politics, ethics, and religion

for those of you who know me, you are probably familiar with my love/hate relationship with politics.  i tend to have very strong political views (which actually are just extensions of my worldview, but since they are intertwined, i will for now refer to them in the realm of politics), but at the same time i despise politics, and more specifically politicians.  there is an old saying that the way to tell a politician is lying is their lips move.  that being said, i do believe that most politicians have the best of intentions when it comes to the office that they are trying to obtain, with a few having political aspirations for their own gain.  however, the nature of politics does lend itself to distortions of facts and figures, misrepresentations of quotes, and sometimes blatant lying, so for that reason, i trust very little of what i hear a politician saying while on the campaign trail.

that being said, there is a very big election coming up later in the year.  the gop has not even settled on a candidate yet, and the mudslinging political ads have already started, along with the rebuttals by the other side.  so, with so much mistruth out there, what is a person to do when it comes to deciding on whom to elect?  before i continue, let me say that this post is not to persuade you to vote for one side or another, but rather to be a frank discussion on what should be considered when deciding upon a candidate to back.  this will be geared towards those who refer to themselves as followers of CHRIST, but it's practical aspects can be embraced by all people of all faiths.

there has been a lot of discussion recently about the personal lives of politicians when it comes to their ability to lead.  many have postulated that a person's personal life does not affect their ability to lead, while others counter that it directly affects their leadership abilities.  the truth is, a person's personal life only affects their ability to lead when they are unable to separate their personal stress from their job.  as with any job, a large part of succeeding involves being able to keep your personal problems out of the workplace.  this is also reciprocated when discussing the home life.  one of the keys to a successful marriage is being able to leave work and the stress of work at work.  my bride and i have an unwritten agreement that the first thing i do when i get home is go upstairs and remove my uniform and change into civilian clothes.  the reason for this is two-fold:  first, it gets me out of "military" or "officer" mode.  when i come home, after dealing with marines and sailors all day, it can be very tempting to interact with my family in that short, gruff manner, which makes for a tense evening.  second, it helps me to leave at work the stress of dealing with everyone else's problems all day.  granted, there are times i have to pick that back up if i get called, but otherwise i choose to focus on my family and not the marine or sailor that is having marital difficulties.  this principle is especially important at work.  many of the marines and sailors i deal with are sent to me because they are unable to leave their home problems at home, and as a result their job performance suffers.  politics is a particularly stressful profession, and a person inept at managing their own personal life could potentially make poor choices, which could have disastrous consequences because their decisions affect not just them, but those that they are leading.  however, there are those who are able to manage both their personal and professional lives and are able to keep them separate very effectively.  in this case, a person's personal life does not affect their ability to lead.  however, what their personal life does affect, is how they lead.

a person's personal life is made up of two key elements:  circumstances and responses.  throughout a person's life, a variety of circumstances, both positive and negative, happen every second of every day.  it is not the circumstances that are the key defining character of a person's life, but rather the response that is initiated by the circumstances that determines the substance of the person.  what guides how a person responds to their circumstances?  that person's morals, which are a direct reflection of their ethical framework.  now, morals and ethics are subjects that one can spend years studying and still not exhaust all of the information throughout history pertaining to the two.  so to give you a short definition of the two, morals are a person's sense of right and wrong.  your morals will determine whether or not you will steal that candy bar when no one is looking, or whether you will point a rifle at someone who has wronged you and pull the trigger, or whether you will invite that young lady you met in a bar on a business trip back to your hotel room.  your morals are determined by your ethics.  ethics is how a person determines right from wrong.  ethics is applied to all sorts of fields, such as military ethics, medical ethics, business ethics, etc.  these fields lay out specific guidelines as to what makes a decision right or wrong within that given field.  but they all fall under what is called normative ethics.  normative ethics is our philosophy of what makes things right or wrong.  our normative ethics are based on things such as our religious background, family background, cultural backgroud, etc.  for instance, a CHRISTian's normative ethics should come from the Bible.  notice i said should, because not all CHRISTians follow this practice.  moreover, a person from a culture of racism may not see the evil of racism, and may even use the same Scriptures that condemn it, to support it (always out of context, i might add!).  while this is not meant to be a class on ethics and morals, i wanted to clarify what the two were, and to differentiate between the two, so that you have a better working knowledge of the subject for the next portion.

back to the topic at hand.  as stated before, a person's personal life (made up of their circumstances and responses, which are a direct reflection of their morals and ethical framework) does not affect their ability to lead.  adolph hitler was a phenomenal leader, in the strictest sense of the word.  he led people to follow him whole-heartedly and to condone the slaughter of millions of innocent people.  cult leaders have been very effective leaders, even leading people to their death.  but there is a difference between being an effective leader (sometimes called a good leader, which really is an improper use of the word), and being a righteous, just, and fair leader (which more appropriately could be called a good leader).  so while a person's personal life does not affect their ability to lead, it will affect the direction in which they lead. 

a person's leadership is not independent of their moral and ethical framework, instead, it is dependent on it.  a person's sense of right and wrong will determine the decisions they make in their personal life, and consequently, their political life.  if a person has shown the lack of commitment in being married to the person they are supposed to be the closest to, that lack of commitment will carry over to other areas.  we live in a society today where the idea of commitment and dedication are foreign, outdated at best.  if we have a leader that models that same lack of commitment, you can rest assured it will be reflected in other commitments.  if a person has shown lack of regard for the sanctity of human life, it will be reflected in their decisions on abortion, euthanasia, etc.  if a person demonstrates an attitude of using truth when it's convenient, it follows that one will find it hard to believe them whenever they are questioned about a stance, policy, etc.  many politicians today live more in the area of situational ethics and moral relativism.  situational ethics states that the ends justify the means.  for example, it is ok if you cheat this group just so long as you are using it to benefit another less fortunate group (the robin hood principle).  this is particularly dangerous when a person uses situational ethics in areas such as warfare and medicine.  a scenario that might play out to where a government finds it okay to drop a bomb leveling an entire village, killing innocents, just so long as the intended target is killed.  a medical example could play out to where prisoners are used as test subjects for disease cures, because after all, they are bad people so they don't deserve the same ethical treatment as the general population.  moral relativism is similar in theory to situational ethics, but it is on a more personal level.  a moral relativist says, "what's right for me may not be right for you", and vice versa.  the problem with this is it is devoid of any sort of absolute authority.  this is dangerous when applied to areas such as finance and family.

