Did you know all the painful subtext written into the story of Jesus’ birth? My guess is you’ve heard some of it, but many sermons and teachings tend to gloss over the pain and merely emphasize the celebration and hope that comes with it. I think this is one of the reasons the ‘Mary Did You Know?’ song by Michael English has been so popular in more recent history. It highlights some of the real world and spiritual realities that can sometimes get missed as we celebrate and reflect throughout the holiday season. (If you’re not familiar, this may be my current favorite version.) It goes:

It goes on in similar fashion, highlighting the immense complexity of Mary’s situation, a young, unwed, expectant mother in a culture steeped in shame and societal expectations well beyond our own. It has caused me to see the ‘no room at the Inn’ portion of the story in new light more recently:

While it is certainly possible simply all the rooms were filled by other travelers, it is just as likely that no one would host an out-of-wedlock couple. They were pariahs, social outcasts that most people would not want to receive or associate with. This was how our Savior came into the world, completely vulnerable, unwelcome and unwanted. Perhaps you’ve never had the misfortune to feel so vulnerable, but if you can imagine a time of being in desperate need and having little or no support to turn to, that is likely what Mary and Joseph would have been feeling. 

When I tore my achilles tendon shortly after college, I had very little money and no medical insurance for what I knew would be over $10,000 in surgery costs. For a brief period I felt completely vulnerable, helpless and alone. (Fortunate for me, my family and social services came to my aid). Can you recall a time when you felt so desperate? 

Jesus came to us in the humblest and most vulnerable fashion. As you enjoy this Christmas season, do well to consider the vulnerable within your vicinity. Think on Mary and Joseph with nowhere to find good shelter and understand how those without means for their basic needs must be feeling at this time. And if you find yourself feeling vulnerable in any area of life, know that your Savior sees you.

Merry Christmas, may you bless and be blessed throughout the holiday season!

There are many sermons and devotions on this passage that ironically embody the contrarian point James is making. Many expositions on this verse take it as a typical ‘sin avoidance’ encouragement passage, which fits conveniently with the Church’s overall centralized focus on sin-avoidance going back to sometime not long after the Scriptures themselves were recorded. There are enough Scriptures on resisting and avoiding sin to support this focus. However, we need to note the opposite and more important side of the ‘committing sin’ coin; the one I think James is actually talking about here: doing good.

Sin-avoidance, of course, isn’t a bad thing, but it definitely comes second to doing good. I would even argue that part of what makes sin sinful is that it’s something that takes us away from the good things we should be doing instead.

If the historical narrative of the Western Church is to be believed, we’re only capable of ‘doing good’ if/when we’ve been able to avoid doing bad. It’s the incredibly persistent old trope that only the spotlessly clean are ready and able to serve the Kingdom. A trope that Jesus died to obliterate and countless heroes of faith (with dubious histories) have proven false. Yet, we as a Church have broadly chosen to focus on sin-avoidance as the primary aim of our teachings.

This is what James combats here in Chapter 4. The ‘sin’ he speaks of is not, as so many expositors have noted, knowing what is right and instead choosing what is wrong. The sin is knowing what good we should be doing and not doing it. It is a sin of inaction. The sin of letting orphans and widows in our locale go hungry. The sin of not making a habit of checking in on the marginalized. The sin of not initiating fellowship with other congregations around us. The sin of not prayerfully giving a first-fruit of some form unto the Lord. The sin of not actively working to reconcile ourselves to the people around us, the creation around us, ourselves, and God (*for more on this see Dr. Clement Wen’s article discussing the four redeemed relationships encompassed by Salvation in Christ.).

So what good do you know you should be doing within your immediate context that is going undone? What lifestyle ministry is losing out to general business, misaligned life priorities, or time-killing holes like too much idle entertainment?

Take a few minutes today to ask God what good thing you’re missing in his plans for you. Whatever it is, don’t take it as a guilt trip, but rather a fresh opportunity to seize the Kingdom God has built into your day.

