The Story of Landon Shae

Wednesday December 12th, 2012, Vanessa and I didn't know it, but our life was about to be completely changed. 

Christmas: A Revolution

In this large composition of writings that is commonly referred to as the Bible, there are only two narrative accounts of Jesus' birth that we call the Christmas story. One is a writing titled Matthew and the other is a writing titled Luke and essentially it is two authors attempting to give pictures of Jesus being born because they believed it had major implications for the way the world works.

What the authors were not trying to do was give us something to celebrate on December 25th. At no point in their composing this story of Jesus' life did they say, "Ya know, I think I should put the story of Jesus being born in there because it will really just complete the 'Christmas' season." There were no Christmas Eve services, no quaint little holiday that they were trying to capture. Rather, these authors were up to something bigger.

Eating Our Way Back to the Garden

[Reimagining the Dietary Laws]

In the Hebrew Bible there is a book titled Leviticus. It one of those books that a lot of people begin reading and, slowly, the reading tapers off and few ever really finish it. 

The book gets its name from one of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel, the tribe of Levi, which happens to be the tribe full of priests that helped lead the community and the nation to live together with God. So as you can imagine, if they decided to get together to write a book, it would definitely be interesting. 

Advent: "Let's Make This Thing Good Again"

Typically when we think of prophecy, we assume it has to deal with someone telling the future or predicting future events. And in most cases, this is probably true.

But the Hebrew prophets were a little different.

There is an entire array of writings in the Hebrew Bible grouped together as 'prophets' and they really don't have a whole lot to do with 'predicting the future'. Because these prophets weren't worried about what was out 'there', they were worried about now. They might of talked about future implications every now and then, but it always came back to living a particular way of life now. So with the Jewish people, what you see isn't someone going around telling everyone what is going to happen down the road. What you actually see is someone going around and confronting their own people about the kind of lives they are living today. You see someone challenging the world around them to stop going in the wrong direction and to get caught up with what God was doing in the universe.

This was the prophets job.

To wake people up.

One of these prophecies is a writing called "Isaiah". Now, Isaiah probably has several authors that span quite a bit of time and tell several different stories about waking the Hebrew people up, but essentially the message is quite simple: "You've forgotten God, God is doing a new thing in the world, so starting getting caught up in it."

And at one point, Isaiah begins talking about this new thing God is doing in the world and in the midst of that, he mentions an "Emmanuel" figure. Which technically is a name, but the prophet is actually using the name to make a point. By saying "Emmanuel" is going to show up, Isaiah is essentially saying, "God is going to be with us," because that is what "Emmanuel" means. The Jewish people would have been very aware of what Isaiah was saying.

Which would have been quite a big deal.

Because at this point in Israel's history, there was no "Emmanuel".

Harvest Festival: Feast of Participation [Thanksgiving and Sukkot]

Following is what Vanessa and I have come to understand as "Thanksgiving". For us, the day had become a sort of assumed, detached ritual that had lost its meaning so we sought to rediscover what a celebration during this particular time of the year might look like. 

The idea of a "Harvest Festival" has always been a part of humanity's history. Whether it be our modern Thanksgiving, the ancient Jewish 'Feast of Sukkot' or the thousands of ancient harvest festivals that have existed in all sorts of different cultures; stopping in the Fall to reflect and celebrate just seems to be a natural human experience. So this is our attempt to rediscover that experience. We've taken our understanding of the seasonal celebration and put it into something that works for us. 

We've called it "The Feast of Participation". 

So if you have also found yourself in a similar position then maybe this will help you do some reframing and reinterpreting in order to again infuse the day with meaning. 

Enjoy the Celebration.

The Gift and the Map: A Couple Thoughts About Purpose and Calling

There is a drive in most human beings to have a direction in life. We want to contribute and be a part of something. We want to have a sustaining significance in the world, an identity that captures our lives.

Too Many Seedlings...

When Jesus wanted to make a point about something he would use what is called a parable; which has kind of gained its own definition in our culture, but it literally means 'to throw alongside'. You take something; an idea, a thought, a picture of the world, and you throw it alongside something that people already know and understand. Basically, parables are stories that reveal something bigger about the world by saying, "It is kind of like this."

Because sometimes stories just work better.

So we see Jesus all the time saying, "To what can God's Kingdom be compared to? Well, it is kind of like this...that thing is kind of like this thing...this is kind of like that..." and he leaves you with some mind blowing picture where the only thing you can do is sit there at the end saying, "Dang..."

Jesus was good like that.

Today, we have a lot to learn from how Jesus taught. Because we would understand the world a little better if we would start 'throwing alongside' a little more.

So to what can living in God's Kingdom today be compared to?

It is kind of like a gardener who planted seeds in a bucket.