My roommate Dave and I stood at the base of Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga, Tennessee and looked up. If it were here in Indiana it would look like a long mountain. Compared to its companion mountains in the Chattanooga area it was just a ridge. Standing at the bottom and looking up, it looked pretty imposing. Laughing, two college roommates started climbing.

         Our fellow students were mystified as to why we climbed up that ridge. One could drive to the top. If you wanted a better view there was a choice of three real mountains, all of which the summits were accessible by car. Why would you burn a Saturday the week before finals climbing up that ridge?

         No good answer, except that it was a challenge. Dave and I got along so well because we both loved a good challenge.

         Many years ago, while I was in my 20s (back when dinosaurs ruled the earth), I was an associate pastor at a church of around 100 in a city of 50,000. We had two revivals a year and we were into the Fall revival. Our pastor had been there for 29 years and was soon going to celebrate his 30^th year as pastor of this church. He was a stern man, very little in the way of humor. He once told me that I should just focus on Youth work, I would never be a pastor because I wasn’t serious enough or polished enough. Anyway, that first night of revival, the evangelist and his wife, the pastor and his wife and Marsha and I were invited to a home for a formal dinner. Pastor always liked to impress people with his education and experience. He was telling the evangelist of the yearly revivals and VBS and AWANA and our Easter programs and Christmas programs and the like. When the pastor stopped to put some food in is mouth, the evangelist asked a question. “So, you’ve been here 29 years and you do this stuff every year?” With fake modesty, the pastor replied, “Yes, that is true.” The evangelist looked at him and said, “You don’t have 29 years experience. You have one year experience and you have done it 29 times.”

         That had a real impact on me. Not to mention being really, really funny. Pastor’s look was priceless. But he had never had a real challenge. He was perfectly happy pastoring a small church in a big town. His people were happy being a small church in a big town because they didn’t want any challenges, either. A lot of people are like that. It is a foreign concept to me. Challenge always means change, and change is something most people don’t want to deal with, not when they can be comfortable with what they have.

         I will soon be at this church for five hears. Each year has had its challenge. Not just challenges of figuring what to bring to a carry in, but real challenges that churches go years without facing. And the Yoke has stepped up and faced each challenge. People have left their comfort zones and their personal desires to meet the challenges that the church has faced. And then, when we thought we could step back from challenges for a while, 2020 hit. We thought our way of doing things ad been altered before! In 2020 we had to remake everything!

You may not understand this, but 2020 has been the most satisfying year of my 45 years of ministry. Not the most enjoyable. Not the happiest. Not the most thrilling. But I have had the great privilege of seeing people going beyond their comfort zone. All year long the attitude has been, ‘Well, let’s do this.’ And it has been done.

I can look back and see the hand of God. In 2019 Mary Earle wanted to create a web page. The Board went with it and she created a page that we could be expanded ‘if we ever needed to do so.’ In 2019 someone donated a new video camera and all the attachments ‘for if we ever want to try doing something online.’ The sound system and Power Point and all that was already in place, but it was new and we were learning. Everything was in place, including the people, to meet the challenge of 2020, even though we had no idea what was coming. And then everything hit. It seemed like every week there was something new. The challenge of services online. (It’s a shame you folks were not here to see the process early on. You would have laughed or cried, or laughed until you cried.) Then when we could go back to services in church, there were other challenges. Communion, offerings, music, social distancing, encouraging some not to come at all. One thing after another. And interwoven into all the new challenges were the ‘normal’ challenges. Illnesses (which created its own hardships amid the pandemic), deaths and all the things that hit a church family every year. Everything has changed, everything has been turned upside down, everything is different.

And 2021 looks to be more of the same. Back in April people were wondering when things were going to get back to normal. In August people were wondering if things would ever get back to normal. Now people seem to have accepted that challenge and change is what is normal. The attitude is, ‘What is next? Bring it on!’

So, Pastor, why is 2020 satisfying?

Well, I have felt proud over and over and over. I have seen people do things that they really didn’t know how to do, but still did it well. I have seen people with issues in their own personal life, often life and death issues, still rise up and serve the Lord both in the church and out of the church. I have seen people who have looked at this virus and have decided that they have to move beyond the fear and serve the Lord. And finances! Attendance is down, which, under the circumstances, is a good thing, but the people in this congregation have responded with joy to the needs of the church. One of the things about being in ministry for 45 years is that you know a lot of people in a lot of churches in a lot of places. Every church in America has been affected by this pandemic. Some churches have been crippled and some will even close. But in a very small town in Indiana the one church in that town has done quite well. They have done well because a challenge was put in front of the people and the people have just said, “We can do this!”