why is this important?  history has shown that in every great and mighty civilization, regardless of the religion of the civilization, their downfall was always immediately preceded by an ethical and moral degradation within that society.  this is true for the greeks, the romans, the turks, and various other groups.  the united states has been one of the great civilizations of the last 200 years, but is on the verge of a downfall.  europe is a perfect example of what happens when a society gravitates towards moral bankruptcy.  at one time, europe was the center of CHRISTianity, but now is anything but, and is facing economic and societal collapse.  lawlessness is starting to manifest itself in some of the bigger cities, and will increasingly grow worse as time goes on.  we are seeing tremors of this in the united states today.  the occupy movements are just foreshadows of the times to come, unless a change is made.  politicians would like for you to believe that the change needed is a fiscal one, but the real change needed is a paradigm shift in the ethics and morals that have taken root in the past 40-50 years.  we must elect leaders who have a strong sense of ethics and morals.  this business of shifting your position based on your numbers in the polls or who is funding your office will only produce leaders who will lead our country into ruin.  george washington said, "america is great, because she is good.  when america ceases to be good, she will cease to be great."

this year, as election season approaches, pay no attention to frightening images being portrayed in front of us on the television, and instead, do pay attention to the man behind the curtain.  look not only at a politician's stances, but look at their voting records in the past.  do your research.  don't choose a candidate because they are of a certain party, or because they are of a certain race, religion, economic group, etc.  choose a candidate that has a proven record of consistent and ethical decision making.  but most importantly, for CHRISTians, choose a candidate based on how they line up with Scripture and only after much prayer and fasting.  and remember the example of the israelites:  they wanted a king.  they did not seek God's face on whether or not they needed a king.  they wanted a king.  so God gave them what they wanted, and Scripture tells us that Saul was a ruthless and evil king that led them into ruin.  ask God who HE would have you vote for, then follow.  He is one leader that will never lead you wrong!

te-bow, or not te-bow. . .

so there seems to be a lot of controversy about a particular football player named tim tebow, particularly about his faith, more specifically about his perceived over-zealousness for that faith.  now, it was just a matter of time before i had to interject my own take on the issue, especially when it's considered a controversial topic.

the first point of contention with mr. tebow is with a particular atheist group, saying that he is using his faith for publicity.  while i will say that his faith seems to have taken the spotlight as of recently, i do not believe it to be solely his own doing.  many players have been known for being devoutly CHRISTian, and have also been known for outward expressions of faith, particularly when accomplishing some feat, such as scoring touchdowns.  this is not purely a football phenomena, either.  we can see examples of the devout engaging in public displays of faith (pdf's) in baseball, basketball, and even golf!  so what makes mr. tebow any different than any of the other players engaging in pdf's?  to accurately examine this, we need only reference the question, "does man make history, or does history make the man?"  to break it down more, is mr. tebow the football player popular because he is a CHRISTian, or is mr. tebow the CHRISTian popular because he is a football player?  while you can argue both, i believe the correct answer lies in the second question.

mr. tebow has accomplished a significant amount during his career as a football player.  he currently holds records in his school, the sec, and the ncaa, along with being the first sophomore to win the prestigious heisman trophy.  he was a heisman finalist his junior and senior years in college as well.  it was there that he gained his notoriety for his faith when a reporter asked him about his sex life and mr. tebow replied that he was a virgin.  from there, the ncaa decided to ban writing on the eye-black that the players wore under their eyes, which became known as the "tebow rule", because he regularly had Bible verse references written on his.  there were other players that engaged in this as well, but tim tebow had been thrust to the forefront of the sports faith heroes category due to that earlier interview.  however, if mr. tebow had been a mediocre player or a 3rd string benchwarmer, there would have been no interview, and some other player would have been singled out for the eye-black controversy.  this principle carries over to today, with the current trend of "tebowing", that resulted from a picture taken of mr. tebow bowing in the end zone after scoring a touchdown.  this inspired people , both of faith and not of faith, to imitate the position, and became the craze of the week.  again, many players have bowed and pointed to heaven and carried out other gestures of faith when scoring touchdowns, but none have gained the notoriety that mr. tebow has.  was it because of the particular knee he used?  maybe if he would have bowed on his other knee, then it wouldn't have become such an issue?  no!  it is because he is a rookie quarterback, starting the year as back-up quarterback for the denver broncos, and has helped gain his team a spot in the playoffs.  i can guarantee you, if i was to walk up to a news camera and kneel down in front of it with my hands together in front of my chest, people would label me as a nutjob.  i can also guarantee you that it would go no further, and that the news station would not air it, other than for a good joke, and there sure wouldn't be any national craze called "westing"!  the simple fact is, mr. tebow is an accomplished football player, and that has been the spring board that has caused his faith to take center stage.

another recent article was written by none other than mr. big mouth, charles barkley, referring to tim tebow as a "national nightmare", because of the focus on his faith.  in a day when professional sports players regularly make headlines due to their many indiscretions (michael vick's electric dog salon, the michael irving cuff-em and stuff-em shuffle, or the brett favre greeting picturegram), the media has been waiting for someone like mr. tebow.  you can rest assured that the motivation there is not a pure one.  the same media that is focusing so hard on a rising star that is rooted in his faith, is licking their chops waiting to be the first one to get the scoop if he is caught in some compromising situation.  he is simply the flavor of the month for the news media.  if you notice, the sports media does not focus so much on his faith, but instead on the game winning touchdown he threw against the steelers.  rather, it is the news media that focuses on mr. tebow, the CHRISTian, and not mr. tebow the football player.

