Posts Tagged ‘Incarnation’

2 Dec

No Crying He Makes?

Posted by Jennifer Clark Tinker in Family, Inspiration. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

Away in a Manger used to be my favorite Christmas hymn and I still think it’s a lovely tune. But I have become critical of it on account of the “no crying he makes” line.

NoCrying

I mean, are we really saying that Jesus wouldn’t have cried? It’s a sign of health when a baby cries; a baby communicates his or her needs through crying!

If* the incarnation of God in Christ Jesus is real, then Jesus cried as a baby.

But this year my son noted that Away in a Manger is kinda babyish. And that prompted me to reflect some more on the lyrics and melody. I gave it some thought and I realized it’s a lullaby. So, yeah, maybe it is kinda babyish.

But also, it occurred to me that as a lullaby, its purpose is to quell cries, to calm a baby or young child.

With that, I thought maybe the line about “no crying he makes” is actually be more of a hope or vision of the lyricist. I mean, as much as we might want scream, “hey kid, knock it off with the crying already!”, that’s only gonna terrorize the infant worse. A positive, future projection of a cessation of crying all packaged in a soothing song is much more gracious.

So, maybe the songwriter never was trying to claim that the baby Jesus wasn’t a crier, rather that he was. He really cried. Because he was a real baby. And babies cry.

And would they please stop already!?

_______

*Of course, I believe it is.

18 Jan

Let It Be – A Dramatic Monologue from the Perspective of Mary

Posted by Jennifer Clark Tinker in Inspiration. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

This dramatic, in-character monologue is what I imagine as the continuation of Mary’s story after she hears that she is to bear God’s son as recorded in Luke 1:26-38.

I wrote and presented this at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Greenvine, TX on the 4th Sunday of Advent, December 21, 2014.

Click the following link to listen to the monologue or scroll down to read the manuscript:

http://www.spreaker.com/user/5989422/let-it-be-dramatic-monologue

 

Let It Be

Part 1: Who Me?

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” That’s what I told the angel Gabriel.

“Yes, sir, Gabriel, sir!”

So obedient…like a good little soldier taking orders.

I’ve watched the Roman soldiers enough to see them take their orders. They occupy our land to “keep the peace” by intimidation and threats…or worse. Is there even a soul inside those dutiful shells?

But my orders are from The Lord, the God of my ancestors. I am The Lord’s servant!

Yes, here am I, the servant of the Lord!

But…to let it be with me as Gabriel said? What have I gotten myself into? I’m not ready for a baby. I’m not even married yet!

Oh, this is too much. This is too much, Lord!

I knew my life was changing when I became betrothed to Joseph. I know I’m not the care-free child I was. My mother has been preparing me for my life with Joseph—like she’s trying to fit all the lessons of womanhood in these last few months before we are married.

And of course, I knew that motherhood would come soon after our marriage. Oh, how I have longed to hold a child of my own in my arms!

But this news from the angel Gabriel? Nothing in all of my mother’s lessons prepared me for this.
But sure, Gabriel, “let it be with me according to your word!”

Yet, what else could I say?! It’s not every day an angel of the Lord comes to some random daughter of Israel with such a high, holy commission.

 

Part 2: The Hope of Israel

The angel said I have found favor with God and I am to bear our long-awaited Messiah—God’s Chosen One!

Yes, of course, I’ll do it, Lord. I am your servant. Let it be, let it all be as your angel has said.

This child—my child—will be the fulfillment of the hope of all of Israel—and all the nations of the world will be blessed through this child. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for, longing for.

Our land, promised to Abraham, is not our own. We live under these filthy Romans.

But to have our kingdom restored forever? To have my son sit on the throne of his ancestor David?

We will never have to suffer under this foreign army ever again. The Lord has remembered his promises to his faithful servants!

Yes! Let it be Lord! Let it come to pass at last! Lift us up from under the feet of our oppressors and restore us once more!

 

Part 3: Disgrace

Yes, I am to bear the Chosen One because I have found favor with God!

But the timing is a bit perplexing. The angel Gabriel said the time was “now” for this child to be conceived. I asked how exactly that was going to happen since I have not, ahem, been with a man.

The answer was something about the Holy Spirit…It’s all very strange and perplexing.

And as for Joseph, how am I going to explain this to him?

