Shadows Prove the Sunshine

So begins the fourth song on Switchfoot's album "Nothing is Sound." And isn't it true, somehow in the darkness of this day - we find ourselves looking heavenward with open hands - to the Savior of all mankind?

I went to mass today the second day of the great Feast of Christmas with my girlfriend and afterwards a few guys invited me to go downtown into Baltimore to feed the homeless and pray with them. Brilliant idea!

One interaction particularly impacted me. A man named Tony who was sitting under the roof of some stores. He looked 50 or so. We gave him some food, socks, hugs, kind words, prayer, and medical attention. He was visibly moved, shaken to tears to sobs in gratitude to Jesus.

He used to be an organ player for his church and we closed by singing "amazing grace" with him. Very powerful.

This interaction in the "shadows" of Baltimore really impacted me. As I changed his socks and smelt the urine and funk in which he sat - I knew I was serving Jesus Christ in "the least of the brethren." And he was so blessed by the food, etc. - but it seemed our prayers for him and the song we sang with him - impacted him the most. And not just the exterior fact of our "prayers" - but God himself, I believe, was speaking to Tony - calling him out by name and speaking his love into his heart.

I share all of this to really give glory to God how a homeless man in the shadows can "prove the sunshine." I share to encourage myself, to encourage you, to reach out to the poor around you with your material generosity and with your spiritual generosity. And lets pray for Tony and all those, especially the poor and lonely and spiritually sick, who are far from God's embrace in Jesus this season.

Finally, and fyi the whole idea of combining evangelization and works of mercy is beautifully expressed in a ministry of a couple in the Bronx called Lamp Ministries. Check them out.

The Reason for the Season!

ChristLife's most recent podcast has some excellent content especially in regards to this Christmas season. Jean, a friend of ChristLife, shares a powerful conversion story, and there is some great Christmas gift ideas from a group called Advent Conspiracy. Advent Conspiracy's goal is to transform the consumerism of Christmas into the message of compassion laid out by Jesus Christ!
This podcast is very inspiring and you can listen in here, or click play below to listen.

Why did shepherds get invited to His birth?

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and 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 among men with whom he is pleased!" When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." Luke 2:8-15

Why Did Shepherds Get Invited?

Have you ever wondered why shepherds, - out in a field on night watch, minding their own business, - were the first to receive the good news that the Savior of all people, Christ the Lord had been born?

Why them? Why did God tell them, why did He invite them to see the Birth of all Births? The Miracle of all Miracles,- the Incarnation of God!

What do you think?

I have some personal thoughts, from meditating on this passage and study, that I wanted to share with you on why they were invited. But before sharing them, I can tell you a personal reaction, - wouldn’t it have been awesome to have been there with them that night!? Wouldn’t you have loved to have been there? Can you imagine it! Put yourself there! That is part of how we start to prayerfully enter into why they were invited.

So why shepherds?

God has an affinity for shepherds.

Think about it. Abraham, Issac and Jacob were shepherds. So was David (he may have shepherded in the same fields where these guys were when the angel appeared to them). God was referred to by his people, as the Shepherd of Israel. The Psalmist personally exclaimed, “the Lord is my shepherd.” St Peter referred to Jesus as the Chief Shepherd. Jesus referred to himself as the good shepherd who was willing to lay down his life for the sheep (that includes you and me). See John 10. He is the Shepherd King of all humanity, and by the way, he happens to have a special love and longing for straying, misbehaving, knuckleheaded, lost sheep (that includes you, me and our family and friends and non friends)! See Luke 15.

God has the heart of a shepherd. God was coming in person to gather the lost sheep of Israel, and all of humanity to himself. He told the news to fellow shepherds first! There is probably something there that he wants us to pay attention to.

They were the low life's who were not part of the ‘in crowd.’

On the other hand, some Jewish wisdom during the time of Jesus’ birth advised father’s against shepherding as an occupation for their sons. It was not considered a good livelihood. Additionally many Jews frowned upon shepherds. They were looked down upon, not trusted, even scorned. Apparently they were often peripheral to Jewish life and culture. Outcasts. Low life’s.

What was it that Mary exclaimed about God exalting the lowly?

They were certainly not who you would invite to a party. Certainly not to T-H-E BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Shepherds were the types of people you don’t invite to parties. They’re people who were not part of the ‘in crowd’ of synagogues or social groups, and get this,- they were the only ones God invited to the birth of Jesus the Savior and Lord! Gentiles, the wise men, would come later! If it were wise women they probably would have been there in advance and helped to clean up the stable, prepare meals and, help with the delivery!

