LeadershipConneXtions

Jesus Wasn't Rich

I'm preparing for one of the Christmas messages for this coming Sunday. The main idea is that of the surprising ways of God... and is this ever seen in the Incarnation and then continues on through the entire life of Christ.

For one thing, Jesus was not rich! The Apostle Paul says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Christmas time is when we remember the newborn baby Jesus was placed in a feeding trough for animals. 

Eight days later, when his parents took him to the Temple for circumcision, they offered two pigeons which were allowed for the really poor of Israel who could not afford a better sacrifice.

Jesus never had a home (at least during his three years of ministry) and no place to lay his head excepts outdoors.

He basically lived a life of poverty, depending on the generosity of others to meet his daily needs.

Jesus lived and ministered among the most disadvantaged and disenfranchised of the people of his culture. See this image on this site (and check out the site while you are there).

And I like how Tim Keller describes the last days of Christ. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey. He had a last meal in a borrowed room. He died only having a robe to his name. They had to bury him in a borrowed tomb!

If there is surely an area where so many of us find it FULLY UNAPPEALING to be about the Imitation of Christ, it has to do with our finances and lifestyle! To this matter, Jesus spoke powerfully when he said,

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth...
Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven...
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also...
No one can serve two masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and Money.
Matthew 6:19, 20, 21, 24 


 

As the Father sent me, I am sending you.
Jesus in John 20:21

May this Christmas season be a time when we pursue more fully - the Imitation of Christ in these hard areas.

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

Reweaving the Fabric of a Torn World

I was really moved by a metaphor Tim Keller used in his book, Generous Justice. As I have been working on the Exercises, at different sections I talk about shalom (peace), mishpat (justice) and hesed (lovingkindness) as core themes for how we are called to live in the world as God's servants.

Tim Keller uses the metaphor of weaving a fabric to describe how God created life on earth. The original fabric was well woven and included peace and justice. Sin has torn the fabric of our world and God invites us to reweave this torn fabric. Keller says,

"In general, to do justice means to live in a way that generates a strong community where human beings can flourish. Specifically, however, to do justice means to go to places where the fabric of shalom has broken down, where the weaker members of societies are falling through the fabric, and to repair it...

How do we do that? The only way to reweave and strengthen the fabric is 
reweaving yourself into it...

Reweaving shalom means to sacrificially thread, lace and press your time, goods, power, and resources into the lives and needs of others."  (pp 177).

It hit me that the Incarnation which we are about to celebrate for the next week was God weaving Himself in to the torn fabric of the world. 

An angel of the Lord said to the shepherds, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord. . . Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.'" (Luke 2:11-14)

The only real questions are: Are we doing this? Where are we doing this? How well are we doing this? Will we continue doing this?

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

The Word Became Flesh

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1 & 14

May this same WORD make His dwelling in your life on this Eve of Christmas.

 

 

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Repentance and Turning Toward Something

Incarnation

Immanuel /Emmanuel.

God With Us!

The most outrageous, mind-boggling, unexpected MIRACLE of all (and maybe Crucifixion/Resurrection deserves to be number one, but for this time of the year, I make that one number two).

This is what Christmas is all about.

And God is with us for a purpose.

Repentance is certainly about turning away from what is wrong, what is false, what is bad, harmful, unhealthy, damaging, damning...

We have great sorrow and grief, pain and anguish for the wrong we have done...

But repentance is also about turning TOWARD something, or better Someone.

Repentance is about turning TOWARD the God who is with us and the God who is for us.

Repentance is about turning TOWARD the dream God has for us.  "I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord . . ." (Jeremiah 29:11-12)

Repentance is about turning TOWARD the better vision we have about who we can be.

So today, in this ADVENT season, on this day when anticipation is growing strong... 

I turn toward God.

I turn toward joy and hope.

I turn toward love and peace.

I turn toward courage and faith.

I turn toward all things good and beautiful and true.

I turn toward the person I am meant to be.

I turn toward a Brian who is being Redeemed, Renewed, Reconfigured, Reborn into someone and something that is beyond my ability to understand.

I turn toward the Glory of God and the glory that is being lavished on my life.

I turn toward the Unimaginable and pray for the gift of imagining it.

May you TURN TOWARD the same gift and destiny.

Randall M. Hasson is the artist who did this beautiful painting and this is a link to his website.

And here is a link for a PDF that has his reflection on this theme and poetry/prayer of repentance.

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lci.typepad.com

Pretty Much the Same Old Sins...

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name JESUS, because he will save his people from their sins.  Matthew 1:21

The crowded town of Bethlehem, the baby born in a manger, the angels singing their alleluias in the skies, the awed shepherds marveling at what they have seen, the wandering wise men looking for a king, the King Herod and all of Jerusalem who are troubled . . . it is all because there is ONE named JESUS who will save us from our sins.

God is with us, because we need Him to do something we cannot do for ourselves. Save us from our sins.

Those same old sins we live with day after day, years turning into decades.

Here are a few words that were deeply moving for me from poet and teacher, Scott Cairns in God With Us, page 63-64. 
 