all that being said, i have to say that i admire tim tebow, although i personally do not care for the denver broncos.  whether he is genuine in his faith (which i believe he is), or whether it is all just a big publicity stunt, he is getting the gospel out there to people who might otherwise never hear it.  the Bible says that to whom much is given, much is required, and that it is required of a steward to be found faithful.  mr. tebow is using his notoriety to give glory to God, and we know that God will honor that, regardless of mr. tebow's motives.  after mr. tebow wrote "john 3:16" on his eye-black during the 2009 bcs championship game, the verse became the top search on google for the next 24 hours, racking up over 90 million searches!  subsequently, when he changed the verse to proverbs 3:5-6, it garnered 3.43 million searches.  mr. tebow is using the talent and resulting fame that God has blessed him with to reach untold millions for CHRIST.  next year, some other player will take the spotlight, and the controversy surrounding tim tebow will have died down.  the liberal media and the atheist community that want to strip CHRISTianity from society will find a new target to go after, and mr. tebow will become another quarterback like all the rest, that will finish out his career, and continue to inspire the faithful.  in the meantime, we as CHRISTians need to applaud people like mr. tebow and continue to lift him up in prayer.  pray that pride does not take root in his life as a result of the publicity, and pray that God places people in his life to keep him grounded in his faith, because you can bet that he is on the top ten list for satan and his minions.  they are going to try and place temptations in front of him, and to bring him down for the whole world to see.  so pray.  and follow tim tebow's example, and use whatever influence you may have, no matter how broad or how limited, to reach those around you for CHRIST.  be a faithful steward.

the most loved woman in Scripture

now that we've discussed joseph, it's time to get to the other member of the "holy couple".  throughout Scripture, few women are revered and loved to the extent that mary, the mother of CHRIST, was and is.  there are churches named for her, she is worshipped in some sects of CHRISTianity, and songs have been written about her.  she is considered the model of piety for women, and yet, very few truly understand this remarkable young woman. 

as i have stated in many of my previous posts, i believe that the romanticism of CHRISTmas has greatly diminished our understanding of the reality of the birth narratives of CHRIST that we celebrate each year on december 25th.  in my last post, i burst the bubble of misconception surround joseph, and i intend to pull back the curtain and show you the mary behind the curtain of romanticism that she is hidden by today.  when you go into churches, regardless of the denomination, any statues or pictures of mary usually portray her as a woman in her late 20's to early 30's, dressed in beautiful, long flowing robes.  when we see her in the nativity scenes, she is a beautiful, fair-skinned young woman, looking as if she just got back from the beautician, her make-up flawless, and her kneeling by the manger looking peacefully at her Son lying there, and sometimes having a glowing aura around her head.  so go ahead, take our your metaphorical mental eraser, and wipe that picture from your minds whilst i grab my metaphorical mental paint brushes and prepare to paint you a new picture of mary.  ready?

for starters, i want to correct any misconceptions that we have of mary's age.   mary, was not a woman in her 20's, or even late teens.  she was more than likely in her early teens when she found out that she was pregnant with Jesus.  how do we know this?  in biblical times, betrothal usually took place when a woman reached her 13th birthday.  even today, in the middle east, girls are still betrothed as young as 8 or 9 years old.  the betrothal period lasted for one year, and during that time, the bride to be lived in the house with her parents while her groom spent time preparing for their marriage by securing a house, furniture, and beginning work in his occupation to establish a business capable of supporting a family.  the couple was considered married, and a divorce had to be granted in order to break a betrothal, which was only allowed in the case of adultery.  during the betrothal, the couple would spend time together in the house of the husband's family, to allow for the bride to get to know her in-laws, because once the marriage was complete, she would  be a part of that family, no longer belonging to her old family.  the marriage was not complete until it was consummated, which took place after the marriage ceremony, which was when the groom finished establishing a home and gathered the wedding party and traveled in processional to claim his bride and take her into his tent to consummate the marriage and make it complete (with everyone outside waiting anxiously for him to come out with the tell-tale proof of his bride's virginity!  talk about pressure!).  so we know that mary would have been living with joseph's family during their betrothal, when she found out she was pregnant.   this means that she was a very young girl when the angel first came to her and told her that she had found favor with God and was to be pregnant.  when mary asked, very innocently, how that was possible, considering that she had not known a man (that is Bible speak for not having been sexually intimate with a man), the angel basically told her that God would make it happen, to not worry about it.  so while mary was young, in those days, she would have known enough about basic biology to know how things worked.  young people in those days were expected to much more mature at a younger age than young people are today. 

the second picture i would like to correct is how refreshed and well-kept mary looks in the nativity scenes.  keep in mind that she had just finished a three to four day journey either on foot, or on the back of some animal such as a donkey or a camel, across mountains and desert, being in her third trimester of pregnancy.  we like to think that she was probably in her ninth month, but it is possible that she was earlier along and the stress of the trip on her body caused her to go into labor prematurely.  as stated before, in those days there were no hospitals or neonatal care units to take care of newborns.  she was having to rely on an inexperienced, young, scared husband to help her through a very difficult delivery process.  she had just witnessed this process a few months back with her cousin elizabeth as elizabeth gave birth to john the baptist, so she knew a little about what to expect.  so now, she is having to coach her husband through assisting her with delivering the Baby, with the added stress of the baby possibly coming earlier than expected and having to give birth in such squalid conditions.  we know that mary appeared to be a strong young woman, despite her age, but this was physically, emotionally, and mentally taxing for her.  so after this ordeal, she was anything but the picture of beauty and energy that we see in the nativity scenes.  for anyone that has ever seen pictures of mothers in the hours after they gave birth, you know that one, most women are appalled for people to even see the pictures of them looking their worst, and two, the women are definitely not ready to be entered in the miss usa pageant!  so if you want an accurate picture of mary at the nativity, picture a young, middle eastern woman, hair frazzled, face dirty from sweat and the dust of traveling, facial features sunken in from dehydration, exhaustion, and sleep deprivation.  add to that the frustration of having to sleep on the hard, cold ground, navigating the difficulties of the first few times at breastfeeding, and a group of social outcasts being the only ones to welcome her newborn Child into the world, and you have the makings of a very irritable woman that you probably would not want to spend much time around!  the only buffer for her would have been the joy of having a newborn Baby, which any mother will tell you is a joy like no other!

