JR. Forasteros - December 15, 2013
Shepherds
Even during the Christmas season, many of us feel far from God. Our journey toward Bethlehem looks remarkably like the shepherds. They were born and raised as God's people, but still considered second-class citizens. They were insiders who felt like outsiders. And at Jesus' birth, God left the Temple and appeared among the Shepherds to announce the king of kings could be found not on a throne, but in a manger. The good news for them - and for us - is that God is not found in Temples and Church buildings, but out among us, in our every day lives!
From Series: "Road to Bethlehem"
Shepherds with their sheep. Three kings bearing gifts. A new mother, her husband and their tiny baby, resting in a manger as a star shines brightly overhead. We've all seen the nativity scene hundreds of times. But that peaceful scene hides adventure, surprise, hurt and hope. Each of those persons gathered at that manger walked a different road to get there. Join us this Advent season as we learn their journeys to the manger. Each person's story is an invitation for us to consider our own paths. What does your Road to Bethlehem look like?
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God’s judgment is a scary thing to consider. Anytime a national tragedy strikes, there’re always people ready to claim it’s God judging us. So when 9/11 happened, Katrina or Sandy. The earthquake in Haiti. Or on a more personal level, we often think of the bad things happening in our lives as God punishing us. So if we get an illness or lose a job or something like that, we wonder, Did I do something wrong? Is God judging me?
And to complicate it more, some who experience those tough times, those personal or national tragedies claim they’re blessings. Some claim losing a job or getting cancer or losing a home was the best thing that ever happened to them, that their judgment was a wake-up call and they wouldn’t trade it for a million bucks.
So which is it? Are tough times blessings or judgments?
According to Amos, judgment is blessing. God sending judgment on us can very well be the best thing to happen to us. It makes sense if you remember that judgment in the biblical world was based in the world of the family, not of the courtroom. When God judges us, it’s correction, restoration. The point of God’s judgment is always to bring about repentance and restoration. So in that sense, God’s judgment is blessing.
But what makes the difference for us – whether we experience hard times in our lives as blessing or curse – has to do with our own character.
The question we want to ask ourselves today is, How am I preparing myself for judgment?
My cousin Tanner is a freshman at Ohio State. A couple of weeks ago, he decided to run a marathon there with a couple of his friends. He’s in ROTC, so he’s in pretty good shape – apparently good enough shape that he decided he didn’t need to train at all for the marathon. Then, as if that weren’t enough, he and his friends agreed to ride their bicycles to the race.
Which means they’d also have to bike home. After running 26.2 miles.
When he told his dad his plan, his dad said, I don’t think that’s such a good idea. Why don’t you let me meet you at the finish line with my truck. I’ll drive you and the bikes home.
My cousin said, No thanks.
You know how this story ends, right? After the race, he couldn’t even walk for at least half an hour. And then he and his friends had to ride their bikes back home. He said it was one of the worst, most painful experiences of his life.
Now, compare that with many of my other friends who’ve run marathons. Sure, it’s hard. Their bodies hurt afterwards. But they consider it a good experience. Hard, yes. Painful, yes. But good. Why? What’s the difference?
Mostly, it’s the way they prepared themselves. It’s how their internal character was prepared for the external circumstances.
That’s not how we think of judgment. We think that judgment is something that happens OUT THERE, not something contingent on IN HERE. But that’s exactly how Amos tells us to think in chapter 7.