St. Justin Martyr, a Palestinian, was personally familiar with Bethlehem. He lived a little over a 100 years after Christ and writes that the stable Jesus was born in was a cave in the hillside. That is where the Shepherds would have headed in response to the message of the angel. They were humble folks and I imagine they didn’t even notice the outrageous conditions that the Christ was born into. Most likely they had to bow down to enter the cave,- no problem for lowly shepherds. And they knew who this baby was!

God has come among us.

The Creator of everything became the creature,- fully God, fully man,- so we could see what God is like, up close and personal. And he humbled himself so that EVERYONE could identify with him, even the low life’s of the world. The outcasts, the broken hearted, sinners and totally broken people. God was and, is at eye level for anyone willing to bow down and “see this thing that the Lord has made known to us.”

If you encounter the stirring of grace to know who it is that is born in the manger, in this food trough for animals(the Bread of Life), then you will join the angels and shepherds in adoration.

God had become one of us, in order to rescue humanity and creation!

When the angel told the shepherds this momentous, historic, outrageous, fantastic news that God had personally come as Messiah to rescue humanity, the angel hosts could not contain themselves and burst into our world in adoration. Why?

Because of His great mercy! He had become one of us, in order to die for our sins, so that we might have peace with God! The angels worshipped, singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!" Our peace with God is the result of what He has done for us in Jesus Christ. Coming down from heaven, becoming a man to die for our sins, to be raised as the glorious Lord who would pour out His Spirit to empower us to live new lives as his children, at peace with him. It is His gift to you and me to receive, if we respond and acknowledge that Jesus as the Lord and Savior of my life and of all.

It was not hard for the Shepherds. They were the lowly who God exalted. They were use to stooping down to enter stables. They simply responded to the message the angel had told them. You can too! He loves us so much that he became one of us in order to forgive our sins and give us the gift of his peace and of new life.

A couple of closing questions.

Would I (you) invite these guys to the party? Do I share the heart of God the Father for the lost and brokenhearted? For those who are not part of my 'in crowd?'

On the other hand, if I (you) feel like I can identify with the shepherds, not a part of the in-crowd of church or society, do I know that Christmas is all about shepherd types! That you are personally invited to join this celebration and come to know the Savior who is Jesus Christ the Lord? You are invited! It is God's wonderful gift to you right now in this moment! You may feel like you are out in a field by yourself, but there is a party just about to get underway and you are invited!

If you have never known the love that God has for you personally below is a simple prayer you can pray, asking Jesus to be your Lord, to be the leader and Savior of your life. Even if you were baptized as a Catholic-Christian, you may have never known that you can enter into personal relationship with God through what Jesus has done for you and for all of us. You can pray for release of the power of the Spirit given to you in Baptism right now, at this point in your life.

Lord God,

Please forgive me for all the things I have done wrong. I turn to you and turn away from sin (here you can pause to think of anything particular you might want to ask forgiveness for).

Jesus, please be the center of my life. I welcome you personally as Lord and Savior of my life.

I ask you Holy Spirit to fill me and empower me to live as a son/daughter of God. I want to have your grace to truly live a new life.
Thank you, Lord! Amen!

If you do pray this prayer for the first time, entering into personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, please contact us so we can support you and help you connect with the Church!

Have a very blessed Christmas!

ChristLife
12280 Folly Quarter Road
Ellicott City, MD 21042, USA

The Vatican on Evangelization

The Vatican recently issued an important statement regarding the missionary mandate of the Catholic Church. Such a document helps clarify many areas of dispute over the last few decades with regard to the relationship between evangelization and ecumenism. I will begin to comment upon this by saying that anyone who has come into a personal knowledge of the absolutely boundless and infinite mercy of God as revealed by Jesus desires to share it--for the simple reason that Jesus is Savior. What does this mean? It means He is the one upon whom we can cast our fears and receive healing, rather than the judgement we all too often expect from God. Let us take a moment to survey the landscape of these issues to see where we can go wrong.

These days, the term "proselytization" gets a bad reputation. Although the dictionary definition seems benign, perhaps we can elaborate on the legitimate concerns with regard to this mistaken form of evangelization. In Matthew 24:15 Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for making converts. Why? The chief error the pharisees was really no different than that of every clique in society. They sought to create a microcosm of the "righteous" and the "chosen" in society to separate themselves from the outcast. The same as happens everywhere--in exclusive fraternities and sororities, business clubs, and the like. In every case we see people who are imprisoned by their fear of shame and so they seek to create a group set apart in order to place themselves above others in an illusory and futile effort to be saved from disgrace (imagine the "cool kids" at school). When this happens in religion, as it did with the pharisees, it is the worst because it causes us to fashion an image of God rooted in fear, rather than love. Thus any attempt to spread faith that builds upon people's fears and distorted images of God is counter- productive.

