Becoming a New Person in the New Year December 29, 2006
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized.Tags: baptism, Jesus
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Originally Posted 12/29/06
Following the nice response my blog entry about Jesus’ birth received, I’ve decided to turn this into a weekly(?) series looking at the life of Christ. Thank you all for reading and I hope my words will be somewhat edifying to you.
The dawn of a new year is again upon us. It’s a time when people around the globe will join together in a celebration of the times gone by – the triumphs and tragedies of the last 365 days of our mortal existence. It’s a time when we make resolutions for the coming year – promises that we forge with the goal of improving the quality of our short days in the realm of mortals. We wish to push the mistakes of the antecedental year behind us and reach forth to the auspicious future ahead. Like a snake shedding its skin, our aspiration if for regeneration – discarding the old self in favor of something new and better.
The idea of a rebirth, where we can become a new and different person, is one of great familiarity to Christians. It is the whole concept behind the ceremony of baptism, where we symbolically wash away the old person – glutted with the dirt and grime of our sinful past – and put on the new, clean self and though we will continue to mire ourselves in the mud of iniquity, we can now rest in veritable tranquility with the knowledge that we are a saved people.
Some 30 years after the birth of Jesus, but prior to the inauguration of His ministry, a man named John came on the scene teaching and baptizing people to provide a precursor to the coming Messiah. I’ve always kind of thought of John as this crazy hippy dude, living out in the wilderness, wearing animal skins and eating bugs, amassing a large following of people through his message of repentance of wrongdoings through water baptism.
I’ve spoken before of the significance of Jesus’ baptism, so I’m not going to get into the theological ramifications of the act now. If you read that past entry, you’ll see that I view the baptism of Jesus as an ordination, rather than as a symbolic gesture for forgiveness of sins. I wonder if, before Jesus approached a surprised John the Baptist, He really knew what was in store for Him over the next three years? Did He know that He would be rejected and betrayed and denied and ultimately die in a gruesome public execution? I’m intrigued by the idea that for the first 30 years of His life maybe He didn’t really know about His impending death or maybe He didn’t even comprehend of who He was. I wonder that if, when He took the step of baptism and subsequently received the Holy Spirit, the understanding of His duty and His imminent expiration was conferred to Him. Then when God spoke and said, “This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased,” He was bestowing His favor upon the Son for choosing the right path, regardless of the dark road of destiny before Him.
When we make the decision to follow Jesus, we will most likely not receive so profound a revelation. We will most likely not be given all understanding and knowledge of what lies ahead in our future, but there is one thing that will be made clear – the path will be open before us and we can be sure that it leads to an eternal life in heaven. There will be obstacles and tragedies along the way, we’ll stumble and fall and the road will be rough, but as long as we keep our eyes ahead and trudge along, paradise awaits.
So in the new year, let’s not just resolve to lose weight or succeed at work or beat the new Zelda game on the Wii, let’s set a new objective to transform ourselves into a new person – a person who esteems others higher than themselves and works to make our world a better place and who brings a few more people down the road to salvation.
A Savior Has Been Born December 22, 2006
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized.Tags: birth, Christmas, Jesus
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Originally Posted 12/22/06
Scriptures: Matt 1:18-2:12, Luke 1:1-2:20
So this is Christmas. Yes that’s right, it’s that time of year again. This rock of iron and oxygen that we call home floating in the cold blackness of space is in the midst of it’s annual axis shifting – placing those of us living in the northern hemisphere away from that life sustaining ball of fire set just close enough to keep us warm, but far enough to keep from incinerating all life as we know it. But it is at this time that we, a seemingly insignificant people hurtling along a pre-determined path amid the unfathomable reaches of nothingness, stop to remember the most important event to ever occur in the annals of the long, long history of our nearly infinite cosmos.
But this wasn’t just any event, no, this was a phenomenally marvelous event with ramifications affecting every minute atom of eveyr single one of the sentient beings that have ever and will ever tread upon the soil of this planet we call earth – from the primitive stoop-shouldered neanderthal, to the astute philosophers of ancient Greece, to the beyond destitute African battling every day for surviva,l to the modern day business executive in his posh suite with millions of years of information available at the click of a mouse. When the infinite became finite, the whole universe was changed forever.
It all goes back to the little backwater town where an ostensibly insignificant teenage girl, with a baby growing within her and a man who was not the father of her child, trudged along looking for a place, any place, where a young lady nearing the end of her third trimester might be able to rest her dirty, sore feet.
