Pastors' Blog

Poor Europe—“white Christmas”—bad timing. The wintery blast that has piled a mound of snow across Europe the past few days might have started out a “Christmas winter wonderland.” But the only wonder left now is how to untangle this perfect storm of meteorological and technological gridlock that has turned the continent’s major airports into bed and breakfasts, minus the bed and the breakfast. Nobody’s humming “White Christmas” anymore (especially since that Irving Berlin composition is a distinctly American tradition). No wonder the mayor is so uptight! “Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, appeared frustrated that the winter weather could completely snarl air travel through Heathrow, where only a ‘handful’ of flights were landing and taking off on Monday, according to a spokeswoman. ‘It can’t be beyond the wit of man surely to find the shovels, the diggers, the snowplows or whatever it takes to clear the snow out from under the planes, to get the planes moving and to have more than one runway going,’ Mr. Johnson said, according to the Associated Press." From the New York Times.” 

“It can’t be beyond the wit of man.” Well put, Lord Mayor. But then again some Christmas realities are utterly beyond our human ken, are they not? There was no snowfall that autumn night over Bethlehem. Just an over-crowded inn, filled to its rafters with out-of-towners for the Roman tax census. Shepherds with their flocks and camp fires dotted the midnight hillsides surrounding the village (evidence enough that the Holy Night came in autumn, not in winter). Suddenly from out of nowhere in the darkness a celestial being materialized in an explosion of glory before the stricken shepherds. “ . . . and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, 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, goodwill toward men!’” (Luke 2:10-14)

Wide-eyed and dumb with fear, that band of watchers had gazed upon “the brightest picture ever beheld by human eyes” (The Desire of Ages 48). How long did it take to find voice and sight in the dark again? However long, they abandoned flocks, raced to the sleepy village, located the backyard cave-stable with the designated feeding trough, and out-of-breath stumbled into the presence of God in the still glistening Newborn.

“It can’t be beyond the wit of man.” But in this case it truly is. Far beyond our paltry finitude, no matter how long we brood over that manger scene.  “Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, O earth!” (p 49)  No wonder the compelling human response to the God who tiptoed into town that night is to worship him.

"12 Daze of Christma$”—that’s how the Boston Herald headlined the story this week of PNC Wealth Management’s annual analysis of the beloved Christmas song. You know the one: “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree.” Two turtle doves, three French hens, four calling birds, five golden rings . . . all the way up to “twelve drummers drumming.” Our friends at PNC (BTW, that’s not PMC, our congregation) Wealth Management—who in managing your wealth this year, apparently had time to spare—calculated how much it would cost you to give your “true love” the 364 gifts in the song. “The total cost for all 364 gifts mentioned in the popular yule time tune skyrocketed 10.8 percent [thanks to climbing gold prices] to more than $96,000.” That’s $96,824, to be exact! (http://news.bostonherald.com/entertainment/lifestyle/...)

What shall we say about a culture that names the Friday after Thanksgiving—the Friday this year that found stores opening their doors to frenzied Christmas shoppers at 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m., or stayed open all night—“Black Friday”? The day after we have theoretically thanked God for another year of divine benediction is black Friday? Early estimates for Black Friday purchases by Americans this year are $10.69 billion. (One hundred of those Black Fridays and we could pay off the nations’s $1.3 trillion budget deficit!) And as if Black Friday weren’t enough, Cyber Monday this week netted an estimated $1.023 billion of online Christmas sales, setting a new one-day record for cyberspace spending.

“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7).

Is it too late to celebrate a counter-cultural Christmas this year? To radically simplify our gift-giving? To inform our loved ones that this year a gift to charity in our names would be very special indeed (our church staff is trying that for the second time this year)? I’m not wanting to become the Grinch who stole Christmas—but I am asking myself if maybe the silver light of this season’s Narrative is utterly anti-commercial, counter-materialism—and that maybe there are more meaningful ways to commemorate His birth.

What if you gave Christ as a gift this year? Amazon.com carries a new edition of an old classic for $2.99! A friend sent me this new edition earlier this year, and I read it through over the summer. Gone are the old King James quotations. Replaced now with NKJV and even NIV in places, this new paperback edition of The Desire of Ages is a keeper. Go online and check it out for yourself. For $2.99 you could buy a dozen of them for your dearest family and friends. I promise you that this fresh new NKJV edition makes this magnum opus of Ellen White’s a heart-stirring read. It’s my favorite book. In it you’ll meet the counter-cultural Jesus as you never have before. What a Savior and Friend! Share him with your world. And let Christmas this year truly be about the Gift “my True Love gave to me.”

