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Jeff Kennon Posts

Don’t Let Christmas Become Too Familiar

Published by Jeff Kennon on December 16, 2014

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Familiarity has the tendency to breed monotony. When we become so accustomed to seeing or hearing the same thing over and over again, we can become indifferent. “Yeah, I’ve heard this over and over again,” we say.

A couple of my children love the group Pentatonix. Specifically, they love their new Christmas album.  As a result, they play it over and over and over and over. Though I do enjoy Christmas music, I will have to admit that I’m growing a bit weary of listening to Pentatonix. No doubt, it’s good music. Pentatonix are some great vocalists. But I’m afraid I’ve heard it too much now. The message of the songs is now lost.

I’m afraid that sometimes, the same can be said of the Christmas story. We know it. We’ve heard it. We’ve read it. We have even seen it acted out. And yet it may have become too familiar to some of us. “Oh yeah!” we say, “I know the story.”

In his book The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey writes:

The facts of Christmas, rhymed in carols, recited by children in church plays, illustrated on cards, have become so familiar that it is easy to miss the message behind the facts.

So what do we do? Well, Yancey tells us what he does.

After reading the birth stories once more, I ask myself, If Jesus came to reveal God to us, then what do I learn about God from that first Christmas?

For Yancey, what he learned shocked him. He writes:

The word associations that come to mind as I ponder that question take me by surprise. Humble, approachable, underdog, courageous–these hardly seem appropriate words to apply to deity.

So as you and I ponder the Christmas story, the story of the Creator becoming the created, what do you learn about God? What do you glimpse of God’s commitment to save us? What do you realize about his love? What shocks you about this story?

As my children continue to play the Pentatonix Christmas album throughout this Christmas season, and most likely, throughout all of 2015, I hope one song in particular does not lose it’s impact on me. True, the tune may grow old, but the message should not. Their remake of Mary, Did You Know? is a great song that reveals much about God becoming man along with the reasons why. It seeks to help us plumb the depths of the Christmas story.

God becoming man is no small thing. Though some of us have heard the story hundreds of times, I pray we don’t become so familiar with it that we forget the miraculous nature of it. Once you truly think about it, I think you will come to realize that it really is the  most shocking, wonderful, true, crazy, glorious, and grace-filled story ever told.

 

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Reclaiming Christmas!

Published by Jeff Kennon on December 12, 2014

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Each Christmas, I always hear disappointment about how our culture  has taken “Christ” out of “Christmas.” People bemoan how the politically correct greeting “Happy Holidays!” has overshadowed shouting “Merry Christmas!” We no longer buy “Christmas trees,” but instead purchase “Holiday trees.” We send “Holiday cards” in place of “Christmas cards.” So we must reclaim Christ in Christmas, right?

Well, before we drag our family, friends, and neighbors to watch the movie Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas, I would like to propose another idea. Actually, it’s not my idea, but I like it.

Rodney Clapp, a Christian author and editor, says that we should “Let the pagans have the holiday.” He writes:

We have worried about Christmas too much. Christians in an indifferent and even hostile society need to learn cultural jujitsu–to sometimes let the culture push at points where it wants to, and there collapse of its own momentum. This is especially important in our cultural situation, where resistance is so easily itself turned into marketable commodity. T-shirts and bumper stickers proclaiming “Jesus Is the Reason for the Season” make the message itself into a consumer item.

Clapp does not suggest that we as Christians stop celebrating Christmas. But he wants us to put Christmas in the proper perspective. For Clapp, it is Easter that should be returned to greater prominence within the Christian calendar. “The Christian calendar,” writes Clapp, “like the gospel narrative, builds toward and pivots around the focal events of Christ’s passion and Easter. Recognizing the liturgical year is a large step toward seeing Easter as the main Christian holiday.”