“Well Joseph, you see, the angel Gabriel visited me and said that God was putting the Messiah in my womb.” And if that doesn’t convince him, I’ll just be sure and let him know it’s because I have found favor with God.

Ha!

It will never work. Lord, this will never work! I’m not saying I won’t do it…I just, I know what he will think. I know he will think I have been with another man.

And I know what the law says could happen to me if that is what he thinks. I could be stoned to death.

Lord, I am willing to let it be with me as your angel has said, but I’m not sure if I can sell this Holy Spirit business to Joseph. I confess I do not understand it myself.

 

Part 4: What Kind of Man is Joseph?

How can I explain to Joseph these…circumstances? I realize now how little I know him, how little I know what to say to him, how to explain…myself…to him.

Lord, you know me through and through. I cannot understand how, why you are giving me—me!—this honor.

But this “honor” will only end in my disgrace unless Joseph is the kind of man who will hear me and understand and see your hand in this.

Oh Lord, I cannot explain it to him myself. If I had the power to persuade, I would say a great many things—I would right all the wrongs of this world with my voice.

But words fail me. Power eludes me.

I am your lowly servant. I will do what you say. But on this Lord, I must insist: you must go to Joseph, send your angel, send however many angels it takes to convince him that this is your plan, your doing.

 

Part 5: God Keeps His Promises

Indeed Lord, it is your plan. And it seems impossible.

But your angel reminded me that nothing is impossible with you, oh, Lord.

“Remember your cousin Elizabeth?” Gabriel reminded me.

Dear, sweet Elizabeth.

She has waited so long for her arms to be filled with a child. She had given up hope of ever having a baby of her own.

Oh, the ways you work, Lord! What a wonder! Elizabeth—who we all thought could never have a baby—is six months pregnant—her belly getting bigger by the minute!

Elizabeth who couldn’t be pregnant and I who shouldn’t be pregnant!

If you can work this miracle for Elizabeth, Gabriel is right! Nothing is impossible with you, Oh Most High!

And so I trust you, Lord, my Lord. I know you can do this. I don’t know how, but I know you can, you will! You are faithful to keep your promises and you will do all that the angel said!

And you will deal with Joseph?

Of course you will. I trust you will, and you can!

This is a wonder! I must go and tell my cousin Elizabeth of this news at once!

I am your servant Lord! Let it be with me as you have said!

 

15 Jan

Light Show & Tell

Posted by Jennifer Clark Tinker in Inspiration. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

This message based on John 1:6-8, 19-28 explores the hope that we have in Jesus as the light that shines in our darkness.

This was preached and recorded at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Greenvine, TX on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, December 14, 2014

Click the following link to listen to the message or scroll down to read the manuscript:

http://www.spreaker.com/user/5989422/light-show-tell

 

Light Show & Tell

Hope. We hope for lots of things in this life. Some of what we hope for is really profound, like the tenacious teen who says, “I hope we will have peace on earth.” Other times we hope for something more of the moment, like a child who says, “I hope I get what I asked Santa for this Christmas!”

Grown-ups hope too. They may say something like, “I hope I get the job promotion I’ve been working toward.” Or, “I hope I don’t have to have surgery.”

And in the church, we hope. In fact, “hope” is one of the major themes of our time of Advent.

Our Gospel reading from the book of John has a lot to say about hope. But to get the full meaning, I’d like to back up to the beginning of the chapter and read a selection for you. You can look this up in your pew Bibles if you’d like to follow along. [Read John 1:1-8]

The “Word” referred to here, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God,” is Jesus. And in Jesus, “was life, and the life was the light of all people.”

While the emphasis of the verses officially designated for the day is on John the Baptist, it’s important to see the connection to Jesus. John’s entire role was to be “a witness to testify to the light.” In other words John was there to show and tell people about Jesus.

Jesus coming into the world was the fulfillment of many hundreds of years of hope by the people of Israel. God had made promises to them over the centuries, setting them apart as God’s chosen people. But the people of Israel saw their kingdom rise and fall and spent most of their history occupied by foreign powers.

But all throughout that time, even the darkest days for the people of Israel, the light of God’s promises shined in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.

It seems difficult to fathom—holding out hope over centuries of uncertainty. And even when Jesus did come, he wasn’t exactly the Mighty King for which many had hoped.

