). Regardless of who these guys were, we can rest assured that they were “merry gentlemen” and men of high society who were thought very highly of in their ancient culture. Actually, the “wise men” possessed pretty much the opposite social position of the shepherds who were the unclean and unwanted outcasts. Everyone liked these wise men or kings, and they knew it.

So before we look at the account found in Matthew, lets paint this picture. The wise men, or kings—we’ll just call them Maji, were a big deal. These guys were accustomed to being praised by others, looked up to for their knowledge, and lived lives of privilege. It really doesn’t matter if they were or were not kings because either way the Maji would have had a place in the royal courts throughout the known world and when they traveled, it would have been with their own entourage of supporters and protectors supplying them with countless words of affirmation. Imagine that then as we look to the book of Matthew. These guys are a big deal, and they roll deep.

“When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (Matthew 2:9-11 NRSV).

What I love about this story is the immediate transformation that seems to have come over the Maji when they met Jesus. Again, these guys were a big deal, and the entourage they brought along with them would be the first to say so. While they were typically on the receiving end of praise and adoration, all this changed at the presence of Jesus as Matthew tells us they “knelt down and paid him homage.” In this moment, the Maji forgot all about their own identities, their social standing, or their entourage, and they instantly became the entourage of Jesus. They laid all of their worth on him, and found something bigger.

We really don’t know what happened to the Maji. Luke tells us the shepherds, upon leaving the baby Jesus, “returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen” (Luke 2:20). While we’re not sure, I think we can probably say the same about the Maji. Both groups, coming from two completely different backgrounds, experienced the same thing at the manger. Some were rich and respected while the others were poor and unwanted. Both exchanged their identities at the manger for that of Jesus’. It seems from that point on, nothing else mattered.

I think a lot of us can relate to the stories of the Maji and the shepherds. Some of us come from great backgrounds and life for us has been a piece of cake. For others, like the shepherds, life seems to have dealt you a bad hand. The good news of the gospel is this: when we encounter the living God through Jesus, all things are made new. Our lives are literally exchanged for his, and his past becomes our past and his future is ours too. We come to the manger with our own entourage, perhaps good or bad. At Christmas, the season we celebrate the birth of Christ, we rejoice for he has taken our life and entourage, and replaced it with his own. Glory to God in the Highest!



“Arise, shine; for your light has come,
And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
Nations shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your dawn.” – Isaiah 60:1-3

“I have been crucified with Christ.
My ego is no longer central.
It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you.
Or have your good opinion.
And I am no longer driven to impress God.
Christ lives in me.” – Galatians 2:20-21, The Message


ACG

For All People: The Second Week of Advent 2009

It was just another day. They simply got up, perhaps some without sleeping at all, and tended their flock. It was, without a doubt, just another day.

But I can’t help but wonder about that night. Maybe the air was just a bit fresher as the shepherds kept watch. Perhaps the sky was a little clearer, with more stars in the sky that boasted a bright, full winters moon. What if it was that night,, as they went about their daily tasks, they were, for the first time, content, their bones did not hurt, and their muscles were not sore? What if this night was so ordinary, it was different?

This night was different indeed, and while the following events would prove this fact, it was just another night in the fields, a silent night, and all was well.

It wasn’t easy to be a shepherd in the 1st century, and as someone that grew up surrounded by cow pastures, I know that line of work hasn’t gotten any easier. For those living 2000 years ago however, your line of work, what you touched, and how you spent your time had a huge effect on how you were seen in the community. Shepherds were considered unclean. They spent most of their time around animals, and many scholars hold that they were not even allowed to sleep inside the protection of the city walls. Needless to say, this wasn’t an easy life. If you were considered unclean by a community in 1st century Palestine, this meant that you were also religiously, and ritually unclean which would have probably kept these shepherds from any kind of active life around the Temple and thus unable to follow all of their Jewish law.

