American Christmas

As we say goodbye to November today and welcome December tomorrow, we put back the last turkey sandwich and throw away the leftover green bean casserole nobody ate. We start the annual unannounced competition against our neighbors by putting up more lights, more inflatable snowmen and prettier wreaths. Circulars get thicker and highlight the lastest gadget, the must-have toy of the year, or the sparkling diamond that in itself defines love.

I hate it.

Call me Scrooge, unAmerican, or just stupid, I have not enjoyed American Christmas for the past four or five years. Allow me to explain... Christmas began when the early church authorities made an effort to replace the popularity of pagan decadence with Christian celebrations. They chose a date that coincided with many pagan rituals in order to replace the celebrations of other gods with the celebration of the birth of Christ, December 25th. It spread through Europe that the reason for the jubilee in the beginning of winter was now the birth of the incarnate Son of God. Great job guys! Not really...

By the Middle Ages, Christianity had replaced the pagan religions of Europe and the reason for Christmas was well known. Accordingly, people would start the holiday with a service at church to remember the birth of the Savior of the world. But then what followed can best be compared to the modern Mardi Gras of New Orleans. Parties full of gluttony and drunkenness, licentiousness and debauchery, thievery and greed. This happened for centuries until some attempts at reform entered the scene. Puritans banned the usual Christmas celebrations in England in the 16th century, churches born of the Reformation preached against the sinful practices of a day that was supposed to celebrate the Savior. In fact, for twenty years in the 17th century, Boston fined anyone five schillings who was caught exhibiting any signs of the Christmas spirit (I like that). These reformers tried their best to get rid of the pagan celebrations still clinging to the Christmas holiday once and for all. However, their best efforts were not enough.

Enter the American Christmas. In the year 1870, Christmas was officially declared a federal holiday by Congress. In the past 140 years, it has evolved into what we will be celebrating in twenty-six short days. The stories, the sermons, the ads, the tv shows, and the parents will all be calling for a remembrance of the  "true meaning of Christmas," of the "reason for the season." What has happened in America is what happened in the origen of Christmas. We have simply put a religious reason to a pagan tradition. I would even go so far to say that the term "Christ-mas" in America is the most prevalent form of taking our Lord's name in vain, and yet most of the church not only allows it but takes part in it.

The incredibly high attendance of Christmas Eve services across America and the acceptance of songs and shows and cards depicting Jesus shows that we all remember the reason for Christmas. But is remembering the reason enough when we celebrate the traditions. We hold on to Christ as the reason, but we venerate and worship the pagan traditions by celebrating them with obsession and passion unmatched in any church tradition.

So what? What's the reason for this incredibly long and depressing post? How can I trash family traditions and come down so harshly on people that just long to spread the joy of the season? Firstly, I would like everybody to know where I'm coming from when I give the quick reply of "I hate Christmas."

Secondly, I would like to encourage Christians everywhere to rethink the Christmas holiday. Maybe for you that means less time shopping and more time studying the Word of God. Maybe for you it means less money spent on Christmas lights and more time helping your neighbor put up his. Maybe for you it means visiting family around the holidays is a time for prayer and Spiritual fellowship than a time for gluttony or drunkenness. Maybe it means throwing out old traditions that worship our new American pagan gods of Materialism and Pluralism and embracing new traditions that seek to understand and promote the meaning of Christ's birth within the Gospel. Maybe for you it means passing on traditions to your children that move Christ from simply the reason for the season to the worship of the season. Please consider how you can remember and enjoy the Gospel this month by reinventing Christmas in your home. Make this season an important part of your mission to glorify Christ, instead of another year of simply using Him as a reason for worldly living. I pray that Christ can be honored and glorified in the way we celebrate Christmas this year and that the world may have their "Happy Holidays" while we have our "Merry Christmas."

Jesus Christ: Handrail, Escalator, or Elevator?

"What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything." -Acts 17:23-25

My wife-to-be is slightly dyslexic and has had trouble in the past going up and down stairs. She shows great coordination in the rest of her activities, but can't seem to master the stairs. It has become a point of humor between us when she simply misses a step or can't decide between landing on the next step or the one after it. It is also enjoyable watching her calculate when to step onto an escalator. Certainly, I don't want her to get hurt or embarrassed, so when I'm with her around stairs, I reach out my hand or hold onto her shoulders to help her make it up or down. Sometimes, especially when she's tired, she will grab my hand extra tight or lean on my shoulders to make sure she gets to the next floor safely. However, at other times her hand simply rests in my hand and I feel less than needed.

