Students Write the Darndest Answers

It may not seem like this post meets the Advent Challenge 2013 requirements, but hang in there to the end. I’ll spin it.

These are answers to an essay question on a Bible Test. The students are all eighth or tenth grade boys. Note:  Any grammatical errors are theirs, not mine!

Choose a person from the book of Ruth and tell why he/she is a good or bad example for you to follow.

D W.:  Well one of my favorite people in the book of Ruth would be Naomi. Because even though she lost every thing such as her husband & her two sons while in another country, she still followed God which I think would be extremely hard. I feel that many people in the world today including myself would not be able to be so strong. So that is why I think Naomi was a good example to follow.

I S.:  I think Ruth was a good example mainly because of what she said to Naomi about going where she will go & staying where she stays (sorry I can’t remember the reference) because that is how I should be in my walk with Christ, doing what Christ would do & going where Christ wants me to go.

A P.:  Boaz is a landholder in Bethlehem & he is related to Elimilech. He helps Ruth & Naomi out more than he has to by giving 50 lbs of grain & six measures of barley. He redeems Ruth & Elimilech’s land instead of the closer relative of Elimilech. I think he is a good example because he went above & beyond what was required of scripture when it came to helping his relatives. I don’t think I go as far as he does when it comes to helping others so I could take a few pointers from Boaz when it comes to helping others. I learned I need to be generous when I help others & that I probably wouldn’t have been as generous as Boaz if I was in this position.

J M.:  Ruth would be a good example because she was always listening to Naomi. Which gives me the example to listen to my mother because in the end things will probably turn out good like Ruth.

S B.:  Boaz was a good example because he redeemed Ruth, he was nice to her, thought she was a good women, and got married. This is good for me because you should check someone out, and then if you like them, they are a good person, and a Christian, maybe you’ll marry them.

K R:  Boaz is a good example because he is kind to Ruth and was willing to take her in. When she laid at his feet, he knew immediately what he should do. He was kind, generous, and rich. If I would have woken up with someone at my feet, I would’ve called the cops.

The Advent Connection

            Ruth and Boaz became the grandparents of Jesse’s son, David, to whom God promised an eternal dynasty. The Gospel writer Matthew includes Boaz in the three sets of fourteen forefathers of Jesus named in chapter 1. He also includes Ruth, one of only five women mentioned as ancestors of Jesus. Likewise, the Gospel writer Luke, includes Boaz in his chapter 3 genealogy from Jesus back to God.

The 2013 Advent Blog Challenge

ad·vent

noun

1.

a coming into place, view, or being; arrival: the advent of the holiday season.

2.

( usually initial capital letter ) the coming of Christ into the world.

3.

( initial capital letter ) the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, observed in commemoration of the coming of Christ into the world.

4.

( usually initial capital letter ) Second Coming.

So says www.dictionary.com. Modern Americans might revise definition #3 to begin mid-October and run through the after Christmas sales.

I’m going with definition #3, unrevised, and challenging myself to put up a new blog post each day of Advent. It might be prompted by a scripture verse, a Christmas memory, whether funny or poignant, a line from a favorite carol or poem, or who knows what. 

I’m still on industrial strength painkillers for my fractured and fixed ankle, so expect some random creative thinking. I promise to kiss and tell under the mistletoe, reveal what turned my brother’s skin red, relive caroling in Park Ridge, NJ., and occasionally offer insight. 

Please suggest any topics you want me to cover. And feel free to join me in the Advent Blog Challenge on your own blog.

Journeys of Christmas 5

Christmas Day

            Thank you for traveling through Advent with me and the participants in the first Noel, none of whom were home for Christmas. I have one more traveler to write about as we reach Christmas Day. Of all the journeys made that long ago year, none spanned a greater distance than the one made by the Messiah himself. 

            He departed eternity and entered time, trading the expansive light of the universe for the small darkness of his mother’s womb.

            He departed an existence of equality with his father God, and entered a life limited by his new human flesh.

            He departed sovereignty and entered servanthood.

            His journey did not end in a rustic stable in Bethlehem or even on Galilee’s seashore decades later. His journey took him to a skull-shaped hill outside Jerusalem and a rough wooden cross…but it did not end there.

            His journey continued into a chill, soundless tomb…but it did not end there.

