Welcome to the archive of our 2006 Advent Blog!

Below, in reverse chronological order, are our posts from this past year’s Advent journey that we shared with over 1,000 people around the world.

With Advent and Christmas over there will not be any new posts to this blog, but it will remain available in the future. (Or until we need the MySQL Database space anyway!)

As always with what we share on this website, feel free to share or pass along anything that you find interesting or meaningful in these posts!

And at the end of it all? What truer words could be said? For Advent seasons come… and then they go. Time is linear, not cyclical. So one Advent isn’t followed by another just like it from year to year. Like a river that can never be crossed more than once, Advent, Christmas, Winter, Spring, all of life… comes… and then it goes.

Except for One. Perhaps we should say “The ONE.” The Word, the LOGOS, made flesh, who dwelt among us incarnated as humanity, who still dwells among us in ways we never fully understand nor are aware of. (Case in point… as you read these exact words… think about the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is reading them right over your left shoulder… What emotional and physiological reaction did you just have as you read these words? Did you look? A few hairs stand up? A brief stop and a “kairos” moment? (Thank Paul Tillich for our understanding of time as quality, not just quantity here.)

If, once or twice during the past 35 days, something posted here afforded an opportunity for just that type of experience or insight, then our hopes and dreams for this Advent Blog have been realized!

If, once or twice this past month, you read something you totally, completely disagreed with and that moment allowed you the opportunity to crystallize your own thoughts and beliefs then perhaps the same is true for you!

For those 1,193 of you who have visited this blog since it went up on December 3rd, we thank you for sharing the journey with us. For those of you who wrote or commented, we thank you for insights, encouragement, a laugh or two, and some of the meaning you contributed.

Watch for some type of Lenten Journey as well here in the coming months. Online “Community” is different and in some ways, difficult, but we are discovering it’s real none the less.

Grace and Peace… and MERRY CHRISTMAS! (one more time!)

Rodger Sellers

The Portico

In the previous post the question was asked, “…unless the “Gospel” is more than we might think it is.”

That still leaves the question, what is it exactly? Is it simply the “good news” that Jesus died for us, allowing the possibility of those who “accept” him to live eternally after death? Most people have indeed appropriated the word to mean just that, linking the term gospel with the doctrine of the atonement. The “good news” is that even though we all were condemned to death for sin, Jesus stood in our place on the cross and accepted our guilt so that we could escape that penalty. Don’t get me wrong: I think that is good news, and also think that’s part of the mystery of what happened on the day Jesus died on the cross.

But if that’s ALL the Gospel is, then we’re missing something. Something implied in the definition found in the beginning of Mark’s Gospel:

(Mark 1:14-15 NRSV) Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, {15} and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

The Gospel is, simply, that the “time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near.” That’s both more ambiguous and more expansive than any sense of defining the word solely attached to any given set of events. (Even when those events are central to our identity as Christians.)

In other words, sharing thoughts from those like Lesslie Newbigin, Meister Eckhart, N.T. Wright and others, the “Gospel” is larger than we usually make it out to be. Sure, it contains all those pieces and parts, including those many of us consider central and prominent, but it’s still larger than any single aspect it contains.

This shouldn’t surprise us. Even Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, tells us as much:

The “Gospel” means “good news” deriving from the Old English “god-spell” translated from Greek ευαγγέλιον (euangelion) used in the New Testament (see “Etymology” below).

In Christianity, the term “gospel” can be used to mean different things, including:

• to denote the proclamation of God’s saving activity in Jesus of Nazareth, or to denote the agape message proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth: this is the original New Testament usage (for example Mark 1:14-15 or 1 Corinthians 15:1-9; see also Strong’s G2098);

And here’s where this becomes food for thought in an Advent / Christmas discussion. Unless we allow the “Gospel” to be as large as it seems it wants to be, then everything outside of the Atonement becomes secondary and the resulting “gospel” is a smaller entity than perhaps it should be. Unless the good news of Jesus is more than JUST his death on a cross, and his resurrection three days later, then, as important as that is to our faith, it still misses a large part of the good news.

That’s because Christmas, the Incarnation, Jesus’ life among us, his teaching, passions, anger, laughter, miracles, tears, are all subordinate to and in reality, lesser than, his redeeming death. But what if all those are to be seen in one, large, no HUGE, comprehensive package that really can’t be deconstructed beyond, Jesus is the kingdom of God coming to humanity? Good news that includes ALL of the above, equally important, and all having a part to play in calling us back to the God who wishes to embrace us in relationship?

Otherwise, the liturgical season about to end, as wonderful as it is, as meaningful as it has been, will never be more than a subordinate precursor to the “real” message of his death and resurrection. (And if that’s true, then the question in the previous post still stands: Why didn’t God go ahead and get all that out of the way in Bethlehem with Herod’s thugs killing Jesus for our sakes?) I’m not sure I really want a gospel that’s as small as that.

Years back, at summer camp and at Young Life club meetings, we used to sing a song written by a minister I know. He was a great guy, wrote a ton of songs in the camp song book, and we all loved singing them. One of them was titled, “Born to Die.” We’d sing it like this: “Born to die… DIE - AYE, Born to die… DIE-AYE. He took our sins, he died for us. He took our sins he died for us.”

OK: I believe all that… partially. Here’s the real question. If the only reason Jesus was born was to die, then what do we do with all the “stuff” in the middle? Like his infuriating parables? Like his revolutionary attitudes toward “religion” as usual and the status quo? Like his radical teaching about loosing our own lives to follow him? If none of that matters AS MUCH as the saving events that would end Jesus’ earthly life, then why bother with them at all?

Unless… and here it is one final time… The “Gospel” truly is LARGER… with more to it… than perhaps we think… or dare in our wildest dreams to hope.

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they (the magi) left for their own country by another road. {13} Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” {14} Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, {15} and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” {16} When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. {17} Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: {18} “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” {19} When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, {20} “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” {21} Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. {22} But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. {23} There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.” (Matthew 2:12-23)

If you were taught, like I was, that the “Gospel” is the good news that Jesus was born a child SO THAT he could die for your sins, be raised from the dead so that you can go to heaven when you die, think about something that is pretty striking.

If the whole point of the Nativity was simply to get Jesus here so that he could then be the agent of the atonement through his death (whichever of the six or so atonement theories you hold will work here)… Why would God wait around for thirty some years to accomplish that goal when the perfect opportunity sits right here in this passage from Matthew’s Gospel?

Herod is steamed that the magi tricked him, and he’s panicked because they’ve told him a child has been born that is a “king”… I.E. a competitor for the throne he sits on thanks to both his cruelty and his political savvy. So he takes matters into his own hands, sends his troops (guards? thugs?) to kill every baby in and around Bethlehem to take care of the political threat. No surgical strike for Herod: He doesn’t seem to care about collateral damage — Throw a 1st century bunker-buster into the little town and kill them all to get the one.

But Jesus has already flown the coop. Another angel appears in another dream (Joseph must be getting used to this by now!) and they’ve already headed off to Egypt, where they stay until Herod dies sometime later in the same year. (Or, judging by the accepted date of Herod’s death, early in the next calendar year.)

But here’s the thing: If the “Gospel” is what I outlined above… Then why would God not go ahead and take care of it right then and there? If the Messiah’s presence is SOLELY a precursor to his death on our behalf, then why not be expeditious about it and have Herod do what Pilate’s Romans would later accomplish? A sacrificial death of a small child — assuming that child to be the Messiah — will do just as well as a thirty-something Jesus, won’t it?

Unless… The “Gospel” is even more than we might think it is.

Think about it.

Caution: Potential rant ahead…