Engaging with God

new birth and new life is what Jesus addresses in our scripture passage today

Nicodemus is apparently intrigued by Jesus and wants to know more about him; but he doesn't want to do this publicly , so he comes to Jesus at night. 

Jesus makes it very clear to Nicodemus that anyone, Jew or not, even a Pharisee, must be born again (or born from above.)

God loves us and seeks after us and is not satisfied until he has found us. And this love of God extends to all people – God loves the world.

While we were still sinners – lost and separated from God – God sent Jesus into the world to save us.

To believe in Jesus is to trust him with our very lives.

But the opposite is also true: there is no life apart from God, so those who do not share in God's life through Jesus don't have this life of the ages . 

we will see that Jesus was passionate about maintaining this sacred space of worship and focus on God

because the Jews understood themselves to be God's chosen people, the Temple represented their very identity in a way no other building could

Jesus had no patience for the things that would distract us from dwelling in God's presence and worshiping Him.

Jesus is saying something new , something about himself – he is somehow the Temple of God. 

We are now the dwelling place of God in this world! This is what it means when the Bible says that we are "the Body of Christ," and even that we are "the temple of the Holy Spirit."

When we receive Jesus, we receive the presence of God in our lives .

the "Word" is not only a description of God's revelation to us through Scripture, but the very way that God has entered into human life and history through Jesus Christ.  

Without getting into the mystery of the Trinity, the very first thing that John wants us to know is that the Word is God . 

The eternal Logos entered into creation and became a human being.

Jesus, because he is God in human form, shows us what it truly looks like to be in God's image .

Jesus Christ is the Word, the living and active power of God, through whom God created the world and through whom God is saving the world . 

Our scripture passage today is about the baby Jesus being brought to the Temple for dedication , and about a couple of people that his parents meet, people who have been waiting for this moment for a very long time.

God's people are called to wait patiently on the Lord, to remember that God has good plans for us , that God has promised to save us and to bring about the redemption of the world. 

Now like Simeon, you and I are waiting on God. Unlike Simeon, we have seen the entire story of Jesus' earthly life, his suffering and death on the cross, and his resurrection. And yet we like Simeon are still waiting for the end of the story, the fulfillment of God's promises to save and redeem the world. We live in faith as God's people , trusting that God will do what He has promised.

God's promises are not merely to tell us what the future looks like; rather, they are a way of saying that God is at work in our lives and in our world right now, and God's work is good . 

as Christians we recognize that there is something much bigger going on , that God is at work and at best we only see a small part of what God is doing.

Christmas John 1:1-2, 14 1  Before the beginning began to begin, the Word already was, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  2  He was with God in the beginning…. 14  And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (personal translation) Since before time began, since pre-eternity, the Word, that is Jesus the Son of God, was always with God.  And yet he released that pre-eminence, that majesty, that power, and limited himself to become as fully human as we are.  He knew birth, and growth, and loss, and love, and grief, and purpose, and abandonment, and joy.  It is truly a mystery that Almighty God, the One and Only, could and would limit himself so much.  And it is a gift (grace) to us that he did so. Before you open your various Christmas gifts, pause for a moment and reflect on the gift of the incarnation – the becoming human – of Jesus.  Thank him.  Offer h...

Thursday John 13:1, 34-35 1  It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end…. 34  "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  35  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (translation by NT Wright) Jesus gave this command to his disciples on the last night he spent with them.  And he demonstrated what he meant by washing their feet as if he were a menial slave.   What experiences of servant love have you known, either in the giving or the receiving?  Why is love a command?   Daily Practice This Christmas Eve day, pray for God to give you an act of servant love to do for someone.  Do it. Advent Song - Away in a Manger  

Wednesday 1 John 4:8-10 8  …God is love.  9  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  10  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (NIV) At weddings we often read in 1 Corinthians 13 that  4  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  5  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  6  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  7  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  8  Love never fails.  (NIV) As newlyweds, we hope and pray that we can live up to that standard.  But that way of being is God's very nature.  God's love is a total, all-in, even-unto-death commitment for us and to us.  Even though our commitment to him is pretty much partial, and tepid, and on-again-off-again. W...

Tuesday John 3:16 16  This, you see, is how much God loves the world: enough to give his only, special son, so that everyone who believes in him should not be lost but should have eternal life. (translation by NT Wright) God, in his very nature, in love.  As a Trinity of three Persons, God has always loved.  As a way of growing that love, God created humans, in his image, so that he could share more love with them. But when humans chose self over love, they walked away from God.  The only way to restore that love relationship was for God to come to Earth and make it happen.  In John 17:3, Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God and his son, Jesus.  And knowing them restarts the love relationship. Is there a family member or friend whom you haven't seen in way too long?  Yes, you've telephoned, Zoomed, FaceTime'd, emailed, or maybe even postal mailed, but it's just not the same, is it?  Feel the longing to be with them.  Reflect on how that longing is what God feels to...

the greatest blessing of receiving a gift now is the heart of the person giving the gift, the expression of generosity and love. 

a love that seeks no response and demands no return, a love centered totally on the beloved .

Love is something that must be shared, that must be expressed. God shows His love for us in many ways – in the food we eat, in a beautiful sunrise, in the relationships we enjoy – in the gift of life itself . 

There is nothing that could make God love you any more than He already does. You are God's beloved – that is your identity. This gift comes packaged in human form: God the Son

Week Four – Love The Bible talks about several kinds of love, like the love between friends, or between husband and wife, or between parent and child.  But this love is the love of God for Jesus and of Jesus for us.  It is a decision and a promise of an unfailing relationship of delight and well-being.  And the love we see in the birth of Jesus on earth foreshadows the love exhibited in his death. Monday Luke 2:6-7 6  While [Joseph and Mary] were [in Bethlehem], the time came for her to deliver her child.  7  And she gave birth to her firstborn son and swaddled him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Personal translation) We hear these words and think of the peaceful old carol Away in a Manger. But birth is bloody and messy, painful and exhausting for the mom, and for the baby, too.  And Jesus' mom tenderly swaddles Jesus to calm him.  The familiar song asks,  "Mary, did you know… that your baby boy has come to make you...

Week Four – Love The Bible talks about several kinds of love, like the love between friends, or between husband and wife, or between parent and child.  But this love is the love of God for Jesus and of Jesus for us.  It is a decision and a promise of an unfailing relationship of delight and well-being.  And the love we see in the birth of Jesus on earth foreshadows the love exhibited in his death. Advent Song - Away in a Manger   Monday Luke 2:6-7 6  While [Joseph and Mary] were [in Bethlehem], the time came for her to deliver her child.  7  And she gave birth to her firstborn son and swaddled him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Personal translation) We hear these words and think of the peaceful old carol Away in a Manger. But birth is bloody and messy, painful and exhausting for the mom, and for the baby, too.  And Jesus' mom tenderly swaddles Jesus to calm him.  The familiar song asks,  "Mary, did you know… that y...