Mary knew that there was something exceptional about the fetus in her womb – that he was a miracle from God – but the combination of excitement and trepidation, of anticipation and dread, that she was feeling is beyond the scope of my imagination. Add in the akward stares and disapproving comments of those around her in a society where being an unwed mother was a terrible offense and I can’t imagine how troubling it must have been for her.
The couple must have searched for and wide to find a place for Mary to rest, but they were just common people – people with little money or influence – so, despite the child incubating within the young girl, they were forced to stay in what amounts to a barn, just as all of the common people on the outskirts of society did.
The old Christmas carol Silent Night is a beautiful song, but realistically I bet it’s a bunch of utopian crap. If you’ve ever sat through the birth of a child (and I’ve watched two), you know that it’s anything but silent and that’s with an epidural and the best medical care. Mary had Joseph and maybe a stick to bite on for the pain – do you really think she kept a stoic countenance through the ordeal? We can probably surmise that Joseph delivered the Son of God himself right there in the squalid barn filled with animals and dirt and poop and Lord knows what else. So they took the baby Jesus, God incarnate, wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger – the trough where the livestock would go to eat. We like to think that things were probably clean and pristine – like a hospital with happy cows mooing with glee – but, I can’t imagine it was anything like that.
Around that same time, we know that there were some shepherds out in a field tending their flocks as is conducive to people in that position when all of a sudden this angel with the glory of God shining around him appears and starts telling them about the Christ-child that has been born in Bethlehem. If that’s not enough to rattle these poor guys’ nerves, a multitude of angels then appeared and praised God with a loud voice saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
Could you imagine what that must have been like for these shepherds – who were merely marginal people that society had little use for? We read that they went straight to Bethelehem and praised and lauded the baby Jesus. We know that Jesus is known as the Son of David, who was a shepherd, and we know that Christ refers to Himself later as the good shepherd and I just can’t help but wonder about the connection between these three: Jesus, David, and these random shepherds.
We also know that there were magi – people who could be thought of us soothsayers or fortune-tellers or astrologers – who followed a strange star, a celestial phenomenah that they knew pointed to the King of Jews. It seems strange that God would reach out to people practicing something like astrology – it’s like He invited Miss Cleo along or something – but, for whatever reason, that’s exactly what He did. The magi then arrived at the new family bearing gifts – gold, frankincense (an aromatic resin used in incense and perfumes), and myrhh (interestingly used as an embalming ointment). Was this gift of myrrh perhaps an early foreshadowing of Jesus’s death some 33 years later?
This weekend amid the carols and presents and overly sentimental movies, let’s take a few moments to reflect on this miraculous event of some 2000 years ago. Let’s not take what the angels in the field said lightly and truly strive to show goodwill to all men, so be good to your friends and your family and to the homeless guy on the street and even to those people that get under your skin everytime they open their mouths. That being said, maybe the best way to remember the birth of our Lord is not through elaborate Nativity scenes or through the richly decorated churches, but maybe it’s just being good to each other. So that’s my one wish for this Christmas, let’s look past our differences and love one another.
Happy Holidays – Christmas December 20, 2006
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized.Tags: Christmas, holiday
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Originally Posted 12/20/06
The third in our Winter (or Summer for my Southern Hemisphere friends) trilogy is the holiday of Christmas – the day that marks the traditional birthdate of Jesus Christ. The word itself is a contraction, meaning “Christ’s Mass,” with the Spanish “navidad” and French “noel” carry more Nativity connotations. Sometimes the day is denoted as X-mas, where the X comes from the Greek letter chi, which is the first letter in Christ. This celebration is not just the product of Christianity, though, instead it is a veritable potpourri of religious and pagan traditions woven together as one.
The Nativity, as mentioned above, refers to the Jesus’ miraculous birth written about in the Biblical books of Matthew and Luke. Jesus as God incarnate was born to the virgin Mary in a common manger in the little town of Bethlehem. To commemorate the event, shepherds and magi came from afar bringing praises and gifts for the newborn Savior.
Other holidays contributing to the festivities include the Roman Saturnalia, a time of relaxation, feasting, merry-making and gift giving in honor of the god Saturn. At times, the gala – filled with drinking, gambling, singing and public nudity – would go on as long as seven days. Sal Invictus was a winter solstice festival that was introduced to the Romans in the early third century with the purpose of celebrating the birthdays of two solar deities – Sol Invictus of Syrian origin and the Iranian god Mithras. A third celebration, denoted by the familiar word Yule, was a pagan Scandinavian holiday held in late December to early January in which Yule logs were lit to honor Thor, the god of thunder. Each spark from the fire was believed to represent a new pig or calf that would be born in the coming year.
Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus put forth the idea that Jesus was born on December 25 in his AD 221 writing, Chronographiai. The date was chosen because it is nine months after March 25th – the Feast of Anunciation and presumed date of the Incarnation of Jesus. Within the next century, the commemoration had become an integral part of the Catholic Church. Centuries later, during the Reformation, Protestants condemned the celebration of Christmas and, in 1647, England’s Puritan rulers actually banned the holiday – causing those that were pro-Christmas to riot and resulting in its reinstatement. In conjunction with this belief, the Puritans of New England also disapproved of Christmas, so it was even outlawed here until 1681. The holiday was not fully embraced until the warm family emphasis of Charles Dickens’ 1843 book A Christmas Carol and Washington Irving’s The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon was put forth. It was not made a U.S. federal holiday until 1870.
Other important Christmas traditions include that of a mythical gift-giving Santa Clause and the bright adornment of the Christmas tree. The figure of Santa Claus (or Father Christmas, or St. Nicholas, or Sinterklaas) comes from a Dutch fairy tale based on the real St. Nicholas who gave gifts on the eve of his feast day – December 6. His association with Christmas came about in 19th century America when Washington Irving wrote of St. Nicholas, “riding over the tops of trees,” and from Clement Clarke Moore’s 1822 poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas, that depicted him driving a sleigh pulled by reindeer and giving presents to children. Father Christmas, who was first written of in the 15th century, predates the Santa character, but he was more known for holdiday merrymaking and drunkeness than for good will and gift giving. In some cultures, Santa is accompanied by Black Peter, forming a dualistic relationship where Santa gives gifts, whle Peter may take back presents or punish children that are naughty. The tradition of the Christmas tree was one adapted from the pagan tree worship surrounding the Winter solstice. The tradition of using it as a holiday decoration came about in 18th century Germany, where it was in time introduced to England and into the United States.
There are a lot of other traditions and practices that have not been listed here, but I hope this entry, and this series, have been informative for you. Is there anything else you would add to this?
The Virtue of Diversity Vol.2 December 15, 2006
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized.Tags: diversity, homosexuality, tolerance
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Originally Posted 12/15/06
With the ugly racial prejudices confronted and conquered, I was feeling pretty good about myself. No longer was I just giving lip service to the idea of love and diversity while surrounding myself with “comfortable” people who looked and acted just like me. We joined a church integrated with people of different colors and backgrounds and mindsets, making friends with everyone.
Then prejudice reared its ugly head again.
Back in the spring, I made the decision to take a new position with a different company. It wasn’t a particularly hard decision to make – the industry has a much better future and the pay raise was great and it was closer to our house. I sit in a cubicle and crunch numbers and conduct meetings a few times a month, so everything along those lines is great. There is one other person that I work with closely on a daily basis – we sit beside each other and visit and occasionally eat lunch together. In doing so, we’ve become, at least on a professional level, friends.
I’m not one to pry into people’s personal lives, so the fact that he is a little older than me (probably mid-30s) living with a male roommate, just kind of rolled off of me. It was none of my business, so I never even thought very much about some of his characteristics that I saw over the next few months. Then, as the November elections neared, I came across my co-worker’s picture along with his “roommate” in an article in the local paper decrying the amendment to outlaw same sex marriage. It was then that I realized that my friend, the man I spend more time with each week than anybody else, was an open homosexual.
I’ll admit that at first I felt some revulsion toward him, probably due to the influence of many if not most in the Christian culture who, if they can’t burn gay people at the stake, would at least like to brand them with the scarlet letter. I didn’t and still don’t understand the inclination of some people to want to be with others of the same sex – it’s a concept that is foreign to me – but I can still love those that do.
I think one of the biggest problems facing people today is in the way we dehumanize those that are different than us. So, since I don’t have any homosexual inclinations, it’s a lot easier to throw stones at them, when in reality they aren’t any worse than the rest of us.
So, I’m glad to have a gay friend. It helps me to keep things in perspective and once again defeat those prejudices that eat away at us on the inside.
The Virtue of Diversity Vol.1 December 14, 2006
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized.Tags: diversity, race
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Originally Posted 12/14/06
When we first moved to the Memphis area three years ago, I thought I had things figured out and fancied myself as a beacon of tolerance in a barbaric land of hate and injustice.
