Fasting During the Holidays

Christmas in America is full of so many great opportunities that we don’t otherwise have. During this season, we re-connect with family, enjoy lots of delicious food, and participate in the exchange of presents. Because these opportunities are so enjoyable, each year we face the challenge of making them the center of our celebration.

This challenge has not been helped by the increased sanitization of the season in our culture. Rather than talk about Jesus, our culture often talks about Santa. Instead of singing hymns that exalt the One who humbled himself and took on flesh, most Christmas songs focus on reindeer and elves. Our culture has even begun referring to this season as Xmas or “the holidays.”

One reason it can be so easy for us to get consumed by our cultural experience of Christmas is the unification it promotes among people with such different beliefs. We all might have different beliefs about virgin birth, but all of us love pumpkin pie and presents. So often what unites us (the enjoyment of self-gratification and consumption), can often distract us from talking about what divides us (the meaning of Christmas and the nature of Jesus). Instead of diligently working to preserve and promote our faith during this season, we often just turn up the Mariah Carey Christmas album and drown out these distinctions. It is just so much easier and more enjoyable to focus on what we want for Christmas, than what God might want for us during this season.  

The unfortunate reality is that many self-identifying Christians start to lose the desire to remember and reflect on Jesus’ incarnation during Christmas. Over time, they start to make this season more about meeting their needs, than about remembering how Jesus met all of our needs by entering this world and dying in our place.

If it is true God actually gave Himself to us (not just metaphorically), he might actually want us to give way more than we receive this year. That would be terribly inconvenient.

The Christians that went before us had a different name for this time of the year than holidays, Xmas, or even Christmas time. They called this season, beginning four Sundays before Christmas, “Advent.” Advent means “coming” or “arrival”, the words signifying that God has come in the person of Jesus over 2,000 years ago. This highly charged word is a death blow to our practices of self-focus and self-gratification in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

If advent really happened and Jesus really came, then what took place about 2,000 years ago demands our utmost attention. If Jesus really came to give Himself as a ransom for many, then perhaps putting our $5 dollar bill in the Salvation Army jar isn’t quite that impressive.

If advent really happened, then faithful Jews waited generations for a messiah. If advent was real, there was a freaked out teenage virgin girl with a fiancé just as petrified. If advent is real, it was a messy time full of desolation and hope. The first advent was a time where those called by God to be instrumental in the salvation of the world experienced hardship, longing, and difficulty. 

If advent is real, there is another advent coming. If advent is real no amount of stuff will compare to what is ours in Christ and will compare to what we will see when Jesus comes again. So we have options; we can try to buy ourselves joy, or we can find joy in the King that came and is coming again.

But just like a meal, if you feed yourself junk food, you will ruin your appetite for the feast that awaits you. In the same way we can ruin our appetite for Jesus’ return by trying to fill ourselves with something but love for Him. We can fall in love with tablets (the newest of course!), clothes, home décor, vacations, partying with the right people, and find that we have no taste for a King and God that would cry, need, and bleed just like us. We stifle our desire for Jesus when we desire something else to enliven us. So what do we do?

One suggestion I have is instead of filling yourself with eggnog, Christmas cookies, and shopping mall weekends is to, for this season, remove those things which ruin your appetite for Jesus. Remove them; don’t feed them; reject them. For me, as a person who loves sweets at this time of the year, I am rejecting sugar up until Christmas, then going to have a Chocolate Cake on Jesus’ (supposed) birthday, December 25th. Also, I like to read a lot about sports, and for the time of advent I will be staying away from sports websites.

Am I doing this to get God to love me more? Absolutely not! I am doing this so I don’t ruin my appetite for a feast by eating stale potato chips. I am doing this because I so easily get excited about fool’s gold when the diamond of heaven offers Himself to me. I am doing this because I need it.

I am surrounded by noise, and my eardrums are throbbing. This year I want to listen to a symphony. So I am going to look forward to Jesus coming back, as I consider what it would have been like to have been there waiting on him 2,000 years ago. I want to hear God sing His love over me in Jesus. This is the best Christmas music anyways, no offense to Mariah.

Watching Jesus Eat

Have you ever watched someone eat? Once you get past some of their individual quirks like chewing too loud or eating while talking, you start to discover that you can learn a lot about a person by observing them in this environment. By looking at the kind of food someone purchases, you might get a glimpse into the financial status or lifestyle preferences. Or by observing who they invite to their table, you might discover the kind of people they value spending time with or truly love.  

In A Meal with Jesus, Tim Chester spends a significant amount of time watching Jesus eat. As he observes Him around the table, he discovers that the way he ate shows us a great deal about Jesus’ priorities and about how we ought to live as His followers. Specifically, he argues that Jesus’ meals and conversations about meals show us how to carry out God’s mission, build community and learn to live in grace.

In the introduction, he makes the distinction between why Jesus came (to give his life as a ransom for sinners) (Mark 10:45) and how he came (eating and drinking). (Luke 7:34). In order to make his point, the author focuses on references in Luke’s gospel, arguing that it is “full of stories of Jesus eating with people.” (13)

As Jeremiah continues to work through the gospel of Luke, I challenge you to watch Jesus eat. Pay careful attention to the references about food and meals in Luke to see what you can learn about God’s character and kingdom. 

