Response time is everything.  It is the metric that drives our modern world.  When response times are not getting shorter, our patience is.  Hospitals tout real time wait times on interstate billboards.  Customer service call-centers give us our depth in queue and call back options up front.  When both lines are wrapped around Chick-Fil-A, we still expect no more than 47 seconds from order time to food delivery.  And our decisions about technology often hinge on megapixels and milliseconds.  Even our social media accounts report our response times in answering questions or responding to posts.

Response time is everything.  A slow response time is anathema.  Patience used to be a virtue, but now it is extinct.  We expect responses and we expect them to be timely, if not immediate.  Failure to respond and respond quickly is deemed a total failure.  While this is characteristic of our fast-food age, it is probably less a modern trait than we might believe.  Even in the past when responses have been methodical, deliberate, and slow, responses were always expected.

And as with everything, spiritual truths are reflected in our experiences.   The birth of Christ is a remarkable intrusion into the lives of people.  His presence demands a response.  Mary and Joseph’s plans and lives are turned upside down.  Sages are roused from their contemplations to make a perilous journey.   The vigilance of the shepherds was redirected away from their sheep.   And the townsfolk in sleepy Bethlehem are wakened from their sleep by strange tales of a strange baby.  Unlike our Nativity sets, these characters were not caricatures.  And their place in the drama is less about their casting and more about their response.  

When Christ intrudes into the world, He demands a response.   Mary treasured and pondered.  Shepherds returned glorifying and praising God.  The townsfolk simply marveled.  Those in the Gospels who refuse to receive him, who plan to follow Him one of these days, who wash their hands of him, who marvel at him, but refuse to ‘come and worship’ are always condemned.  Everyone’s response to Jesus is different, but indifference is not an option.  Some ignore, some resist, some deny, some hate, while some believe and follow.  Your present and your future are utterly dependent upon your response to Jesus. 

The shepherds believed and followed.  When the angel told them “today is born in the city of David as Savior who is Christ the Lord,” the good news demanded a response.   They went in haste and discovered everything God had promised them.   What is your response to the good news?   The opening of the Gospel of John lays this out for us.

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.

John 1:11-13

Response time is everything.  It is time for your response.   What is your response to the good news that “today is born in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord?” Join us as we examine Luke 2:15-20 and consider our own response to Jesus. We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube. 

Nothing keeps Christ in Christmas like our annual viewing of The Lord of the Rings.  Now before you accuse me of sarcasm or heresy, consider that Tolkien’s Christian worldview shines brightly through every line of his books and even through all twelve hours of the extended versions of Peter Jackson’s adaptation. 

Against all odds, as the irresistible darkness, oppression and malice of a Dark Lord covers the world in shadow and sorrow, salvation comes to the ruined race of men from the most unlikely of heroes.   Like all epic tales insurmountable odds are overcome and undaunted courage is exercised as common men perform uncommon deeds. 

Tolkien’s magnum opus is filled with many nuggets of wisdom, spoken at salient points.  In one exchange, the main character, Frodo laments, “I wish the ring had never come to me.” His friend, Gandalf responds, “So do all who live to see such times.  But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” 

The Lord of the Rings is a powerful story of courage, friendship, and redemption, eclipsed only by what its author once called “the only true myth” – the gospel.  The gospel is a story that is so unlikely, in which common men, empowered by faith, perform uncommon deeds and in which the ruined race of men is gloriously redeemed by a mighty hero, who took on the form of a servant and humbled himself, even to death on a cross.  

The gospel is a story of unlikely converts, not of men whose moral excellence made them acceptable to God or earned his favor, nor men of power whose mighty deeds destroyed the power of their great enemies, death and the devil.  No, the gospel is a story of the weak and powerless, snatched as burning brands from the fire. 

Nowhere is this seen more powerfully than in Luke 2, sometimes called “the Christmas story.”   The Lord of glory is born into obscurity while the only announcement is given to shepherds, the most despised and outcast class of society.  These enigmatic shepherds were the most unlikely of converts, men who were notoriously under suspicion, rejected from temple worship because of ritual uncleanness, and acceptable as witnesses in the courts.  If anyone hoped to receive God’s goodwill it was not these men. 

Yet these were the men to whom God announced, “for unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  Unto “you!”  No one gave these men anything, but God gave them everything!   Luther once wrote that “the gospel is in the personal pronouns.”  Like them, if we hope to receive God’s goodwill and favor because of our works, we are sorely mistaken.  But the good news is that a Savior has been born to us, Christ the Lord.  And just like them, we are the most unlikely of converts.

Join us as we examine the story of the shepherds in Luke 2 and consider God’s powerful plan to save the most unlikely of converts.  We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.