NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD

We have a record of what Mary said to God, likely prayed it to God, yet it is almost poetic in nature, refined by a middle teens child, more a woman at that age than overindulged contemporary girls now. She worked, hauled water, firewood, gardened, cooked soup, gathered eggs, baked bread, washed clothes by hand. She had seen other women give birth. She knew how babies came. She was in the betrothal year of an arranged marriage when Gabriel, an angelic creature convincingly communicated with her. Her childlike faith believed his forecast that she would now bear an adult-sized responsibility. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil 4:13). She was unfamiliar with those words, which were written five decades later by Paul whose life was transformed by the person to whom Gabriel announced she would give birth. She did however understand the inner peace about which Paul would write. The conception of the embryo within her without human impregnation was incomprehensible then even as it is now. Gabriel told her, "nothing is impossible with God." She told Gabriel, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." And it was.

A SUPER NATURAL BABY FOR MARY

Mary and Jesus by Ron Unruh, 2011

Luke 1:32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

What immediately comes to my mind is the divine sovereignty of the baby who will be born to this unwed virgin woman, a girl really, to whom the angel Gabriel announced this unprecedented, never to be repeated event. Her name is Mary and God's Holy Spirit, who hovered over the waters at creation, will come upon her, overshadow her really, and when he does, conception will occur, immaculate to say the least, impeccable, flawless, faultless, without a trace of sexuality, simply divine origination, the Word becoming flesh. The Word, who spoke and without whom nothing was created that was created, became a human being to grow up and to live among our kind. He became part of our history. His name would be called Jesus. Without sin of any kind in word, deed or even thought, he, the Son of God, entered earth's population in order to be put to death in a most public manner, not for the purpose of exacting human justice, but for the inexplicable purpose of atoning for human sinners' sins. God gave his Son. Everyone who believes in the Son receives not only forgiveness but life in the name of Jesus. Life that will transcend this life and thereafter to live forever with the Father, just as Jesus himself does now. And even when he was here, Jesus encouraged us to call his Father, our Father. Christ's kingdom will be forever, the angel told Mary, and the Bible instructs us that this kingdom is now, already, here in us, over us, around us. It's a secure place in which by faith we live while within the cultures of this world we serve as kingdom lights and kingdom salt. We help people see and taste that the LORD Jesus was the visible image of the invisible God when he was here and that he is presently the one who will gather us home where there is in store for us more than our minds can imagine. In the meantime, he is able to do for us very much more than everything that we may ask of him. 

CHANGing CHURCHES & CHANGing FAITHS

People change church affiliation and membership. As many as 40% of North Americans do. This can be a simple denominational change but is occasionally a conversion from one faith system to another, or even bailing on religion.

PERSONAL PIETY

How is personal piety expressed? I didn't even ask how should it be expressed. That would have inferred a prescriptive formula or instruction, perhaps even an edict. The church has historically been effective at stating expectations of those who practice Christian faith, using measurables such as frequency of church attendance, generous financial contributions, willing service, consistent Bible reading and prayer. The accent on 'personal' piety may diminish in such cultures to become 'corporate' piety. The church must remind itself that it is not fashioned after an Old Testament model with regulations for dress code, diets, relationships, contracts, and benevolence and with harsh penalties for wrongdoing. Christ's arrival transitioned God's people into a family that enjoys the privilege of calling God, 'Father.' Personal piety pertains primarily to relationship with Father.

A church comprised of believers eager to be authentic must articulate a definition for personal piety that distinguishes between authoritative and advisory recommendations. Such distinction contrasts posturing and sincerity. It's the difference between telling and showing, between ordering and mentoring. Genuine personal piety is principally private. By that I mean that if it is unaffected piety, it is real to God as well as the believer even when no one else observes the indicators. Observably, genuine piety affects relationships with others in every arena of life but that is the outcome rather than the motive. 

  

INTERSEX FISH & REASON FOR REDEMPTION

U.S. Geological Survey results of intersex fish in America were disclosed this week indicating that one out of five male black bass in American river basins have egg cells growing inside their sexual organs. It is a confirmation of widespread fish feminization that has been reported in recent years. The finding is linked to women's birth control pills and other hormone treatments that seep into rivers.

Before I offer further details I will shine an incomparable light on this news story. I need your momentary indulgence. The Bible provides the wattage with a fascinating statement.

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Romans 8:18-27 (New International Version)

Humanity is frequently arrogant or inconsiderate with respect to treatment of creation. The 6% of 1500 male freshwater fish that have become feminized is just the latest evidence of our carelessness in creation. Endocrine-disrupting hormones such as estrogen from medicines are he current link to intersex fish which is a general warning about what some experts see as a wider problem of endocrine disruptors in the environment.

Aboriginal spirituality often demonstrates greater reverence for what God has made than do Christian faiths. The redemption spoken of earlier assumes that character and attitudes and actions change when God recreates a person through faith. Creation is frustrated by the blunders and faults of humanity, and the greatest expectation is that this redemption will one day be completed and then creation too will be liberated.

