{"id":268,"date":"2011-12-23T14:40:48","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T21:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/?p=268"},"modified":"2011-12-23T14:42:01","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T21:42:01","slug":"merry-christmas-from-veritas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/?p=268","title":{"rendered":"Merry Christmas from Veritas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Braught sent the following as a Christmas card to those following his church plant. I was so impressed by it that I want to share it with the world:<\/p>\n

In 9 BC the following inscription was written on a stone in the area of Priene \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The providence, which has ordered the whole of our life, showing concern and zeal, has ordained the most perfect consummation for human life by giving to it Augustus, by filling him with virtue for doing the work of a benefactor among men, and by sending him, as it were, a savior for us and those who come after us, to make war to cease, to create order everywhere. The birthday of the GOD AUGUSUTS \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was the beginning of the good news of glad tidings that have come to men through him.<\/p>\n

Just a few years later, a group of shepherds received this message on one particular illuminating night \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly, there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153glory to God in the highest and on earth peace with men of good will\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. <\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible for me to read these two statements, and walk away without a clear sense that from it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beginning, the announcement of the good news of the coming of God in Christ, subverted the perceived gods of the world. Caesar was in charge \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it was his world \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and though the wrong seemed oft so strong \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he was the ruler yet. And in Caesar they had hope. Yet, the good news of Jesus proclaimed tidings of joy for all people in a way that Caesar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never could. Today, we still proclaim Christ\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tiding in this Advent Season \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the world thinks of Caesar very little.<\/p>\n

But Caesar is not gone. <\/p>\n

As I think about Advent I wonder \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what is the challenge of Christ\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s news today?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d There are still plenty of things (and also perhaps people) that promise salvation. We place our hopes at their feet. Some of them speak to us through the walkways of the local Shopping Center \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 others call out to us from a podium in front of a White House. The work that we do (especially the work of ministry) has a sneaky way of disguising its Caesar-like identity. I know it has captured me more than once. <\/p>\n

But, Jesus is still here too \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and still challenging and subverting Caesar.<\/p>\n

Our Advent faith is an Easter faith. It is grounded in the reality of a moment where the powers of sin, death, and evil all ganged up together and still met their match. Jesus stands over and above all Caesar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it is to Him we look \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it is in Him we place our hope and trust.. <\/p>\n

All Hail King Jesus!!!<\/p>\n

(Thanks to Chris Backert and the Ecclesia Network for the bulk of the above text)
\nJesus is born<\/a><\/p>\n

(Thanks to Chris Backert and the Ecclesia Network for the bulk of the above text)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan Braught sent the following as a Christmas card to those following his church plant. I was so impressed by it that I want to share it with the world: In 9 BC the following inscription was written on a stone in the area of Priene \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 The providence, which has ordered the whole of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-announcements","category-spiritual-formation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}