Let's imagine for a moment that salvation is the stairway from the depravity of mankind to the glory of Heaven. Sometimes in our lives, we treat Christ as the handrail. Surely we hold onto Him with a firm grip and when we can't make it on our own, we pull ourselves up with Christ. Jesus as the handrail provides that fire insurance in our lives and that security blanket. Times get tough or our sanctification is slow going, but we hold onto Jesus to keep from slipping back down until we can muster the strength to keep climbing the stairs. We say to the Son of God, "Look at me! I can almost make it on my own. With Your help and sacrifice on the cross, I'll be able to make it to the top." How insulting! Christ's work on the cross does not pick up where we leave off. Our sinful nature prohibits any attempt to make it to God on our own, even with a little bit of Jesus thrown in.

So maybe you've figured it out. Maybe you've already concluded that you must stop using Jesus and the Gospel simply as a handrail in your life. Maybe you've already finished my analogy, "I know, Jesus is more like an escalator. Only through His work on the cross can I find complete redemption. It is also my responsibility to climb the salvation escalator while it moves to add my part to my sanctification." Wrong! Jesus Christ is not our escalator. This is as insulting as putting Jesus as our handrail. Not only does Jesus not pick up where we leave off, we also do not pick up where Jesus leaves off. This would assume the mindset shared among the Areopagus of Athens in Acts 17. "Nor is He served by human hands, as though he needed anything." We cannot add to our salvation or impress God with our speed of sanctification. It is the Lord of heaven and earth that gives to us life and breath and everything. Our sinful nature prohibits any attempt to make it to God on our own, even while riding the grace of the Gospel.

Instead, Jesus Christ is our elevator. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the beginning, middle, and end. He is the Alpha and Omega. Nothing we do can add to our salvation or impress God with the hard work we put into our sanctification. Instead, once we are placed on the elevator of Christ's redeeming work on the cross, we are freed to respond with a life of obedience to our Creator and Savior. We no longer need to focus on gripping the handrail and pulling ourselves up the stairs. We no longer need to focus on not tripping on the escalator or running up the already moving stairs. We are completely and fully saved by God's grace in Christ. Then we can focus on responding with a life of worshipful obedience. The slavery to worry is gone, the joy in service grows, our love deepens. The people of God are freed to glorify our Savior Jesus Christ to the fullest when we realize this beautiful message of grace every day.

Reflect First, Produce Later

This is my fourth week working with BPSM. So far, my time here has not been uneventful. I've been on two weekend retreats, one service project, many dinners, a couple youth groups, a parachurch organization meeting, and experienced many important church issues arise. I like to think I'm working hard. Other people compliment me for working hard. I'm a hard worker, what can I say? But is working hard and being busy a compliment for a youth pastor? Let me point you to a quote from a pastoral icon among Presbyterians:


"The pastors of America have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep are churches. They are preoccupied with shopkeeper’s concerns–how to keep the customers happy, how to lure customers away from competitors down the street, how to package the goods so that the customers will lay out more money.
"Some of them are very good shopkeepers. While asleep they dream of the kind of success that will get the attention of journalists.
"The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are, instead, communities of sinners, gathered before God week after week in towns and villages all over the world. The Holy Spirit gathers them and does his work in them. In these communities of sinners, one of the sinners is called pastor and given a designated responsibility in the community. The pastor’s responsibility is to keep the community attentive to God. It is this responsibility that is being abandoned in spades." (Eugene Peterson, 1989)


It does not help my students, it does not help my church if I am respected for being busy. If I hold on to the mindset that the more I do, the better Youth Pastor I am, the destructive effects will be evidenced soon enough. Certainly the events that I plan and the people I meet with are very important to my ministry as a youth pastor. However, I must keep in mind that a pastor is to be reflective first, and productive second.

The result of that will be a pastor that is in the Word before he gives the Word. I cannot give if I have not received. I cannot teach if I have not learned. The result of that will be a pastor that can lead by example because He's following the great and prime example, Jesus Christ. The result will be a pastor humbled by his sin, drenched in God's saving grace, and eagerly awaiting glorification. Only with an ever-expanding and ever-deepening view of this beautiful and scandalous gospel can I clearly communicate through word and deed the riches of God's amazing love and mercy toward the students of BPSM.

So I pray that I can be a reflective pastor. I pray that I can keep my Sabbath (currently Mondays) holy, set apart for resting in God. I pray that I can reflect first and plan later, meditate then innovate, be still then be busy. The great reformer, Martin Luther, described this ideal in a quote, "I have so much to do today that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer." I hope that I can be that type of pastor by God's grace and for His glory. Pray how you can help your pastor accomplish this as well. More importantly, pray that you can also be a Christian that reflects upon the greatness of our God and the preciousness of the Gospel before you busy yourself with being a Christian.