Personal pride, such as the aforementioned pastor had because of his education and experience, is a sin. But pride in people who step up and do the Lord’s work, I think that pride is good and justified. For five years it has been one challenge after another and for five years it has been one victory for the Lord after another. I am proud of Urbana Yoke Parish.  

        HAPPY NEW YEAR, y’all!  

             Allow me to do something a little different here. This is not a blog, per se. This is the prologue to the Yearbook our church puts out every year. But, not everyone who reads this blog gets a Yearbook and I want folks everywhere to be challenged. And this is the challenge; make this The Year of the Cross. In your life and in your family and in your congregation. The Lord has done great things and, if we let Him work in us, greater things are coming.

            Every year, Rena makes me sit down and write this prologue to the Yearbook. I want to be upbeat and positive. Last year I wrote about seeing clearly with our Spiritual eyes after the years long struggle we were just coming out of and fully establishing the Yoke as one congregation. In that I cleverly (or so I thought) pointed out that in the year 2020 we should start seeing with 20/20 Spiritual vision. I thought I was being witty. We could not have imagined what was in store for us as the year began to unfold.

The year began with a death in a farming accident. Not a death as the result of age or disease. Sudden and violent. Other deaths of beloved church members followed throughout the year. In addition, many of our members suffered heartache within their own families, losing people they loved but who were not of the church. The weight of suffering pulled at the congregation. Add to that, the civil unrest caused by extremists throughout the country, and it was a bad time. But it got worse.

The pandemic hit. Suddenly we couldn’t even go see our own families in care facilities. If a family member had surgery, their loved one had to wait in their vehicle. Churches were closed. Theaters, restaurants, barbers and hair salons were closed. Schools closed. Recreation of all kinds, even family gatherings, were banned. The year 2020 seemed to magnify the hardships of previous years and battered the very spirit of our country.

But, in a sense, the turmoil of the year 2020 seemed to sharpen our Spiritual vision. This congregation could have fallen apart. We were just coming out of a period of several years that seemed to pull at the fabric of our Yoke. The sudden devastation that descended on the country, even the world, could have taken a congregation in change and destroyed it. However, that didn’t happen. When the church had to close, we seemed to draw closer together. When deaths came, the congregation rose to those occasions. We had been a praying congregation before, but with 2020 we became fervent in our praying. During a time of masks and social distancing, we found other ways to show our love for one another. 2020 made us stronger.

2021…..I don’t know what path the Lord has for us. But I do know that the Lord will be with us on that path. I have every confidence that we will journey through 2021 and that, for us, 2021 will be the Year of the Cross!  I am looking forward to it!

 

         Day seven.

         It has always bothered me when someone along the way adds to or takes away from any story in the Bible. We see it in the Easter story, we see it in the Christmas story, we see it in many of the stories that people feel haven’t shed enough light on what they want to know. People give their version of the story based on their own life experiences. This is really seen in religious paintings. I became interested in this while in school. When Rembrandt painted a Biblical scene, his characters often had on wooden shoes. He was Dutch and the Dutch wore wooden shoes. All the masters painted their Biblical scenes using imagery from their own time and place. If the picture was of Jesus, he would have features of the people of the time and place of the artist. Jesus almost certainly did not have long hair. People from the time of Jesus who chronicled the events said the hair of Jesus was cut as a Roman, which would have been short. However, during the time of the masters, men all over Europe wore long hair. So now we have a long haired Jesus. I know that to many of you, that doesn’t matter. But it does bug the daylights out of me. It is very hard for me to sit and watch any Bible movie because I sit there and pick it apart.

         Now, having said all of that, I have to say that what follows is not Biblical. It is not Biblical because the Bible does not give us these specifics. But, given the culture and practices of the time, and based on what we do have in the Scripture, I do believe that this is closer to the actual events than the whole thing where the wise men are there and the animals are bowing in worship and the shepherds are young boys and there is a drummer boy. Oh, the idea of a drummer boy makes my skin crawl! Anyway……

         Mary’s time was upon her. People of the era were not like people now. We expect a nice room with clean sheets. And a coffee maker. But Mary and Joseph just needed to not have the Baby in the street. The stable would have to do, but it was much better than it could have been. Still, delivering in a stable, especially the Son of God, would concern Mary.