imagine what must have been going through mary's head.  here she was, a young woman, having to endure the whispers and the shuns of those around her for something that only she understood and only God had control over.  now, for all of her faithfulness, she was rewarded by not having a decent place to have the Child that she had put up with so much for, and the welcoming party was not royalty or even the religious leaders, but rather a scraggly group of homeless shepherds.  she had a very uncertain future ahead, but would have been convinced that it was not going to be an easy future.

today, as we look around us, there are those that are like mary.  they have found favor with God and have been chosen to be used by God to accomplish His will.  they are the lottie moons, the corrie ten booms, the mother theresas of our generation.  there are those that God is using despite their age.  there are those that are suffering tremendous heartache and ridicule for their commitment to God's call on their life.

this CHRISTmas, are you a mary?  has God called you to do something that you know is going to be hard, you know is going to be rife with heartache and suffering?  when you wonder how you could possibly endure such hardship if you answer God's call, take a look at mary.  very few have had to risk more than she.  she knew what it could possibly mean for her when people found out about her pregnancy.  in her society, it meant that she would have been ushered by crowd into a corner, and large stones weighing anywhere from 5 to 15 pounds would have been thrown on top of her until she was dead.  when you try and rationalize and say, "well, she was chosen by God, so God was looking out for her," you have to remember that if God is calling you to do anything, He is going to give you the strength to accomplish it.  mary was human, and was no different than anyone else.  we see her flaws later in a few instances in Jesus' life, all earning His rebuke:  when she was upset about Him being at the temple at 12, and when she tried with His brothers to pull Him out of a house because of doubt.  we do know that in place of her difficulties, she had the greatest gift perhaps any person in the world has ever been blessed with:  she was able to spend more one on one physical time with the Creator of the universe.  while you may not get that level of blessing, rest assured that if you are following God's calling, you will experience a greater happiness and peace than any this world can ever offer.  in every case, the blessings outweigh the hardships. 

or perhaps you are young, as i know many that read these posts are.  remember that mary was a young woman herself when she was asked to take on an extraordinary calling.  remember that paul told timothy to not let anyone look down on him simply because he was young, and the same goes for the young people today.  having spent time as a youth pastor, i can honestly say that i have seen more spiritual maturity in some of my middle schoolers than in most adults i have met in the church.  when you are young, you have more freedom to serve God than you will when you become an adult and have the pressures of life demanding your time and attention.  remember, mary could have politely declined the angel's offer, but she didn't.  she actually responded by saying she was God's doulos, meaning His bondservant.  a bondservant was a freed slave that willingly bound themselves to a master as a voluntary servant, which is what God asks of us.  we should have the same attitude as mary.  when God calls us, we, like mary, should respond with a whole-hearted "yes!"  because of mary's obedience, she is one of the most remembered women in history, coming in a close second behind eve.  who knows, God may have a tremendous blessing waiting for you, if you will just become His doulos!

 

do i look like i have "stupid" written on my forehead?

one of my favorite characters in the CHRISTmas story is joseph.  i really am amused at how he is portrayed in the nativity scenes on everyone's coffee tables, mantles, church altars, etc.  the scene is set.  a nice, clean, stable.  animals surrounding the baby Jesus, resting peacefully.  well dressed shepherds, usually holding a lamb in their arms.  and the blessed couple, sitting by the caucasian, blonde haired, blue eyed baby Jesus, lying in a crib, er manger with clean, golden hay spilling over (that usually looks more like a crib than a feeding trough), and  making the peace sign with His holy little baby fingers!  but the most striking of them all is joseph.  standing slightly behind and to the right of mary, hands at his chest, gazing on the infant CHRIST, a picture of strength and confidence!  well, i'm here today with my big, sharp pin, ready to burst that bubble of a utopian nativity, especially when it comes to joseph!

okay, use your imagination with me for a second (that's the thing that used to make you believe you were superman when you were a kid with a towel around your neck about to jump off the back of the couch and fly!  dig deep, it's still in there somewhere!), and forget you are in the year 2011, with all of your creature comforts:  specifically the health department, the hospital, automobiles, serta posturpedic mattress,  central heat, and paternity tests (sorry maury povich, you wouldn't have had a good show back then!).  now, your fiance', whom you do not know that well, and more than likely is your fiance' because your parents made an arrangement with her family, (and is probably only 13 or 14 to boot!) comes to you and tells you that she is pregnant.  keep in mind that you know that you have not touched her, for fear of the repercussions if you did (which usually meant death by stoning, or at minimum shame for your family and loss of dowry for you and death for her).  you have been spending the last months getting your house ready for her to move into with you upon your marriage, as was required by jewish law, and are apprenticed to a carpenter making very little money, if any, to support a family.  your world goes into a tailspin.  as a very young man, you are now being forced to make decisions that not only affect your life, but the life of your fiance', your fiance's family, her unborn child, and your family as well.  then, to throw even more confusion into your life, your fiance' tells you that she has not had sex with anyone, and that the Baby was put there by God.  when you tell your family, they tell you that you are a fool if you believe such a story, and you should make sure that the little tramp is punished for her adultery and shaming of you.  when you finally get over your initial shock, you decide to show compassion and break up with her privately rather than make a public example of her.  you go to tell her the bad news, and she is gone!  you find out that she has left and traveled to her cousin's house in another town miles away, making her story look all the more suspect! 

