In our series on Christmas as the Night that Changed Everything, this week we’re looking at how it’s the night that changed the poor.  The poor have a priveleged place in the story of Jesus’ birth at Christmas.  Here is where that really shows:

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.  (Luke 2:4-7)

When a politician visits a troubled area, it’s important.  I recall after the 1998 ice storm in Eastern Ontario, the Prime Minister visited Wolfe Island, where I used to volunteer as a paramedic.  Years later, people would still talk about how the Prime Minister had come, and how.  They knew in that moment that he’d seen what they were dealing with, through his own eyes.

Here in the Christmas story we see God doing that.  He has come to visit our broken and hurting world, and has let the entire population know that he is here with us – from rich to poor, young to old.  It’s so apparent in that he comes to earth not like pampered royalty, but as a homeless baby.

His parents are on their way to Bethlehem for the census.  They must travel, even though Mary is pregnant and close to birth.  They arrive, apparently without plans for accomodations (or their plans are cancelled when an unmarried pregnant woman arrives) and find no room in any inns.  If they had money, you can imagine they might buy their way out of trouble, but it doesn’t happen, and they end up in a stable.  The baby is born, wrapped in cloths, a poor, defenseless baby whose parents are doing the best they can, which isn’t much.  The word translated as stable may be a building dedicated to animals like we think, or it’s possible it represented a one room house with both animals and people, but either way it was modest.

This is not a story of privelege and power.  Why would God – who we would expect to come in majesty and splendour – arrive in this way?

Question: What might God be trying to tell us in coming to earth in this way?

Reminder: We are reading the Bible in sync as one community – so check out today’s reading here.

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - November 19, 2013

Tuesday - Study It - Grace - in Lifestyle

Becoming Like Family

This week we’re exploring how following Jesus impacts our lifestyle by one principle: grace. Grace is one of the most important, life-changing aspects of Christian story. Here’s how the Bible talks about grace: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10 ESV) Here is an easy way to remember the meaning: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense A friend had a young child at home, and a baby on the way and his mother loved to help out by cleaning up the house. One particularly stressful time she was coming down to decompress the situation by cleaning up the house. My friend came home that day to find his wife madly cleaning up the house, before the mother in law arrived. She didn’t want her mother-in-law to see a messy house, even though she was there to clean it as a gift. We so often we think that we have to have cleaned up our lives before we can accept what God wants to give us. We don’t have to have sorted ourselves out before we can accept God’s free gift of forgiveness, his grace. When you ask someone why they don’t like Christianity…you’ll often hear “it’s just a bunch of rules.” I don’t need a book to tell me how to be a good person. If that was true, I wouldn’t want to be part of this religion either. But it’s not true…that’s the religion that Jesus came to get rid of, and not his hope for us. Here’s the version of Christianity that people are usually describing: Obey God’s laws God will accept you He’ll provide you with loving care He’ll give you a new status, as a servant of God. This is a law religion, the kind of thing the Pharisees liked to promote. Jesus didn’t have very nice things to say about that! The problem is – no one has ever obeyed God’s laws perfectly enough to earn God’s love. Actually, there was one person – Jesus. He knew our hopeless situation, and did something about it. Jesus was all about grace. This involves the same steps, but in a different order: God loves and accepts you…unconditionally God will provide you with loving care. He wants to be part of your life today, not some day in the future. God will give you a new status: Child of God adopted into his family You now return God’s favour with thanksgiving and living in his way. In grace…we are given God’s love, care and fatherhood as free gifts, even before having proven ourselves worthy, and that gives us a lot to live up to! Question: Where have you typically seen laws and rules in your faith? As the way to earn God’s love, or respond to it? Why? Reminder: Last week we talked about worship, and asked you to complete our online survey about worship here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8TS7K93 Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.

From Series: "Becoming Like Family"

This series looks at becoming “like family” with others learning to follow Jesus. We're exploring how the church is not a building, institution or event, but a community of people. It's important that explore what church means as we prepare to launch a new church in Ajax in 2014.

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