And that’s a tricky thing about hope—sometimes we hope for one thing, but we get something greater still.

I don’t know about you, but hope tricks me like that. My greatest time of longing in my life was the time after I was married and before I had my son. My history of infertility made it difficult to have a child. I had hoped so hard to become a mother, but year after year it wasn’t happening.

When I couldn’t have a baby—and I knew it was my fault—my thoughts grew very dark. I began to question my value, my worth as a woman. I wondered if God had brought this infertility on me as a curse because I didn’t deserve to be a mother. I felt hope slipping away.

But light shined in my darkness.

Y’all know that I have a son. And he is an answer to prayer, but I tell you, his being born was not what restored my hope.
In the midst of my darkest days, God met me and assured me of his love for me no matter what. Not because I was “good enough,” not because I was “woman enough,” and not because I would be a mother some day. But right then, God loved me, God cherished me even in the depth of my pain.

I don’t know what all made it possible for me to have my son. I did have some help from modern medicine, I also was on a special diet at the time. I wish I knew. I had hoped I could have more kids. And even now, some days I go to that dark place and wonder and worry about my “womanhood” and my “worth” since I still can’t have another child.

But God continues to shine his light in my darkness, giving me the hope and reassurance that only God’s love can give.
The specific words that bolstered my hope when I question my worth were spoken by a theology professor of mine years ago, “Remember that God loves you for Christ’s sake and will not let you go.” In fact, when children come forward at the communion time and ask for just a blessing, those are the words I use. “God loves you for Christ’s sake and will not let you go.”

We can hope for lots of things. And some of what we hope for will come to pass—we may very well get what we asked Santa for or that job promotion. Yet, our faith tells us that there is something deeper still in which we can place our hope. It’s what John the Baptist came to bear witness to, it’s what is at the heart of Jesus’ story: That God loves us for Christ’s sake and will not let us go.

No matter our circumstances, God loves us. Whether we are naughty or nice, God loves us. Whether we can do all the things we wish we could or not, God loves us. Whether we accomplish what we want to in life or miss one opportunity after another, God loves us.

It’s not wrong to hope for all kinds of things in this life. But sometimes the circumstances of life don’t go our way. And if everyday circumstances are what we place our hope in, we may disappointed. But this light, this love of God, is a sure and certain hope in which we can place our ultimate trust.

May you bask in the light of God’s love and allow God’s love to radiate through you that you may also bear witness to his love, and show and tell others, “Remember that God loves you for Christ’s sake and will never let you go.”

22 Dec

Look Who’s Stooping

Posted by Jennifer Clark Tinker in Inspiration. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Sometimes we’re asked to do something that we don’t feel worthy or prepared to do. How does the life and ministry of Jesus affect our sense of worth?

This sermon based on Mark 1:1-8 explores this idea. This was originally preached and recorded on the 2nd Sunday of Advent, December 7, 2014 at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Greenvine, TX.

Click the following link to listen to the message or scroll down to read the manuscript:

http://www.spreaker.com/user/5989422/look-whos-stooping

 

Look Who’s Stooping

A missed call showed up on my cell phone a few weeks ago. When I saw that it was from Pastor Blair Lundborg from the synod office, I said to my sister-in-law, Karen, “If this is about a job, the answer is ‘yes.’

“Don’t you want to find out what the job is first?” Karen challenged me.

“Well, of course I’ll hear him out before I say ‘yes.’ But I think this is an answer to prayer. I have hoped to find a way to be of service in our synod, and if my synod is calling me about a job, then this might just be what I’ve been waiting for. So, I’m pretty sure it’s a ‘yes.'”

When I got a free moment I returned Pastor Lundborg’s call. It was, in fact, about a job, but to be completely honest with you, when he told me what he had in mind, I was a bit nervous. He invited me to serve as the interim for Emmanuel in Greenvine. This job was a step beyond what I had imagined for myself.

For one thing, an interim assignment—even one at half-time—would mean a great deal more hours than I had worked at a paying job in a very long time. But also, it is a job that is ordinarily filled by an ordained pastor, which I am not.

I found myself rethinking my words to Karen about being able to say, ‘Yes’ on the spot. I did indicate interest, but wanted some time to think it over.

I had to ask, ‘Am I prepared for this ministry?’

