"Then John gave in to him."

Matthew chapter 3 gives us the familiar story of John the Baptizer (as he is called in the God's Word translation). God's Word sets the table to look at John as a humble man. He lived in the wilderness; he ate bugs and honey (could that be a new breakfast cereal?); he wore simple clothes of camel's hair and leather. As we get the mental picture, we see a humble man and in our way of thinking, humble means mild-mannered.

But this mild-mannered image of John is blown from the water when the Pharisees and Sadducees come to see what he's doing. Here we see that humility can have teeth as he takes these religious leaders to task, calling them a "brood of vipers" in the NIV, or "poisonous snakes" in the God's Word translation. Humble men don't rile up the religious. Humble men don't call people to change the way they think and act throught repentance. Humble men don't raise their voice. And most certainly, humble men don't argue with the Son of God.

Yet that's what John does. When Jesus comes and asks to be baptized by John, John tried to stop Him. He argues with the Son of God saying, "I need to be baptized by you. Why are you coming to me?" We know that John knows who this is because of his reaction and also because of his reaction to Jesus in the womb (see Luke 1:38-45). Even so, John argues with Jesus about who is going to baptize whom. He fights with God over this.

Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but I see a "humble" man who was so full of passion for his calling as the "voice of one crying in the wilderness" that he was willing to fight about it with the one who called him to it. John felt so strongly about what God had called him to do that he was willing to question God Himself over how to best fulfill this mission. Is that sinful? Is that wrong? Or is it dedication? To me, this becomes sinful only if John were to have refused to follow the lead of Jesus. But, as we read above, "John gave in to him." John checks his understanding and passion a little bit and follows the will of his Savior. This only happens because John is able to listen for the leading of his God and follows humbly. Truly, John is a humble man, crying out in the wilderness and we could use a little more of his humility.

"Where is the one who was born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star rising and have come to worship him."

Matthew chapter 2 remarks about the star that heralded the birth of Jesus Christ. Twice it points out how it guided the wise men to Judea and eventually Bethlehem so that they could worship the king of the Jews. I'm curious to know what that celestial event was. Was it a star or perhaps a comet or some other special effect worked by the Father to mark the birth of His Son, Jesus Christ? I don't really know. I'm not curious enough to lose sleep over it. However, whatever it was, it had to be big.

So why did Herod miss it? Why did Herod not see the star that was rising over Bethlehem? Why did this visit from the wise men call him to gather the chief priests and scribes to figure out where the Messiah was to be born; shouldn't he have known this himself? Was he too busy? Did he see it and not care? Was he missing the message of God that was right there before his eyes?

Do I sometimes miss the message of God that is right here before my eyes? I can't remember the last time I have just looked up at the stars for no good reason. It's been a while since I last searched the Scriptures for the promises that God makes to me and all believers. Before we get too hard on Herod for missing the star, we need to ask ourselves how perceptive we are to the signs and wonders of God that are going on around us as we speak.

One of the things that the story of the wise men points out to us is how the nations realized that there was something special happening here but Herod and the other Jews missed it. Today, we need to look around and see what God is doing, lest there be a star over our towns and we don't even see it.

"Jacob is the Father of Joseph, who was the husband of Mary. Mary was the mother of Jesus, who is called Christ."

Re-reading the gospel of Matthew, I was pouring over the geneaology that starts the book. (Doesn't the KJV use the word "begat" so many times in this passage?) Anyway, I noticed that there are 5 women mentioned in this geneaology, which is strange because usually it was usually only men who were mentioned. This fact would lead one to think that these must have been godly women of favor to have been included in the lineage of the Savior. If you think that, you're wrong.

We read all about Tamar's exploits in Genesis 38, how she seduced her father-in-law, Judah, and had illegitimate twin boys, Perez and Zerah. Anyone who is familiar with the story of the fall of Jericho knows how Rahab was a prostitute in that city. Ruth was not even a child of the promise; she was a Moabite, an outcast from the nation of Israel. Bathsheba was an adultress with King David. While the blame is usually on David for this relationship, let's not forget that it takes two to tango. And then there was Mary who also acknowledges her need for a Savior (see Luke 1:47).

Most of these women mentioned were not glorious; they were notorious. If we were to look at the outward actions of their lives, we would conclude that they would certainly be excluded from the line of the perfect man, Jesus Christ. Yet this is not the case. Even through the family that the Father chose to be the seed-bed for his Son, the Father hints at what His ultimate purpose is. He is about the redeeming of sin (not punishing it) and bringing sinful people into His plan (not excluding them). His power is so great that He can take the sins that we do and, with some pain and suffering, work them out for His good. Even in looking at the family of Jesus Christ, we see how He rescues the imperfect.

