Where do you belong? - 4

NORSK
Today I will take a trip to the “hobbling country" (1). To hobble has synonyms like to limp, shuffle, falter or even to proceed irregularly.

In a spiritual perspective, I know many who live in the land of hobbling people, and they even acknowledge that they live there. I think that they choose to confess their hobbling in fear of being labelled as believers. In my eyes many of them are true believers who have postponed their confession.

For me, faith is primarily a matter of choice. I choose to believe, and to act on what I believe with a presumption that it is actually true. This is also how I experience that my faith is confirmed.

Of course I feel that I lose my footing when I act this way. The reason is that I step on only one foot, on God’s. It is God who has the control and not me. Again I quote Søren Kierkegaard's statement: 

“To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.”

Elijah challenged the people in this way:

“How long will you hobble back and forth between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow God. If Baal is God, follow Baal.” The people gave no answer.
1 Kings 18:21

Faith is about choosing which foot I will stand on.

'Manna' for today:

The Christmas mystery is that God became man to give us his foot to stand on.

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(1) The most important Christmas song

Where do you belong? – 3

NORSK
It is not only in a Norwegian Christmas-tree dances (1) that people stamp their feet. I have seen Maoris do the same when they dance their Haka. I even watched it at Boundless in 2015 (picture) (2). Stamping of feet is a strong signal and is often an expression of strength and aggression.

Is the “Stampers’ land” a place where I belong, or is it a land I should avoid?

If it is the aggression that controls me, it is definitely a place where I do not want to be. Nevertheless, it is very important to put the foot down when core-values are threatened.
I will stamp my feet when e.g. discover:

• Social injustice
• Abuse of power
• Spiritual arrogance that blocks the way for others

Jesus put his foot down (3), and it is in him I really belong

‘Manna’ for today:

It is in Jesus I belong! (4)

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(1)  See: The most important Christmas song
(2) I just ‘had to’ used this photo for the sake of family-peace. I am sure our son-in-law would have loved to stamp his feet in the dance too, but the Maoris put their feet down…. ;-) 
(3) E.g. The cleansing of the Temple
(4) For in him we live and move and have our being – Acts 17:28 

Where do you belong? – 2

Today I will reflect on the second answer of the “most important Christmas-song”. I will look into the answer: I belong in the “jumpers’ land”.

When I think about "jumping" in a Christian context, my thoughts immediately go to one of the stories Terry Camsey used when he taught about Church Growth for 25 years ago. He told the anecdote about the "jumping nuns". 

The tradition of the Order was that the nuns jumped while they were praying. There is no harm in jumping while praying, but when someone asked “why”, no one knew the answer. On closer examination, it came to light that when the order was founded, the nuns were barefooted when they prayed. The reason was the passages where Moses and later Joshua (1) were asked to take off their shoes because they stood on holy ground. The combination bare feet and a cold paved floor made to the nuns jump to keep warm while they prayed. They continued this tradition also after heating was installed in the monastery. Jumping had become part of the tradition.

There is nothing wrong with traditions as long as I know that they have a purpose and a function. However, it is dangerous to be stuck in a "jumpers’ land" where the tradition is drained of its content.

The Christmas Mystery was, and is, a protest against vain traditions.

'Manna' for today:

I belong in a land rich on content!

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(1) Exodus 3:5 & Jos 5:15

Where do you belong? - 1

I will follow up the question from yesterday’s reflection on the “most important Christmas-song” (1).

My dear father-in-law left behind a number of 8mm film coils with takes  of family events from a couple of decades. When we watched it a few years back, it was hours on end of family-members waving to the camera. 
It occurred to me that I had come into a family belonging to the "wavers' land". 

When the Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, was on an official visit to USA, President Obama made a speech and joked with the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s productions of “slow TV”. I was only able to watch a few glimpses of "The Coastal Steamer minute by minute". It contained a lot of beautiful scenery and even more people waving. So, I have finally realized that I actually live in the "wavers’ land". We wave when we go apart and we wave when we are not close enough for a hug. Therefore, waving in many ways symbolises distance. 

Distance was the characteristic of the relationship between God and man before Jesus came. God was a distant figure. Worship was a kind of “waving” from a distance. 

