Mark 1: signs and wonders

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Mark 1:9-11 (NIV)
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. [10] As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. [11] And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Let’s face it. We are sheep. Easily led, gullible. Prone to follow the herd. We believe crazy stories.

How much more crazy does it get than God in the water, God in the shape of a dove, God speaking out loud?

Pretty crazy unless it really happened. Pretty crazy unless the God in question is omnipresent and omnipotent. Then it is just an ordinary day…

In the life of God with us.

If you comb the Bible looking for signs of Jesus you will find them everywhere–prophecy, songs, the histories all resonate with promises of a savior.

If you read just the early chapters of the gospels you get angels, miracle babies, special astronomers, and prophets all pointing to Jesus and saying, Hey! This kid is special.

It is impossible to believe this is a normal story. Either a great many people went to a great deal of trouble to lie (for nothing–there was no money or power in a dead carpenter).

Or the story is true.

And if it is true…

Jesus is a game changer. The God who saves.

Mark 1: After me

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>Mark 1:7-8 (NIV)
And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. [8] I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

We are an easily distracted bunch. what? Something about shoes? Something about baptism?

Most of us want to be the best at what we do and John was so sold out he looked like a lunatic. Yet his message is preparation for someone else.

He says

look at me, now wait for someone so much better that I don’t deserve to tie his shoes…

Wow.

Baptism with water is all symbol–a ring on a finger, a hose down in the backyard.

Baptism by the Spirit of God. That is resurrection, transformation–the breath of heaven. Life poured out for us.

And John is right. Jesus is amazing. The love of God walks in.

No one ever the same.

The John the Baptist Diet

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Mark 1:4-8 (NIV)
And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. [5] The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. [6] John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. [7] And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. [8] I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

So we Christians struggle with waistlines and our answers over the years have been biblical diets– the Daniel diet, the Eden diet…we scour the pages of the Good Book looking for guidelines for weight loss. But I have yet to see rise of the “John the Baptist” diet. I am pretty sure he was rail thin and that I would be too if it was all foraging in the desert for bugs and honey!

The wilderness, the loneliness, the uncomfortable crunchiness of exoskeleton. The meaningfulness of the way John lived is impossible to ignore. He was passionately sold out. He held nothing back.

People don’t cotton to the voices of prophets. They are often lonely folk. They do not tell us what we want to hear, they tell us the truth. The truth can drive a man to lonely places.

The truth is we are broken, messed up sheep. We are communal insects. We have laid our world bare to death, sin, and pain. The prophet shouts these things unsparingly in the loneliest of places.

Then God walks in…

Mark 1 The prophecy and the Man

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Mark 1:1-4 (NIV)
The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. [2] It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— [3] “a voice of one calling in the desert, `Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ” [4] And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

There are 4 men here–Jesus, Isaiah, Mark, and John the Baptist. If you, like me, believe that the biblical record is true then you also probably see these men as prophets. Each of them would have acknowledged that among them, Jesus was God.

Mark wastes no time stating his purpose–

here,

he says,

this is the good news about God/Jesus. Here he is.

He is not just stating his belief about Jesus, he is sharing Jesus’ immaculate credentials–first Isaiah with his words of extravagant hope, then John the Baptist, nutty one man revival, messenger of God.

Cool.

And hard to line up so many prophets unless you are God. In which case it is just what you do
For love.

And while we are at it, allow me to say we are all wilderness without him.

How do you and I need to make a straight path for the Son of God?

Frontline and Jesus

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I generally like PBS’s Frontline but I found myself amazed and disconcerted by the portion of their show on Jesus that aired this week. The show appeared to give exclusive weight to the idea that Jesus’ deity was a myth created ex post facto to cope with the power of the Roman empire.

I understand why they would want to find excuses for Jesus not being God, not being divine, not being resurrected. It just seemed like finding a single bone in the sand and telling everyone it was a chicken bone not a dragon’s tail. Of course, it might be a chicken’s bone, but what if the dragon was real? What if archeology and historically faulty human empiricism is not enough?

