PARAKLETOS

I feel so blessed to live on the block that I do.  We have some great neighbors who are there for each other and who are doing some great things.  One of our neighbors Ann who is our block club leader and who is very involved in the neighborhood organized a toys for tots drop off site at
North High School on Saturday.  Thursday and Friday people gathered and organized the toys into bags for the families.  Ann had a master list of each of their names, number of kids in the family and their ages and gender.  Then on Saturday we moved the bags of toys over to North High and that is where the family picked them up.  We had over 200 families come and pick up toys, all from the neighborhood.  And those of us who helped organize it where from our block, Ann’s church up the street, or Harvest prep academy, which is one of our local schools.

On Saturday a few of us neighbors started to talk about the great block that we have, how we can count on each other and how there are not many places in this world where this kind of thing happens.  I am so thankful that I get to experience this kind of block and that my children are growing up being able to know what a community can do and knowing the value of community.

Over the last few years of living here I have heard a lot of people say some negative things about my neighborhood and I have heard the media portray us in a way that is just not true.  And to be honest those things get me going and make me extremely angry, but it is days like Saturday that center me.  It is days like that I remember the truth about my neighborhood, the truth of the good, the truth of the people here, the truth of the work of God, the truth that for some reason others cannot or will not see.

I pray that during this Christmas season, that the truth, the life, the love, the mercy of God will continue to grow in my life, in the life of my family, in the life of those on my block and in the life of my community.  In the birth of a poor Nazarene, Hope has come, Hope is here, Hope will continue to move our lives.

To see pictures of the day click here

I have a 5 year old at home who is becoming conscience of all kinds of things.  From issues of race, to issues of violence (the other night he asked questions about God being violent) and currently with the Christmas season he is asking questions about why was Jesus born?  That question also makes me think about an experience my wife had last Christmas season as she sat around with a group of Christians and one person in the group said why do we get all excited about Christmas, if Jesus was only born to die.  She went on to say that death seemed like a really strange thing to get so excited about.  Everyone in the group sat in silence for a few moments and then when on with a different conversation.
So what do we say with we ask the question of why was Jesus born?  Do I tell my son Micah that Jesus was born to die?
In our current age of Christianity we are very fixated on the death of Jesus and how the shedding of Jesus’ blood pays a debt to God that we owe.  So in this context we skip over the life of Jesus and just right to the Cross.  We picture a baby that is only born to die, and so the life of Jesus just becomes a footnote.
But what if Jesus came to live, what if Jesus came to live in such a way as to reveal God to us in a fully and perfect way.  What if God’s will was to bring life and the death of Jesus is our violent reaction to that life.  Death is not from God; death is from us sinful humans.  I am not saying that the Cross is not important but what I am saying is that life is what God’s will is and the Cross is the greatest testimony of that.  The Cross says that even violence and death can not stop the life of God for it is through the Cross that we find the resurrection.
The baby that is born will live and live in such a way that death will not be able to shut him up, and those who follow will live in that same way.  So what kind of Life is this baby bringing into your life?
To reflect more this understanding of Jesus research Christus Victor understanding of the atonement.  You can also read “The Non-Violent Cross” or “The Non-Violent Atonement” or watch Rob Bell’s “The gods aren’t angry.”

Merry Christmas,

Tanden 

The first one is another talk by Cornel West, this is some great stuff that I highly recommend you listen to.  I also just got done reading an interview in our local neighborhood paper with Dr. West talking about his new book “Hope on a Tightrope”.  I have not read the book yet, but I am planning on reading it and I would hope that you do the same.  to listen click here

The other file is a sermon that I gave over at Bethel University in October.  It was part of a series that we were doing called “you are…”, this one was “you are called to community”.  The main point of the talk is that we live in a hyper-individualistic world, where the individual’s needs and desires are the guiding ethic.  That might be the way of “the age”, but that cannot be the way of Jesus.  A careful and thoughtful reading of the scriptures must lead us to deeply critic our modern individualism and lead us to seek out new ways of living in a more communal way.  to listen click here

Here is a message that I just sent out to some student over here at bethel, I thought that i would post it to help us all prepare for the great celebration of our liberator.

As a family we have been celebrating advent and thinking a lot about the coming of Jesus.  And that always getting me thinking about what difference does his birth make?  What was God doing in that birth and what is God doing through that birth today?  I have come to believe that the first part of Luke says a lot about those questions, so read Luke chapters 1-4 and read it a few times.  Pay close attention to Mary and Zechariah’s song and what Jesus says about himself in Luke 4.

Listen to the overthrow of the rich/ powerful and the building up of the poor and oppressed.  Listen to the crying out that salvation has come to address the real pain and suffering in the world.

Now ask what is God doing? 

And then ask, is your response the same as Mary’s in 1:38.  Are we hearing the voice of God and saying YES!!!

I pray that I am.

It is through these old old words and stories that we find life, love, and salvation.  Not through the buying and exchanging of stuff.