while she's gone, you have plenty of time to portray scenarios in your mind.  you start picturing her with every guy you have ever seen her talk to.  you go to work each day and wonder who all knows.  during the midst of this confusion, you have a dream at night and an angel appears to you in that dream and tells you that your wife's story is true, and that her Child is of God.  you are to marry her and be a father to that Child.  what's more, this Child will be the Messiah, the CHRIST that all of israel has been hoping for, and you are to name him Immanuel, which means "God with us"! 

after your fiance' returns, you talk with her and take her as your wife, and everyone can now see the tell-tale bump of a pregnancy.  you know that they are doing the math in their heads and counting the number of months you have been married along with how far along she obviously is, and the whispers and accusing glances start.  your business as a carpenter suffers because of your reputation, so it makes it difficult to get by financially.  then, just as you are finally getting used to the idea, you get word that you now have to travel a three to four day journey with your wife, who is in her ninth month of pregnancy, because of a census that caesar has mandated.  you now have to deal with a pregnant, uncomfortable wife, having to stop every couple of hours for her to go to the bathroom.  you have to listen to a teenager, already going nuts hormonally, magnified by the pregnancy, complain about being hot, tired, ready to get "this Baby out of her", and you are only 20 years old at the oldest (more than likely he was probably around 16)! 

you finally get to bethlehem, and you know very few people there.  your family is from there, so there has to be some relatives that you can maybe stay with, but you honestly do not know most of them (kind of like going to a family reunion today!).  while you are looking for a place to stay, everyone notices the late stage of pregnancy that your wife is in, and they begin to do the math and ask the questions:  "now how long have you two been married?  ahh, i see."  you are shunned by your family, and your wife goes into labor.  you have never experienced a childbirth, and there is no midwife there to help you with her.  you are scared witless.  you have probably never seen your wife without her clothes on, and now, you are about to help deliver a Baby and see your wife in ways you are not prepared to!  to top it off, there is nowhere to deliver the Baby!  there are no hospitals, and bethlehem is a small farming community, unaccustomed to tourists, so there are no hotels, save maybe one or two, and they are full as well.  you find an out of the way place, because you do not want everyone to see all of "her business" as she has the Baby, which just happens to be a cave out on the outskirts of town.  it is smelly, damp, cool, and moldy, and there are possibly a few sweaty animals tied in there while their owners are in town.  you hold your wife's arms up while she squats over a hole that you managed to lay a camel-hair blanket in to catch the Baby.  after what is probably hours of labor (but you can rest assured the familiar "you did this to me!" was never directed at joseph, so that's one positive!) the Baby comes out, and is not the perfect newborn that you have been used to seeing.  He is gray, covered with blood and amniotic fluid, and still attached by an umbilical cord.  you know that people don't have those things hanging from their belly anymore, so you obviously have to cut it off.  you get your knife, and cut the cord, but it bleeds profusely.  you manage to get some twine and tie it off, and you have to lay your wife on the ground and tend to the Baby.  you get Him wrapped up in the only semi-clean thing you can find, which are long strips of cloth that were laying in the corner, the kind that were used to bind a corpse before burying it.  your wife is exhausted, you are exhausted, and you can't just lay the Child on the ground.  one of the animals could possibly step on Him, and it's very cold and drafty on the ground, so you lay Him in the hollowed out area in the wall that is used to hold feed for the animals.  you try to wife away the filth as best you can, and you grab some hay to make it a little more comfortable for Him and lay Him in it.  you help tend to your wife, and get her cleaned up as best you can, and you rest your back against the wall and your wife lays her head in your lap and falls asleep.  after a little while, the Baby is hungry and crying, so you give Him to His exhausted mother and she breastfeeds Him, which you are again being forced to witness firsthand for the first time.  just as you think everything is calm for the moment (maybe this is the "all is calm, all is bright" moment in the song, but i doubt it!), a group of smelly shepherds come into the cave being very loud rambling about an angel appearing to them and wanting to see the CHRIST-Child!  at this point, you have had enough, and most normal guys would have snapped by now and started throwing things, but you are too exhausted to put up a fight, so you say sure.  one of the shepherds wants to hold Him, but you manage to convince him that the Baby just finished feeding and needs to rest so you win that battle.  they leave, and you and your wife, and your newborn Son, are left in peace for the moment. 

okay, you can come back to reality!  i'm serious, breathe.  it was all just your imagination!  calm down!  still think joseph was the calm, picture of strength that we see in the nativity scenes?  if so, you are either in a severe state of denial, or you weren't paying attention!  but you know what?  i admire joseph.  and i think that he is a good example for us today as we go into this CHRISTmas season. 

there are two main things we can learn from joseph.  first, was his compassion.  how many of us, when we feel wronged, want revenge?  we want to somehow get our version of justice.  most of us can agree, that there is nothing more hurtful than unfaithfulness.  whether it's a girlfriend, boyfriend, fiance', or spouse, betrayal on that level hurts more than most things you can think of.  joseph would have been well within his rights if mary was indeed unfaithful to have her exposed as an adulteress (in those days, when you were betrothed, you were considered married, the marriage just was not consummated yet, so it would have been considered adultery).  he believed her to be one, so for him to show compassion and end the relationship privately and quietly says a lot for his character. 

the second character trait we can learn from joseph is his obedience.  he could have given up and walked away and gave mary a bill of divorce at any time.  but he didn't, no matter how hard it got.  he obeyed God's command and took her as his wife, despite the impact it had on his reputation (Jesus was later referred to as the Son of mary, indicating that everyone considered Him a bastard child, which would have started at Jesus' birth).  we know that he was poor by the animals he brought to the temple.  two turtle doves was the minimum sacrifice for the poor who couldn't afford a lamb.  carpenters typically made a decent living, so for joseph to be poor as a carpenter, it was an indication that his business suffered either from lack of time to establish it, or his reputation, or both.  either way, he took on the awesome responsibility of raising the Messiah as his own, providing for Him and mary as best he could.

