Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, "Glory to the Newborn King!"

As people of faith we have wondered and wandered the past four and a half weeks of Advent discerning God’s coming into the world. Two thousand years ago God came in a most unexpected way that we celebrate today, in the form of a vulnerable infant. The birth of the Christ child ushered us into witnessing God’s Kingdom on earth and the conquering of death. Yet, what was still more unexpected was that Christ went to the cross of death to free us from sin and give us eternal life. Such is God’s radical and wonderful Kingdom, where love knows no bounds and will go to any length for God’s creation.

Yet after Christ died on the cross and was resurrected, we have found ourselves in a world that continues to bear witness to God’s activity.  But it is one that is not completely conformed to the ways of the Lord. This life is one that the royal psalms write of and prepare us for the coming again of God.

The royal psalms as a genre within the book of psalms speak directly about the human Davidic King during certain times such as celebrating military victories, weddings, and times of mourning. As the Israelites adopted the governmental form of a monarchy they hoped that they might be saved by this king. However, they were not. King after king continually disappointed the people of God as well as God, never fulfilling their vocational calling.

During the compiling of the psalms into an enduring collection of songs and prayers, the editors found it important for some reason to keep the royal psalms despite the fact that the monarchy had been disestablished. That reason was hope that the King, not the flawed kings of old, but that the ideal and anointed King from God would come to redeem Israel. The royal psalms were kept because they offered this hope.

Such a confidence kept the faith alive that God would fulfill the covenantal promises of long ago made with our ancestors. Theologian James Limburg writes, “Even though there were no more kings, no more coronations, no more celebrations involving the monarch, the royal psalms were still used. Now they expressed the people’s hope for an ideal ruler who would come…a messiah” (Limburg, Psalms, 7). This messiah came, this messiah was born away in a manger.

Let us sing together with the saints and angels that God has indeed kept the ancient promises of salvation and redemption. Let us proclaim to all the world that God is with us. Let us go to Bethlehem to honor the Christ child, the newborn King!

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christmas Blessings,
Tom

Christmas Faith Formation

It is one week from Christmas day! Time has certainly flown by since Thanksgiving and I am trying to catch my breath in light of finals and preparing for Christmas Eve. I think I am almost there!

In thinking about Christmas, it occurred to me that a lot of my childhood memories are from this time of the year. A tree with presents. Sledding with my siblings and neighbors. Eating Christmas cookies on Sunday evening. Attending Christmas Eve service at my grandfather's church. All of these formative memories flood my mind in a somewhat nostalgic fashion. However, Christmas is also a time in which our faith is formed.

Christmas provides a time in which we eagerly await the coming of God in unexpected ways. Christmas provides a time for us to slow down and to consider how we are living out our faith, are we like the shepherd in the field or are we like Herod? Christmas is a time in which we can concretely see that God has said yes to creation by coming to us.

I'd like to share with you a video about my definition of faith formation that I created for a class. It is short (3 minutes), but it gets at this Christmas view of faith formation. That such learning is not in a straight and narrow path, but it is a narrative with twists and turns. Faith formation is a beautiful mess.

Faith Formation Definition

Happy Advent!
Tom

Waiting for Help

Cars and me do not get along very well. I'll spare you the details, but this morning I discovered I had a flat tire when I really needed to be grocery shopping. After muttering a few obscenities underneath my breath I went back inside to scour the internet for the best deals and settled on a national chain that had a decent end of the year sale. However, I had to wait until 3:00pm for an appointment unless I wanted to wait there all day long. I took the appointment and began working on papers for my courses because it is finals week of all weeks! So I began to wait.

I went back outside at 1:30pm giving myself plenty of time in case any problem should arise...and of course it did. I emptied the trunk into the back seat (wow I have a lot of crap back there!) to get at the spare. I lifted up the false bottom to get at the spare tire and I discovered it had no air in it. Not enough to limp to a gas station to fill it, absolutely no air was in it. It was like a tire on a bike during the winter, you could squish the rubber down to the rim.

So I went to my neighbor's door and knocked hoping she could give me a ride to the nearest gas station to fill it up. I waited there pondering what would I do if she did not answer or could not help me. "I could walk or jog there, it wouldn't take too long. But then I probably wouldn't make my appointment" I told myself. It felt like forever as I played out different situations in my mind. And then she answered the door. "Of course I can help you Tom!"

We went and got the tire filled within 10 minutes. Now back to the business of changing the tire. I have changed many a tire, but this one was stubborn. Tried as I may, the lug nuts would not budge. I grew frustrated and in all honesty rather angry. Why today of all days?!?! So I did what any helpless person does, call AAA.

I placed the request for assistance and they said they would be there within an hour, officially making me late for my appointment. I called the tire shop and informed them. I waited in the car for the roadside assistance to call me when the mechanic was 5 minutes away. I paged through a magazine, thought about upcoming church services, and stressed about the homework that needed to get done. No phone call came. I sat there waiting.

And then all of a sudden a tow truck came. I hopped out and it stopped. The driver asked if I has called AAA and affirmed that he was sent to help. Within 10 minutes he changed the tire (he had an extended pipe that allowed for more leverage to loosen the lug nuts) and I was on my way to my appointment. And guess what?! I made it there on time. So here I am sitting in the lobby sipping on some weak, not so tasty coffee. But I am thankful that in all of my situations of waiting in need, help came. It arrived unannounced after long expectation.

My day thus far has been a day of Advent. In this church season we wait for God's coming to fulfill the covenants of old, sometimes patiently...sometimes not. We expect and have faith that God will be faithful to God's promises. The Hebrew word that expresses such faithfulness is "hesed." The New International Commentary of the Old Testament on the Psalms describes this word:

Hesed includes elements of love, mercy, fidelity, and kindness. Hesed is a relational term that describes both the internal character as well as external actions that are required to maintain a life sustaining relationship. While the term is used both of humans and God, in the Psalter it is above all a theological term that describes God's essential character as well as God's characteristic ways of acting - especially God's characteristic ways of acting in electing, delivering, and sustaining the people of Israel. Hesed is both who the Lord is and what the Lord does (NICOT, Psalms, 8).

The psalms of thanksgiving testify to such faithfulness, such hesed-ness. We see this word throughout the Bible, yet psalms of thanksgiving address God's tangible, concrete activity in the world. Rising from a crisis the psalmist fulfills their promise to praise God after God has saved them from calamity and woe. Advent is indeed a time of hesed-ness for God keeping the particular promise of coming to save us. God came two thousand years ago as a baby in Bethlehem and so we look into the future expecting that promise to come again...even if it means waiting for that help to come.

Waiting in the tire shop,
Tom