Rethinking Expectations: Finding God in the Manger

You know, any time a baby is born, it's a good reason to celebrate. There's reason to rejoice. We make funny sounds, we cool, we talk in a funny voice that we wouldn't normally use. We say things like, oh, look at those little fingers, look at those tiny little toes, look at that precious little face. Even though, to be perfectly honest, a newborn sometimes looks more like a cabbage patch doll than a thing of wondrous art. But babies are wonderful, aren't they? We celebrate them. Birth is miraculous but if Christmas is only about a cute baby, then something has gone wrong. [00:31:07] (46 seconds)  #BeyondTheCuteBaby

Because if this was just another birth, there wouldn't be angels tearing open the skies and there wouldn't be shepherds abandoning their flocks and the magi wouldn't be packing up their bags and taking off across deserts. The angel wouldn't have to say, do not be afraid. Nobody says that when you're just announcing a birth. Nobody comes and says, hey, guess what? We're pregnant. Don't be afraid. We're expecting. Maybe they should, but people don't usually have to say, don't be afraid to announce a birth. We say, don't be afraid when something world-changing is about to happen. [00:31:53] (40 seconds)  #WorldChangingBirth

And we stood there for a few minutes and the man eating the hot dog stood up and he said, can I help you? And I realized it made more sense to me. my mental model was so strong it made more sense to me that my dad had bought in a car, never told me about, taken up a new hobby, remodeled his house and invited strangers over to eat hot dogs than it did that I was in the wrong condo. [00:36:41] (32 seconds)  #WhenAssumptionsFail

They function how we see the world. They determine how we take action in the world. And we have mental models. We have deeply held sets of assumptions about how God works and about who God is. Most people in the day of Jesus' birth had a mental model about the Messiah. They were looking for a Messiah. Many of them were, but they weren't looking for the Messiah in a manger. [00:37:34] (29 seconds)  #MentalModelsBlindUs

Most people in the day of Jesus' birth had a mental model about the Messiah. They were looking for a Messiah. Many of them were, but they weren't looking for the Messiah in a manger. They were expecting God to come with power and with spectacle and with devastating certainty. And God came with vulnerability and with humility in a feeding trough. [00:37:50] (27 seconds)  #HumbleMessiah

They were expecting God to come with power and with spectacle and with devastating certainty. And God came with vulnerability and with humility in a feeding trough. And it turns out that you can be waiting for God and your mental models get in the way. you can still miss God when he actually shows up if you're too attached to how you think God should show up. [00:38:03] (34 seconds)  #GodInTheManger

Some of us might be here today and instead of assuming that God can't or won't love me we're assuming that we don't need to love God we assume that God is passive at best distant and remote and benign a God of our own making and the psalmist disrupts that mental model as well. Christmas he says God he says isn't just sweet he's serious it's not just joyful it's disruptive the birth of Christ isn't just sentimental it's seismic everything shifts [00:39:30] (41 seconds)  #ChristmasIsSeismic

but don't stop there rejoice also that God is still at work that God is still planting seeds in your life and through your life that God is still surprising us with the way that he shows up in unexpected moments unpredictable ways that God is still growing righteousness that God is still in the business of putting things right again and still inviting us to be part of that flourishing don't miss the miracle don't drive past what God is doing just because it came wrapped in humility and gentleness [00:42:20] (48 seconds)  #NoticeGodsWork