A NATIVITY REVELATION

My favorite Christmas hymn is "O Holy Night"; I am often overcome with emotion when I hear the hope filled lyrics soaring amidst the initially serene, then triumphant notes of the musical score of the hymn. This year, on the first day of December, I came upon the most beautiful rendition of that hymn on YouTube that I have ever heard by Celine Dion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jr-2eyRtV4&feature=colike), and decided that I was going to listen to it every morning during my prayer time until Christmas Day to remind me of the real reason for rejoicing and celebrating the Christmas season. I shared the video with my family, and my daughter sent me an amazing music video of "O Holy Night" she found on YouTube based on scenes from The Nativity Story movie (2006) and sung by Josh Groban (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zh-yR0pbmU&feature=colike), which absolutely blew me away; so I decided to alternate renditions of the hymn in my new seasonal daily ritual.

You know how after reading or hearing or seeing something over and over again you begin to notice a lot of things that you did not pick up on the first few times around? Well, after listening to and watching the nativity scene video for about the 12th time, the Holy Spirit gave me a revelation which amazed and overwhelmed me, which I believe He wants me to share with you, and that we really need to get a hold of. Before I share this with you, would you take a few moments to watch that Groban video? I included a link above.

Here's what hit me all of a sudden about this video that I believe the Holy Spirit was trying to show me: All the actors in the video except one did such a wonderful job of acting in portraying their characters that they make the event of Christ's birth come alive. The one exception was the actor who made it all come together, but who wasn't acting: He was the baby who portrayed Jesus...who's name is not even revealed in the IMDB.com credits. What I mean is this: The baby wasn't acting...he was just doing what babies naturally do; he had no idea of how many "takes" he was in or what was going on around him, nor did he care. He just totally and unknowingly trusted in the people around him to take care of his interests, and went about being a baby, not acting like a baby. And then, the significance of what I was seeing washed over me...The same scenario existed for the infant Christ-child in the real event! An all-knowing God became the all-unknowing baby Jesus, totally dependent on the very humans He created, and their dependence on His heavenly Father, to provide for His every want and need; a baby - the perfect example of a most important spiritual concept: A "faith being", as opposed to a being "acting" in faith.

Jesus demonstrated His teaching to Nicodemus in John 3:1-8 ("I tell you the truth, no one can see the enter the Kingdom of God unless he becomes born again") and the answer to the question about who is the greatest in the Kingdom of God that He would teach about later in Matthew 18:1-4 ("I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."). Our whole life is is spent growing up and distancing ourselves from childhood - physically, mentally and spiritually. But then, in chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, Jesus tells a man who has matured to an adult - physically, mentally and spiritually according to the world's terms- that in the spiritual realm, he must become "born again" - become like a baby again - to enter the Kingdom of God; and then, according to his teaching in Matthew 18 (and corresponding verses in Mark and Luke), stay as innocent and dependent as a child in that realm in order to reach its pinnacle.

Wow! For me, that adds a new dimension to the Christmas celebration. Christmas is all about the baby Jesus, joyful children with excited expectations and becoming like a kid again...the perfect example of what our spiritual life should be!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Facebook Church?

Last week I was driving down the road, minding my own business and listening (the radio was off), when an interesting phrase popped up in my head/spirit: Facebook Church. What was really intriguing about this event is that lately, for some reason or other, I've been really struggling to understand the whole concept of Facebook, since it and its counterparts have become such a pervasive part of our culture, in order to come up with ways to integrate it into my spiritual mission to spread the Good News of the Gospel and bring people into the Kingdom of God. Now, all of a sudden, I'm hearing "Facebook Church" and I'm wondering, is the word "church" in this case talking about a place we go to worship, or is it referring to the "real" Church, the Body of Christ...the population of Believers? And how does that tie into Facebook?