---

*For some excellent additional reading in this area, I recommend this article (also by Dr. Wen), which is a strong call for us to shed the heavy yoke of a limited or narrow devotional life, for the ‘easy yoke’ Jesus spoke of: Rediscovering an ‘Easy yoke’ Devotional Life.

One of my favorite times at school was Field Day. It was serious business for me as an athletic kid, but at the end of the day, when all the competing was done, we all sat down together and enjoyed a juice box. As we get older, it can be all too easy to skip this important part of life.

In general, we tend to frame life in terms of hard, relentless races or long, arduous marathons- while there is much to appreciate about both racing and marathoning phases of life, we're intended for something much more productive to the human experience: COMMUNITY.

Without community and fellowship with friends and neighbors there is nothing left for us but an ever out-of-reach finish line. So take a break from your racing this week and instead take some time to experience the best of what life has to offer.

Who are your go-to friends? What is your go-to ‘juice box’?

If you’re struggling to find consistent vibrant Christian community, we want to hear from you. A big part of the Project Arctos mission is to awaken us all to a more vibrant Christian experience, which is difficult to achieve without fellowship. Please take a moment to prayerfully engage this quick survey (2-min). It is anonymous and will help guide us as we develop new Christian resources:

Finding spaces for rest and community are important for vibrant Christian living. Throughout Scripture God repeatedly points us back to Him for revitalization and rest:

This is what the Lord says:

“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,

Where the good way is, and walk in it; Then you will find a resting place for your souls.”

Jeremiah 6:16

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…”

Isaiah 30:15

Take a few minutes today to reflect on your present life-rhythm. Are you racing too much? Stuck on a seemingly relentless marathon? What might God be showing you to be a healthier, more vibrant part of your rhythm?

Photo by Memento Media on Unsplash

So often in Scripture it is too easy to remove ourselves from the condemnation of the teaching. If you read through the Gospels and only ever see the Pharisees as the 'villains' you could never possibly identify with, you may not be carrying the most open and honest posture into your reading.

Often Scripture hits hard like this because we need it. It's easy to fall into the natural grooves of this world- well-worn paths that seem socially right and familiar, but God always seems to be bumping us out of these ruts in order to set us on more righteous and fruitful paths.

Hebrews 5:11-14 is one of those passages for me, specifically in regards to our Sunday worship gatherings. There is so much good in our Sunday gatherings, but it does feel at times that we've harbored some unhealthy ruts and rhythms in our worship programming. For example, how many in your congregation would you consider to be 'teachers' or capable of teaching the Word in a serious manner?

Hopefully, it's many, but training up teachers and doers of the Word doesn't seem to be the priority. In fact, our Sunday worship rhythms seem too closely aligned with the ethos of the pre-Reformation Church, where under-educated parishioners relied heavily on the practice and interpretation set forth by the trained few priests and ministers. The main difference, and to our credit today, is we encourage and train our people to read the Scriptures for themselves. Where we're falling short, though, is in encouraging and providing opportunities for Christians to put the Scripture's teachings into regular practice. Instead of forging out into the world together and modeling the Sunday messages, we come right back to the pews to hear the next message without fully digesting or putting to practice the first.

If we're not careful, a routine Sunday sermon every week can become a very well established earthly rut for our parishioners. One that keeps them sipping down milk each week, but not giving them enough spiritual energy and practice to put it to miraculous use in the slice of the world God's given them. Our typical answer to this, unfortunately, is usually more education- bigger, better, more theologically dense milk (usually in the form of a class, retreat speaker, or book study). But if we read the author of Hebrews here carefully, information intake isn't the problem, it's practice. It's taking the cosmic principals handed down through Scripture and putting them to practice together in our lives.

So take a moment with God today to consider whether you're getting the well-rounded Spiritual nourishment you should be. Are you active in forging Godly paths in your life, or are there some worldly ruts you (and/or your church) have fallen into?

And for your own gathering, what was it that helped bring you to active spiritual maturity? What can you do to help others around you avoid falling into seemingly harmless ruts, such as 'sermon milking' or 'study hopping' without fully growing up into the cosmically empowered Christians God is calling them to be?