Frontline could not find a couple of believers with credible Phds? If they couldn’t then I would not trust them to unearth the full scoop on that guy on the cross…

That Guy on the Cross

Funny about him. The title of the show was From Jesus to Christ
Jesus is the name Yeshua which means God saves and Christ means Anointed King

God saves is enough. Jesus is enough. That He is also the Anointed One is the icing on the cake.
A very important cake.
Too good to miss

Grief and Christmas

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A few years ago my family had a nightmarish Christmas.

We found ourselves at a mall, just before closing. I felt a special connection with all the other down-to-the-wire last minute shoppers.

In fact, to this day I have a great fondness for those people–the outliers, the late-workers, the Walmart cashiers, health professionals who have to work during the one or two times a year our culture shuts down for “family.”

The “family” in the nativity story is a pretty bedraggled eleventh hour at the mall sort of tableau–teen mom, far from home, no room at the inn…

It is a lonely story. We are all safe in the stable. There may not be a rocking party in it’s quiet grubbiness, but it is the birth of hope.

Come in. There is room for us all…

Evidence and evolution

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I was in the 8th grade and was a very attentive student. My science teacher taught a lesson about evolution and I asked some question, asserted a dissenting opinion.

She got angry and made me stand in the hall for the rest of class. This was akin to office roulette–if the principal came by I would face discipline. If he did not then my punishment was just the public rebuke and humiliation.

Oddly enough I cherish this memory.

Jesus says if we are ashamed of him now, he will be ashamed of us later. If we stand for him now, he will stand for us later.

When I think of the “wasted” years of my life, years when people have taken my sacrifice without gratitude or worse, hurt my children, I think of this miracle Baby, this King made man.

We Christians understand the evidence for evolution. I teach it to my children. I want them to know it well.

But there is not a single soul on this planet who could ever convince me that Jesus is not

the Word made flesh.

I see Him in the most ordinary things.
I hear His voice in the stillness and the wind.

If you can believe that a single quiet failure of a carpenter can bring hope in the world through a thief’s death, well, the rest is easy.

We all have faith in something.
Someone.

Why not Jesus?
With his story so crazy it is true.

A Christmas Memory

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One year after we discovered that our adopted son Charles had abused our children and others we suffered additional blows. More loneliness. Less community.

We had already lost family and close friends, our children’s friends because people treated us as though we were contagious, people we had known for years. The second Christmas brought more loss–from our church.

I went to the grocery store and saw a dear friend from another church. We had a brief conversation in the bread aisle and she saw the pain in my eyes as I told her the short version of our story.

Later that week I was complaining to God–
Why so much pain and loneliness?

I gathered our family and we began to sing Christmas carols. A few minutes later it sounded as though we were not the only singers. We went to our front door to find a group of carolers from my friend’s church singing in front of our house.

My friend was there. She said that after our talk in the bread aisle she felt God telling her to add a stop to their scheduled houses.

I appreciated my friend
I appreciated each singer

But I marvel at this God of Christmas who is able to rebut my loneliness and despair with song. Songs of light in the world.

6 ways to help your child deal with Sandy Hook

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listen.

Your child is smart and logical and already has pieces of information. Ask what he thinks and if he has questions.

be honest

Honesty demonstrates advocacy. It gives your child a strong sense of safety. If you lie or obscure the truth your child will not feel as stable. Truth telling does not have to be explicit or graphic, but it provides security.

admit when you don’t have answers

It is ok to say you dont know something. Find out if you can…

Enlist your community

Don’t be afraid to talk to a counselor, doctor, or trusted friends.

Practice safety

Give your child a chance to practice safety and self-defense. Hopefully she will never need these skills, but she will feel safer and more secure if she knows how to handle emergencies.

keep talking

Big traumas stay with us. Make time to check in on your child over days, weeks and years. This will allow him to process all the complicated emotions that travel with grief and uncertainty.

We should never make our children face the scary stuff alone.

Alone is the scariest of all