“For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given;
and the government shall be
upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government
and peace there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his
kingdom,
to establish it and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”
- Isaiah 9:6-7
Christmas is here! The glorious celebration of the birth of the Eternal Word and only-begotten Son of the Father. I pray your celebration commenced in joy on Christmas Eve and will continue in depth and power these Twelve Days of Christmas.
O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
What Does St. Bart's Mean To You?
Each week of Advent Chris and I have been asking individuals and families this question: what does St. Bart’s mean to you? Here are some answers we’ve heard:
“A desire fulfilled”
“real church - it’s not a show”
“A community that gathers around the God who provides spiritual and physical food”
Each of these statements represent three beautiful stories of transformation, provision, and healing. We’ll have one final interview this Sunday that will speak to God’s work in our midst.
We share these stories during the sermon because we want you all to hear what Chris and I hear each week as we sit down for coffee with you. We see God’s work of provision, transformation, and healing - and it’s real, not a show. We give thanks and celebrate God’s good work in and through each of you.
As we approach the final Sunday of Advent, we will draw close to Christmas but also to that surprising moment when we hear the Angel Gabriel’s proclamation to Mary that provision, transformation, and healing will come to the world because of her obedience, her “yes” to God.
As the year closes, please make part of your obedience and “yes” to God giving generously to him through the mission and ministry of St. Bart’s. I’m so grateful to God for the ways he has provided through each of you. And so we continue on in our journey building Christ’s church with Spirit-empowered vision as the Father draws to himself more people with more stories of what St. Bart’s means to them.
Jay+
The One Who Is To Come
This Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, we will hear from John the Baptist again. Instead of proclaiming at the Jordan River, this time he is inquiring of Jesus from prison. “Are you the one who is to come?” He has heard of Jesus’ deeds, but he wants to be sure. Can you imagine being in John’s position? He’s given his life to preach and prepare the way for this Messiah, but is this Jesus guy really the one? And, from the isolation in prison he experiences the prison of doubt. What must have that been like to not be sure, to question and suffer the anguish that maybe he was all wrong, maybe this was all a cruel joke?
But Jesus, ever merciful and patient, responds in vivid imagery suitable for the Messiah. Jesus doesn’t qualify his own work or ministry with a pedigree, but he echoes the Prophet Isaiah: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matt 11:4-5).
Jesus says the kingdom has come in me because of these signs of healing. The atmosphere created around Jesus in his faithfulness to the Father, his compassionate healing of the people is one of order, renewal, re-creation, and goodness. This is the same atmosphere that the messianic king would bring in Isaiah’s passage from last Sunday (Isa 11:1-10). And that is the answer he gives John. And that is to be the testimony of our lives as well.
As we experience the ache of Advent, that longing for all things to be made right when they are so wrong, we will inevitably ask similar questions as John the Baptist: is this it? Are you the one, Jesus? Will you really make all things new?
God is big enough, good enough, and kind enough for any and all questions we bring to him. And yet at some point, we are invited to strengthen our anxious hearts and trust that the desert will become a place of springs (Isa 35).
Trusting with you -
Jay+
The Waiting is the Hardest Part
In Advent the Church practices waiting. Which means there is something humbling about Advent because there is a helplessness to waiting. To wait is to need because if I could simply do it myself, if I could simply make things happen, I would never have to wait for anything.
And so we wait, and in our waiting, we sing together, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, to remind ourselves that we are in need, that there are things that we cannot give ourselves.
This put me in mind of something Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about the nature of Advent. Imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II for his involvement with a plot to assassinate Hitler, from his prison cell Bonhoeffer wrote many letters to friends and family. These letters are deeply poignant and theologically profound. In one letter to a friend, Bonhoeffer wrote this of Advent:
“A prison cell like this is a good analogy for Advent. One waits, hopes, does this or that—ultimately negligible things—the door is locked and can only be opened from the outside.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters from Prison
What we need the most, the grace of God, we cannot give ourselves. Only he can open the door.
Thank you!
Chris+
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays for several reasons. Memories of food, football, family, and fun abound. The sacred time of Advent and Christmas lie before us giving rise to hope and expectation, and yet this secular holiday touches on a deeply sacred theme.
The essence of our weekly worship at St. Bart’s is “thanksgiving.” In fact the communion prayer is often called the “Great Thanksgiving.” It’s also why we call our Sunday service “The Eucharist,” which is Greek for giving thanks.