We face the other extreme when ecumenism slides into syncretism, in which the essential distinctions that preserve our understanding of God from anything less than infinitely boundless love, are ignored. As a result, we can forget important doctrines like the Incarnation, for example, which reminds us that God's heart is big enough to live with us under our circumstances. Only when our hearts are afraid of humility are we afraid of the Incarnate God.

This brings me to the final point that true evangelization lies in coming to recognize that God's love is far greater than our greatest fears, and going out to share that freedom with others. That is the good news, and all calls to repent from sin and error derive, not from the need to appease an angry God who is about to smite us, but rather from benevolent love that desires to set us free from our habits of enslavement to fear--aka sin. Thus true evangelization shares the good news of Jesus--the Son of God who died on a cross to save us--for the simple reason that it is the most beautiful and liberating message humanity has ever heard.

Join the Advent Conspiracy

A pretty neat movement of Christians called Advent Conspiracy [AC] has launched a campaign to restore the true message of Christmas. From their Web site, we read in stirring simplicity "Christmas was meant to change the world. Advent Conspiracy is an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by worshipping Jesus through compassion, not consumption."

Checkout out the following video. It is excellent! The whole point is to spend less this Christmas so we can give more to others relationally and to the poor. On their Web site they also have a list of relational gift ideas that may be helpful in considering gift-giving this Christmas.

Beyond this I really like how the dude on the video shares his faith in a simple and down-to-earth (kinda like the incarnation) way :)

The Light of the World!

"The People who have walked in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." (Isaiah 9:2)

During this advent season I have been meditating on the anticipation of Jesus becoming man! He came in such a humble way, and because of that He brought such hope to the poor and suffering. It is hard to imagine life without the hope and peace that He brings, and yet many people don't know or care to know Him!

On ChristLife's most recent podcast, random college students answer the fundamental questions - who is Jesus to them and does God have an impact on their daily decisions? It was interesting to see what their veiws were, and how so many of them considered Jesus to be a good man but just not the savior of the world.



Also on the podcast are some testimonies of some students from the same campus who went through Discovering Christ and how the Lord radically impacted their lives. It is so encouraging to see the Lord at work. Hopefully during this advent and Christmas season, Christians will share the light of Christ with all those they meet!

You can listen to the most recent podcast here, or press play below:

Do you give up so easily on Jesus?

An incredible story from Iraq from the Catholic News Agency via Sherry W. at the Intentional Disciples blog.

"As Fr. Bautista continued speaking with us, he described the fascinating story of a young Muslim woman who was entering the Church under his guidance through the RCIA process. Her story was moving. While working with Americans, this woman, who must remain anonymous, was touched deeply when she realized that the U.S. medical personnel not only treated wounded Americans and Iraqi civilians, but also treated wounded enemy combatants, including one who was known for having killed U.S. Marines. As she put it, “This cannot happen with us.”

This dramatic extension of mercy even to enemy soldiers caused her to take the next cautious step. She asked Father Bautista to “tell me more about Jesus.” As Father described Jesus and his life in the Gospels, one thing stood out among the rest for the Muslim woman he called “Fatima” (not her real name) and that was how kindly Jesus had related to, as she put it, “the two Mary’s.” Fatima was moved to see how Jesus deeply loved Mary, his mother, who was sinless, but also how Jesus deeply loved Mary Magdalene, who was “a great sinner.” As these discussions continued, Fatima reached a point where she said to Father Bautista, “I want to become a Christian.”

Since Father Bautista sees himself as a chaplain for all troops, not just Catholics, he decided to introduce Fatima to other chaplains from Protestant and Orthodox backgrounds. After some time had passed, Fatima returned to Father Bautista and said, “I want to become a Catholic like you.” When Father asked her the reason for her decision, she said, “You were the only one who told me about the other Christians, so you left me free to decide for myself. That’s how I knew this was the right decision.”

As their catechetical lessons developed over time, Fatima’s family discovered her plan and was warned sternly by her father that if she continued on this path, she would be disowned by the entire family and would never have contact with them again. At this point, Father Bautista became concerned for Fatima’s well-being and cautioned her to look carefully at the consequences of her decision and to think seriously before continuing her path into the Church.

Fatima paused for a moment and then looking intently at Father Bautista asked, “Do you give up so easily on Jesus?” The question took Father aback for a moment, but then he thought, “This is incredible; this Muslim woman is already bearing witness to me about how important my own faith is!”

As he related it, this woman’s question had caused him to give greater thanks for his faith and for the great privilege of sharing Christ with others. Fatima is currently continuing the RCIA process with great courage and joy."

Amazing! Please pray for "Fatima" and all who journey toward Christ this Advent!