By becoming man, God transformed his relationship with men completely. He went from distance to presence. The Christmas mystery is God’s presence in the lives of people (2).

'Manna' for today:

I belong in God's presence

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(1) The idea with this song is to give answers that can be acted out while dancing around the tree. The first example is “I belong to the wavers’ land, because everyone who can wave their hand, they belong to the wavers’ land.”

(2) But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Eph 2:13

The most important Christmas song

NORSK
I guess that there will be a lot of discussions if we were to agree on which Christmas song is the most important. A week ago, I shared some Christmas thoughts in a Carol festival at our local church. At the last concert I jokingly said that I had always missed the most important Christmas song in the repertoire of the excellent local singers. 

Then I sang some bars from a Norwegian Christmas-tree dance with a very shallow content, apart from one question that is repeated again and again “Where then do you belong?”

When John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said: “Look, the Lamb of God!", two of his disciples followed Jesus. When discovered that, he asked: “What do you want?” They answered:

"Where do you live?"
John 1:38

For a long time, I thought that this was a meaningless question to ask. However, that was before I understood how John had composed his gospel. The question "Where do you live?" is far deeper than a reference to a physical residence. It is about where you have your roots. It is about where your values are. The Christmas mystery is about to coming home to where I belong. Because Jesus came to said and says: "Come and see!" 

'Manna' for today:

I know where I belong!

Born in Bethlehem

NORSK
During the Christmas season I will keep my reflections relatively short. These days I live in the Christmas mystery, and today I rejoice once again over Bethlehem. It seems obvious that Jesus had to be born in that place and not "at home" in Nazareth. He is ‘the bread from heaven’ that we "eat", so that he can become part of us and we become a part of him. The only logical place for his birth was the "Bread house" = Bethlehem.

We celebrate Christmas in a small area named after the local lake – translated into English the name is “Bread-sea”. I like the name, but unfortunately it has nothing to do with bread, but rather is result of a dialectic development from "broad" to "bread". But even that is part of the Christmas message, it is a broad-casting of the good news embracing the whole world. That means that wherever I happen to be at any time, can become a Bethlehem – a bread house where people can find nurture for their journey of eternity – just because a believer is in that place. The Christmas mystery, is the mystery of the Bread-house.

'Manna' for today:

The Bread-house-mystery is happening today.

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A Christmas Creed

There are many creeds. The most commonly used in evangelical churches is the "Apostles' Creed," but there are several others as well (1). In addition, we find traces of creeds in Paul's letters, and I have already mentioned one from his letter to Timothy. Today I have reached another one, and it fits in well on a Christmas Eve:

Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great:
He appeared in the flesh,
was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels,
was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.
1 Tim 3:16

Today I rejoice in the great mystery from which true godliness springs: God became man! When I grab hold of the tiny bit I see, God grabs hold of me and I become part of the mystery.

‘Manna’ for today:

It is enough to grab hold of a tiny bit to grabbed hold of yourself

I wish you a blessed Christmas in God’s great mystery!

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(1) E.g. the Nicaean Creed and the Athanasian Creed

It is about Christmas the whole year

NORSK
When I drove to the airport a couple of nights back, I discovered that the Christmas-lights are already up on the main road here in Chisinau. It is likely that they came up so early due to yesterday’s annual celebration of the city, but it is good to see light in the dark autumn nights.

In a spiritual sense, I want to celebrate Christmas every day of the year.

Yesterday I made the statement that “Holiness is communion”. Communion is ‘the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level’. 

If holiness is to be part of this world, it presupposes that I am in communion with Christ in the world. This again presupposes incarnation, which means that Jesus comes to the world through me, and every individual believer.

When this happens, the whole world becomes a “Bethlehem” = a “bread-house”.
Jesus referred to himself as the bread of life (1). When I share my life in communion with this world, through ‘the exchange of intimate thoughts and feelings’, it is the bread of life I am sharing. 

It happened in a restaurant in Sofia last Tuesday together with two new friends from Norway. It will happen as I live my life here in “Bethlehem” today, because “Bethlehem” is where Jesus comes to the world. It is the miracle and the mystery of the ongoing incarnation, and it is the very core of what holiness is all about.

‘Manna’ for today:

Holiness is about allowing the Bethlehem mystery to come true every day

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(1) Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”
John 6:35