we do not hear any more of joseph except when Jesus was 12 at the temple.  after that, Joseph is never referenced again in Scripture.  Jesus' brothers and His mother were mentioned again, but not joseph.  most scholars believe that this was because joseph died shortly after the time at the temple.  this would have been an historical reason for Jesus' having never been married.  it was the father's responsibility to find a wife for his son, which usually occurred in the mid-teen years.  we do not know how he died, but we do know that he lived long enough to instill the trade of carpentry to his Son.

this year, are you being a joseph?  are you extending mercy to those whom you feel do not warrant it?  this is the time when God sent His Son to earth to extend that same mercy to us, so we should be especially astute to it this time of year.  and are you being obedient, even in the midst of adversity?  have you been tempted to throw in the towel?  there are times i have looked around at the difficulties i have went through as a CHRISTian, and notice all of those out there who are anything but and are prospering, and i was tempted to say, "forget it.  i'm done with the ministry.  i'm going to use my biology degree and forget this whole ministry thing!"  living the CHRISTian life is tough.  CHRIST never promised us a bed of roses.  in fact, He promised us the exact opposite.  He said that we will be hated for His name's sake.  so when you feel you are going through a difficult time or dealing with a difficult person, remember joseph, know that you are not the first to experience it, and you definitely won't be the last, and model joseph's mercy and obedience!

i just wanna be a sheep!

whenever i watch a CHRISTmas pageant at a church, i am always amused by the characters that are portrayed by the children.  there's always the marys and the josephs, the magi, the shepherds and angels.  sometimes there is usually a live baby to portray Jesus if the child's parents are particularly brave and trusting.  although, the child playing Jesus, in my experience, does not have to be a boy (i have seen girls, even ones in little CHRISTmas dresses), and does not necessarily have to be a newborn (i have seen toddlers in the manger!  i never knew hebrew women gave birth to 20 lb babies!).  however, one of the most memorable characters i have seen was a child at a church in the town where i attended in seminary who was playing a sheep.  the usual practice is to give the more talkative ones (like i used to be) the parts with the most speaking such as an angel, a shepherd, etc., and the more shy ones were given the parts that required no speaking.  well this particular year, in an effort to include everyone, the children's director felt the need to even give children the roles of farm animals.  maybe the director misjudged this young boy's shyness, or perhaps acting was his way of expressing himself, but for whatever reason this particular sheep must have missed the memo that he was a sheep for a reason, and was less than content to stay in the background unnoticed.  throughout the production, about every minute or so, you would hear a loud "baaaaaaaaa" coming from this sheep.  the crowd would snicker, the actors would look over at the over-amorous sheep in annoyment at first, and eventually would end up giggling with the crowd as the production waxed on.  this only further encouraged the sheep-who-would-not-be-ignored.  by the time it was over, very few people remembered much about the play, save that little 3 year old boy and his heralding sheep!

as mentioned in my last post, there were two characters in the CHRISTmas story that always get looked over, but deserve their own chance in the spotlight of CHRISTmas.  the first was simeon.  simeon was of the tribe and house of judah, being a representative of CHRIST's hope for the jews located in israel.  the second person in the story is anna, the prophetess.  she is mentioned in luke's gospel right after simeon's story is told, and her portion of the story is smaller than simeon's, yet contains just as much relevance then, as it does now.  like that little sheep, her story is crying out from the background, refusing to be ignored (which is why luke included her). 

as we get into her story, we always need to remember that every story, every person, and every event from the Bible is included for a reason (even the genealogies of the old testament).  God clearly wants to communicate some truth to us, and we simply need to dig a little bit (after all, treasure is not always left in the open!) to find that truth!

the first thing that we see in anna's story is that she was a prophetess.  in those days, women were considered lower than men, and held to tighter scrutiny, so for her to be recognized as a prophetess, she would have needed to have an impeccable reputation (a prophet during that day would have been stoned if even one of their prophecies proved wrong), especially if she was to be respected by the men. 

the second thing that we see is that she was of the tribe of asher.  now, at face value, this does not seem like much, but when you do some research, you will find that there is a whole book's worth of information in that small statement.  in a short summary, the tribe of asher was one of the northern tribes of israel, and were dispelled to the country of media (modern day iran) during the babylonian diaspora referenced in 2 Kings.  we can tell this from the name of her father, phanuel (meaning "face of God"), and her name anna (another form of hannah).  these were two names that were not popular in judea at the time of CHRIST's birth, but were popular among the diaspora because of their fondness of the book of tobit, which frequently referred to the "face of God", thus increasing the use of the name phanuel.  this was a book that called for the hope of the return of the jews in the diaspora to jerusalem.  subsequently, tobit's wife was named hannah, which led to the name's popularity among the eastern diaspora.

a third important fact was that she was an aged widow.  there were two expressions of loyalty to jerusalem among the diaspora.  the first was paying the annual half shekel temple tax, that was collected among the diaspora and then taken to the temple in jerusalem by a representative.  the second way of showing loyalty was a pilgrimage to jerusalem during the key festivals associated with the temple such as passover, pentecost, or the feast of tabernacles.  it is quite possible, and actually very likely, that anna made that pilgrimage when her husband died, and out of her love for jerusalem and the temple that was instilled by her father, committed herself to serving in the temple.  she would have known about the prophecy of the Messiah that would reclaim the glory of israel, and would have, like many others of the period, been anxiously awaiting the Messiah's coming. 