            His journey culminated in a rebirth into resurrection life and a return to the place of highest honor at his father’s side.

            Because Jesus made such a journey, we are invited to come home for Christmas, home to God’s family.

            Several years ago, I brought a poem to my writers critique group, where a gifted poet gently suggested I should stick to prose. I ignored her, because some poems need to be shared, even if they rhyme.

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

The Teacher told a tale one day

about a son who runs away.

Sick of home and family rules,

he exits town and hangs with fools,

wastes his cash, then tends a pen

slopping hogs, till one day when

sense returns, he quits the dust,

and pencils a sign, Dad’s House or Bust.

Now here’s the part that really shocked:

The boy gets home, the door’s unlocked,

and Dad comes sprinting down the street,

his errant son to kiss and greet.

Likewise at my Father’s home,

the porch light glows for all to come

and feast on grace and hope and cheer,

because it’s always Christmas here.

Thank you, Jesus, for leaving your father’s home so that we could come home to your father.

Journeys of Christmas 4

Fourth Sunday in Advent

            As we reach the last Sunday in Advent, you may be making final (and even frantic) plans to travel. If so, you join the biblical characters who journeyed to participate in the first Christmas.

            We’ve already considered the angel Gabriel, Mary, and Bethlehem’s shepherds.

            Today we’ll investigate the wise men, or magi, whose voyage is shrouded in mystery. We long for more details than Matthew gives us in his Gospel. Who were the magi? How many traveled to Bethlehem? Where did they come from? How long was their journey? What exactly was the star they followed?

            The magi may have been Zoroastrian priests from Persia. They may have been advisers to their government, somewhat like the Old Testament prophet Daniel, who served the rulers of Babylon and Persia. Or perhaps they came from Arabia. They could have trekked from seven hundred to over one thousand miles.

            Where history falls short, legends have grown.

            From catacomb walls to church mosaics, works of art have depicted as few as two and as many as twelve magi. Three emerged as the favored number because they presented three gifts. Over the years the magi were given names and specific nations of origin, representing Asians, white Europeans, and black Africans. By the tenth century, they had become kings.

            Where legend falls short, science steps in.

Theories abound about the identity of the star: Saturn and Jupiter appearing together…or Venus and Jupiter…or a supernova…a comet…a meteor.

            We may never know the true identity and origin of these wise men or their guiding star, but we do know their purpose and destination. These mysterious men searched for a king, a newborn king of the Jews. They came to worship him and give him treasures worthy of royalty.

            We can excuse their error of first looking for a king in a grand palace in a nation’s capital. We would have done the same. When redirected to nearby Bethlehem, a small village with less than a thousand residents, they rejoiced enthusiastically. In Bethlehem the magi found no splendor, no servants, no semblance of royalty—just a simple dwelling, a young mother, and her son. Recognizing young Jesus as king of the Jews, they bowed with their faces to the ground and worshiped him.

            What insight can we glean from the magi’s Christmas journey?

            Perhaps the very riddle of their identity and origin reminds us that it doesn’t matter who we are or where we’re from. It only matters that we kneel before Jesus. They compel us to recognize him as king. They were not deceived by the humble surroundings of the Christ child, and we must not be distracted by the extravagant trappings of modern Christmas celebrations.

            May the magi’s example guide us to seek Jesus with eagerness and determination and to worship him as lord and king. And may we approach this week as the king’s ambassadors, inviting all to become citizens of his kingdom.

Journeys of Christmas 3

Third Sunday in Advent

            While “there’s no place like home for the holidays,” my Advent blogs invite you to think about the participants in the first Christmas, who were not at home. We have already visited with Gabriel, who delivered God’s messages to Zechariah and Mary, and with Mary, who left the commonplace to become the mother of the Messiah.

            Today we meet a group of shepherds. Their mileage was so low that it qualified more as a jaunt than a journey. Camped out with their flocks in the fields near Bethlehem, they reached the baby lying in a manger in record time. To appreciate their journey, consider not the geographical miles, but the spiritual miles. They trekked a short distance on foot, but a much greater distance in mind and heart, in soul and spirit.

• The shepherds traveled from the mundane—earning a living—to the meaningful—finding life.

• They began their journey in the darkness of the graveyard shift, traveled beneath the brilliance of a glory-lit sky, and arrived in the radiance of the Light of the World.
  
