And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. — Revelation 12:3-6

There is something in us that loves fantastic stories about the supernatural, “fantasy” in its truest, literary sense.  We love epic tales of good versus evil, of supernatural beings and superhuman people.  Stories that stir our imagination, encouraging us to see the larger, cosmic story unfolding when we look past the merely physical world we live in and interact with on a daily basis.  Whether we call those stories fantasies, myths, science fiction, or something else, we find them speaking to something intrinsic in our experience that knows there is more to this life than the physical world we see and touch.

I am willing to bet that when you go to read the Christmas story with your family, the verses above are not the ones that first come to mind.  When we think of the Christmas story, we usually turn to the opening chapters of Matthew or Luke.  If you’re wanting a more existential version, then John is the gospel for you.  The last thing we think about when we it comes to the Christmas stories are dragons and cosmic battles. The incarnation of God the Son in the form of Jesus Christ is the first miracle of Christmas, a truly fantastic moment when the heavens came to earth, the spiritual took on the physical.  It is the heart of what we celebrate at Christmas.  But even in the midst of this epically mythical occasion, our focus centers on the stuff of earth — a pregnant teenager, a messy barnyard, a baby taking its first breath.  The birth of Jesus Christ is so exceptionally visceral, it’s easy to forget how the incarnation transcends time and space.

In Revelation 12-14, John recounts human history from heaven’s perspective.  It’s a truly cosmic and fantastic story that involves dragons and beasts, angels and people.  It’s so different from the rest of Scripture, its hard to understand, let alone know who is who.  Here’s your cast of characters: The dragon is Satan. The woman is Mary (at least in these verses – the woman changes throughout the chapter from Eve, to Israel, to Mary, to the Church… it’s complicated).  The baby is the easiest one to figure out – he’s Jesus, clearly identified by the reference to Psalm 2:8-9 (“the one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron”).  In the verses above, we have not only the story of Christmas, but Jesus’ entire life and ministry consolidated into one short sentence. Chapter 12 captures all of human history in 17 verses. What’s been eons for us is but the blink of an eye in heaven (2 Peter 3:8). Quite a different version of the story we all know so well.  

We know the incarnation is a wondrous and miraculous event.   Even with that, it’s so easy to miss just how truly wondrous and miraculous it was.  It’s so much more than nativity sets and advent wreaths.  It’s a true story that is so much more and better than anything we’ve ever dreamed or imagined.  The incarnation is a miracle of cosmic degree and impact, breaking through heaven and earth, shattering the boundaries that separate the spiritual from the physical, bringing together the divine and the human in a way that had never happened before, and will never happen again.  Through Jesus Christ, Satan (the dragon) has been barred from heaven (Rev. 12:8) and thwarted at every turn (Rev. 12:13-17) until his ultimate defeat when Christ returns (Rev. 14:1-6).

The Christmas season is one of the most tangible and tactile seasons we celebrate.  It carries with it so many unique sights and sounds, textures, aromas and tastes.  It is very much an imminent celebration.  But Christmas is also a transcendent season extending through time and space.  In the midst of your Christmas celebrations this year, allow time for your imagination to take hold of the cosmic dimensions that are very much a part of the Christmas story.  Jesus has come.  God is with us.  And evil has lost.  Joy to the world, indeed!

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1:9-14

Blessings,

Rev. David Garrison

 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. — James 1:17

I had a wonderful time while away on study leave last month.  I attended a conference called “Hutchmoot” just outside Nashville.  Hutchmoot was started 15 years ago by Andrew and Pete Peterson.  Andrew describes it this way: “Hutchmoot is a three-day feast where we gather to celebrate the way the Lord makes himself known through his creation. This includes stories, music, and art of all kinds, but it’s also broader than that. He also makes himself known through Scripture, of course, and through nature, and food, and even each other—through the flawed and glorious humans you’ll be rubbing elbows with all weekend.”

Something I’ve noticed about myself is that when life gets hard and stressful, when anxiety and worry threaten to take over, it often seems as if God has stopped moving and working.  Prayers seem to be answered with silence.  The “joy of my salvation” seems like a distant memory.  The world, and my life, seem to be running on autopilot rather than guided by the hands of a loving God.  He no longer seems interested in making Himself known in any fashion, so much so that sometimes during these seasons I find myself wondering if He’s there at all.

One of the sessions I attended was led by Andrew Peterson and called “The Father of Delights.”  Riffing off James 1:17 above (“…the Father of {de}lights…”), Andrew emphasized that God is always moving and working in, through, and around us, whether we are aware of it or not.  He is constantly working to make Himself known to us and others, and seeking to delight us and fill us with wonder.  To delight in God, in His works and His creation, is to glorify God.  C.S. Lewis writes, “The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”  The question isn’t whether God is or isn’t making himself known and giving us reason to delight in Him, it’s whether we’re paying attention and looking for the delights God is throwing our way.

