Month: December 2024 (Page 1 of 4)

During this Christmas season, we are celebrating the Incarnation.  In Hebrews 1: 2-3, we read, “And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son.  God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.  The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.”  In our day of social chaos and ideological conflict, I am stuck by the fact of Jesus, “sustaining” everything by the word of his command.  Col. 1:17 declares, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Imagine this marvelous reality: The one who hold and sustains all of creation together, came into this world to live among us.  This is “Good News” in a world where we feel disconnected from reality. The disciples of Jesus were earnest in  wanting us to know their first hand account of the incarnation.  “From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in  – we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands.  The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes: we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The Infinite Life of God himself took shape before us” (I John 1:1-3 – Message).

There were no cameras to document the appearance of the Son of God.  The disciples preserved the incarnation  in “sober prose.”  “We heard him, we saw him, we even live close enough to touch him.  It actually happened!  We are witnesses of this fact! The incarnation took place right before our very eyes.”  Leanne Payne exhorts 21st century believers to have faith in “the incarnational reality.”

C. S. Lewis believed that the Incarnation is at the very center of God’s redemptive plan for the world: “The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation.  They say that God became Man.  Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this.”

Lewis goes on to maintain that without  the incarnation, there would be no Jesus story: “Just as every natural event is the manifestation at a particular place and moment of Nature’s total character, so every particular Christian miracle manifests at a particular place and moment the character and significance of the Incarnation.  There is no question in Christianity of arbitrary interferences just scattered about.  It relates not a series of disconnected raids on Nature but the steps of a strategically coherent invasion – an invasion which intends complete conquest and ‘occupation.'” 

I suggest that we use the word “occupation” in visualizing God invading “enemy” territory here on earth as the Son of God.  Let us celebrate anew the Christmas story as in invasion.  Breakpoint observes, “It’s a mystery…..but as humanity journeys further into this digital age, the idea of incarnation will only become increasingly strange.  This virtual world of high-speed internet, social media, smartphones, and the cloud is increasingly disembodied…….It is essential to dive as deeply as possible into all of the implications of the Incarnation, not just in making sense of Christmas, but also responding to the challenges of our disembodied age.”

Jesus became a man and lived among us.  When I feel detached and separated from the reality of my life, I can gaze on Jesus, knowing he has gone before me and faced all of my obstacles and struggles.  “We must look ahead, to Jesus.  He is the one who carved out the path for faith, and he’s the one who brought it to completion” (Heb. 12:2 – Wright).  

“The transition to Ambivalent World” is the title of an article in World Magazine by pastor Seth Troutt.  It got my attention.  As the teaching pastor at Ironwood Church in Arizona, I think this young pastor is alerting us to a shift in our culture.  “The vibes have shifted and young men in America are more open to the gospel than they have been for decades, and we mostly have podcast culture to thank for that.”  I for one, as an “old timer” do not listen to or pay much attention to the cultural influencers on the internet.  But the thought of an “Ambivalent World” got me wondering.

Troutt makes the argument that we are moving out of the negative world (2015 – present).   From his point of view, ” [A] Negative World is already disintegrating and giving rise to a fourth epoch: Ambivalent World.”  He sees this shift as fragmented since it is gendered and generational.  “While young men are breaking conservative and religious – even more religious than women for the first time ever – young women are increasingly identifying as liberal.  This means we aren’t returning to a Neutral World, but we’re wading into a split world filled with mixed emotions and divergent plausibility structures.”  

Troutt describes ambivalence as “the coexistence of conflicting feelings.”  “America today,” Troutt believes, “craves moral coherence and resists it, it seeks transcendence while reveling in immanence.  Troutt mentions “Reality Respecters (Joe Rogan) and Meaning Makers (Jordon Peterson).”  He goes on to observe, “Those who respect reality won’t stand for the erasure of biological facts, and the Meaning Makers won’t settle for nihilistic existential answers to questions about meaning.  They’ll have libertarian instincts as it relates to authority and traditional assumptions about gender.  They’ll be open but cautious about the Bible.”  It seems to Troutt that those most likely to covert are “fleeing reality denying epistemologies by yanking the wheel to the right.” 

Troutt give this caution.  “Churches must recognize that no matter what, their rhetoric will alienate some while resonating deeply with others, but churches that want to reach the next generation of young men should orient their communication and missional emphasis in such a way that the Reality Respecters and Meaning Maker (i.e., people who listen to Joe Rogan and Jordon Peterson) will feel understood and seen.”   We need to be paying attention.

Pastor Troutt has certainly made me more aware of shift taking place in our culture, especially among young men. As a elder I need to be open minded.  It very well could be that we are headed into a time of confusion and uncertainty, rather than the assumed negative stance to the “Good News.”  Here is what I must pay attention to in the days to come.

First, this shift is “gendered and generational.”  The voice of Scripture will be met with mixed responses.  Yet we have lived for years under a cloud of suspicion regarding God’s design for male and female.  Men can be exemplars of God’s intentions .

Secondly, pay attention to the influence of the “reality respecters” and  “meaning makers.”  Men are hungering for reality and meaning, in the midst of “coexistence of conflicting feelings.”

Thirdly, we live in a time when young men are struggling with identity (reality) and wanting to know the best way to journey through the confusion of our time.  Could it be that God is opening a door for the “Good News.” “See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut” (Rev. 3:8). 

Fourthly, while I am in the “fourth quarter” of my journey, I desire to be a voice crying in the wilderness, for men to come home to Jesus.