Excellent 2 minute video by Tom Wright that shows how Exodus & Passover connects with and shapes the Lord’s Supper.  Link

N.T. Wright from Sydneyanglicans.net on Vimeo.

Theme:  What’s in a name? Everything.

One of the great privileges of parenting begins before the child is born, as they (often) agonize for months on what to name their child. If they find out the gender, they can narrow down their choices, but still the burden can feel overwhelming. But as the time draws near, a preferable name is chosen, and from then on, all references to the baby will now have a name attached.  A time honored Jewish tradition was to give children special names that pointed well beyond personal preference, to hopes, dreams, or even memories of others. Mary never had to agonize over naming her baby, as she is told here what the baby must be named: Jesus. More than a popular boys name at the time, which it was, the name “Jesus” in Hebrew is Joshua, who brought the Israelites into the promised land after the death of Moses. Matthew sees Jesus as the one who will now complete what the law of Moses pointed to but could not of itself produce. He will rescue His people, not from slavery in Egypt, but from the slavery of sin.

This Advent season, thank God for His saving grace, and for a name that always reminds us that Jesus came to save us, not to teach us how to save ourselves.

Theme: The God Man

Imagine how Joseph must have felt when he found out that his fiancée Mary was going to have a baby. They weren’t married yet, and he was afraid that the Father was someone else. Imagine his joy when he learned from the angel that this baby didn’t have an earthly Father, but was “incarnate of the Holy Spirit,” what was in Mary’s womb was from the Holy Spirit. Now this did not make Jesus part God, and part human. The miracle of Jesus is that he is FULLY God and FULLY human. The other name he was called by says it wonderfully, “Immanuel,” which means, “God with us.” Thank the Lord that Jesus became one of us forever, and that God is with us!

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest …
you who have had so far
to come.) Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigour hurled
a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.
His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world.
Charmed by dove’s voices, the whisper of straw,
he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
he is curtailed
who overflowed all skies,
all years.
Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught that I might be free,
blind in my womb to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth
for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.