It is Easter, the cross and resurrection, in which we see ourselves in need of salvation. Though spreading Christmas cheer is a wonderful thing, speaking of the crucified Messiah is another thing altogether. The cross speaks of our need to be rescued and the lengths to which God goes to do so. Our salvation, no doubt, involves the Christmas story. However, we must take heed lest we, though worrying about our culture taking Christ out of Christmas, place the cross on the periphery of the gospel story.

If we are really worried about Christ being taken out of Christmas, the we do well to place Easter at it’s proper locale within the Christian holidays. “It is only as we reclaim Easter”, suggests Clapp, “that Christians may best reclaim Christmas.” Therefore, “let the pagans have Christmas as their most significant holiday. Easter is the central Christian holiday. And when we are known for our Easter, then we will have our Christmas back.”

Sounds like a good idea to me! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Easter!

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Around The Web

Published by Jeff Kennon on December 11, 2014

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The Best Gift I Can Give Christian Christmas Haters – It isn’t wrong to have a fern on my porch or a cactus in my office (chosen for its resilience to neglect, a prerequisite for any plant life under my supervision). But apparently having a fir tree, imitation or genuine, is considered by some to be morally repugnant; though only in December.

Who Was St. Nicholas? – The unsatisfying answer to the title of this post is that nobody knows for sure.

5 Phrases Leaders Need To Say More Often – Your words carry a tremendous weight for those on your team. And too often, there are important phrases that get left out of our daily meetings, phone conversations, and emails. Here are 5 phrases that ministry leaders need to say more often.

19 Secrets of UPS Drivers – You may have a good relationship with your UPS driver, but how much do you really know about his or her job? The brown-clad United Parcel Service workers deliver more than 15 million packages a day to more than 220 countries and territories around the world; they even deliver to the North Pole. But what’s it really like to be a UPS driver? Here are some little-known facts from drivers who did their time.

The University’s Rape Culture – The past month’s debate over campus rape has revealed a disturbing shallowness on both sides of America’s divided body politic.

Are Americans Obsessed With Video Games? – More than 40 years after the first home video game console hit store shelves, most adults think their fellow Americans play video games too much, even though they seldom, if ever, play themselves.

You Gotta Love Tim Hawkins!

 

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Triumph Begins In An Unlikely Place

Published by Jeff Kennon on December 10, 2014

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The triumph of God over evil begins in the unlikely place of a child born in the midst of all the vulnerabilities of infancy. The Christmas miracle is God’s answer to all the evil, injustice, brutality, suffering, and death that we see around us.

Justin Martyr said: “And by her [Mary] has he been born, to whom we have proved so many Scriptures refer, and by whom God destroys both the servpen and those angels and men who are like him; but works deliverance from death to those who repent of their wickedness and believe upon Him.”

-Michael Bird, Evangelical Theology, p. 374

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Do We Really Understand The Incarnation?

Published by Jeff Kennon on December 9, 2014

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Do we really understand the story of God becoming man? Do we really know what “coming down” would cost God? Do we see the incarnation as a story of love?

Consider the story of Father Damien as told by John Ortberg in his book God Is Closer Than You Think…

Father Damien was a priest who became famous for his willingness to serve lepers. He moved to Kalawao – a village on the island of Molokai, in Hawaii, that had been quarantined to serve as a leper colony.

For 16 years, he lived in their midst. He learned to speak their language. He bandaged their wounds, embraced the bodies no one else would touch, preached to hearts that would otherwise have been left alone. He organized schools, bands, and choirs. He built homes so that the lepers could have shelter. He built 2,000 coffins by hand so that, when they died, they could be buried with dignity.
Slowly, it was said, Kalawao became a place to live rather than a place to die, for Father Damien offered hope.

Father Damien was not careful about keeping his distance. He did nothing to separate himself from his people. He dipped his fingers in the poi bowl along with the patients. He shared his pipe. He did not always wash his hands after bandaging open sores. He got close. For this, the people loved him.

Then one day he stood up and began his sermon with two words: “We lepers….”