But I had a lot to learn.
The small Arkansas town that I was raised in, while not unequivocally bigoted by any means, was certainly no utopia of multifariousness. In other words, we were nearly all white, middle to lower-middle class country families and, though we may avoid admitting it at all costs, there was, in the deep dark recesses of our minds, the sliver of prejudice. I would never have donned a white bed sheet and carried a fiery cross, but at the same time there was a sense of discomfort at the idea of being around those that were different than you.
Why is it that the level of melanin contained within our skin cells would make us ill at ease with each other? The homogeneity of my upbringing has certainly clouded the way I viewed people throughout my life – you can’t help but be somewhat distrustful of anyone that looks or acts or lives differently than you.
Now don’t get me wrong, I had a great childhood and young adulthood and am not meaning to disparage that or my hometown by any means, but living in veritable uniformity had hung this great albatross about my neck that unknowingly clouded the way I viewed others.
Today, nearly three years after I moved to a relatively large urban area where the minority is actually the majority, I am a different person. By immersing myself in the surrounding culture and people, despite my initial uneasiness, I’ve come to know and love the good folks of all colors and backgrounds. So now, there is neither Jew nor Greek or black or white because we are all in this life together.
So, that’s the key. Though we may be able to ignore them and pretend they aren’t there, we must confront our inner prejudices in order to get past them and truly learn to love all of humankind.
Happy Holidays Hannukah December 13, 2006
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized.Tags: Hannukah, holiday
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Originally Posted 12/13/06
The second of our triumverate of winter celebrations is the eight day Jewish festival of Hanukkah. This holiday starts on the 25th day of Kislev – which may occur anywhere from late November to early January. This year, it will begin on Friday, Dec. 15, with the advent of the Sabbath.
We’ll begin with the long and storied history surrounding this special day, starting around 200 BC. At this time, the Jews were under Seleucid rule, but they were able to retain their autonomy as a people. As time went on, things changed in the relationship between the two peoples, finally coming to a head in 175 BC when Antiochus IV Epiphanes ascended the throne. Under Antiochus, the Jews were gradually forced to violate their faith and when they rebelled, the Seleucids answered by looting the Temple, massacring the people and effectively outlawing Judaism. The final straw, though, came in 167 when Antiochus ordered that an altar to Zeus be erected in the Temple. At that time, a Jewish priest named Mattathias and his five sons John, Simon, Eleazar, Jonathan, and Judah (later to be known as Judah Maccabee) led a rebellion against the occupying force. Mattathias died in 166, but his son Judah took up the mantle and continued to fight until the rebellion finally succeeded in 165. The temple was then rededicated and Judah instituted the festival of Hanukkah.
According to the Talmud, oil was needed for the menorah in the Temple which was to burn nonstop every night, but there was only enough oil to last for one day. Miraculously, the fire burned for eight days, just the amount of time needed to prepare frest oil for the menorah, and an eight day festival was declared to remember the miracle.
The primary ritual for those families that celebrate Hanukkah is the lighting of a single light each night for eight nights. The menorah is to be set in a prominent window or doorway so that all people passing by will see it and be reminded of the holiday miracle. In addition to these eight lights, another, called a shamash, is to be lit on the first day and kept in a separate location from the primary ones on the menorah. The purpose of the shamash is to follow the Talmudic specifications that the Hanukkah lights are to be used only for publicizing or meditating on the Hanukkah story. If you need an extra light during the eight days, you could use the shamash and avoid the prohibited ones.
There are three blessings recited – all three on the first day and the first two on the subsequent ones – around the lighting of the candles each of the eight days.
The First Blessing: Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik neir (shel) Chanukah
Translation: “Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the Hanukkah lights.”
The Second Blessing: Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, she-asah nisim la-avoteinu, bayamim haheim, (u)baz’man hazeh.
Translation: “Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who performed wondrous deed for our ancestors, in those days, at this season.”
The Third Blessing: Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, shehecheyanu, v’kiyemanu, vehigi-anu laz’man hazeh.
Translation: “Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who has kept us in life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.”
Once the lights have been kindled, the Hanerot Halalu prayer is recited and the Maoz Tzur, a hymn that lists persecutions of the Jews throughout history and praises God for survival despite the tragedies, is sung.
This just scratches the surface of one of the most special Jewish holidays, but I hope this gives at least a peek into some of the traditions surrounding this memorable time of year.