We can imagine how they must have felt about themselves. They were, in the truest since of the word, outcasts. How might this understanding of their own identities affect the way these shepherds thought about God? I mean, if they were unclean, and unwanted by men, why would the perfect God of the covenant want anything to do with them? In the minds of these shepherds, they were unwanted and left out by both men and God. Again, this was just another typical day, or was it?

“In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for ALL the people: to YOU is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom he favors’” (Luke 2:8-14 NRSV).

We all know what happened next. They immediately departed for the city of David, Bethlehem, just as the angels had told them. What must have been going through their minds at this point? Think about it, they were shepherds, unclean, and unwanted outcasts. If what they angels said were true, everything they once thought of themselves must be wrong. Even more important, if this good news was for all people, and a savior had actually been born to them, then perhaps the feelings that they once thought God had for them were wrong as well.

As modern readers, we have the privilege of history for we know what happened. The angels were right, there was a savior, and he was for all people. This savior, Jesus, had come, to save those from oppression and even to save their oppressors. He came to save the lowest shepherd and the highest king. He came to be all things to all people, to meet them where they were, and redeem even the darkest, most ordinary night.

I’m not sure where you are as we move into the middle of this second week of advent. Maybe you feel a bit unwanted, or even unclean and believe that God overlooked you. Perhaps your misery is simply the ordinariness of the everyday life in which you live. Regardless of where you are, or where you have been, today, in the city of David, a savior is born to you, his law is love, and his gospel is peace for all people, even you. He has come to make all things new.



“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” – Matthew 11:28-30, The Message

It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
When all was calm and all was bright,
For this, truly, would be, a silent night.


ACG

The First Week Of Advent 2009

I remember when I first learned of the season of Advent, I thought it was a rather pointless observance. I was 17, a senior in high school, working in a Christian bookstore and was amaze at the sudden emergence of Advent calendars throughout our shop. Growing up in a Protestant community that had almost completely removed itself from the liturgical calendar, the need to “expectantly await the arrival of the Messiah” struck me as dimwitted and perhaps even a bit heretical. I would remind my fellow workers that Jesus had already come, dwelled in out hearts, and the thought that we must wait for his first coming was wrong for he was already here.

When I got to college, I was mentored by a man who came from a much more liturgical tradition and his words of wisdom blended with my own study of the Church and I began to have a change of heart about Advent as well as the liturgical calendar. Since yesterday marked the beginning of Advent, I thought it would be appropriate to share a bit about what this season has come to mean to me along with a what I hope will be an encouraging note.

Advent - the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.

We all know the story. Mary, a virgin, engaged to a faithful man named Joseph, is visited by an angel and told that she is to give birth to the son God. This son is to be named Jesus, “for He will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21) and he will be called “Immanuel, God with us” (1:23).

For those of us raised in Christian homes, we have been taught our whole lives that our sins are forgiven, and that God is always with us. For those living in 1st century Palestine, this was something new. If the message given to Mary were true, this meant that every aspect of life was about to change. Gone would be the bondage to keep the Law and the days of animal and personal sacrifice. The need for temples made by men would be drastically changed along with the understanding of an individual’s identity. If Jesus truly was the Son of God, really could take away all sin, and even dwelt among men, everything would change.

I think that this is the heart of Advent that I have come to love this time of year. Yes, maybe I was right all those years ago that Jesus had already come and that he was already here. While perhaps Advent simply serves as a reminder to this truth, I think all of us might still say that there are areas of our lives that we wish would be completely changed. The economy is still in the gutter, and so are out morals, as according to Britney, “living in sin is the new thing.” What else? Are there places in your life right now where you desperately wish Jesus, the Messiah, would come and completely change? Finances? Marriage? Work? Everything?

I think the answer to all of these questions is yes. Jesus has come, we have been redeemed, set free, and his very presence dwells in us. He has come, and is still here. At the same time, life goes on around us, and we get caught up in it. I know several people who have no idea how they will financially make it through the holidays, others that are facing divorce and many more that hate their jobs.

This Advent season, we need a reminder that God is with us, and is still in the business of changing everything. Get excited! He has come, and is coming, closer, and closer, and closer.