Now he wasn’t just helping them. Now he was one of them. From this day forward, he wasn’t just on their island; he was in their skin. First he had chosen to live as they lived; now he would die as they died. Now they were in it together.

One day God came to Earth and began his message: “We lepers….” Now he wasn’t just helping us. Now he was one of us. Now he was in our skin. Now we were in it together.

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You Know What’s Crazy About Christmas?

Published by Jeff Kennon on December 5, 2014

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You know what’s crazy about Christmas? It’s not Black Friday, the mall, traffic, my weight gain, or Jack Frost. It’s Jesus!!

Consider the words of Philip Yancey:

It took courage to endure the shame, and courage even to risk descent to a planet known for its clumsy violence, among a race known for rejecting its prophets. A God of all power deliberately put himself in such a state that Satan could tempt him, demons could taunt him, and lowly human beings could slap his face and nail him to a cross. What more foolhardy thing could God have done? 

The Creator of the cosmos became the created. The one who holds the universe in place became the one who needed to be held and cuddled. The giver of life became the one who needed his mom for life. The infinite became finite. The light of the world had come into the world, yet the world did not know him (Jn. 1:9-10).

George MacDonald put it beautifully:

They were looking for a king
To slay their foes and lift them high,
Thou cam’st a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.

Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:6-8).

It can be easy for us to lose sight of the craziness of the King of Kings becoming a servant of servants. We can plow through Christmas and allow the familiarity of Jesus’ birth to blunt the wonder of it. What a risk God took to become one of us! And all for our redemption.

As we go about our final weeks of Christmas mania, let’s be sure and meditate upon the true craziness of the season; the craziness of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us (Jn 1:14). And as we do, let’s allow this story, the Christmas story, to rewrite our story!

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Around The Web

Published by Jeff Kennon on December 4, 2014

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The Real Reason Young Adults Drop Out Of Church –  The young adults who do drop out of church often lack a first-hand faith—a faith of their own—and a relationship with Christ that matters deeply in their own personal life apart from their parent’s pressure.

Our Moral Compass Is Turned Toward Self-Righteousness – Say “self-righteous” and people are likely to think of super-spiritual religious person who looks down on everyone else for their failure to attain the same standard of holiness. The truth is however, everyone is turned toward self-righteousness. 

No, I Won’t Pray For You –It’s the easiest thing in the world to say: “Yes, I’ll pray about that.” And it’s the easiest thing to neglect. The list of all the things I’ve said I’d pray for but then forgotten about would stretch from here to next year. So I’ve started to say, “No, I won’t pray for you.” I am still not entirely comfortable with it, but I think it’s the right thing to do.

The Most Satisfying Careers – Interesting list!

Prayer In The Facebook Age – Prayer must become a practice among our children, and if we can use the bait of social media to plant it into their daily affairs, then we may have faith that the call of God will, sometimes, entice them more than the news of their friends.  

How Do We Get Programmed To Crave Twitter Attention? – How do social media encourage expectations of instant audience response and routinize all sorts of information about ourselves?

A Brief History Of The Shopping Mall

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Receiving Grace Leads To Giving Grace

Published by Jeff Kennon on December 2, 2014

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In Paul Tripp’s book A Dangerous Calling, he warns pastors and church leaders of the danger of forgetting their need for the grace of God. This is a much needed word!! He writes…

No one gives grace better than a person who is deeply persuaded that he needs it himself and is being given it in Christ. This tenderness causes me to be gracious, gentle, patient, understanding, and hopeful in the face of the sin of others, while never compromising God’s holy call.

It protects me from deadly assessments like, “I can’t believe you would do such a thing,” or, “I would never have thought of…,” that are me telling me that I am essentially different from the people to whom I minister.

It’s hard to bring the gospel to people I am looking down my nose at or neither like nor respect. In the face of the sin of others, awe-inspirred tenderness frees me from being an agent of condemnation or from asking the law to do what only grace can accomplish and motivates me to be a tool of that grace.

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