Where Was that Manger?

I think this month in Children's Church, I will teach from sections of our Christmas play.  In this play, Santa writes to the kids hoping that they'll understand that Christmas is about Jesus and not about Santa and toys.  The first letter, Santa talks about Luke 2:1-7.

I read this passage again, and I recalled the article by Answers in Genesis about the inn.  The following will be my notes that hopefully will be a more interesting lesson on Sunday.

In those 7 verses, where does it mention Jesus being born in a stable?  Okay, what does it show Jesus being born in?  What was an inn like in Jewish culture?  Did it mean the same thing that it does today?

1. Jesus is born in history.

What words from the first 3 verses show this?  Caesar Augustus, Quirinius, their decree to register all the Roman empire in their home towns.

At this time in history, Caesar had told all the people to go to their hometowns, pay a tax, and register.  This was when Mary was expecting Jesus.

 

2. Jesus is born in David’s birthplace.

Verse 4.  Why did Joseph have to go to Bethlehem?  King David was a great great grandfather to him.  He was from Bethlehem.  All his family was there.  He took Mary with him.

If somebody comes to your house, where would you normally put them?  In a guest room.  Where was there no room because of the census?  The inn, which is a word that meant simply a guest room in a house.

So, Joseph came to Bethlehem to obey Caesar.  He was there because that’s where David’s descendants lived.  His family lives there.  And there are too many people there obeying the census.  Where are we going to put all those people?  Looks like the family put them in the guestroom, known as the inn.

3. Jesus is born into hardship.

“Notice what’s missing? First, there’s no urgency. Joseph wouldn’t have taken a ready-to-deliver Mary on such an arduous journey. Instead, “while they were there, the days were completed for” Jesus to be born (in other words, they stayed a while). Also, there’s no begrudging innkeeper (in fact, there was no inn at all, as you’ll see). Now-a-days families might stay at a hotel, but not in Israel at that time. Back then, family stayed with family—especially pregnant family members.”

 

I just quoted the Answers in Genesis article.

Still, why did they lay him in a manger?  Sometimes if a night was cold, or in this case, tons of people were in town, families would put their guests upstairs and then bring their animals into the living room to either keep them warm or from being stolen.  So Joseph’s family would not have shut a woman in labor out onto the streets, especially Joseph’s bride.  They could not let her rest upstairs, but they did let her lodge in the living room with the animals.

4. Jesus still suffered hardship.  I mean, why didn't one of Joe's relatives offer up their bed for Mary to birth Jesus in a more sanitary fashion?  Why did she have to have her baby in basically the living room of the house?  Did she already have some stigma from being pregnant before marriage?  Were Jesus and his new Church which consisted of Mary and Joseph already receive ostracism?

Then again, I wonder, did houses have different rooms like they do now?  We take so much for granted.  Probably the family slept in the living room with the animals while guests stayed upstairs.  People just did not have privacy then.  So, I still don't know.  But I do like the Answers in Genesis article.

Yes, I Know

This comes from yet another moment of me commenting on  my own Facebook status when I should have just let it go and wrote a blog instead.  Well, here is my blog.

I think it was Wednesday, I declared that I do not believe in Aspberger's Syndrome, Tourette's, ADD, OCD, or any other combination of letters labeling someone has having some personality disorder.

How is this offensive to people?  Why is it not enough for me to say I have been pegged with all of the above, and yes I'm not going off of Prozac ever again, for you to understand I am not talking as someone who has not been there?  I am at a point where I no longer want my flaws to define me.

So, why the controversy and why am I labeled insensitive?  I'm going to guess it's because hypothetically little Meghan was in 2nd grade.  Suddenly, she forgot to turn in her homework.  All the time.  She also had a messy desk and daydreamed while the teacher taught.  Also, she preferred reading to playing with the other kids.

As an adult, she still prefers to tell the truth that nobody wants to hear because it is important enough for me to voice my thoughts.  I'm proud to be a conservative Republican Protestant pro-life activist and do not mind being obnoxious.

