willing

in my last post, i talked about carefully "unwrapping" the Christmas story so that we don't take it for granted. i shared that our church follows a theme every Advent to help us look deeply into a different aspect, or from a different perspective of the well-known Biblical account.

each year, i don't like the theme, at least to start. it takes me about three weeks to really appreciate the thought and inspiration that someone has had. (kind of the 'no idea is a good idea unless its your idea'). that may be why i also take each year's theme and break from it's prescription. a lot of the focus for this year's theme is on Mary. but i think that Mary wasn't the only one that this theme applied to -- she wasn't the only one who had to be or become willing

i also like to take the time from the New Year to Easter and walk through a Gospel, preaching and teaching on the life, ministry, and instruction of Jesus Christ. our Gospel study for 2006 is from Matthew, and as part of a larger invitation program to our community, we're using the theme "from the crib to the cross"

so, since November 27, we've been focusing on this "willing" theme to lead into our Gospel theme -- taking our instruction from Matthew's text, and looking at the key players in the Christmas narative.

we began with God--long before Mary's willingness, was God's. Matthew 1 begins with a genealogy that we usually skim or skip altogether. but the genealogy is the story of God's relationship with His chosen people -- a relationship that was to be a source of blessing for all people. as we look at Matthew 1:1-17, we see that God the Father was...

WILLING TO BE merciful (as you look through the genealogy, you have commentary without the commentary--additional notes and mentioning of women that wouldn't necessarily be a part of a legal genealogical record. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth weren't original chosen people. "by the wife of Uriah" references the affair and murder by David; "the deportation to Babylon" referencing the whole nation's lowpoint after continual disobedience. yet God maintains relationship through all of this)

WILLING TO SERVE individuals (i was sure to read the whole record, every name. God saw fit to preserve this list because each life, each generation mattered to him. God cared for, listened to, interacted with, and loved each individual -- we're so quick to rush through the Christmas crowds, that we don't take time to look as God does, person to person.)

WILLING TO CHANGE the Covenant agreement (God has planned and proclaimed that a new covenant was coming, no longer an outer conformity to the Law, but one of heart change that would lead to a desire to obedience [Ezekiel 36]. but in the Matthew account, it references 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the Exile and 14 from the exile to Christ. but count again and you will find that the last list only has 13. though much debate exists over this missing generation, i like to think that we have become that 14th generation. that we have become a part of God's redemptive pattern as we are reborn through faith in Christ, spiritual heirs to the original promise to Abraham and participants in the family busines, the redemption of the world.)

more to come on this theme of the willing...