God's Ark

"The LORD said in his heart, 'I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.'"

-Genesis 8:21-22

This past weekend I enjoyed an awesome time on the Lawrence County Youth Ministry Fall Retreat. It was a good time of worshipping and learning and connecting and growing. BPSM was represented by nine students who enjoyed Splash Lagoon, food, and hanging out with friends. The theme of the weekend was H20, and the teachings revolved around passages in Scripture about water, such as "The Woman at the Well," "Jesus Walks on Water," and "Noah's Ark." It was this last one that got me thinking about a story all Christians are told from the time they're young children. We know this story inside and out. It's been turned into countless children's books and movies. It's been compared to the myths of other cultures and its been analyzed for its historical veracity. But are we missing the point? Have we remained too shallow in our study of this ancient story? Have we pulled this Scripture out of the context of the storyline of the Bible?

As I heard the lesson taught on Sunday, I recounted numerous occasions where I heard the story of how God was sorry He created mankind and commanded Noah to build a big boat to save him and his family from the total destruction God was about to deliver to the wicked people of the earth. God would wipe out every living creature from the earth except eight humans, seven of each clean animal and two of every unclean animal. The flood waters rose and destroyed every animal and man that roamed the earth. After a little over a year, the waters receded and Noah's family and all the animals on the ark were able to step back onto land and repopulate the earth.

Now that we remember what happened, we can ask "Why did it happen?" Most people would read the first nine chapters of Scripture and suggest that God was simply correcting a mistake He had made. Maybe God messed up in creating man and forgot to account for the entrance of sin into the world. Maybe Satan had won in the first millenium of creation and God had to start the battle over by using the flood to reboot. However, this does not sound like the sovereign God I have come to know and love throughout the rest of Scripture. So why?

Certainly God had allowed sin to enter and overtake the world He had created. He had planned for the flood to wipeout mankind before He even created mankind. Why? To point to and glorify Christ. Was Noah so good that God couldn't condemn him to death? Most definitely not. Not long after the flood, his sons find him drunk, passed out, and naked in his tent. Why Noah? Because he found favor with God; God chose him. It was by faith as Hebrews 11 tells us that Noah obeyed God. And this faith is a gift from God as Ephesians 2 tells us. So it was God's grace that covered the sins of Noah and his family with the blood of Christ so that they could be saved from the damnation the rest of the world faced. It is by God's grace that He covers us with the blood of Christ to be saved from the full extent of His wrath. In the first nine chapters of Scripture, God is already pointing to the beautiful picture of salvation found in Christ. Jesus Christ is the ark that saves us, pulls us out of God's wrath and into His kingdom. Jesus tells Nicodemus that we must die and be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. The flood is the earliest and most immense picture of this rebirth. And God declares rebirth to be the normal cycle in the world in Genesis 8:22 (above) in an effort to point to Christ and the resurrection he delivers to us by his death and resurrection. Amazing! Amen!

So as the winter draws near and the leaves fall from the trees and animals go into hibernation, as the harvest is complete and the ground dies in the cold weather, let us not forget the death of our Savior, Christ Jesus to atone for the penalty of our sins. And as we see Springtime rebirth in a few months, let us remember the resurrection Christ offers to our mortal bodies to free us from the power of sin. May the entirety of Scripture and the whole of creation constantly point us to beauty and glory of Christ, our Lord and Savior.

BPSM = Bethel Presbyterian Student Ministries

I am the new Youth Pastor of BPSM, the student ministry by Christ, through Christ, and for Christ at Bethel Presbyterian Church of Enon Valley, PA. This past weekend we enjoyed Disciple Now 2011. It was 48 hours of learning and living the simple and exciting vision of BPSM, pictured and explained below.

THE SCRIPTURE- "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:18-19).


THE POINT- Discipleship is what we're all about.


THE SHAPE- The logo is in the shape of a popular symbol in Christianity. Three distinct semicircles created by one line and sharing in one essence is the symbol of our Triune Godhead. We are disciples of the Trinity as described in Matthew 28, "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."

THE VISION- BPSM exists to see students grow as disciples by ENCOUNTERING CHRIST, CONNECTING IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, and SERVING TO GLORIFY THE FATHER.

