I was reviewing Arthur G. Patzia's Emergence of the Church this evening for some teaching I have to do on Sunday and came acrsoss some great quotes (though not really connected):

The rationalists pictured Jesus as a preacher of morality, the idealists as the idea of Man; the aesthetes extolled him as the master of words and the socialists as the friend of the poor and as the social reformer, while the innumerable pseudo-scholars made of him a fictional character. Jesus was modernized. These lives of Jesus are the mere products of wishful thinking. The final outcome was that every epoch and every theology found in the personality of Jesus the reflection of its own ideals, and every author the reflection of his own views. (Joachim Jeremias)

The reign of God was the focal point. Proclamation and teaching centered on it; cures and exocisms were signs of it. But what has neither been clearly seen nor probed for its consequences is that the reign of God as imminent meant the imminent restoration of Israel, and the reign of God as already overtaking Israel in Jesus' words and acts that meant that Israel was already in process of being restored. His teaching was Torah appropriate to restored Israel and requisite to perfect restoration. His wonder-working signified the restoration of Israel and effected it by restoring the afflicted to their heritage as children of Abraham. The appeal to "the sinners" likewise belonged to this context. Offering forgiveness and eliciting conversion, it was designed to restore the outcasts to Israel. This is confirmed by Jesus' repeated efforts to reconcile the righteous to this move toward socio-religious integration. (Ben Meyer)

This means that God is now asserting his sovereignty and rule over those who have accepted his message of the kingdom. Jesus' aim, according to Dodd, "was to constitute a community worthy of the name of a people of God, a divine commonwealth, through individual response to God coming in his kingdom." The Twelve were recruited to confront humanity with this reality and to form the nucleus of what would become the church.

I met Joe Boyd when I was in seminary, he was a guest lecturer, and immediately I connected with him, though we never spoke and I never saw him again. I still read his blog occasionally and enjoyed his latest post, when he discusses Gideon:

It is easy for people to see another person's gift (contribution to the body) as just another shiny thing to worship. Most church leaders are not so bold as to try to take God's role as King, though some are. Most leaders are content with just a little of God's glory, not all of it. "Just a few earrings melted into a golden girdle to remember me by." Forging just a small token of my accomplishment, my "good job," can't hurt anybody, right?

Yes, it can. This is the problem. Perhaps the greatest and most counter-intuitive task of a leader within the Kingdom of God is to reject the earrings. To turn down the mini-monuments. Truth is, if the gift is really God's anyway, who am I to worry if you dislike the gift or the person entrusted with it? Who am I to accept the glory if you like the gift?

My heart's response to this article:

Lord, you are sovereign, you are God. You created this world and called it good, yet due to Man's sin we survive in a sometimes very ugly world. This world is full of violence and all that goes against the principles that exist in your Kingdom. My prayer is that your Kingdom would expand and overtake the violence and sexual perversion that dominates much of the world. May things be on this earth as they are in heaven. I know that this is a big task, but you are a big God, whose can do more than all I could ever ask or imagine. Please act, please move, please be with those already victimized and protect those not yet affected. I ask this as one who stands humbly under the blood of Jesus. AMEN.

But in politics, money, like water, always finds a way. There are over 65 lobbyists for every single member of congress, and they will find a way to make sure their money gets where it needs to be. If money did not make a difference in the outcome, so many would not donate so much.

I don't necessarily like the analogy on the linked article, but the idea is right on. I can't say I'm surprised by anything that comes from Warren or Saddleback, but this did shock me a little:

http://www.extremetheology.com/2007/12/warrens-mulliga.html

From Dr. David Timms, In Hope, Volume 7.36:

Modern nativity scenes violate the significance of that first Christmas.

Mary sits smiling -- no evidence of labor; no strain etched on her face; serene, not exhausted. And Joseph stands humbly by as wise men present gifts to a silent and well-behaved baby.
Even the animals could audition for Charlotte’s Web -- all attentive to the wondrous moment.

The entire scene is sanitized and orderly … and false.

The original manger scene would shock our sensibilities. Mangers were messy. Barns (or caves) couldn’t be kept clean, let alone sterile. Animals do what animals do. And human birth is hardly a ticket to the ballet.

God chose this delivery room for His Son?

What does it say about a God who can’t – or won’t – organize something more secure, more classy, more splendid? His Son deserved the best. This birth began a quest. Could it not have started in a warm, safe place with family and friends to support and celebrate? Why would we choose such a hazardous entrance into the world?