O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel

“For nothing will be impossible with God” - Gabriel to Mary (Luke 1:37)

“Grace changes everything” - Josh Bayne


grace and peace,


ACG

The Lost Coin

So I have this routine. Every morning, I wake up, put on my robe and slippers, and pour a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal. I then proceed to spend the next 15 minutes or so watching Headline News with Robin Meade who if I may say is not at all bad to look at as she welcomes me to her show with her famous line “morning sunshine.” It’s a good routine and I’m happy.

Two times this week I have heard the same reporter sharing news from Washington that apparently the recession that has recently plagued the American economy has technically ended. Now this is great news, so please do not take my next words as overly cynical, however, for most of us, if not all of us, times are still pretty tough. I was reminded of this just the other day when I heard someone making a note of all the “rescue” themed worship songs that have come out in the past few months; times are hard, and we desperately need to be rescued.

One day this week, shortly after I learned that the recession had ended, I stumbled onto one of Jesus’ parables and saw it in a way that I never had before. In Luke 15, Jesus tells a small crowd a story about a woman who had ten silver coins and lost one of them. Immediately, I thought about how I might feel today if I had lost any amount of money, regardless of how small. I would imagine that we would all do exactly what Jesus says this woman did, “light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she found it” (Luke 15:8 NRSV). Once the woman found her lost coin, Jesus tells us that she called out into the town inviting everyone to come and rejoice with her for finding her what she had lost. Jesus tells his group, that the same happens in heaven when one comes to God.

This story struck me this week because it seems so translatable to our economic situations today. If we lost something that provided for our lively hood, we would not rest until we had found it. Immediately I heard the Holy Spirit calling out through the words of Jesus that we are the lively hoods of God. Our heavenly Father loves us so much that when one of us are lost, or confused, or not living up to our full potential, the economy of heaven suffers. At this point, God, in his unquenchable love for us begins a thorough rescue and pursuit of us until we are united again with him.

This parable is uttered in almost the same breath as that of the lost sheep, which growing going to Sunday school was always used to reveal the heart of God for his flock. But for now, the idea that God needs us as his coin in which he accomplishes his work in this world reveals just how important we are to Him.

So today, are you lost? Confused? Not living up to your fullest potentials? Trust in the One who loves you so much that He has budgeted his entire kingdom on your worth and will not more forward until your path is found in Him.



“He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
Yeah, He loves us.” -John Mark Mcmillan

“Rejoice with Me, for I have found the coin that I had lost” (Luke 15:9) –Abba, Father, God


ACG

A of M on Loyalty

Good words from one of my favorite blogs, The Art of Manliness on what it means to be loyal. How do you think we could apply some of these ideas to how we do Church, raise leaders, or communicate our visions, values and models?

Futures: What's Next?

First, allow me to be perfectly clear. I am Atlanta. I was born just outside the city and have been the forth generation to live on my family’s land. I simply cannot put into words the love and devotion I have for my hometown and the entire State of Georgia. I truly believe that I have been blessed to live in the greatest city of the greatest state in the union. There is no place like home.

Pride for my family’s long history in the Atlanta area has placed a desire in me to never leave. In a way, I want to wake up everyday and work the land just like those who have gone before me and spend my evenings roaming Peachtree Street. These feelings however are at a crossroad with a passion to live somewhere else and experience other points of view. While I am one of those who can truly claim to have a heart for Atlanta and Georgia, I know that I will never have anything to offer my home if all I know is Atlanta and Georgia. I must let this passion for travel and learning lead me to new experiences that will provide me with the toolbox to return to Atlanta as a leader that can bring innovative change. For this reason, I have made a difficult decision.

In the fall of 2009, Allison and I will be moving to Winston-Salem, NC so I can attend graduate school at Wake Forest University. I have chosen Wake because I feel that it will provide me with a theological education that will both comfort and challenge my own. I also feel that Wake will give me opportunities for domestic and international travel and will allow the chance to study theology in the academic context of a university and the various disciplines I long to see blended with theology.