Here is a list of meal references in Luke (taken from A Meal with Jesus, 13)

• Luke 5: Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners at the home of Levi
• Luke 7: Jesus is anointed at the home of Simon the Pharisee during a meal
• Luke 9: Jesus feeds the five thousand
• Luke 10: Jesus eats in the home of Mary and Martha
• Luke 11: Jesus condemns the Pharisees and teachers of the law at a meal
• Luke 14: Jesus is at a meal when he urges people to invite the poor to their meals rather than their friends
• Luke 19: Jesus invites himself to dinner with Zacchaeus
• Luke 22: Jesus eats with the disciples at the Last Supper
• Luke 24: Jesus eats with two disciples in Emmaus and later with the disciples in Jerusalem after His resurrection

All of these accounts tell us a great deal about how we ought to live as Jesus’ disciples. If you want to be challenged to grow in your understanding of God’s expectations of you, spend some time working through each of the references and pay careful attention to them when they are explained during our Sunday gathering. Also, you may want to consider finding a copy of A Meal with Jesus to help you along the way.

May God continue to enrich us as we work our way through Luke and help us discover how to more effectively live in the kingdom by watching Jesus eat. 

Why our dream community must die

by Jeremiah Vaught

I have two friends: Brandon, I grew up with; Joel, I have known about four years. Brandon lives in the small town in North Carolina where we grew up.  Joel has lived in Chicagoland for over 20 years, often living in the city. Brandon prefers rural life and Joel is an urban man.

When I visit Brandon, I know we are going to do something adventurous outdoors. It seems like Brandon is always finding something new to do. Hanging with Brandon you might go down a natural water slide, spelunk, or jump off a rock into a pool 30 feet below. Brandon is just a lot of fun. 

When I hang out with Joel, I know that I might enjoy a new experience or be introduced to something excellent. Whenever I want to go out on a date with my wife or do something fun in the city, I get Joel’s opinion. Joel has incredible taste in music, arts, and food. And whenever Joel wants to introduce me to a place, restaurant, movie, or musician, I know it is going to be good. Joel is just a lot of fun.

But the relationship I have with these men is very different. I grew up with Brandon, while Joel knows me as an adult. Brandon was there when I was “mooning” other kids in the church parking lot. Joel calls me pastor.

Brandon and I have seen each other mature from boys to men. Joel is partnering with me to start a church hundreds of miles from where I was raised.

Why introduce you to these two men? Because I want you to see how friendship, and thus community, works. Brandon, as well as a few others, shaped my view of friendship. But if I made Brandon (or anyone else) the standard for friendship, my preferences would be skewed. No one else is Brandon. And that is good. That recognition allows me to make and be blessed by new friends, like Joel. 

These basic truths about growing older and making new friends seem obvious, but sadly, our understanding of this fact doesn’t always shape how we view our local church. We often want to compare a new church to a past experience, and wish it were the same. Our past church life becomes the standard, and we get nostalgic, only remembering the good and hoping that our new church can come somehow match the old.

These sorts of thoughts must die if we are to have a healthy church life! Consider this profound comment by Boehnhoefer:

There is probably no Christian to whom God has not given the uplifting experience of genuine Christian community at least once in his life. But in this world such experiences can be no more than a gracious extra beyond the daily bread of Christian community life. We have no claim upon such experiences, and we do not live with other Christians for the sake of acquiring them. It is not the experience of Christian brotherhood, but solid and certain faith in brotherhood that holds us together. That God has acted and wants to act upon us all, this we see in faith as God’s greatest gift, this makes us glad and happy, but it also makes us ready to forego all such experiences when God at times does not grant them. We are bound together by faith, not by experience.

These words ought shake us up. The primary desire that God has for Christian communities is that it’s members would grow in and be steadfast in love for one another. God calls us to this, and not the pursuit of “authentic community.”

In other words, Christians are called to love their sisters and brothers in their church community, period. If God is gracious, we might just experience “authentic community," although even that is not the ultimate goal of Christian life.

Still, I know the best way to avoid ever having “authentic community”: Avoid loving others, and you will never have it. Keep your dream for Christian community as the standard by which you judge others, and it will keep you from loving them. 

Expecting a friend to be like another friend is unfair and foolish. No two people are alike and some, like Brandon and Joel, are in fact very different. Praise God!

In the same way, it is unfair for us to make our dreams and experiences the standard for our current Christian fellowship. Not only are such expectations unfair, they keep us from loving others. That is why your dream for Christian community must die, and reality embraced---along with those sitting in the row beside you.

You are so beautiful!

by Steve Bishop

Recently, I read an article by Lisa Bloom entitled, "How to Talk to Little Girls." In the article, Bloom recounts an instance when she encountered a friend's daughter and instinctively wanted to squeal, "You are so cute. Look at you! Turn around and model that pretty ruffled gown, you gorgeous thing." However, after further thought, she decided to restrain herself from her first impulse and instead speak to her about something other than her outward appearance.