         But my mind goes to Joseph. In my mind’s eye I see scarred and gnarled hands. He handled sharp tools with those hands. He handled heavy pieces of wood with those arms and hands. It is likely he had smashed a few fingers along the way. Being a carpenter does not prepare you to deliver babies. And once the Baby is delivered, what then? If he had been a farmer, he would have had a better understanding. But he was not. Probably his father before him had been a carpenter or, at the very least, he would have been apprenticed out to a carpenter at seven or eight years of age. He was way out of his comfort zone. Mary might have been trying to give him instructions, but how much would that actually help in a pressure packed situation? The noise from the street would have been loud, even in the confines of the barn and stable, the straw on the floor was likely old and the old manger in the corner was probably nasty. (For those who don’t know, a manger is a feed trough. Animals eat out of it. An animal is a messy eater. They slobber and regurgitate and slobber some more. The feed trough is seldom given a good cleaning.) Joseph would have hurried to put straw in the manger, but the straw probably was not very clean. And then, Mary would have called to him. Or screamed at him. Now. This was the moment. NOW!

         Out of his depth, Joseph would have had to fall back on what little knowledge he had on the subject. Perhaps he and Mary had talked about it on the trip, maybe he had just heard stories. But whatever, Joseph got the job done. The Baby came into the world and into the rough hands of a carpenter. I would imagine Mary had brought some wraps for the Baby to be put in. Joseph would have handed the Baby to Mary and Mary, exhausted, would have cared for the Child. Joseph would have been completely wired up because he still didn’t know what he was doing.

         And then, the shepherds would have rushed into the room. They had delivered many lambs in their time. Good men, experienced men, they would have sized up the situation immediately. Probably pushed Joseph aside. The umbilical cord cut, the cleanup commenced, the mother cared for and comforted.

         Think about it. Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. But, the angel came to a girl in Nazareth and announced the coming pregnancy to her. She was not married and her promised husband was one who worked with his hands and manhandled heavy wood, and the angel came to him and explained some things. But God needed a pure hearted woman. God needed a strong man for the labors that were to come. And then the angels came to the despised of society, the least thought of in society. And they not only got the message, but they also got a killer light show and concert. These men were probably the most capable men anywhere to deal with a birth. The Child could not have been better cared for than by a tender young woman, a powerful man and several men who knew their way around a birth and a stable.

         So, that is the story of the Savior’s birth. Now, walk around the house in which you live. What do these decorations really mean? Are they traditional, or are they Godly? Most have their roots in something, but what do they mean to you? As you walk around you may come to a nativity set. Set the animals aside, and the wise men. Just leave the shepherds and Mary and Joseph. And the Baby. Now, think of that scene over 2000 years ago. Think of the pain Mary was in. Think of the desperation Joseph felt. Think of shepherds bursting into the room and taking charge. And look at the Baby. If that Baby has stayed as a Baby to you, then you have missed the whole point. He became your sacrifice.

         Enjoy the holiday. Enjoy the family. Enjoy the food. But at some point, make your way back over to that nativity scene. Look at the Child. While you do that, think of the Cross and then think of the Empty Tomb. There you have the story.

         May this be a blessed Christmas for you, and may you return that blessing to our Lord this coming year.

 

         Day six.

         While Joseph and Mary were struggling in the streets of Bethlehem, a group of shepherds were settling in for the night in a pasture out and away from the small but over crowded town. We know from written records that the way it would work was that a shepherd would tend the flock of an owner. Anything over 90 to 100 sheep was too many sheep for one man to properly watch. Most owners had more than one flock and at night the shepherds who worked for an owner would bring their flocks together. The shepherds would enjoy the company of one another around a fire and then half of them would get some sleep while the other half stood guard over the flock. At some point during the night the two groups would switch out. In the morning there would be breakfast and then the various flocks would split up for the day. Each sheep knew their shepherd’s voice and would follow his command.

         In that society, shepherds were despised. They did very important work, but they had no time off. Zero. They had to spend all their time in the field. They were, in the view of the Jews, Spiritually unclean. According to the custom, if a man handled a dead animal (not someone who slaughtered an animal for food or someone who cut the animal up or someone who cooked it, but someone who dealt with it in the wild) he was unclean until a priest could give him the cleansing rites. Shepherds never had time to come in for the cleansing, but they handled dead animals often. One of the sheep killed by a wild animal and the carcass left to be disposed  of or maybe the shepherd was able to kill the attacking animal and then had to bury the carcass. Shepherds often never married. Such a thing would cause him to have to give up his job. A shepherd would seldom bathe. The water in the fields was meant for the sheep to drink. Shepherds were mostly considered too stupid to do anything else, which was, of course, wrong. But it was the view. They were at the bottom of the societal ladder, just above criminals.