I was digging through some of the things I had written about a year ago and just filed away on my computer. What follows may be long but it's worth considering, I think

The Spirituality of Play

Each of us is always in such a hurry to grow up. When we are five, we can’t wait until we are six. When we are half-way through our sixth year, we are suddenly “six and a HALF!” and we don’t let anyone forget it! When we turn 8 or so we start to pick up baseball gloves and footballs and suddenly play has to have rules and comparisons, what is right or wrong, legal or illegal, which player is better, who’s the best on the team, who’s the last one to get picked. Play becomes serious business. At age twelve, play is reserved only for sports. The Barbies and the G.I. Joes and the Legos are all hidden away in the attic or worse…sold off as a grab bag at a garage sale for a dollar. Next come the teenage years where there is no play because everything is so serious and so much about life and death. “If Bobby Jones finds out I have a crush on him, I will just DIE!” Play is forgotten or focused on sports, choirs, school, or plays. We think we have the world figured out and then tragedy strikes: we graduate.

In college, we remember how to play for just a little while. The introduction of new freedom takes us back to when we were able to ride our first bicycle. There is no curfew, no watchdog, no guidepost, no security blanket for our lives any more. We are finally adults, standing on our own, making our own decisions, making our first mistakes without the comfort of family. We find help in the arms of people who were strangers last semester, but after a few months of Introduction to Chemistry and slaving over the Periodic Table together, they have become the sibling we never knew we had. However, we never play together. We are too busy studying, working, chasing people of the opposite gender, and worrying about life after graduation.

And, before we know it, we’re there. We are living on our own far from home…even if it is just a few miles away. We come “home” to an empty apartment and turn on the television so that we have something to talk about at work the next day. All the while wanting nothing more than to change out of our “work clothes” and into our “play clothes,” to jump on our bicycle, ride around the neighborhood, and have adventures like we did before.

Some will become adrenaline junkies, pushing themselves to the outer limits of human tolerances. Adrenaline is a fickle mistress. As with any kind of junkie, the desire for more will eventually burn them up. The lengths to which we will go in order to play!

Of course, we think that God is not in our playing. We remember from 1 Corinthians 13 how that works: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; but now that I am a man, I put childish ways behind me.” The spiritual life is no place for a child. It is a grown up world of reason and thought and discussion and conversation with scholars and pedigreed people who have paid more money than we have so that they can prove that they know more than we do.

Or is it simply that they forgotten more than we have? Have they forgotten how to play? I have never known joy to be an intellectual pursuit…it’s always been a feeling in my heart. I have never known joy to come from a book. I have experienced humor, laughter, insight, and many other positive things from a book, but never have I known joy. Joy comes from experience. Joy comes from living. Paul was able to write from prison, “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again, I say, rejoice!” Joy comes from a relationship, not a process.

Play is a new spiritual discipline. It takes effort to shut off everything and play… with God, with kids, with pets, with ourselves (not that way). To take some time to be active in accomplishing nothing but living the fancies and fantasies of God, listening for the evidences of his love, takes discipline in this task oriented, highly effective world. The spiritual discipline of play is waiting for Him to come to the houses of our grown-up lives in his muddy T-shirt, blue jeans with holes in the knees, and last year’s tennis shoes, and say, “Can Tommy come out to play?”

Of course I can Jesus. Let me change my clothes first.

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord" --Acts 3:19

I had never read this Scripture this way before. At least, I don't think I had. What a wonderful progression from confession to absolution to new life.

It starts with repentance: changing the way that we think and the way that we act. It starts with not accepting things as they are now but rather looking for a change, a newness, a different way.

Where do we find that different way? In God, as we turn to Him. We have realized that our way is not working, so we look to God in repentance. We look to Him in a way that says that we are broken but He can fix us. We turn to Him because, after all of our searching and hunting, He is the only one who can effect the change that we are looking for.

That change starts with the stripping off of the old; the forgiveness of sins. Sometimes it's hard to surrender to the Father's superiority and admit that we are sinful and that those sins need to be wiped out. God is always more ready to forgive than we are to confess. Confession is weakness, meekness, helplessness. Confession is giving up and not giving in to the myth that we can fix ourselves. But it's also the realization that God can do more through us than we could ever do for ourselves. It's the realization that the sin that we are trying to fix is really holding us back. God strips our sin away so that we can get on with what He wants for us.

The thing God desires for us is refreshing. Refreshing our strength, refreshing our minds, refreshing our attitudes, refreshing our spirits. Refreshing is the gift of that change, that new way that repentance is looking for. Many times, it doesn't come the way we wanted it but it is welcome...sometimes. We struggle with the changes that this refreshing challenges us to make, but that struggle leads us to cofession and repentance and the process begins again.

O Father, hear our repentant prayer. Give us your refreshing. Amen.