The last two paragraphs describe behavior that is not like other people.  It's not like me.  I work hard and would spend all night doing my math homework, not because I was lazy, but because I could not concentrate.  I'd rather think of the Ninja Turtles, I Love Lucy, other shows.  Also, I care that the truth be told even if it upsets someone.  Your average psychologist would say I have ADD or Aspberger's.  I got tagged with ADD and Tourette's in 4th grade, due to also making throat noises, twitching my head, twitching my legs and arms, you name it. 

It seems that if people cannot explain why they are somehow not fitting in or performing up to par with other people in their class, they need some kind of explanation so that they can feel less inadequate.

Now that I'm 27 and have been rediagnosed with ADHD for a year, escaping Aspberger's by the skin of my teeth after Dad sent me to a psychiatrist after pointing out some minor theological error after hearing a lecture from some class I wasn't even taking.  I also struggled with a relapse of obsessing over friends, making things worse, trying to make them better, not being allowed to make them better, and simply losing friendships that mattered a lot to me. 

Sometime this year, I heard from Tim Challies that they're erasing Aspberger's from DSM-V.  Then, I visited my best friend in Buffalo.  That week I realized, that there are people that judge me and there are people that like me warts and all.  I slowly decided that there was nothing wrong with me and that all these labels were making people see me as fated for failure. 

So now, I'm going to attempt to change all that.  I won't change how schools like to treat kids as if they are all the same, but I can make my thoughts known.  I do not have Aspberger's.  I suffer from unresolved grief that I still can't quite identify that I've had all my life.  I know certain causes, but I can't really pinpoint it.  However, God gave me passion and knowledge and a love for all people.  It can be overbearing, but I see nothing wrong with that.  What is wrong is the people who take my disagreements and decide that I'm against them because of it.  Or even worse, accuse me of debating for the sake of debate.  I'm sorry, but that is far from true.  I always have a reason to say what I say.  It may not always have the best timing, but I'd consider myself not a friend if I did not tell you what you needed to hear, if I just simply did not care and let people wander around believing dangerous lies, getting into bad situations, and on and on.

And the ADD thing?  I think it's a Nazi invention.  ADD kids are the smartest kids.  But they make terrible grades in school.  Has anybody not stopped to think that perhaps they don't have a disorder, but that the teacher fails in teaching them on their own level?  Maybe instead of marking me down for not turning in homework or daydreaming, they should have let me read books for a while and maybe concentrate on what I was good at instead of boring me with rote schoolwork.  They certainly should have challenged me to speak up more or to know the right ways to tell the truth.  Maybe they should not have made me try to study everything at once but do science one day, math another, and let me do my homework at school so that I could find other ways to be productive outside of school.  People cannot simply do school and then just homework all their waking hours.  They need time to get their tasks done and then to focus on what really matters to them.   This is why ADD kids have ADD.  They have desires and interests that just are not met or cared about in their formative years, and instead of complying with the other robot kids, they want to imagine a better life than being in school wasting their lives.

Seriously, this is why more people should homeschool.  Public school is a one-size-fits-all experiment and ruins kids who just don't fit.  They don't have a problem; they are just different and should not have to be educated the same way.

Monastic Benefits

It's time to do my thanks that I do every two weeks.  Since I read about the monks today, I will list 10 ways that the world can thank God for monks.

1.They gave us modern agriculture and determined the best ways to raise plants and animals.

2. They copied Bible manuscripts night and day so that they would be preserved for posterity.

3. They also copied patristic writings and studied classic literature.  They were the most intelligent people.

4. They provided education for the community.

5. They still provide a refuge for people who just need a place to go.

6. There would be no hospitals without monasteries.

7. They helped spread the Gospel to unreached parts of the world.  Columba ministered to Scotland, Aidan ministered to England, and Patrick brought Jesus to Ireland.

8. Nuns still provide the best charity and care for people who have disabilities, working to help them function as members of society.

9. Their worship is amazing.  When it is to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, it is the best anywhere with its liturgical readings and psalm singing.

10. Their hardcore pro-life views going so far as to risk government persecution for not providing birth control or abortifaciants.  They risk people calling them insensitive and judgmental and are the main force behind crisis pregnancy centers today.

Anthony and Onward

Personal disagreements aside, the men who started monasteries, despite quirks, were men who really cared about God and holiness.