Happy Holidays – Kwanzaa December 8, 2006
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized.Tags: holiday, Kwanzaa
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Originally Posted 12/8/06
During these last few weeks of the year, I thought I would take some time to write about some of the major holidays celebrated here in the United States. While I celebrate Christmas, like most Americans do, I realize that there are many, many people out there who do not. Here in our little blogging community I want everyone to feel welcome, so today will be the first installment about our varied celebrations. Feel free to add to or take away from my descriptions in the comments, but please be respectful of the beliefs of other people. I have chosen to make this a three part series covering Kwanzaa, Hannukah, and Christmas. If there is another special observance that you celebrate tell us about it.
The week-long celebration of Kwanzaa mainly exists as a celebration of African-American culture and heritage. It was created during the Civil Rights movement in 1966 by Black Nationalist Ron Karenga, who later stated that, “…it was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society.”
The name Kwanzaa derives from a Swahili phrase, “matunda ya kwanza,” meaning “first fruits.” The extra “a” was added to the name so that there would be 7 letters to symbolize what Karenga called the “Seven Principles of Blackness” or Nguzo Saba. These seven principles (one for each day of the celebration) comprise Kawaida – a Swahili term for tradition and reason – and they are as follows:
1. Umoja (Unity) To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
2. Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
3. Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and to solve them together.
4. Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
5. Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
6. Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way that we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
7. Imani (Faith) To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Families who celebrate Kwanzaa decorate their homes with art, colorful African cloth – especially the wearing of the Uwole by women – and fruits that represent African idealism. Children are included in ceremonies and respect and gratitude are given to ancestors. Libations are shared with a common chalice, “Kikombe cha Umoja” passed around to all of those celebrating.
A Kwanzaa ceremony may include drumming and musical selections, libations, a reading of the “African Pledge” and the aforementioned Principles of Blackness, reflection on the Pan-African colors, a discussion of the African principle of the day or a chapter in African history, a candle-lighting ritual, artistic performance, and a feast. Upron greeting each other, Kwanzaa celebrants say “Habari Gani,” Swahili words for “What’s the News?”
Kwanzaa takes place the week after Christmas, so many families today celebrate both of those holidays and end the festivities with the advent of the New Year. In many Kwanzaa celebrating households, both Christmas trees and kinaras, the traditional candle holder symbolic of African-American roots, share space, giving them an opportunity to include elements of their ethnic heritage into yuletide observances.<br /
Sig Heil Santa! December 3, 2006
Posted by Matt in Uncategorized.Tags: KKK, Nazi, Santa
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Originally Posted 12/3/06
I came across this rather disturbing article on Yahoo over the weekend and just had to post about it and get your thoughts. In Germany, Santa figurines have been removed from store shelves because they appear to be giving the Hitler salute.
So what, you might ask? What’s the big deal about some overly-sensitive European pansies that equate holly jolly good ‘ol St. Nick with a man responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews?
Well, there’s something about Mr. Claus that I’ve always found sort of vexing. Something about the intrusive absolute power of that jolly old elf that peers into every aspect of my life looking for any time I might deviate from the things regarded as good or right. That whole, “He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!” is terrifying. The whole Santa/Big Brother sort of relationship goes right in line with a dictatorial power that coerces it’s people to maintain a rigid regimentation. And didn’t you ever wonder why Santa didn’t visit Jewish kids?
And I haven’t even brought up the whole Santa/Ku Klux Klan relationship! We all know that St. Nick is also known by the moniker Kris Kringle – 2/3 of the way to a white hood wearing cross burner! And who could forget the song “White Christmas?” With lyrics like, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” how can anybody doubt his descent into white supremacy? They could have easily added a few more verses – “I’m dreaming of an African-American Christmas,” or Hispanic or Asian or whatever other racial designation you may employ – but they decided to ignore the other noble peoples from across our globe.
Do you need some more evidence of Santa’s malevolent nature? Take a look at his elves – people enslaved by old Father Christmas and forced to work in a toy sweatship while living in a North Pole wasteland. Or see his reindeer – he’s been lobbying Congress for years to keep flying reindeer off of the endangered species list so that he can continue to keep them locked away for 364 days before forcing them to take a grueling expedition around the world in a 24 hour period during the coldest month of the year! It must be absolute torture for the poor beasts. If these bits of information still leave you unconvinced, just take a look at his name – Santa – an anagram of Satan!
So there you have it – an affirmation that the man we know as Santa Claus may really be the demon from below. Now the question goes to you, what do you think?