The apostle Paul writing to the Christians in first century Rome reminded them that their lives were not all about survival here. In fact their lives were future oriented and in order to posses that prospect each of them would experience the fulfillment of the spiritual transition that had already begun inside them by their faith. The word used for this process is ‘redemption.’ This redemption upon completion will include believers’ physical bodies and that event will be an indescribable liberation. That human emancipation will affect the welfare of all creatures and toward that hope all of creation yearns.

IM, YOUTH, TECHNOLOGY & CHANGING LIFE & CHANGING CHURCH

I know the world is changing and will change more quickly than I know. My grandchildren at 2, 3, and 4 years of age opened the laptops and went online to network games, mouse around and use the keyboard. Now they are preteens and now what. Look at their peers now.

They are instant messaging each other when they wake, walk, eat and drive, yikes! A major shift is occurring along demographic fault lines in the use of technology. It is a shift in how younger people are interacting with one another. Of course those who are thirty years and older are using IM and Facebook and other networking venues to stay connected with colleagues and friends and their own children. However, teens and twenties today are using technology as no other generation before them has done and for that reason they will change the way work is done. They process tasks at incredible speeds. They write essays while tweeting. They hang out at MySpace not Starbucks. Their use of digital technology is changing society, organizations and the way business is done. It cannot be held back. And this young generation is entering the workforce.

Richard Leyland of Unwired in an article entitled, "Prepare for the Next Generation – Today’s Teens will Change the Way We Work," asks four questions in order to describe what we can expect from the IM Generation.
1. How do they use technology? IM is foundational to their lives communications rather than additional as with older generations. They have developed the skill of absorbing relevant snippets while surfing connections.
2. What skills will they bring? They will multitask, make complex immediate connections, quickly create, access and swap information and collaborate with one or many people.
3. What won’t work? Traditional authority structures, formal communication style, daily office presence and reporting, dull and repetitive jobs will not work. The IM generation wants to contribute and influence outcomes, operating informally and immediately, work nomadically from home, café or beach being utterly dependent on technology and information accessibility.
4. Should this worry us? Yes and No. Yes, because it requires every organization to adjust to these realities and take advantage of them. No, because their skills are suited to this emerging knowledge economy.

Application:

Can the church close the gap between its Message and the IM generation?
If the bottom line is that the Church must embrace new technologies, then what kind of personnel will the church need to employ?
In the ever-changing technology landscape, churches wanting to maintain their relevance, have to consider new options to be the connected family of God.

CHANGING THE GOSPEL MODEL TO REACH NEWER GENERATIONS

People who are stanch advocates of the veracity of the Christian Gospel will find it difficult to entertain the notion that a modified gospel may be necessary to reach different generations. After all, the celebrated good news is only ‘good’ because it remedies something so horribly ‘bad.’ Allow me to describe first the conventional understanding of the Gospel, and then suggest a conversation point.

Here is an abbreviated gospel summary. God is holy and created the first human creatures with the capacity to obey or defy God’s command. Although the consequence of disobedience was unambiguous, the insubordination of early humans infected all humanity subjecting it to God’s wrath and the punishment of death and hell after physical death. The good news comes because God’s mercy provided His divine Son Jesus Christ as a stand-in to experience God’s punishment and all who with simple trust in Christ as God’s Son and personal Saviour are exempted from this punishment because they are adjudicated as righteous now.

That’s the model with which the Christian Church has developed. What if the newest generations, like the iGens do not identify with the presenting issues that compel people to respond to God’s grace? What if iGens do not possess a sense of morality, which is a robust sense of right and wrong? That is the premise of Alan Mann’s book, Atonement for a Sinless Society. If you are going to stake you eternal hope of Jesus based on a sense that without him we are wrong and sinful and condemned, Mann argues that the iGen doesn’t feel that need. He believes that iGens do not feel guilt for sin as much as they feel ashamed when they don’t achieve something they should accomplish.

So the notion then develops that a different model of the gospel and of evangelism is required to reach these generations. Instead of heaping on the guilt, inundate them with the life of Jesus. Teach the life of Jesus, live out the life of Jesus and ultimately make him real. This is Jesus as seen in the lives of people genuinely filled with compassion rather than Jesus as revealed by institutional religion. They will like Jesus but perhaps not the church. The church may be too political, judgmental, organized, fundamentalist and chauvinistic whereas Jesus is obvious and real in the lives of believers who listen, help, serve, and heal.

Alan Mann, Atonement for a Sinless Society
Dan Kimball, They Like Jesus But Not the Church: Insights from Emerging Generations. Kimball on Youtube
Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet
Images of Jesus personality profile designed by North England Institute for Christian Education

Read Scot McKnight’s article The Gospel for iGens in the summer issue of Leadership Journal at LeadershipJournal.net

What are the real lessons here? I am pretty sure I don't have to answer this for you. I have to pull up my socks.