Christ

Who doesn't love a Christmas bonus? Well … not everyone, apparently. Some of these people didn't like theirs, and with good reason. David Hood, who is Jewish and doesn't eat meat, received a … ham as his Christmas bonus. Another year, Hood received a hand written letter of thanks from his boss, but his name was spelled incorrectly—twice! Jay Bazzinoti, who works in Boston, received a sealed envelope full of coupons that were only good on the west coast of the U.S. Joe Geronimo Martinez, a postal worker for Royal Mail, received a packet of flower seeds, after Royal Mail posted a record $156 million dollars in profits that year. The best, or worst, comes from Steve Johnson, who after receiving a turkey for the past 15 years, received a picture of a silhouette of a turkey. "It wasn't even a copy of a real turkey. It looked like the turkeys your kids make out of their handprints in kindergarten." Possible Preaching Angle: Good thing that God, the "rewarder of those who diligently seek him," isn't taking tips from these corporate Santas.

Source:

Maria Atanasov, “Could these be the worst year-end bonuses ever?” BBC (12-6-14)

The ethics of regifting is always a hot discussion at Christmastime and the weeks that follow various office parties and family exchanges. Apparently, there are those who insist that regifting is a tawdry practice, and there are those who have practiced it for years and see no harm. For those who might not be familiar with the concept, Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary offers a helpful definition: To regift is “to give an unwanted gift to someone else” or “to give as a gift something one previously received as a gift.”

In any case, two out of three people say they have either regifted or are considering regifting. And while there are no doubt many successful regifters among us, there are also unfortunate stories to show for the less successful, which make the discussion entertaining. Imagine opening the very gift you had given your mother-in-law a year earlier.

So when a colleague of mine referred to Christmas as the “season of regifting,” I was certain he had been the victim of too many unfortunate gift exchanges. Except he wasn’t talking about unwanted scarves or random gift-cards. He was talking about the mysterious gift that is resurrected each Christmas and presented again as if new. Year after year, we reopen the story of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the magi, and the star. “God is a regifter,” he said. The child is the gift.

Source:

Jill Carattini, “Mathoms and Myrrh,” RZIM.org: A Slice of Infinity (1-06-17)

Most of us regularly lose things: keys, wallets, TV remotes, glasses, and phones. Some of us are more prone to misplacing things than others. It’s not surprising that men are twice as likely to lose their phones than women. One study concluded that the average person misplaces nine things a day and spends an average of fifteen minutes looking for lost items. Why does this happen? What is the psychology and science behind it? It comes down to a breakdown of attention and memory. When we misplace our belongings, "we fail to activate the part of our brain responsible for encoding what we're doing." The hippocampus part of our brain is responsible for taking a snapshot and preserving the memory in a set of neurons that can be activated later. We lose things when we do not have a clear reference point of when or where we put down objects like our keys or glasses. One of the ways we can improve our memory is through practicing mindfulness. We do this by stepping back and calming our thoughts, focusing on being present in the moment. Possible Preaching Angle: We can lose more than our physical possession! We can misplace our hope, peace, joy, and love. Advent is a season where we can refocus and become mindful of what we have received in Christ's coming.

Source:

Ryan Fan, “Why Do I Always Lose Things?” Medium (7-19-20)

Christ is God the Creator

This is His story.

3D printing, making ourselves

Very good

Trinity involved in making us

Why do I see bad things then?

Christ is Light

His life is light. Because He is coming to redeem His creation.

Evil is not more powerful nor even as equally powerful as good.

Fleming Rutledge writes: Sin is a category without meaning except in reference to God. A Calvin and Hobbes comic strip illustrates this in an endearing way. Calvin, a little boy, is hurtling down a snowy slope on a sled with his friend Hobbes, a tiger, conducting a discussion about sin (the wildly improbable nature of this scene is part of its charm). Here is the dialogue: Calvin: I'm getting nervous about Christmas. Hobbes: You're worried you haven't been good? Calvin: That's just the question. It's all relative. What's Santa's definition? How good do you have to be to qualify as good? I haven't killed anybody. That's good, right? I haven't committed any felonies. I didn't start any wars. … Wouldn't you say that's pretty good? Wouldn't you say I should get lots of presents? Hobbes: But maybe good is more than the absence of bad. Calvin: See, that's what worries me.

Source:

Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion (Eerdmans, 2017), page 179

Light to everyone but not understood and received. Through his life grace was given to know the Father.

Receiving the light

‌Christ is Judge

Adoption by a Judge, not of blood, nor will of the flesh, nor the will of man

We celebrate Christmas not simply because Chist was born of a virgin nor because of the amazing accounts of angels nor even because we receive gifts as a result of the symbolism. John quickly gets to the heart of the message of why we celebrate Christmas. Because God is becoming like His creation and redeeming it and setting things right and making sure we know the Father and His love for us. We do not find hope, peace, love and joy without Jesus.

Will you receive Him? If you have received Him will you rejoice in His grace?