Every once in a while, God does something stunning that makes us take notice.  Consider the awe we’ve all experienced the last couple of months with the displays of the Aurora Borealis here in central Virginia.  That just doesn’t happen here.  But it did, and it was wondrous and delightful.  You couldn’t look at the sky and not delight in the God that made the colors dance across the heavens.  But there are countless ways God is making Himself known to us every day.  The question is, are we taking the time to look for it?  Delight is something that we cultivate.  If you are looking to be delighted by God, then you will find delight in God.  Cultivating delight requires slowing down, being patient, and paying attention to what is going on around us.  Think about all that is happening every time you take a simple breath.  Muscles flex, lungs expand and contract, air moves in and out, blood flows, oxygen and carbon dioxide trade places, and much more.  Something we do tens of thousands of times a day is a delightful and wonderful act.  An act we take for granted with every breath.  Delighting in God takes intentionality and needs to be cultivated.

As we cultivate our delight in God, we learn to see all the different ways we are invited to delight in God.  Delight teaches us to see delight.  Have you ever noticed how many yellow cars there are?  Probably not, but now you’re going to start seeing yellow cars everywhere.  We find that for which we are looking.  As we cultivate an awareness of the myriad delightful ways God is moving and working, we will start seeing even more ways to delight in Him.  When you find or discover something delightful, take the time to savor and delight in it, and tell God about your delight.  When we express our delights, it delights the Giver of delight.  Think about the times you’ve done something special for your children or your spouse, and they delighted in it.  Their delight delights us, and it’s the same with our Father in Heaven.

In addition to giving thanks to the Father of Delights, share your delight with someone else.  Delight shared is delight enhanced and magnified.  So often, it’s easy for me to miss all the delightful things God is doing in my life.  When you delight in God and share that with me, it helps me to cultivate delight myself and encourages me to look around for all the delightful ways God is at work.  In a world that is so filled with anger and rage, stress and worry, fear and anxiety, cultivating delight in God and sharing those delights with others shines as bright as a candle unexpectedly lit in the deep darkness of night.

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” — Matthew 6:28-30

Blessings,

Rev. David Garrison

Blessed is the man… 

whose delight is in the law of the LORD, 

and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree 

planted by streams of water 

that yields its fruit in its season, 

and its leaf does not wither. 

In all that he does, he prospers.

— Psalm 1:1-4

This is Fred the Tree.  Fred is growing in the most unexpected and unlikely of places — right in the middle of the historic Old Seven Mile Bridge in Key West.  Against all odds (and all the odds are against it), Fred not only sprouted but has thrived in a most inhospitable location.  Fred provides a beautiful example of how, when we trust in the Lord, our faith can grow and flourish in the most unexpected places and ways.

Trusting in the Lord, and growing ever deeper in that trust, is everything that is meant by “faith,” particularly faith in Jesus Christ.  In Galatians 5:6, Paul summarizes everything he believes about the Gospel when he writes, “For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith [trust] expressed in love.” (Gal. 5:6 MESSAGE)  But “trusting in God” is a somewhat strange and abstract concept.  It’s very easy to say we “Trust in the LORD with all our heart, and do not lean on our own understanding” (Prov. 3:5 ESV), but how do we know if we actually are trusting in the Lord as much as we think we are?

As March drew to a close, I came down with an unexpected stomach illness.  The next day, we made an unexpected visit to the ER, which resulted in an unexpected hospital stay that included unexpected surgery to address a congenital issue that I learned about, unexpectedly, four years ago.  When I fell ill, even when I was admitted to the hospital and learned I was going to have surgery, I never imagined I would end up being out of the pulpit for 4 weeks and facing a recovery process that will end up being a total of 6 weeks or more.  Every step of the process, as my circumstances continued to become more concerning and severe than I first thought, could have been fraught with anxiety and worry.  I’m not saying I didn’t have my moments, but in general (and other than feeling terribly sick), I felt a deep sense of peace and calm through it all.  I knew, without a doubt, that everything was going to be fine, no matter what happened.

I have had, and continue to have, seasons of wrestling with the Lord.  There have been many times when I have argued with God and struggled to understand the whats and the whys of what He has allowed me to go through, and sometimes things He has purposefully brought my way.  I don’t like a lot of those things, and in many respects I still wish going through those seasons wasn’t necessary.  And yet, in each and every case, the Lord has proved himself trustworthy and true.  Through it all, even though I still don’t understand most of it, I have learned to trust Him a little bit more than I did before.  It is because of those times that when this very unexpected, and frankly quite severe, situation occurred, I found that I wasn’t worried or afraid.  The Lord had proven himself faithful in the big things and the small in the past, how could I expect anything other this time around?