• They began their journey terrified at the appearance of an angel, but at their journey’s end, they testified about the appearance of the savior.
  
• They hurried to Bethlehem wondering, but returned from Bethlehem worshiping.

            The shepherds were uniquely qualified to walk this road. Think about their location, less than ten miles from the Temple in Jerusalem, where every day priests sacrificed lambs in rituals to pay for sins. These shepherds provided those lambs. At the manger, they encountered the one who would years later be called the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. “ (John 1:29)

            As shepherds, they knew what it was like to risk life and limb protecting the flock and finding lost sheep. At the manger, they encountered the one who would years later say, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

            At the manger, they found both the Lamb of God and the good shepherd swaddled in the flesh of an hours-old infant. Perhaps God included these men in Christ’s birth because of their unique foreshadowing of Christ’s death.

            What encouragement can we glean from the Christmas journey of the shepherds?

            Of all the participants in the first Christmas, we identify best with these men. We find Gabriel too other-worldly, the magi too wealthy and mysterious. We realize that Mary was given a once-in-eternity opportunity we will never have. But the shepherds, ordinary working folk like us, discovered that God “is not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:27)

            Because God meets us more than halfway, it is only a short sprint into his arms.
            May the shepherds’ example guide us into the fold of the good shepherd, and from that sheltered place, into the wilderness to seek his lost sheep.

Journeys of Christmas 2

Second Sunday in Advent

            “There’s no place like home for the holidays” is a popular song and sentiment, but I discovered that the participants in the first Christmas were all far from home. During my Advent blogs, I will tell about some of these long-ago travelers. Maybe they will teach us something about our own journeys.

            Our first traveler was Gabriel, the angel who journeyed to deliver God’s messages to Zechariah and to Mary. Gabriel’s example encourages us to spend time in the presence of God this Advent season.

            Our second traveler shares her ancient name with a brave Hebrew woman. The original Miriam defied the command of a cruel tyrant and saved the life of her infant brother Moses, who was later used by God to deliver the Hebrew people from Egyptian slavery. The first century Miriam, young Mary of Nazareth, was also entrusted with the life of an infant, who would become the redeemer Moses foreshadowed.

            Gabriel’s announcement to Mary, that she would be the mother of the Son of God, caused the young woman to begin a series of journeys. First, she traveled to the hills of Judea to visit her relative Elizabeth, joyfully pregnant with John. Then, Mary headed back to Nazareth in Galilee, thirdly, to Bethlehem in Judea, where she gave birth. Then she escaped to Egypt, fleeing from Herod’s plot to kill her son. Finally, when circumstances became safer, she returned to Nazareth. The possible total of seven hundred miles may not seem challenging in our age of autos and airplanes, until we remember that Mary trekked on foot or on donkey, first pregnant, then with a toddler in tow.

            Further even than the geographical mileage was the distance from the commonplace life of a first century Jewish wife and mother, which Mary had expected, to the extraordinary calling to mother God’s son. Mary journeyed from being a naïve teenager to becoming a sober woman who waited for a sword to pierce her own soul, as the old prophet Simeon warned her. (Luke 2:35)

            How did Mary feel years later, seeing her son cheered and loved by thousands…and hated by a powerful few? While other women her age looked after grandchildren, Mary looked upon her son, executed like a dangerous criminal on a Roman cross. 

            Only God himself shared the intensity of Mary’s pain, because he, too, gave his son, “that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

            Mary is last mentioned by name in the first chapter of Acts, where she waited, praying, in a large upper room with her younger sons, the women disciples, and the eleven apostles. Fifty days after watching her son’s lifeless body lowered from the cross, Mary was filled with his life-giving Holy Spirit.

            What insight can we glean from Mary’s Christmas journeys? Mary’s first reaction to Gabriel’s visit was to feel greatly troubled, but her final response was to say, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” (Luke 1:38) Perhaps Mary tells us to agree with God, even if we don’t fully understand his actions.

            After she gave birth in a less than ideal location, and received a middle-of-the-night visit from shepherds, the Gospel tells us that “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19) Perhaps by treasuring and pondering, Mary was able to live in obedience to God’s sometimes painful plans.

            May Mary’s example guide us to that quiet place where we treasure and ponder the works and promises of God, and from that quiet place to the journey God has for us.