Emperors and Angels - Christmas Eve 2006, by the Bishop of Durham, Dr. N.T. Wright

If the story of Christmas leaves you feeling dull and bored, wondering how the birth of a child two millennia ago could possibly affect our lives today, then last night's sermon by NT Wright, an Anglican Bishop, might shake up your perspective.

Here's a short excerpt from the start..

Emperors and Angels
Isaiah 9.2–7; Luke 2.1–20
a sermon at the Midnight Eucharist, Christmas Eve 2006
by the Bishop of Durham, Dr N. T. Wright

Sing a song of Christmas, of emperors and angels;
Sing a song of Christmas, of darkness now past;
Sing a song of starlight, of shepherds and of mangers;
Sing a song of Jesus, of peace come at last.

And don’t we just want it?
[snip]
The Christmas story, like Isaiah’s prophecy, isn’t about an escape from the real world of politics and economics, of empires and taxes and bloodthirsty wars. It’s about God addressing these problems at last, from within, coming into our world – his world! – and shouldering the burden of authority, coming to deal with the problems of evil, of chaos and violence and oppression in all their horrible forms. And only when we look hard at those promises and come to grips with what they really mean are we able to grasp the real comfort and joy that Christmas does truly provide. Otherwise we are purchasing a spurious private comfort at the inflated cost of allowing the rest of the world to continue in its misery.

Eight Zhejiang House Church Christians Sentenced; Prominent Beijing Christian Lawyer Gao Zhisheng Received Verdict - Christian Newswire

As we prepare to celebrate the miraculous way God stepped down into darkness and became one of us, showing us what it really means to be human, let's be sure to lift up in prayer our brothers and sisters around the world who will celebrate from inside a prison as a result of their faith.

Letting Your Soul Catch Up With Your Body.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dick Staub earlier this month while in Seattle on a business trip. Catherine, one of my business partners, and I sat in on the recording of The Kindlings Muse, a podcast Dick produces weekly as a live show recorded at Hales Brewery. The topic was on creativity and God...since God is creative and we are created in the image of God, when we are creative we are following in God's footsteps, so to speak. It was quite moving.

Here's an excerpt from Dick's latest blog entry which speaks to something I, for one, really need to take to heart...

"An American traveling in Africa hired a guide to lead him through the jungle to a remote village. In the mid afternoon the guide stopped and began to set up camp for the night. The American impatiently asked why they weren't taking advantage of the remaining daylight to make it a bit further towards their destination. 'We have traveled very fast and must allow time for our souls to catch up with our bodies' replied the guide.
.....
...there are two problems with rationalizing away my pattern of influencing the many while knowing few.

First. Real transformation happens through deeper in-person relationships. Ideas are powerful, but they are not a replacement for our God-given capacity & need for a few deeper relationships.

Two. The example of Jesus reminds us that love is not an abstraction, but is actualized when we know and serve another person.

Because technology creates immediate and rapidly expanding accessibility,most of us have already surpassed our relational capacity. I am networked to more people than I can actually know and love personally.

Read the complete post at: Dick Staub: Staublog - Letting Your Soul Catch Up With Your Body.:

Change of Focus

So for the past couple of years I've focused my blogging on relatively cerebral things. My plan was to capture things of interest I found on the net so I'd have a record of them. I'd also try to include some pithy comment or analysis about it, which inevitably took a fair amount of time, no doubt due as much to my being so self-conscious (i.e. prideful). So as life got busier the posts got fewer. Kind of silly since I love to write and I write pretty quickly. There's no excuse. I hope to blog more.

We'll see.

So what have I been busy doing? Well since I blogged last I visited China for the first time on a business trip. What a wild place. Gobs of people! Imagine Times Square on a busy day, but extending for miles, and you've got a glimpse of Hong Kong. 500,000 people per square mile in the heart of Mongkok, the district we stayed in. That's a lot of people. Polluted too! There's been so much industrial development in the new territories north of Hong Kong that in the fall and winter when the winds come out of the north, Hong Kong is constantly shrouded in smog blown down from cities like Shenzen. I also visited Taiwan and Shanghai.

I also went to Guatemala for the second time. Lot's more to say but its getting late.