It is in the unexpected moments and circumstances of life that we both learn to trust Him more and find out how much we already trust in Him.  The “soil” that allows our faith to grow and mature is trusting in the Lord and His Word.  When we trust in Him and learn to trust Him more each day, our faith is able to grow and even thrive in the midst of the most unexpected or even hostile circumstances.  Place your trust in the Lord today, and continue to do so each and every day, so that when the times of trial and struggle, when the unexpected comes along, you will be able to hold fast and stand firm, to face whatever may come with peace and assurance, knowing in your heart of hearts that the Lord will once again be faithful and true.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Matt. 7:24-25)

Blessings,

Rev. David Garrison

 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. — 1 Corinthians 15:16-17

There are a lot of doctrines that are crucial to our Christian faith.  In the EPC, we have a list of them known as “The Essentials of Our Faith.”  Those essentials include what we believe about the Trinity — God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), God the Holy Spirit; the problem of our sin and our salvation in Christ; the church; the return of Christ; and the purpose and mission of every Christian.  All of those are important doctrines and in many respects define the boundaries of orthodox Christianity. It’s not so much that believing these things make you a Presbyterian, but that Christians throughout the centuries have held these doctrines as essential.  But in the paragraph about Jesus Christ is a statement that is, in many respects, more important than any other:

“[Jesus Christ] died on the cross a sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures. On the third day He arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, where, at the right hand of the Majesty on High, He now is our High Priest and Mediator.”

That’s it.  That’s the entire house of cards.  Everything we believe as Christians rises and falls on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  As Paul wrote in the passage quoted above, if Christ was not raised from the dead, everything else we believe is meaningless.  Conversely, in order to understand why and how Christ was raised from the dead, it’s necessary to believe most everything included in the Essentials of Our Faith.  As Thomas Oden writes,

No aspect of Jesus’ ministry was more minutely recorded than his resurrection. Due to the pivotal importance of his resurrection, the evidence for it appears to have been assiduously collected, transmitted, and embedded in the essential proclamation of salvation attested by the earliest Christian communities. The Gospel narratives seem to be saying to us that if we cannot credit the last validating episode of his life, we are not likely to grasp anything else said about him. (The Word of Life, pg 495)

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ changes everything.  It is the confirmation that everything the Old Testament said about Jesus is true; that everything Jesus said about himself is true.  It is the means of our sanctification, the way our sins are atoned for, the reason we are freed from the shackles of our sins.  It is the promise of our redeemed and restored souls, the hope of our eternal salvation, the guarantee of our future life with Christ.  It is the way God chose to restore all of broken creation to what He intended from the very beginning.  And it is completely unprecedented in human history, so much so that it is “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Cor. 1:23).

We’ve heard the “old, old story” so many times that we can forget how radical, revolutionary and profound it really is.  That’s why we have the season of Lent in the church calendar.  The early church fathers recognized how important it is for believers to spend a significant period of time reflecting on what Jesus accomplished on Easter Sunday. During this season, I invite you to make a habit of reading 1 Corinthians 15 as part of your daily Scripture reading and prayer time.  Spend time meditating on and contemplating the wonder of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.   Allow the depths of the love of God made manifest through His Son Jesus Christ settle deeply in your heart, and share that message of hope and life with those around you.  That’s what we have to offer: because He lives, so we live.  That changes everything.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  — 1 Corinthians 15:20-22

Blessings,

Rev. David Garrison

 “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”

— Matt. 5:46-47

There’s a prayer that pops up in my daily devotional (Seeking God’s Face by Philip Reinders, if you’re interested) every few days: “for God to equip us to serve in uniquely Christian ways in the public arena.”  Praying for God to help us to serve in “uniquely Christian ways” seems such an obvious and unnecessary thing, doesn’t it?  And yet, over the past several months, this particular prayer has needled away at the back of my mind.

The hard truth most of us probably don’t want to admit is that there is very little that is “uniquely Christian” in how we go about our daily lives.  When it comes to living as a Christian, long as we’re generally nice to others, basically good in most respects, and overall relatively happy and content in our lives, we figure we’re doing pretty good.  And there’s nothing wrong with any of those things.  Most every person should attempt to live that way.  But that’s just the thing.  Most every person does live that way.  There is nothing wrong with that, but there’s nothing uniquely Christian about it either.  If that’s the extent of our witness, of how we represent the hope and joy of the Christian life to others, it’s not all that surprising that people aren’t interested in learning more about the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It’s pretty clear from Scripture that there is supposed to be something about how we live our lives that is fundamentally and uniquely different from how the rest of the world lives.  Consider what Paul writes: “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.” (Eph. 4:17)  For the Hebrews, there were only two kinds of people: Hebrews and Gentiles.  “Gentile” is simply a name for someone who is not Hebrew.  But when Jesus and Paul, and the other New Testament writers, use the term, it’s more helpful to think of it as “people who don’t believe in Jesus.”  So Christians aren’t supposed to live their lives the same way non-Christians do.  But what does that look like?  Paul continues, “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:22-24)