In light of this and similar situations, Bloom goes on to argue that our culture needs to learn how to speak to girls in a way that doesn't communicate that their appearance is the first thing we notice about them. Her main justifications for this argument include shocking statistics, like the ABC News report that concluded that "nearly half of all three-to six-year-old girls worry about being fat." Or the revelation that she cites in her book, Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World, that "15 to 18 percent of girls under 12 now wear mascara, eyeliner, and lipstick regularly." Other devastating statistics include the fact that "eating disorders are up and self-esteem is down and 25 percent of young American women would rather win America's Next Top Model than a Nobel Peace Prize."

As the father of a young girl, my first reaction to this article was to worry. Ever since my daughter was born, I have praised her, not because she is really intelligent (although I can already tell she is!), but because she is the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen. On the day she was born, I looked at my wife with tears in my eyes and said, "She is so beautiful! She has the most amazing cheeks and big blue eyes!" When we brought her home from the hospital and our friends and family came to visit, they would say, "She is just adorable." And I would respond, "I KNOW, ISN'T SHE!! SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL." In fact, every day since she entered this world, I have thought in my head, "You are so beautiful, daughter!" 

When I read this article, I thought: "Are my comments going to encourage Emilie to be a girl who would rather be 'hot than smart?'" I immediately began looking 15-16 years down the road. I pictured her wearing make-up, stressing over how her hair looks, and buying shorts with the words "Flirt" on them. The thought made my heart race and my forehead perspire. If I keep on parenting like this, could I do serious damage to my daughter?

After further reflection, I am pretty sure that my praise is not leading her down the path of becoming the future winner (because she would win, if she were on it) of America's Next Top Model. Bloom's article is a helpful reminder that we should not only be focused on praising our girls for their appearance and a call to carefully consider how our words influence children. However, I think the link the author is making is ultimately unfounded. Nowhere does she demonstrate the correlation between innocently praising our daughters and the stunning statistics about America's young women. It seems just as likely to me that a little girl who never gets praise for her outward beauty will also be confused and self-conscious about her appearance. Moreover, I think there are better explanations for these statistics. So, I think we need a more nuanced approach to speaking to girls that includes affirming their beauty. 

After reading this article and thinking about this subject, the question that kept coming to my mind was, “How do I want other people to talk to my daughter?” More importantly, since I am raising her in the context of a community of believers, “How do I want my church community to talk to Emilie?” 

 I think this is a very important question for us to consider as our church continues to grow. When little girls come into our community, we want them to know and experience the love that Jesus has for them. (After all, our goal is to "invite Chicago to feast richly on the love of Jesus.") One of the most significant ways we can demonstrate that love is through our speech. 

So, I came up with a few thoughts of my own about how we should speak to little girls. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list; just some thoughts that initially came to my mind. 

1.  Speak to little girls about their outward appearance. It is important for a little girl to be affirmed in their outward appearance. Of course you can go overboard, but it doesn't negate the fact that girls like to hear from others that they are beautiful. This is consistent with our belief that God uniquely created each of our children. When we look at our children, we are looking at a unique creation of the Creator! Indeed, that is a beautiful thing.

2. Speak to little girls about more than their outward appearance. There are so many other things that you should and could talk about with a little girl. The example that the author used was books. Little girls love books. They also love toys and cartoons and playing with their friends. Talk to them about that, too. 

Since the earliest days of the church, Christians have taught that a woman’s beauty “should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in the sight of God” (1 Peter 3.3-4). This helps us see that women and girls are more than their appearance. We should be doing all we can to know, understand, and encourage that inner self to become more and more beautiful. 

3. Think before you speak to little girls. This is a general rule that everyone should abide by no matter who they are speaking to. But it is especially important with little girls. In my experience, little girls pay close attention to what you say. They will be either encouraged or discouraged by your words. The letter of James encourages us to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” (James 1:19).  Like the author of the article I read did, take a few seconds and think before you speak.

4. Speak to little girls differently in different seasons. At some points in their life, girls will struggle with their outward appearance. In those seasons, it can make a big difference to hear (especially from a loved one) that they are beautiful. In other seasons, appearance can be the furthest thing from their mind. So, be on the lookout for how they are doing in this area.

This is where I am in my thinking about how I want to speak to my beautiful baby girl. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject. May we continue to work together to express to all of our little girls that they are so beautiful!

Orchestra In The Heart of Chicago

Last night, June 13th, a number of people from Agapé Chicago and their friends took time to enjoy the opening of 2012's  free summer classical concert series at Millenium Park. We heard the music of the Grant Park orchestra.

Many of us had yet to attend one of thse events and enjoyed the great weather and relaxing atmosphere.  With the grand architechture of the city surrounding us and the music at the pavillion washing over us, we were amazed at this gift we get to enjoy in our city.

Many voiced their desire to return to events at Millenium Park soon and often this summer. Stay tuned to for more info on future trips down town for music and fun....