Dear Redeemer Family,
As 2019 winds down and we prepare for Christmas celebrations, time off of work, and (hopefully) a time of rest with family - I’d like to invite all of us to consider a few different ways to think about giving before Dec. 31st.
A Case For Church Membership
Celebrating Three Years of God's Faithfulness
On The Odd Practice of Advent
For Christians today, the practice of observing the season of Advent can feel just as odd. In Advent we are told that we were made for life in God’s Kingdom, and that we are merely sojourners in this present world. Advent tells us that our hearts are, deep down, filled with longings which will only be satisfied in the New Creation. In this way, Advent points us forward towards the second coming (second Advent) of Christ - at which time this world will be renewed and restored.
Proverbs and Marriage
If you want to learn from proverbs, you must think yourself a usual man. If you want proverbs to have anything to do with you, you cannot think yourself atypical. You must think yourself ordinary, the kind of fellow that warning labels and parables were written for. If you want to learn from the wisdom of the ages, you have to give up thinking yourself special. If you’re special, proverbs don’t have anything to do with you.
On Baptism
In Christian baptism, a person is united with Jesus in His death and resurrection. We call baptism a sacrament because is a physical, tangible, material ritual that is filled with a spiritual, intangible, immaterial grace. Something physical is happening - The person is either being immersed in water or having water poured over their head. Something spiritual is happening - That person is, mysteriously (in a way that we can only barely begin to comprehend), being joined together with the Lord Jesus and, therefore, becomes a part of the church - the body of Christ.
On Marking Time
Forgetting comes naturally, remembering requires intentionality. We have to make an effort, and keep making an effort in order to remember - don’t we? This is one of the reasons why we create traditions. Traditions are (usually) heart-warming and meaningful ways of remembering, of marking time, of taking us back to the most important moments in life and in history.
Inviting Our Children Into Sacred Space (Or, why I don’t let my kids play tag in the sanctuary)
In the tension between a sacramental world (with it’s contoured landscape of both sacred and common spaces), and an increasingly secularized world (with a flat landscape of only common spaces) - we are raising a new generation of Christian children. What a marvelously difficult and complex task! We long for our kids to experience the beauty and love of Christ for them and we worry that too many rules, and too much behavior correction will squash their enjoyment of church worship and community. Many of us parents are terrified of hearing our kids say those four dreaded words, “Church is not fun.”