What does living and serving in uniquely Christian ways look like?  Pretty much every book of the New Testament talks about this, but a great place to start is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, a portion of which is quoted above.  In summary, Jesus says that a uniquely Christian life is one that seeks reconciliation with others, honors the image of God in all people, is a person of their word, turns the other cheek instead of seeking retribution or revenge, loves their enemies, gives generously to those in need, seeks God in all things without flaunting their faith in front of others, radically trusts God in the present and in the future, focuses first on personal holiness rather than judging what’s wrong in others.  There’s obviously a lot of nuance in what Jesus says that I just skipped for the sake of summary, but you get the gist.  Another great place to continue your study of what it means to live and serve in uniquely Christian ways is to read the rest of Ephesians 4, which we looked at in the previous paragraph.  Start with Ephesians 4:17, and read through the end of chapter 5.

As followers of Christ, our lives ought to be fundamentally different than those who don’t follow Christ.  Peter writes, “…in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” (1 Pet. 3:13-17)  Our very way of interacting with others and the world around us, the love we extend to each and every person, the faith we hold on to, the hope that secures us, should be captivating and intriguing to those who don’t know Jesus.  We are called to be different. 

Take some time to look at yourself and your life.  How are you serving and living in uniquely Christian ways?  What might need to change so that you reflect Christ more clearly and brightly to those around you.  These are great questions for any Christian to ask, at any point in their walk with the Lord.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” 

— Matt. 5:14-16

Blessings,

Rev. David Garrison

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

— Matt. 13:44–46

Much like a pearl inside an oyster, sometimes the greatest and most profound truths come in the pithiest of sayings.  These two sayings of Jesus are definitely fantastic examples of that.  They are very simple parables that are easy to grasp and understand.  And yet, just like the point they are making, there is so much more within once we slow down and enter the story.

Imagine yourself as the man or the merchant.  Smell the soil of the field or the salty water where the oysters are.  Visualize coming across the treasure in the field — did you have to dig to find it, or was it poking out of the ground?  What was it about the pearl that caught your eye as it sat under the water?  What could possibly be found in that treasure, how large must that pearl have been, to motivate you to (don’t miss this) sell everything you have in order to purchase the field or the treasure? Not just doing that, but doing it with great joy and excitement?  Take a moment more — when was the last time you felt that kind of joy about, well, anything?  Honestly, this is a ridiculous story, almost ludicrous.  No one in their right mind would actually do anything like that, right? Which is exactly the point, but not the entire point.

Now consider what Jesus says is the treasure hidden in a field and the pearl of great value.  Jesus is talking about the kingdom of Heaven.  Often, we think the treasure being spoken of is salvation, which it is.  But it’s also so much more.  The treasure that’s worth more than anything else in our lives is more than just accepting Jesus Christ as your savior, it’s embracing the way of life that Jesus introduced to us and the world.  Walking in the way of Jesus — loving God with all our being (Matt. 22:37-38), loving our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22:39), loving even our enemies and praying for those who persecute us (Matt 5:43-48), living a life of Christ-like service to the rejected and hurting (James 1:27), resting in the grace of Christ (Matt 11:28-30) — that is the treasure beyond all value.  That is worth more than all of our earthly possessions or dreams.

The apostles and countless saints throughout the centuries have experienced the truth of these parables.  Paul experienced this so viscerally he proclaims, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.   For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Phil. 3:8)  Most of us, though, are scared off by that idea.  As Brennan Manning once said, “We want to draw close enough to the blazing inferno of the love of God that we stay warm, but not so close that we might get burned.”  It makes you wonder if we’re missing something, doesn’t it?

As we continue through this summer, be intentional in reflecting on your walk with the Lord.  Have you found your relationship with Jesus to be a treasure worth selling everything you have to gain?  What is holding you back from knowing Jesus so well that everything else becomes “rubbish”?  How would it actually feel to let yourself be burned by the blazing inferno of the love of God?  There’s more to this life than just living and dying, waking and sleeping.  Jesus didn’t die on the cross so you could merely be forgiven of your sins and receive the promise of eternal life, He meant for you to have more and better life than you’ve ever dreamed of (John 10:10), and that life is best found and pursued together (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 

— Psa. 51:12

Blessings,

Rev. David Garrison