         Yet, the Scripture consistently compared the Lord to a good shepherd. One has to wonder how the priests worked around that little fact.

         Occasionally you will hear someone say about an event in Scripture, “Oh, I would have loved to have been there!” The raising of Lazarus, Jesus walking on the water, the walls of Jericho coming down, manna from heaven, crossing the Red Sea. So many amazing events! But I think I would have liked to have been sitting with those shepherds around the fire before they turned in. The chatter of friends, the telling and retelling of stories, maybe playing some game. Men who faced wild animals and harsh weather and dealt with sheep that wandered off and who had only each other for company and for help. I would have loved to have been there and watched as the angel appeared and told them of the Baby, and then listened as the heavenly host sang their praises to the Lord. I suppose, even if I had known what was coming, I would have been as stunned as those men were.  

         The angels departed. The men turned to each other and, probably all talking at once, decided to go to Bethlehem to see the miracle.

         Now, what of the gathered flock? Did all the shepherds go to Bethlehem and leave the sheep unattended? Did they leave an unlucky shepherd to guard the sheep? All the Bible says it that they decided they would go. The Bible says “the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” It doesn’t sound like they left anyone behind. I would think that, to them, there was something more important. And I would also think that those sheep were well tended by angels while the shepherds were gone. God doesn’t leave loose ends.

         Joseph would have opened the door into the barn. Just somewhere to shelter for the night. But once inside, Mary’s discomfort became clearly visible. The Baby, the Son of God, was ready to enter the world. The King of Heaven and earth was about to be born in stable where animals stayed.

         It has been argued that Joseph could not have delivered the Baby. There had to have been a midwife. But the Bible says that when the shepherds arrived there was just Jesus and Mary and Joseph. We don’t see the actual birth in Scripture. Have you ever wondered how it all came down? How did a carpenter handle the moment?

         I think we can surmise some things, based on what we have seen so far. And we will do that. But right now I am tired. It has been a long day. I think I will head off to bed and pick the rest up tomorrow.

 

         Day five.

         Bethlehem is a city now of around 27,000 people. It is controlled by the Palestinian Authority and is part of the contested lands between Israel and the Arab states. Just a few miles south of Jerusalem, the city no longer fills its historical function. Now it is a place for tourists, but throughout the span of the Bible, Bethlehem was the agricultural hub of Jerusalem, keeping that city fed. In fact, the name itself means ‘house of bread.’ Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, erected a wall around the town to protect it during siege, but that was never very successful. The fields and pasture land around the small town provided the food needs for the larger city. In the best of the pasture land, priests of the Temple kept flocks attended by shepherds for the sacrifices that happened daily at the Temple. Other than the sacrifices, nothing really set Bethlehem apart from any such ‘houses of bread’ for any city in Palestine except that this Bethlehem was King David’s boyhood home. He had tended sheep there as a boy. Bethlehem became known as ‘The City of David.’

         It was known by prophecy that the promised Messiah would come from The City of David and would be a descendant of David. But, by the time of Mary and Joseph, David had been dead a thousand years. It had come to be accepted that Jerusalem, because of its proximity to Bethlehem and its much larger size, was actually The City of David. Bethlehem had largely fallen into disrepair by the time Joseph crested the hill and looked at the town below. It is estimated that by that time the town had dwindled to just 300 people. It is believed that there was just one inn within the town, a place where land owners who were coming down from Jerusalem to see to their possessions could spend a night or two. It is possible that Joseph had never been to his ancestral home. The descendants of David had spread far and wide and very few lived there anymore.

         But on that day, with everyone being ordered to go back to their ancient homes, Joseph and Mary would have been greeted with an unbelievable sight. Thje broken down town huddled behind a broken down wall was packed to over flowing. Nazareth had never looked like this! From their vantage point, it would have looked like an ant hill that had been kicked apart by a naughty child. Their journey had been hard and they would have been tired. Mary would have been miserable. Joseph would have been feeling anxiety grip his heart. In that crush of people, where would they be able to find a place where the Messiah could be born? Where would they find a midwife? Would they even be able to find enough food in that overwhelmed little village? They still needed to keep Mary’s pregnancy secret from the people in Nazareth, so that may have been the one good thing about the massive crush of people. As they started their descent to the town, they would have had heavy hearts.