If you know anything about me, you know that I am passionate about awakening people to the grace of God through Jesus Christ and I believe that this awakening happens at life’s most complex intersections, those between the secular and spiritual, church and state, politics and business, literature and theology. After much thought and prayer, I feel that Wake Forest will be the best place for me to explore these intersections.

President Emeritus Father Hesburgh of The University of Notre Dame once said that “the university is where the Church does its thinking.” I pray that my time at Wake Forest is just that. I see this as a chance to engage the academic and Church community and return to something that has not existed in hundreds of years: the church as an inspiration to the university, and the university an inspiration to the church. We’re all in this together!

Please know that this move will no be easy for me and Allison and I will need your prayers and support. I love my home more than anyone will ever understand. I love the humid summer nights and the sun as it sets over the fields. I love Atlanta in the winter and watching the braves in October. I know however that this move is needed for many reasons and pray that God uses to transform my own life and through time Atlanta as well. I pray that He leads me back to this place.

Alpha Mu Forem!

Billy Graham and The World's Oldest Man

Many of you might be surprised to know that Billy Graham actually is not the world’s oldest man…maybe the world’s oldest evangelist…wait no…Oral Roberts was born in January of 1918 and Graham in November of the same year. Crazy, what was it about 1918? Hopefully another inspired year of the last century will turn out to be 1986.

Anyways…My grandmother is a huge Billy Graham fan. Tonight, at her house, I noticed two articles from Graham hanging on her refrigerator door. Now I must confess that I did not read the articles however the very titles struck me in a unique way…Crazy how God does that.

Article 1: Only Christ Can Open the Doors to Heaven

No real news there. For those of us inside of Christian culture, the understanding of Jesus as the only way to an eternal heaven is no shocker. What is a shocker is how we consider this eternal heaven as something in the future. To be eternal is to be timeless. If something is out of time there can be no beginning nor ending. What’s crazy is that this is exactly what Christ has already invited us to experience. When we accept his life as our own, we also accept his history, which is eternal, having no beginning or end. The key then to mastering our little piece of heaven on earth is not our job, our accomplishments, our education, our spouse or leadership abilities but Christ. Only he can open the doors to heaven both today and tomorrow.

With that said…

Article 2: God Cares How We Use Our Time

This was like a slap in the face. I can be really lazy. In my current stage of life, I spend more time talking about and planning for what I’m going to do that I never really seem to do anything. This week I read a BBC article about the world’s oldest man, the UK’s Henry Allingham, 113. 113 years old…seriously? Here are a few of his stats: His life has touched 3 centuries, been ruled by 6 monarchs and has seen 5 generations past his own all in addition to being a WWI survivor.. I began to think about Mr. Allingham’s extraordinary life and wondered what I could accomplish in 113 years. I know it is a popular philosophy to live life like you are dying but what if you actually lived until you were 113. For some, this might allow for some extra years of college however what if someone spent 113 perfecting his or her craft. Think of the wealth of knowledge you could leave to well…five generations! Maybe, if only for a day, lets dream about what we could accomplish if we all had 113 years and perhaps even begin to strive for that goal.

Live long and prosper...

i'm alive part 2: a new beginning

I just reread my last post from 11.23.2009. Looking back it seems almost prophetic as exactly two months after the post, my wife Allison and I were in a terrible car accident that took the life of the young intoxicated driver that struck us. Although I was reminded of my life that January morning, I was also left feeling dead for many months to come. This pattern has continued until recently where I now find myself facing new possibilities, new inspirations, and even the chance at a new life. While I have failed to maintain several blogs, my mind finds itself flushed with words and I feel the need to allow them to overflow into this blog. Perhaps this will be what motivates me to finally begin that successful blog everyone is urging me to write. I also know that there is a chance that I will like a bottle-rocket launch in a stroke of brilliance only to come to a quick and abrupt stop. There is also a very good chance that I will wake up tomorrow having lost my inspiration in my dreams and wait another 6 months to acknowledge the blogging world. Regardless of the future, this is my part 2 and my chance of a new beginning. We'll call this one atlanta theologica.