History considers Anthony to be the founder of monasticism.  He sold all his stuff and gave his money to the poor to live a life of meditation.  I remember seeing some subtitle movie about him.  Although it had terrible acting, the man being portrayed won my favor.

In the eastern empire, Anthony influenced people who were not so sane.  Simeon Stylites sat on a pole near Antioch for 35 years.  One man never undressed or bathed.  Another went around naked.  These were more of a fringe group.

Pachomius started the first monastery in Egypt near the Nile.  He sought simplicity, work, devotion, and obedience.  Basil of Caesarea became a monk when he was 27 and later was made Bishop of Cappodicia.  Monks under his rule should work, pray, read the Scriptures, and do good deeds.  He did not accept extreme asceticism.  Orthodox monks look to him as their influence.

Western Rome followed a more practical monasticism, the kind that approve.  They rejected idleness and pure asceticism and told their monks to work as well as meditate.  Athanasius was the first to influence monastery life in the western empire.  He attracted pilgrims and support from Martin of Tours, Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose.  However, Benedict of Nursia is the one who most influenced monasticism today.  His followers took vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, a tradition which is required for monks and nuns today.

Beginning of Cloisters

Starting around the legalization of Christianity, people began separating from society to focus on God.  With the end of martyrdom, people began to feel like they need to live more ascetic lives so that they do not take God for granted.

I think that is the main reasons Christians began forming monasteries and convents.  It's a reason I very much honor.  In this increasingly anti-Christian society with a saturation of influences to follow your own desires over the law of God. Also, after the Edict of Milan, barbarians moved into the empire bringing many pagan beliefs and practices, causing the Christians to despair and want to seek retreat from their evil influence, hence starting cloisters.

I will explain the influences from such reasoning based on Christianity through the Centuries by Earle Cairns.  It's from the Protestant perspective but it is not intended to defame anybody or to insult anyone, only to critique it and post my own thoughts on it.

The Gnostic/Neoplatonic philosophers along with people from Asia taught a belief about the flesh and spirit that said flesh was evil and the spirit is good.  To be truly holy, they thought that people must develop the spiritual life by denying their flesh.  Origen, Cyprian, Tertullian, and Jerome used 1 Corinthians 7 to support this belief, especially the idea that Paul promotes celibacy as a great virtue.  Also, certain people in Egypt decided to move to harsher desert climates in order to suffer for the Lord.

I personally think it is very honorable to take a breather from society in order to remember Christ, his sacrifice, and to spend time with him lest we should join the unholy rites of the world.  I try to do that once a day when I read the Scriptures, sing hymns, and listen to teachers such as R.C. Sproul.  Unmarried, I am committed to celibacy until I marry.  I even enjoy walking on the grounds of our local monastery just to get out of my house.  It is so nice to have a place I can go and vegetate for free.

My problem?  It's kind of extreme and not Biblical despite Scriptures cited by the Church Fathers.  I do think sometimes God does call someone to separate from the world for a time to rehabilitate in their love and devotion for Christ.  That retreat is called the Sabbath day, now Sunday in the new covenant.  All God's elect are called to it once a week to interact with other believers and to literally experience Christ both through his other people, through hearing his Word preached, and through the sacrament of communion.  Exodus 20:8-10 shows that God commands us to stop once a week.  However, he also explains that the people are still to labor for 6 days.  That to, is not a suggestion but something God implemented in the Garden of Eden.  Also in the Garden of Eden, the first negative thing God said was that it is not good for man to be alone, Genesis 2:18.

So, monks and nuns to labor, and they do live as a community.  I'm very amazed at their devotion to charity and to the pro-life movement.  But I also believe their lives are very imbalanced as they often do not work jobs, do not marry and procreate their influence into the world, and they pretty much prefer to live in a completed heaven now when God has not called anybody to do that before death.

Matthew 28:19-20 presents the great commission, to go into all the earth and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Those with holy vocations do that frequently.  However, there is so much more to that.  When God created Adam and Eve, he gave them jobs in society such as caring for plants and animals that people could eat, forming cities so that people could have order, and earning a living so that they could share food with their children and people in need.  Paul himself preached and made disciples non-stop, but he also made tents so that he would not burden his sponsors by draining their resources.  Even in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, he told them that if they don't work they don't eat.