         Struggling against the ebb and flow, they would have struggled to have found a place to spend the night. Over the centuries, the poor inn keeper of the story has been treated very badly, even though no innkeeper is mentioned in the Bible. We know virtually nothing about the incident, except that the Bible says there was no room at the inn. They didn’t necessarily go to the inn. They could have simply surmised that with all those people there would not have been a room. Yet we have all manner of stories of Joseph knocking on doors, practically begging for a room, and the evil, even sinister, innkeeper turning them away.

         And then, a barn like structure. Desperate now, Joseph would have set his sights on the front door. Pushing through the crowds, they made their way.

         Meanwhile, well away from the mob of people, some shepherds were doing what shepherds had always done. Tending their sheep during the day was an isolated and lonely job, but at night the smaller flocks were all brought together so that the shepherds could sleep in shifts while some stood guard. Just a normal night. Then…..

 

         Day four of Mary and Joseph heading south.

         My buddy and I set out from Chattanooga one morning with the goal of driving just over 600 miles to our homes in the Cleveland area. We were driving my Chevy Vega. For those of you who do not know, the Vega was considered one of the worst cars ever made. I must have gotten the one good one. They usually packed it in around 50,000 miles. I drove that one for over 120,000 miles before the engine warped. That was their problem. Aluminum engine block and it could not take much heat. I did love my Vega, though. I babied it, took care of it and it took me 120,000 miles.

         My friend and were going to drive straight through. The car got around 35 mph, which was phenomenal for the time. We figured we would have to stop once for fuel, which was exactly what happened. Made it home in nine and a half hours. That one stop got us gas and a quick run into a White Castle for a bathroom break and burgers to go. Nothing to it.

         Foolish boy that I was, I figured that when my new wife and I set out to return to college in Chattanooga, it would simply take nine and one half hours. But, no.

         Every hour we were looking for rest areas or a McDonalds. We spent a night in Lexington, Kentucky. We spent way too much time in a place called Jellico, Tennessee. We started out on a Tuesday and arrived on Thursday. And I learned a valuable lesson. Traveling with a female is vastly different than traveling with a male.

         Joseph and Mary left Nazareth. The Bible doesn’t tell us if they rode a chariot or walked or rode dinosaurs, but I am going to go with the idea that Joseph pulled his carpenter’s cart with supplies in it and a nice place for Mary to sit. The cart would have been slower than walking and so they would have fallen way behind the main group in just a few hours. The road they followed would have been terribly hilly and Joseph could have only kept the pace for four or five hours. And then there was Mary. Nearly ready to have the Child. Uncomfortable riding, Joseph would have had to let her down every so often to walk, but that also would have required rearranging the load so the cart would remain balanced and easier to pull. While Mary walked, the pace would have slowed way down. Then, she would tire and Joseph would move supplies around, set Mary in amongst their traveling needs and then rearrange all of that to make her secure. As a pregnant woman, there would have needed to be multiple bathroom breaks, only there were no bathrooms. There would have been times when she needed help, which would have embarrassed both of them. At the pace they were going it would have taken a week to do what others were doing in two and a half days. This would explain why Bethlehem was so crowded when they got there.

         My return trip to Chattanooga was taking forever, but it seemed like an easier ride than when my friend and I set out from Chattanooga. I had my new bride with me. I wonder if it was like that with Joseph and Mary. Obviously, they had other issues. Pregnant woman, harder travel, taking care of THE SON OF GOD! Stress levels would have been higher. Still, this was the trip where they began to get to know one another. Given the customs of the times, there was no dating or any real visiting until the marriage. They were virtual strangers. So this trip, with all its hardships and dangers, was still their coming together time. They were going to be taking care of the Son of God. Of course they talked of that. But Joseph would have told her about being a carpenter and she would have shared her story of her trip to see Elizabeth. At night when they sat by their fire and slowly ate their evening meal, they would have looked at the stars, maybe laughed at something that had happened that day and probably shared their worries and even some tears. Mary would have felt bad because she was slowing the whole trip down and Joseph would be reassuring her. And a bond would be growing, a bond they would need later as they really began to face adversity.

         And then in the morning they would start all over again. One day following another, until they drew near to Jericho. Not the grand city of Old Testament fame. That had been destroyed. But they had built another smaller city on that spot, and that was where they turned west and headed toward Jerusalem. Then, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, with the city upon the hills easily in view they would have turned south and traveled another day. And then…….

         Tomorrow.