No my sins today are pretty much the same sins I've known my entire life . . . Throughout my life, I have asked God's forgiveness, repeatedly, for the same, familiar, habitual sins.

Most of us find that the sins of our days are the sins of our lives. And the worst thing we can do is let our shame or our pride keep us from asking forgiveness every time we must. One day you realize you are tired of confession, tired of the sin; on the day you'll decide you truly want it gone.

And so I asked myself:  

What are my same old sins?

Have I neglected to continue confessing them?

Have I learned to live with them in shame, or to ignore them in denial?

Will I begin, once again to confess them

Confess them until I am tired of confessing them... even more, just tired of them?

And now, truly willing to be rid of them?

Jesus, who came to save me from my sins, will never tire of me confessing them. And he will wait long, for me to be so tired of them, I am truly ready for them to be gone.

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Paying Attention

The images in this post are all images of the Prophet Isaiah.

 

Here are the words of God through the prophet Isaiah:


  

I am the Lord your God

who teaches you what is best for you

who directs (leads) you in the way you should go.

If only you have paid attention to my commands . . .

Isaiah 48:17-18

This Old Testament language resonates with Jesus' words that His father is always working and He too is at work (John 5:17) and Paul's exhortation about keeping in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25).

And this language in Isaiah is "present tense" meaning that God is right now teaching us what is best, and God is right now directing and leading us in the way we should go.

The Presence, Work and Word of God are always present tense for us.

AND . . .

They are always personal.

It is not enough to intellectually affirm that God teaches us through His word. It is essential to believe this, but it is not enough to hold to this belief.

The vital next step is to have the Personal Knowledge of insight and guidance from God today.

What is God doing specifically in my life today?
 
What lessons does God want to teach me, specifically, today?
 
What ways does God want me to move, specifically, today?

We often spend too much time propositionally affirming "truth in general" and never take the vital, next step of personal encounter and specific knowing of what this truth means for me, right here, right now.

To take this next step, it means I must learn to PAY ATTENTION. Something the Israelites, did not do. They did not notice, they did not attend to, they did not discern, they did not engage with, they did not reflect on, they did not penetrate . . . and they did not live in to and then live out of God's Truth. 

To say it the way, theologian J.I. Packer said it in Knowing God, it is not enough to know about God, even when we have accurate knowledge about Him. The biblical reality is that we are meant to personally know God. Which means personal encounter and daily experience.

So, today, I need to pay attention.

In this ADVENT season, I especially pay attention to the God/Christ who is with us.

May you pay attention as well and be surprised with joy at attending to Immanuel.

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Willing...

I have two favorite scriptural texts from the story of the Birth of Christ.

One of them is the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Mary, recorded for us in Luke 1:26-38. I won't remind you of all the details about the risky invitation to an outrageous adventure (really a dangerous journey) that was given to the young teenage girl Mary.

 

 

 

All I want to do is note this. She said YES!

I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said.

Mary said YES to God's invitation. YES to God's will.

I think this is at the heart of Christmas, you and I, like Mary, saying yes to God.

But it is not easy, the speaking of a simple word - YES.
It's shorter opposite comes more naturally from our lips - NO.

 
The late Richard John Neuhaus said it this way:
 

"Slowly and not without difficulty, we learn to prefer God's will to our own; we learn to want God's will to be done, knowing that he knows us and loves us immeasurably better than we know and love ourselves."

Just a few days ago, a very short prayer, from a little prayer book I use, was very stirring for me.

 May it please the supreme and divine Goodness
 to give us all abundant grace
 ever to know his most holy will
 and perfectly to fulfill it.
 Ignatius of Loyola

Jesus encouraged us to pray:

Our Father in heaven . . .
Thy will be done . . .

That is a good prayer to pray every day during advent.

Jesus, may your will be done in my life.
May you give me all the grace I need to know your will and to do it well.
Help me to want to do your will and be patient with me in my faltering attempts to be faithful.

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

The First Advent

I will be doing several posts each week that have some Christmas /Advent themes. I hope these will be useful in helping your own Christmas season be full of meaning and purpose.

December will also have different posts on leadership and spirituality and maybe even a few more on the church.
 

 I am using a devotional, God With Us: Discovering the Meaning of Christmas, edited by Pennoyer and Wolfe. It has a devotional for every day of Advent, six different authors, and, the main reason I picked this one is beautiful art that illustrates every devotion.  (I was able to browse through the book at Hearts and Minds Bookstore in Dallastown.

The thoughts I will share have their origins in my own reflections on this devotional.

In addition, I have been working my way through the Ignatian Exercises and spent time re-visiting the biblical texts used in those exercises that are from the Birth Narratives.

******************

Advent, the word itself (in its Latin origins), means - coming. It's Greek equivalent means "the appearance or manifestation."

So Advent is the Coming, the Appearance, the Manifestation of the Messiah.
Advent is God With Us - Immanuel (or Emmanuel).

 And the Advent Season, which begins (always) on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, is a month long preparation of our hearts for the coming of the Messiah.

I recently shared in a small group of colleagues, that Christmas is NOT one of my favorite seasons. It is not because of consumerism on my part, because I do a pretty good job resisting personal consumption... No, for me, it is due to the excessive busyness of this season.