For the monastery in my town, the monks make bread, sell books, I think they run farms and gardens, and they have a bistro with wi-fi.  So, they do earn an honest living and don't just live off the donations of the Church.  I am beginning to do the same as I probably will have a paying job with a lawyer pretty soon as a legal secretary.  I will soon be able to live independently and not rely so much on others. 

So what's my problem?  All the emphasis on looking inward and permanent separation from people and even permanent vows that have no example in the Bible.  Some people like Simeon and Anna did live in the temple and worship God their whole lives, but they did that on their own terms and probably could have married had the times been right.  All the priests, Levites, and Patriarchs married and had children.  Ultimately, God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply in the earth and subdue it.  It goes hand in hand with the Great Commission.  How do we continue our culture of holiness if we don't have children?  And how do we expect to have a future of Christianity if so many people decide not to marry and do not reproduce and train children in the way they should go?  I can think of only one instance in Scripture where God commanded someone to not marry as a statement against his society: Jeremiah.  If somebody did not marry, it is to be assumed that they just did not marry, not because they were being holy.  So why do I oppose monasticism?  The same reason the Catholics oppose birth control.  In all due respect, it's just not pro-life.

The other problem is the pagan origins.  Now, this is a lady speaking who celebrates both Christmas, Halloween, and other holidays, many with customs based in paganism but redeemed by none other than the Roman Catholic church.  They have been very innovative in transforming their culture.  However, whenever I walk into the garden store at the monastery and see a Buddha statue, I become very disheartened.  Or walk into the store and see a yoga book, or the museum part and see that they believe monasteries started because the Jainists and Buddhists did that and they thought it was a good idea.  Eastern mysticism is subtle and dangerous.  They may have lived peaceful lives, but husbands left families and deserted their people in order to accomplish this soul-searching.  Folks like Buddha and Gandhi may have said some true things, but they did not have the light of life in Jesus Christ given freely through his blood.  They never understood forgiveness or salvation based on God and not on works.  There may be a fine line, but monks unintentionally invite other religions and other gods that are not Christ, the one true God, who said you will have no other gods in his presence, which is everywhere.  This is also the same God who said not to worship him in the same way the Gentile neighbors worshiped their gods. 

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  You don't have to agree, but this is where I stand.  It's not to pick on one religious group either, as the church I grew up in has openly abandoned the Lord and his teachings in a way unprecedented before now.  We are all to blame and we all feel like we should listen to others who say we should not enjoy life, marriage, people, etc., as if they were less holy than anything God made.  No, God made bodies who are the temple of his Spirit, and he very much intends for us to take care of them, interact with society, and actively influence the world for Jesus.  This also involves ignoring people who do not know Jesus when they place burdens on you that God never intended.

The Trance

I keep thinking about the story of David and Bathsheba after Nathan had rebuked David and while their child was dying.  Nathan told David that the child would die because David had displeased the Lord.

David prayed and prayed for 7 days when the boy got sick, but he still died.  His attendants did not want to tell him but he saw how quiet they were and figured it out.  So he put oil on his head and went back to life as usual.

I feel this way about the election results.  We have prayed and prayed for God to show mercy to this country and get Obama out of office.  We did all the campaigning and reasoning possible.  But God said no for the time being.  Am I going to get bitter and angry and start throwing things?  No, I actually feel happy.  I also feel numb still, but I do feel content.

Christ has never left his throne.  America has left him.  We can no longer sing "God Bless America" without kidding ourselves.  Amazingly, he still blesses and has mercy on us when we deserve justice.

So does this mean I'll do what I said I would before the election was over?  Will I continue to protest Obama and his policies of death?  I'm sure of it.  However, I do not feel like I need to do so in such a way as to end up in jail.  I will still advise pregnant women and speak the truth that no one wants to hear, but I'm more willing to do so one person at a time rather than all at once, what God has been wanting me to do all along.

So instead of me trying to save the world, my biggest mistake, I need to remember that the perfect king will always reign and to follow him without running ahead like I'm Peter.