the fourth thing we see about her is that when she saw mary and joseph come in with the infant CHRIST, she immediately recognized Him as the promised Messiah through the revelation of God and began to thank God and to spread the good news of His birth to all of those who, like her, were anxiously anticipating the redemption of jerusalem.  luke intended for his readers to see that just as God chose simeon to represent the hope of the Messiah to the jews settled in israel, He also chose anna to represent that same hope to those who were still dispelled throughout the world.

today, we can see the annas among the faithful in His church, if we will just look.  there are many, like anna, that society views as lower class citizens.  even churches today tend to look down in pity on those who are maybe from a lower socioeconomic group, and some churches in sin even look down on those who are of what they consider an inferior race.  however, we see from anna's story that no matter what their standing in society is, they can be, and are, used by God.  we can also see her faithfulness despite her circumstances.  there are many that find it a hassle to drive 15 minutes to church each week, yet she was willing to make the long pilgrimage to jerusalem, braving scorching heat, wild animals, and thieves along the way.  i can remember my dad telling me how he used to walk to church every sunday morning, which was a considerable distance from his house, and unless he caught a ride with someone, it would take him a couple of hours to get there.  he would leave early in the morning, get to church and stay there all day until after the evening service, and then walk back.  very few of us have that level of commitment today.  but still, there are those in parts of the world, that brave arrest, death, and all sorts of other dangers, just to go to church each week.

there are also those, like anna, that have chosen to take their tragedies and use them to minister to others.  steven curtis chapman's family lost a child due to a tragic automobile accident in their driveway a few years back.  statisticians will tell you that a marriage that loses a child has a very high probability of ending in divorce.  yet, the chapmans have turned their tragedy into a ministry to others who have gone through the loss of a child.  and finally, God chose anna to reveal His promise to a group that was for all practical purposes an afterthought.  we know from josephus, the jewish historian of that time, that jews in jerusalem still held the jews of the diaspora in high regard, but for the most part, the diaspora was disconnected.  had it not been for a few faithful like anna, they might have been totally absorbed into the pagan cultures of the babylonians.  there are those out there today that feel disconnected for whatever reason or another.  they are the neighborhoods that are avoided.  they are the countries that are closed to the gospel.  they are the CHRISTians that feel abandoned by the church (many rightfully so).  but among those, there are the faithful, staying hopeful, and telling everyone who needs hope, like them, about the Messiah and the hope He brings.

are there any of you out there that feel like you are disconnected?  or maybe that God can't use you because of your particular circumstances?  perhaps a tragedy has struck you and you have lost hope.  take heart, and learn from anna.  God can still use you, and wants to use you, if you just make yourself available to Him.  if you are out there and you are an anna, keeping the faith, always hoping and telling others about Him, stay strong.  finish the race.  you may be the only representative of the one Hope that those around you will ever see!  be that sheep, never settling for a lesser part, but doing all that you can to be the best sheep, the best anna, that you possibly can!

why is that weird old guy following us around the temple?

in the song "rudolph the red-nosed reindeer", it starts "you know dasher and dancer and prancer and vixen, comet and cupid and donder and blitzen".  in the true CHRISTmas story, we can begin it the same way, "you know mary and joseph and caesar and herod, the wise men, elizabeth, the angels and shepherds."  however, just like in "rudolph", there are two commonly overlooked characters in the CHRISTmas story.  some will say that they came into the story a month after Jesus was born, so technically they aren't part of the CHRISTmas story, but yet they feel it acceptable to include the magi, arriving some two years after CHRIST's birth, in their nativity scenes.  by comparison, these two belong more in the CHRISTmas story than the magi or herod.  so the person that i will focus on first is a man named simeon. 

simeon, according to ancient history, was one of the 70 elders commissioned by the Egyption pharoah ptolemy II philadelphus to translate the holy scriptures into greek to be included in the great library of alexandria.  according to tradition, during this task that simeon was assigned the book of isaiah to translate, and when he came to the passage, "behold, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son", he felt that it should be translated "young woman" instead of "virgin".  it was at that point that an angel intervened and revealed to him that a pure and spotless virgin would indeed conceive and give birth to the Lord's CHRIST, and furthermore, it was revealed that simeon would not see death until he had seen the Lord's CHRIST with his own eyes.  now granted, this is what tradition says, and did not make it into the Bible, so we cannot place much authority on the accuracy of what transpired (after all, according to tradition, simeon was 376 years old when he died).  however, we can learn a very valuable lesson from this seemingly minor character of the CHRISTmas story. 

what we do have in the Bible, is that simeon was a devout and righteous man, and that it was indeed revealed to him that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord's CHRIST.  we also know that the Holy Spirit was upon him, and that he was led by the Spirit into the temple on the very day that mary and joseph brought the infant Jesus in to be presented to the Lord, along with a sacrifice of two turtle doves (this is where the gift of the second day of CHRISTmas comes from), as was required by jewish law.  while there, we can imagine the young mary and joseph, already frazzled from the journey to jerusalem from bethlehem with an infant, wondering about this old man that was following them around the temple.  you can also imagine their surprise and apprehension when the old man came over and was probably overcome with joy and emotion as he took the infant CHRIST from His mother's arms and began praising God and saying, "Lord, let your servant depart in peace, according to Your Word, for my eyes have seen Your Salvation, which you have prepared before all people; a light to lighten the gentiles, and the glory of my people israel!"  the Bible wraps it up nice and neat and says that mary and joseph "marvelled" at what he said, which is probably better translated, "either this guy is a few shekels short of a denari or God keeps making this weirder and weirder for us!"  we know that he also spoke to mary, telling her that Jesus was to bring about the fall and rising again of many in israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against, and that a sword would pierce through her soul as well.  keep in mind that mary and joseph knew that Jesus was special, and that He was sent from God, but even they did not know what fate awaited him in 33 years, nor the extent of His impact on the world.

so how, knowing what we know about simeon, does that translate to us today?  what does one promise made to a very old man 2000 years ago mean for us? 