Do any of you have this problem. There is just so much going on. Extra meetings, additional gatherings of families and friends, more things to do just to get ready for the Holidays...

And the "introvert" part of my personality just gets a little weary and wants it to be over.

Well, I am resisting this tendency.
I've decided to be more intentional about preparation for the Messiah this season.
I've determined to get in touch with longing and anticipation to prepare my heart for the Christ.

My early morning biblical reflections are a part of this preparation.

And my prayer for all of us is that we will each prepare the way for Christ. In the upcoming posts, I'll have some thoughts that may help you in your own preparation.

And my question is -- what do you do to prepare for Christmas? What do you do so that this season is full of spiritual life and significance?  Let us know...

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Merry Christmas to Our Friends Around the World

Blessings of Christ and His love to all our friends.

May your Christmas be full of glad tidings.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Dicken's Christmas Carol

One of my favorite Christmas movies is Dicken's - Christmas Carol and my favorite version of that is George C. Scott, since he plays a masterful Scrooge.  Scrooge - even the name conjures the image of stingy, hoarding, greedy and selfish.

The entire movie is worth watching again this Christmas season. My favorite part is the last 15 minutes of the movie, after he has been visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

He is truly a transformed man. He has the qualities of gratitude, graciousness, and generosity. These qualities are the anti-thesis of his old name (Scrooge)! And one of my favorite lines in the movie is at the very end as it describes the transformed Scrooge.

He became as good a friend, as good a master and as good a man as the good old city knew . . . and it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that truly be said of us and of all of us.

Christmas is all about fresh starts, second chances, new beginnings and the surprisingly wonderful, unexpected things God does in, through and for us. The miracle of transformation is among the greatest of those unexpected things.

May it be said of you and I, that we became as good a people, as good a friend and as good a leader as our church, our workplace, our family and friends and our community knew . . . and that we knew how to keep Christmas well (full of generosity, gratitude and grace).

And in the words of Tiny Tim, God bless us, every one.

Brian Rice

Christmas Reflection: Jerry Levin

Since we are in the month of December and the Christmas Season is upon us, I thought I'd do some posts in the weeks ahead that are in some way tied in to reflections on Christmas. Not normal leadership stuff, but I hope it will be meaningful to you.

Here is a "Christmas Story" I found in Joyful Exiles by James Houston. It is on pages 74-75.

Jerry Levin, CNN bureau chief for the Middle East was kidnapped when he was in Beirut. At the time he was a secular Jew. He was chained to a radiator in a dark prison cell. During that time he began to think about God. During that time he began an intense contemplation of faith and God. Here is a lengthy quote from Jerry.

On Christmas Eve 1984 at about ten or eleven o'clock, one of my captors paid an unexpected late night visit to my almost freezing cold cell. I was additionally surprised when he wished me a merry Christmas and asked if there was a gift I would like. Hardly thinking about the answer, I replied immediately; "A Bible. That'll do." I needed a Bible, becuase, after nine months of belief that I was quite aware I had acquired without benefit of studying scripture first hand, I was anxious to read it from start to finish. I was especially keen on knowing whether or not I had gotten it right - especially with regard to praying. To my astonishment two nights later my captor came back and gave me a brand new red pocket-sized Gideon New Testament, Psalm, Proverbs along with a ball point pen . . .

Three days later . . . when I had got to the part about the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20, "when they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them," . . . I heard footsteps in the hall outside my unlit pitch-dark crypt-like room.

That sound was the signal to me to pull my blindfold over my eyes, which I did . . . After the man left, I pushed the blindfold above my eyes and beheld the most astonishing - or at least unique - sight of my captivity.

On the floor, anchored in a puddle of melting was was a flickering candle. Next to it was a bowl of fruit. And next to it a big platter and on it a "log" type of chocolate cake. In front of the cake was a very intricate and beautiful manger scene. Intricately carved pines sood guarding a tiny woodern barn, open to view at one end. Inside was a minuscule manger. Sitting before it was Mary holding Jesus, with Joseph standing close by. There were several shepherds looking on plus cows, horses and sheep - all carefully crafted and painted in a smaller than toy soldier scale.

The passing minutes crackled with a kind of physical and spiritual energy that seeemed to be dissolving the centuries separating me from the event. I actually experienced a kind of vicarious surge when I recalled that this was happening to me not too many miles to the north of Bethlehem in a frigid room that I imagined was not any colder or less comfortable than the one in which Jesus had been born . . .

To relate what we witness and try to make sense for others, of that long ago event, is what shepherding is all about. It is, I believe, job enough to keep us all meaningfully occupied for the rest of our lives.

Christmas is that time of the year when the wonder, the mystery, and the messiness of life are all pronounced. As I read Jerry's story of finding faith, of experiencing mystery and wonder, and being called to relate what he has witnesses - I am moved by the mysterious and magnificient ways by which God works.

May this be a season when those of us who are called to leadership, take some extra time to sift through the long ago event , be moved by it, and find ways to interpret it for othes.

If you would like to read more of Jerry's thoughts Click here for the website that has a list of his essays.

-BR