Sunday night Chris encouraged us all to pray the Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father, who art in heaven…”) each morning and night this week in order to invite the gracious King and his Kingdom to have his way in our own lives. And though the word “thanks” isn’t uttered in this prayer, it is marked by an air of gratitude. We can’t think of our Heavenly Father without being grateful he has adopted us as his daughters and sons. We are overcome with thankfulness as we consider being members of his kingdom, his constant provision of our needs, and his forgiveness of our many sins.
As you celebrate today, having had your week marked with this kingdom prayer, remember that the impulse to give thanks is drawn from our being made in God’s image thus owing our very existence to his kind and gracious love. Join me in giving thanks this week to the Father of heavenly lights from whom every good and perfect gift proceeds, in whom there is no shifting of shadow (James 1:17).
See you Sunday -
Jay+
Christ the King
We call this coming Sunday "Christ the King", and it marks the end of the church calendar before the beginning of Advent.
Why does it matter that Jesus is king, and not just a king, but the king, the lord of all heaven and earth? Though it might not seem like it to us who live in a country that decisively rejected monarchy, saying that "Christ is king" and that "Jesus is Lord" is central to our proclamation of the Gospel. After all, as Mark gospel says, Jesus came preaching the good news of the kingdom, and there can be no kingdom without a king.
Declaring that "Christ is King" is a reminder that kings and kingdoms are not simply the stuff of history past or the delusional hope of fantasy and fairy tales. Our unquenchable longing for a true and just ruler is anchored deep within the human heart. And yet when we see the ways power is used, for personal gain, to oppress and to take from others, we begin to doubt this inner longing. We might begin to think, as I heard in a song this week, that there are no real kings, that "a throne is just a chair.”
In the face of this doubt, the proclamation of the church is that the sort of king Jesus claims to be makes all the difference in the world. In our gospel passage for this Sunday, we will hear Jesus forgive his enemies and we will hear him promise paradise to a dying criminal beside him. What sort of king says these things as he is being tortured and killed? What sort of king makes these promises in the face of what seems to be utter defeat? To answer these questions is to come to terms with the sort of king that Jesus truly is and to see him truly as the desire of the nations.
I hope you can join us!
Chris+
New Heavens New Earth
Our walk through the prophets continues. Haggai proclaimed to the returned exiles that the latter glory - the glory that would come to the temple by God’s divine action - would be greater than the former glory of Solomon’s temple. That was saying something since Solomon’s edifice was one of the most impressive structures in decor and size. But the temple to come would be more than a building with impressive height and lavish appointments. In fact the complete fulfillment of the temple comes in Christ for one day in the New Jerusalem there will be no need for a temple for “its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev 21:22 and Luke 21:5-19).
So, this Sunday when we hear the Prophet Isaiah proclaim that God will create “a new heavens and a new earth” our ears immediately perk up. Not only will the Almighty One undo all the devastation we read about in Lamentations in the fall of Jerusalem, but God will undo all the curse of the fall. The rampant brokenness that ravages God’s children day by day will one day fully undone, completely healed. So much so, that “the wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox….They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain” (Isa 65:25). This prophecy paints a picture of the perfect peace that is coming for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. I look forward to beholding the beauty of this new creation with you Sunday.
But before we get to Christ the King Sunday, we will have a few Sundays previewing for us the ache of Advent, the longing which we experience as we are filled with the blessed hope of Christ’s return. This is a turn from the lament and ache of the Prophet Jeremiah as he predicted and reflected upon Jerusalem’s destruction, Judah’s exile, and the hope of a new covenant. But it’s not a sharp turn for we find that this same new covenant, this same return for exile is fully and finally in the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I hope to see you Sunday as we journey towards the end of one year marked in hope to begin the next aching and longing for our Savior.
Jay+
From Hope to Hope
The season of fall in Dallas has become one of my favorite times of year. Except for October’s devastating tornado that ripped a 17 mile path through the center of town, the weather is generally nice. Mild days give way to cooler nights as the trend continues toward full on winter.
But more than the weather, the month of November generally leads us into the season of Advent as we follow the lectionary to the close of one liturgical year and to the opening of the next. The year will end (November 24) as it always does with the celebration of Christ the King Sunday. On this day we remember and look ahead to how Christ is King of all the earth’s kings - remember those beasts from Daniel 7?
But before we get to Christ the King Sunday, we will have a few Sundays previewing for us the ache of Advent, the longing which we experience as we are filled with the blessed hope of Christ’s return. This is a turn from the lament and ache of the Prophet Jeremiah as he predicted and reflected upon Jerusalem’s destruction, Judah’s exile, and the hope of a new covenant. But it’s not a sharp turn for we find that this same new covenant, this same return for exile is fully and finally in the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I hope to see you Sunday as we journey towards the end of one year marked in hope to begin the next aching and longing for our Savior.
Jay+