first, we can see that God keeps His promises.  there are different levels of promises for us.  there are general promises, that apply to all people.  there are specific promises, that apply to certain groups of people. and there are personal promises that God makes to us individually either through His Word, or through His speaking to our hearts.  if you ever want to be encouraged, start studying the promises in Scripture that we can hold on to for hope.  just as God kept His promise to simeon (perhaps he did live to be 376, making that promise all the more true), He keeps His promises to us.  perhaps God has promised something to you, and right now, it just doesn't seem probable that God is coming through on His end.  we need to remember that God's timing is not ours, and in our microwave-fast food society of getting what we want when we want it, that can be difficult.  remember that it took over 400 years for the prophecy of isaiah to come to pass, so God will hold true to His Word, just on His time, not ours. 

finally, we see simeon's faithfulness.  if he had not been faithful to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, he would have missed seeing the Lord's CHRIST.  had he not been righteous and devout, he might not have heard the Spirit's prompting.  the Bible tells us that God speaks to us through His Holy Spirit, and that we can muffle the Spirit's voice by allowing sin in our lives.  this year, perhaps the Spirit is telling you to do something in particular.  i spoke with a fellow chaplain earlier that is serving meals this year at a soup kitchen on CHRISTmas because he felt that was what the Holy Spirit was leading him and his wife to do.  if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, can you hear Him?  or are your spiritual ears deafened by the loudness of life or clogged by unrepentant sin?  maybe you do hear Him, but are choosing to either ignore Him or blatantly disobey Him?  have you decided that something else in your life is more important than what He is calling you to do?  if so, you may just miss the blessing of a lifetime.  don't believe me?  if you could ask simeon, i'm sure he would tell you the same! 

and you thought the grinch was bad!

whenever people try and romanticize CHRISTmas and make it seem like a story that you might see on the lifetime or hallmark channel, it would behoove them to read "the rest of the story".  most people stop at the leaving of the magi, and they miss the portion of the story that sets the pace for the rest of Jesus's life here on earth.  the story briefly touches on this next character up until this point, but we do not see the true depth of who he was until we read on.  the person is herod the great. 

herod the great, though not to be confused with his son herod antipas, whom Jesus would interact with during His trial before crucifixion, was the ruling tetrarch of galilee.  herod was put in place during the reign of mark antony, and caused much dischord among the jews, being that he was not a pure blood, his mother being arabian.  herod also knew who his source of authority was, and catered to the romans.  once he took the throne, herod stripped power from the jewish aristocracy, although claiming to follow the jewish faith.  he was repeatedly accused of being "too greek", in his architecture choices and behaviour, which further irritated the jews.  he was very ambitious, building whole cities, including caesarea, which was a play to the new roman emperor caesar augustus.  one of his crowning achievements was rebuilding the temple in jerusalem as well as the amphitheatre where the sanhedrin would meet, but he also built many temples to the pantheon of gods, including the temple to the roman emperor. 

herod's thirst for power and continual challenges to his authority resulted in his becoming paranoid, eventually having two of his sons executed.  even caesar rhetorted, "it is better to be a pig in herod's house, than to be one of his sons!"  this thirst for power caused him to become very intrigued when a group of foreigners with a large procession asking about the birth place of the new king of the jews caused a stir in jerusalem.  we know from matthew's gospel that herod immediately had the magi brought before him and asked about this new king they were seeking.  he sought the help of the scribes who informed him that the Messiah was to be born in bethlehem, and then shrewdly ascertained from the magi's story that it was approximately two years earlier that the star first appeared signifying the Messiah's birth. 

here's where it gets interesting.  this is where we see the shift from a lifetime movie to something that you would find on cinemax.  herod, in an effort to protect his throne from anyone that could usurp him, had his soldiers go to bethlehem and slaughter every male child two years old and younger.  this has been referred to by ancient historians as the slaughter of the innocents.  imagine you are sitting in your home, watching your 11 month old son crawl around on the floor, as my wife and i do on a daily basis, and a soldier opens your door, walks in, draws his sword, and beheads your son right in front of you, then walks out.  this is the atrocity that herod ordered.  there was no room in his life for any king but him. 

many are like that today.  sure, there are those that are like caesar:  oblivious to the birth of the CHRIST, and happy to stay that way.  but there are others that are adamant on destroying the influence of CHRIST in theirs or anyone else's lives.  they are the ones that are fighting today to scrub the season of any reference to the birth of CHRIST.  they are the ones that file lawsuits against towns to remove their nativity scenes.  they are the minority, yet they act like everyone else should bow to them as supreme ruler.  so how do we as CHRISTians handle those people?

there are those that will tell you that we must stand up and fight them.  but history has shown that this is usually futile.  while you might win a battle, by yourself you will lose the war with them.  the answer lies in Scripture (novel idea, huh?)  the Bible says that vengeance is the Lord's, not ours.  the Bible even tells us that when we are persecuted for our faith, we are to turn the other cheek.  this is not a popular answer among CHRISTians today, but never the less, it is the Biblical answer.  does this mean that we are not to take a stand for CHRIST?  absolutely not!  we are commanded to stand for CHRIST, and we are to share that faith with the world.  but it does mean that we should not be surprised when we face adversity for it.  Jesus even said that He came not to bring peace, but to bring a sword.  the peace that the angels spoke of was not the world peace that all the pageant models long for, but rather peace between God and man through His Son's sacrifice. 

the jewish historian josephus tells us that in his last days, herod grew increasingly paranoid due to an illness (many believe it to be syphillis based on the description given) and in the end, went completely mad.  he would scream and cover his ears, saying that he could not get the screams of children out of his head.  he died a howling, tortured madman.  today, it is probably not much different for him.  he is probably still in torment, never finding the peace that we can know if we take ourselves off the throne of our lives and yield the seat to the CHRIST of CHRISTmas!