As a Baby-boomer, I grew up in an environment where one's privacy was paramount, or at least, guarded and protected...Accidental, or even intentional, expose' of one's private thoughts or goings-on was obnoxious, if not scandalous. Before everyone had clothes dryers, even hanging one's freshly washed laundry out to dry was exposing more about one's self and family then one cared to reveal. Here's a good example of the pursuit of privacy: The first telephone my family had was on a "party" line, meaning that 3 or 4 families were on the same phone line; the way you knew if a call was for your family was by the number of rings in each ring set. The problem, of course, was that anyone could "accidentally" pick up the phone and listen in on the other parties' phone calls; you didn't mind listening in to hear other people's conversations, but you certainly didn't want them listening in on yours and picking up on guarded truths about your private life! So you can bet that AT&T (Ma Bell) was pressured into working overtime to develop a network of private lines for everyone, and that customers quickly found the funds to acquire and maintain them. Even tapping someone's phone line became a crime, unless you had one of those infamous "Federal" warrants.

But then along came the internet and mobile phones, and an amazing inversion began to take place...almost imperceptibly at first, but now increasingly prolific. As phones became "unplugged," access to private conversations, albeit mostly one-sided, moved from kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms to restaurants, ball games and shopping areas. And as we "plugged" into computers and the internet, our sphere of influence and relationships moved from family, church, school and workplace to social network sites, chat rooms and forums, websites and, of course, "Tweets," with their seemingly infinite number of contacts extending into every region of the earth. But as this phenomena began to take hold and take over our lives, an interesting transition began to take place: As individuals, we went from being fish in a pond to being minnows in a sea, and that doesn't sit well with our basic human psyche. Whether we admit it or not, a basic need of all "normal" humans is to be recognized, accepted and appreciated (or some variation of those themes) by the members or potential members of our social spheres. (I think this is graphically illustrated in the explosion of tattoos, piercings and wardrobe anomalies we are experiencing in our culture these days in an obvious attempt to declare one's individuality.) As a result, the "amazing inversion" which I mentioned is taking place is this: Whereas we used to use privacy to maintain our individuality and attract other members to our "network", we now increasingly use the opposite, i.e., public exposure of our private things, to do the same thing!

Unfortunately, the insidious risk of this behavior is the trident of the Facebook phenomena: 1) We risk exposing ourselves to nefarious people who would do us harm; 2) Too little information about ourselves invites misinformation and disinformation; 3) Too much information about ourselves can unintentionally alienate those we are trying to attract. And yet, we accept the risk in ever increasing numbers, like moths hovering around a warm, open flame, in order to "connect"...and be "accepted"...and be "noticed." In fact, this urge is so strong that more and more frequently we hear in the news of yet another famous politician, pop singer, actor or other already public personality risking all that they are and everything that they have by placing the most intimate of photographs and videos of their private parts and and sexual activities on the internet without considering the inevitable outcome: That eventually someone will discover their post and expose it for all the world to see. Tragically, the ultimate dive into the pool of self-esteem results in nothing more than a leap into a dry hole cloaked in the mirage of one's ultimate importance...One that leaves us bloodied and broken and wondering, "What happened?" And yet, what is happening is clearly described in God's Word, the Bible; Matt 10:39 says, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

So how does all of this tie into the concept of "Facebook Church"? I still don't know for sure...I'm waiting and "listening" (praying, if you will) for some guidance from the Holy Spirit. In my own research, I came across an interesting article titled "How Facebook Killed the Church" by a Richard Beck, a Professor at Abilene Christian University [(http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-facebook-killed-church.html) hope you can take time to read this article and resulting comments and let me know what some of your thoughts are about it], which convincingly argues that Facebook has effectively killed the traditional church, at least among young people; and yet, in contrast to this article, I bet you didn't know that the #1 Most Active Page on Facebook is the Jesus Daily Facebook Page by a physician named Aaron Tabor. Anyhow, I'm throwing all this out there because I would be very much interested in hearing your thoughts and suggestions on the matter, especially if you can help me to better understand the dynamics behind the whole "social network" thing. Believe me, your input would be greatly appreciated.