After some thought and prayer and conversation with my husband, I realized that, with the help of God, I could do this. So I told Pastor Lundborg I wanted to move forward with the possibility. He got me in touch with y’all and we agreed on a contract for me to come be your interim minister.

The feeling I had about wondering if I was prepared for this assignment, is similar to what John the Baptist experienced. Despite being the one to prepare the way for Jesus’ ministry, John the Baptist wrestled with his own anxieties about the situation.

John the Baptist had crowds coming to him from the big city and from across the countryside. They were eager to hear his message and receive the baptism he offered.

But John knew that his work was not for his own sake. He was there to point to Jesus.

John himself recognized that Jesus’ ministry was more important than John’s and that Jesus would surpass him. In Mark 1:7-8, John says of Jesus, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think of John the Baptist, I imagine him as a rather primitive character. He wore clothes made of camel hair and he ate locusts and wild honey. So, when John talks about feeling “not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of Jesus’ sandals,” I can begin to imagine why.

Yet, as I already noted, he did have crowds coming to him, so he obviously had a good thing going. Still, he had that sense of feeling unworthy compared to Jesus.

Goodness. I can certainly related to feeling unworthy as compared with Jesus. I was even nervous about becoming an interim minister, but John was the opening act for Jesus!

“Not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.”

It’s not clear from this text whether John the Baptist knew the identity of the one coming after him.

Did he know that it was his cousin, Jesus? If you’ll recall from the story from the Gospel of Luke, John the Baptist was 6 months older than Jesus; their mothers were pregnant around the same time.

I have a lot of cousins, some older and some younger. The older ones will always be people I am in awe of. And the younger cousins will always be people who I knew as babies.

When you think about it, it almost seems strange for John not to feel worthy compared to his baby cousin.
But see, that’s just how disarming Jesus’ story is.

John didn’t feel worthy to stoop down and untie Jesus’ sandals, and yet God himself stooped to become one of us in the person of Jesus Christ.

And this is the wonder that we behold as we prepare for Jesus birthday at Christmas. Jesus stooped to be born as one of us, to be a baby—even a baby cousin! He stooped to live out life among us—and one of us.

It is worth noting that the name of this church, Emmanuel, means “God with us” in honor of the reality of God stooping to be one of us.

And Jesus stooped lowest of all, enduring the humiliation of a death sentence.

God in Christ Jesus came to be one of us to demonstrate once and for all that we don’t have to do anything to become worthy. Humanity is so loved by God, that God came to be one of us—to live and die and rise again for our sakes.

And through Jesus’ rising from the dead, Jesus proves once and for all that we have nothing left to fear—not even death and the grave. And that with God’s help, we can do more than we thought possible.

So, being an interim minister is new for me. And, this particular pastoral transition is new for you as a congregation. While you’ve had pastors come and go in the past, each pastor is different. There is no one quite like Pastor Rich. And having your lives touched by him has changed you—and from what I can tell, it has changed you for the better. Now that he is no longer pastor here, you too may have your anxieties about your future as a congregation.

Or maybe there are other challenges you’re facing in your daily lives? Perhaps you have a new job, a new school, new friends, or new stage of parenting. Whatever it is, we are often faced with experiences that push us to do more than we feel prepared to do.

Oh, sometimes we might need more training or study to be able to do what is asked of us. And it’s a good idea to take advantage of opportunities to learn and grow in our skills. But let’s not overlook the ways that God can and does work through us right now.

We can entrust our ministry together, our jobs, our classes, our friendships, and our families to our Lord. We don’t have to be anything other than who we are to be dearly loved by the God of the universe. We don’t have to feel unworthy of service in the church and in the world, because we look to and trust the God who stooped for us, empowering us to love and serve in his name.

5 Dec

Advent Meditation: God in Flesh

Posted by Jennifer Clark Tinker in Inspiration. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

Advent Meditation 1 of 3

The link below is for a meditation, the first of three for a weekly series I’m presenting at my church for Advent. The series is called, The Arrival of Christ: Past, Present & Future. This week’s meditation is about Christ’s arrival in the past as, God in Flesh. The meditation is inspired by John 1:1-18; please look that up when you get the chance.

>>>Click here for audio and text of the meditation: God in Flesh<<<

Special thanks to my friend & publisher, David Housholder, for hosting this at Life & Liberty.

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