The manger provides the greatest object lesson before the Cross. It speaks softly but decisively to any of us with ears to hear.

Jesus continues to be born in the manger of our hearts, without reservation. The Savior does not look for the safe, the sanitary, the sheltered, or the secure. He does not avoid the putrid, the decadent, or the distasteful. Our mess -- our “stuff” -- cannot hinder His coming.

Good news! No condition whatsoever can hamper the coming of Christ, if we’ll but make the space available to Him. While we may want to dust and scrub, shovel and deodorize, wash and freshen up the manger of our hearts, He needs only the nod to come.

What does that first manger -- rough and raw as it was -- say about God? Everything we need to know. He comes to the hurt and the helpless, the harrowed and the homeless, the disheveled and downtrodden. Nothing can stop Him coming.

This Christmas, may the sweet nativities prompt us to rejoice in the Christ of “our manger” and may He come again to you. O come, O come, Emmanuel!

From Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun:

"She (his mother) had a marker in the Bible and she opened it now to the place that was marked and began to read again. She read the story of the Christ-child of the baby Jesus and how he was born in a manger...All the people were going to Bethlehem because it was tax time and they had to appear at the court house and register and pay up...Joseph had to do a lot of chores before he could start out and Mary his wife was pregnant and couldn't help him so they were late...As soon as they got into town Joseph began making the rounds of cheap rooming houses. He wasn't much of a success at making money and they only had enough to pay taxes and one night's rent...Then Joseph began to talk very seriously to the hotel manager. See here he said I've come a long way and I've got my wife with me and she's going to have a baby. Look at her out there on the donkey, you see she's just a kid and she's scared...(Hotel manager talking)It'll be an awful mess if she has a baby on the premises, people who can't afford them shouldn't have babies anyway but what are you going to do about it...I don't mind telling you I hope very much she doesn't have the baby here tonight because it'll upset my guests if she screams and they're all very high class people including three Roman congressmen...Oh I almost forgot, don't light any fires out there in the barn because in my insurance it says they're forbidden...Back in the manger Joseph lighted a lantern and fixed up a nice bed on the hay and Mary lay down on the bed and had her baby...

From the annals of "I'm so glad my tax dollars are going to good use":

The WSJ reports today that the head of the World Bank's anticorruption unit is coming under fire from "anonymous" co-workers for exposing corruption in the bank. Her crimes include bringing to light the tens of millions of dollars lost to corruption in a "Reproductive and Child Health" project in India and the fact that many whistleblowers are being killed in a $630 million roads project in the Phillipines. You'd think she would be heralded for her work, when in fact she may lose her job.

Also reported today was a failed vote in the Senate that would have capped the incomes of eligible recipients of farm subsidies to farmers with incomes greater than $750,000 per year. As the following quote points out, they sure need it: "Farmers will reap around $20 billion this year in federal handouts - despite strong crop prices and rising land values - and two-thirds will go to the wealthiest 10% of farms." Nice.

One of the most disgusting human bodily behaviors is throwing up in ones mouth? It happened to me on Sunday as I flipped through the channels and stopped at a local church service broadcast.

I had nothing against this church, other than that I felt they unfairly and wrongfully dismissed a friend of mine a few years ago and that they seemed too seeker-friendly to me and a list of other things, but other than that I thought they were all right. But I tipped on them after watching 30 seconds of the service. As I turned it on, some crazy lady was up on the stage in one of the most annoying voices (along with a very annoying face) going off how blessed they were and how faithful the Lord was for putting them in their new building.

I always find that funny, measuring the faithfulness of the Lord by a building we meet in on Sundays, for one since I find that nowhere in the New Testament (and we all claim to want to be NT churches) and for two outside of the Western and Roman Catholic world believers meet anywhere they can, anywhere they are safe. Can you imagine Chinese or North Korean Christians or those in the Sudan praising God for giving them a new building? I think not, I think in those cases it's more like "thank God that we are allowed to gather together in the Name of the Lord in safety without the army or janjaweed coming in to blast us into heaven" or something like that.

So, as a warning, the next time I hear some crazy lady on TV or in person thank God for being so faithful by giving them a new building, I may not be able to control my rage.

From the US Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report via ITeams:

Each year, an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders (some international organizations place the number higher), and the trade is growing.

Of the people trafficked across international borders, 70% are female and 50% are children. The majority of these victims are forced into the commercial sex trade.