Old Town Community Church Bringing Jesus to Old Town and Old Town to Jesus

I’m not thinking of the sort that we entertain unawares, the kind that appear in the guise of man; and certainly not the chubby cherub variety, beloved of Raphael and artists and greeting card manufacturers; nor the pretty lace-gowned female sort that rival fairies in all the gift shops; I’m thinking of the mighty warrior and messenger angels of the Bible; of Archangels Michael and Gabriel, whose appearance paralyses people with awe and fear! There’s a fair sprinkling of them throughout the story of the nativity isn’t there, and what I’ve realised more this Advent, is that this awe and fear inspire a very ready obedience in those to whom the angels appear.

I just love the beautiful passage in Philippians 2 where Paul speaks of Jesus, who after all, had equal status with God Almighty, but instead of grasping or clinging onto all the advantages and radiant glory of heaven, no matter what, set aside all the privileges of deity, becoming human, firstly as a vulnerable newborn baby needing a warm breast and constant changing of soiled strips of cloth, and as an adult taking on the status of a lowly servant, extravagantly spending his whole life for others. What an incredible story line, rivalling any novel!

What has got me praying though, are the verses 3-5 before,

If I bake a Christmas cake & dozens of mince pies, but have not love,
I am just another harassed housewife.
If I decorate my house with outdoor fairy lights & a twinkling Christmas tree, but have not love,
I am just wasting electricity for no reason.
If I write a hundred Christmas cards & stick a news letter in each one, but have not love,
I only gain writer’s cramp.

Thinking about Isaiah’s stumps this week resonated with me. In Ch. 6 v.13, after Isaiah was awesomely given the prophetic commission to bring dire and scary warnings of judgement to rebellious Israel we read “Even if a tenth of the people remain there, the land will be completely destroyed again. But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.” I had to do a bit of Google research to find out what on earth a terebinth tree was, because they seem to crop up a lot in the Bible, only to find it’s sometimes called a turpentine tree! But I also discovered that it develops a very deep and extensive root system and therefore remains green even in years of drought, and that it often sprouts from the stump after being cut.

In order to keep growing, we need to keep living in the vulnerability of staying teachable. Hard that, when a part of us wants to appear as though we’ve got it all together, we’ve arrived; that we KNOW that! And when we admit we DON’T know that, there’s always the risk of appearing foolish!