• ENCOUNTER CHRIST- Hebrews 12:1-2. This is the foundation of everything and the starting point of BPSM. Individually and corporately, encountering Christ, by grace, through faith, in the Gospel, is essential to becoming and being a disciple. It means we are getting rid of weights and sins so we can run the race with our eyes fixed on Christ, the beginning, middle and end of our salvation. What does this look like? Individually, it means we get into Scripture, pray without ceasing, and obey God's Word in response to the Gospel. Corporately, it is the basis for our youth group on Sunday nights from 630p-8p, during which we'll worship Christ by singing, praying, and teaching from God's Word.
• CONNECTING IN THE SPIRIT- Ephesians 4:1-16. After we have realized our calling in Christ, evidence of that should be in our desire to connect with other disciples. Because we are all of "one Spirit," we connect in humility and patience, teaching and encouraging one another to grow in Christ. The Spirit is the example, the power, and the result of the body of Christ connecting in truth and love. What does this look like? Informally, it means students are closest to other disciples of Christ, encourage one another in their walk with Christ, and are committed to living life with the church. Formally, it means students can join flexible "Discipleship Groups" or "D-groups," only out of desire, expecting commitment and openness, in order to become more like Christ. 
• SERVING TO GLORIFY THE FATHER- Matthew 5:14-16. After we have encountered the beauty of the Gospel of Christ and unified together as a body with Christ at the head, it is only natural that a body be serving others. Good works are not a requirement of our salvation, but they are a logical outcome of the Gospel-changed heart. Serving the church (I Peter 4:10-11) and serving the community (James 1:27) are the good works that characterize the body of Christ and the light that "gives glory to your Father who is in Heaven" (Mat. 5:16). Hopefully our good works glorify the Father and give others the desire to encounter Christ for themselves. What does this look like? Students will have many opportunities to serve the church by getting involved in different ministries inside the youth group and outside the youth group. Students will have opportunities to serve the community through monthly service projects organized by BPSM, such as serving at a food bank, raking leaves, cleaning up public areas, etc.

THE CENTER- Christ Jesus. Romans 11:36. Philippians 1:20-26. Colossians 1:15-20. Hebrews 1:1-4. Revelation 1:4-8. And many more. It is the ultimate desire of BPSM and the center around which everything else revolves, that in everything we are Christo-centric. He is the center of God's purpose in creation and the point of our lives on earth. He is our Savior and our King. He is our joy and our only boast. He is the reason, the strength and the purpose in all we do. BPSM exists by, through and for Christ Jesus because He alone is worthy.

The Fashion of Christ

This is my second day living on my own, and while I sorely miss my fiance, I am getting used to being the only person in the house. Quite frankly, I'm enjoying decorating how I want (which means no decorations at all), stocking the house with the food I want, and a bathroom all to myself (which is nice coming from a house with three sisters). However, I eagerly await marriage and the arrival of my bride into the house, which would mean a much more pleasant house, cooked food, and a clean bathroom. As I've already been told, it will also mean a much more fashionable Greg. She plans on picking out my clothes each day to avoid my favorite matching schemes, such as stripes and plaid, white and off-white, sneakers with dress pants, and checkered pants with anything. I understand I'm not the most fashionable guy, so I will gladly accept her choosing my clothes. However, this does not completely take away my responsibility in clothing myself, I'm a guy, not a child. I will still be putting the clothes on.

Lately, I've been finding much pleasure in seeing Christ and the beauty of the Gospel in the minor prophets. Such has been the case today in the book of Zechariah. The book cries out for a Savior from the line of David, "On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness" (Zech. 13:1). Chapter 3 contains a beautiful picture of that cleansing fountain, which we now know as Christ's cleansing blood.

Zechariah 3:1-10 tells the story of Zechariah's vision of Joshua the High Priest being clothed by the angel of the LORD. I challenge you to place your name in the blanks in the story to see how wonderfully redeemed and saved you are from God's wrath...

There he was, ___________ standing before the angel of the LORD, who most believe to be Jesus Christ. _____________ looked terrified and confused as Satan, the accuser, the full manifestation of God's wrath, stood at his right accusing him of all the sins he's ever committed. But then the Most High God silenced Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen ___________ rebuke you!" It wasn't hard for Satan to accuse ___________, because he was wearing filthy clothes with his sins written all over them. Originally white, they now had every single inch covered in the sins and filth of his lifetime. After God silenced Satan, the angel of the LORD commanded angels to remove the filthy, sin-covered garments from _______'s body. Then the angel of the LORD declared, "I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments." The angels removed the filthy garments and clothed him in pure garments from head to toe. With this transformation, ___________ is encouraged to follow Christ with access to the courts of Heaven.

It is beautiful picture of the Gospel. May we never forget that we cannot even put on the righteous garments, but it is the work of Christ that saves us from the accusations and wrath. We echo the praise Isaiah sings to God, "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10). Amen!