Jesus just grew bigger! Ever since last Saturday the small Polish town of Swiebodzin has been high-fiving in celebration, believing they have just created the largest Jesus in the world. It’s been the life dream of their 78 year old local priest, Sylwester Zawadaki, to craft the world’s largest Jesus statue. And it looks like he just succeeded. When the crane lowered the golden-crowned statue head onto the granite body last weekend, the priest announced that his new “Christ the King” statue measures 108 feet or 33 meters, “one meter for every year that Jesus lived.” Some members of the construction team, however, said that if the mound upon which the statue towers and the crown atop the head are included, it rises 51 meters (167 feet). By contrast Rio de Janiero’s famed Christ the Redeemer statue stands 125 feet tall. So villagers are already counting the profits that will surely accrue once tourists begin pilgrimages to this giant Jesus.

A century ago the life ministry of a little 5’ 2” tall woman revealed that the Jesus in her heart stood very tall indeed. Through the years as I’ve read this woman’s writings, I have collected some of her “very tall Jesus” statements. Here’s one: “... were thousands of the most gifted men to devote their whole time to setting forth Jesus always before us, studying how they might portray his matchless charms, they would never exhaust the subject” (Review and Herald June 3, 1890).

Here’s another: “O precious, loving, long-suffering, long-forbearing Jesus, how my soul adores Thee! That a poor, unworthy, sin-polluted soul can stand before the Holy God, complete in the righteousness of our Substitute and Surety! Wonder, O Heavens, and be astonished, O earth, that fallen man is the object of His infinite love and delight” (Letter 2, December 29, 1889).

And another: “I love to speak of Jesus and his matchless love. I have not one doubt of the love of God. I know that he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto him. His precious love is a reality to me, and the doubts expressed by those who know not the Lord Jesus Christ, have no effect upon me. ... Do you believe that Jesus is your Saviour, and that he has manifested his love for you in giving his precious life for your salvation? Take Jesus as your personal Saviour. Come to him just as you are; give yourself to him; grasp his promise by living faith, and he will be to you all that you desire” (Review and Herald June 23, 1896).

No question the Jesus of Ellen White was a towering Savior. That’s why at this website we’ve been carefully examining the gift of Christ through the life ministry of this woman. Why not examine the evidence for yourself—download the five podcasts/videocasts—call our toll free number (877 HIS WILL) and order a free copy of her best-selling and most translated classic, Steps to Christ (the little book that reintroduced me to my Savior at a crisis point in my young life—I’m certain it will bless you, too). Because you don’t have to go to Poland to meet the towering Jesus. If you want him, your door is large enough to let him in.

Too early to be thinking about Christmas? Not if you were hoping to purchase the fastest and most expensive Porche ever built—the 911 GT2 RS. It just sold out less than two months after debuting. Price tag? $329,000. Merry Christmas and a big red bow tied on to the 131 Americans who bought it.

Never mind the recession. Reports show that luxury items are once again ringing the cash registers in the U.S. “Consumers are buying more luxury items but spending remains tight for everyday essentials such as food and dental care, a USA TODAY analysis finds, suggesting a growing divide between haves and have-nots. Purchases of TVs, jewelry, recreational vehicles and pet supplies are growing robustly, government data show. At the same time, spending on medical care, day care and education is down in the dumps” (http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-10-27-RW_consumer27_ST_N.htm).

The yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots in this nation is widening. And it does not bode well for our future. One in 8 Americans is now on food stamps. At some point within last year, 1.6 million men, women and children (including 170,000 families) “experienced homelessness”—a 7% jump from the previous year. Voice of America this week quoted Henry Freedman, director of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice. “Freedman says America's growing income gap could create a two-tiered society that loses its sense of community. ‘People struggling to get by, struggling to survive on the one hand, susceptible to demagoguery; and people on the other hand who put their resources to be separate from society, safe from society rather than participating fully in society,’ he said” (http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/US-Income-Disparity-Highest-Ever-105708773.html).

Did you catch that—“a two-tiered society that loses its sense of community”? The wealthy growing more isolated, the poor growing more resentful The Apostle James predicted just such an economically fractured society before the return of Christ: “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! . . . Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.” And then to his impoverished readers, James appeals: “You must be patient. And take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near” (James 5:1, 4, 5 NKJV; 7 NLT).

Will our politicians deliver us from this social fracture? Hardly. They have just spent a record-setting $2 billion campaigning for next week’s election. How then will economic disparity be confronted? I’m not a prophet—but I read the prophets. Watch the labor movement globally. What France has experienced these past two weeks (and Greece earlier)—pent up rage by the lower class—can happen here, too. A century ago this prediction was made: “The trade unions will be the cause of the most terrible violence that has ever been seen among human beings” (Letter 99, 1904).

What shall we do? Let the church of Christ rise up with the compassion of her Lord and reach out to the disenfranchised and economically marginalized. Benton Harbor is 12 miles away. Our fledgling Harbor of Hope congregation desperately needs volunteers. Call Pastor Walter (849-9089). It isn’t new Porches that our world is dying for want of. It is men and women possessed with Jesus’ passion and brave enough to attempt to make a difference. Before he returns. Until he returns.