Before you head of into this Christmas three-day weekend, here are three things that I’ve read and been thinking about this week. Enjoy this Karl Barth Friday! I hope they challenge and help you as much as they have me.
PS. I want to give you a heads up about a project that I’ll be doing next year. Beginning January 1, 2024 I will be writing a daily devotional ready to be delivered to your inbox each morning. It is part of the church’s 1/3/12/70 focus. If you would like to receive it please shoot me an email (todd@lextogether.org) and I’ll add you to the list. I won’t be publishing it here on the blog since that would be presumptuous of me to assume you’d like to get an email every day from me! One or two a week may be more than plenty!!
A number of you reached out last week to be added to the new project…thank you!
Have a great weekend watching the last of your Hallmark movies!
#1
We must not think ourselves summoned to clean up the places within the world before we can decide to live in them.
Karl Barth on Emil Bruner in Church Dogmatics
How much different would Christmas be if Jesus decided the world needed to be cleaned up before he took up residence? I dare say that December 25 would be just another day on the calendar instead of a worldwide celebration. For everyone expecting chaos to be resolved before wading in, you will be waiting a while. And, just maybe, the resolution we long for will come about through our choosing to be present in the mess not absent from it?
#2
Church Dogmatics honors the three forms of the Word of God—the Word revealed (Jesus Christ), the Word written (the prophetic-apostolic Scriptures), and the Word spoken (the indispensability of preaching) in a now classic way.
Church Dogmatics by Karl Barth
On this weekend that we celebrate the Word becoming flesh and blood and moving into the neighborhood (John 1:14 MSG), we are reminded by Barth that the Word takes on flesh through Jesus being present in the world not absent from it. The second person of the Trinity, who we call Jesus the Christ, is the fulness of the Godhead. He is the person through whom salvation is offered. And rather than beginning his time on a throne in a palace he entered this world via a manger in a stable That should tell us all we need to know about God.
Humility. Meekness. Service. Forgiveness.
Those will be his strategies to win the hearts and save the souls of humanity.
I’m convinced that these four not only will save the world, they will bring salvation to the circumstances we face if we choose to adopt Jesus’ strategy instead of our own.
#3
YOU ARE MY TOP3!
Rather than a quote, I want to end this top3 with a thank you.
Thank you for reading and encouraging me in this year that was 2023. I pray that your Christmas will be full of laughter, light, and love.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
todd nelson 