Important Caveat: How you celebrate Christmas, or even whether you celebrate it, is a matter of Christian freedom. You can celebrate Christmas on one day, two days, twelve days, or zero days. For this reason, I am not trying to bind anyone's conscience with this post. Instead, I want to shed some light on the historic Christian observation of Christmas. I also want to point out a few ways this can positively impact congregational practices and our individual lives. So, take this post for what it's worth. It's not a law to be followed. Rather, ...

My wife and I just finished a simple recording of some Christmas tunes this last week and we'd love to share them. It has been the driest December on record in Seattle this year (pretty cold too) and there has been an abnormal amount of fog in the mornings. Fog can be unsettling. It changes and disguises the appearance of the world around us. But after the morning, the fog lifts and the sun reveals what has been covered up and unclear. My hope is that these songs do the same thing. Though our lives can be bleak and at times unclear, the son o ...

If you watch The Office, you probably saw the loveable Stanley Hudson’s speech a couple of weeks ago. Instead of a Christmas party, the office had a holiday party. Stanley was bothered and went on a tirade about some of the effects of political correctness. Most of us are familiar with the cultural trend of modifying specifically Christian Christmas practices and vocabulary to become general and inclusive. We say “Season’s Greetings” instead of “Merry Christmas.” We go to Holiday, not Christmas, parties. Also, if you were once unfamiliar ...

Most of us will spend some time over the holidays with our families. Some of us are looking forward to this with great joy. Others of us are just hoping to endure. I wanted to give some pastoral guidance for those for whom “spending time with family over the holidays” is difficult. Of course, this is by no means exhaustive, but I hope it is helpful. Focus on What Is Good. In Philippians 4, Paul gives us gospel-driven parameters for how we should live in community with one another. He tells us to find those things in one another that are ...

Crazy, Stupid, Love, though at points overly sentimental and weirdly inappropriate, is brilliantly casted, saturated with memorable lines and laugh-out-loud scenes. But the film’s strength is its inspiring portrayal of love. In the opening scene, Cal Weaver (Steve Carell), a boring, passive, khakis-with-white-tennis shoes-wearing husband and father is told by his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) that she wants a divorce. Cal accepts her wishes. He doesn’t protest or ask why. They go home and he gathers his things and leaves. In subsequent d ...

There is A LOT of Christmas music these days. Yes, much (maybe most) of this music is overly cheesy and sentimental; or just straight-up bad. I'm not against sentiment and I have plenty of guilty pleasures, but I think everyone can agree that Christmas music in general tends to overdo it… At best, many albums are marketing ploys for record labels to make more money off of songs that have already been written. No offense to the next big pop star and the next holiday "hit," but there is actually some really good stuff out there. And thanks in ...

This Sunday someone asked me, "Why aren't we singing Christmas carols in church right now?" That's a great question. We are three Sundays into Advent and have yet to sing a single Christmas carol. And this is on purpose. At Grace, we are worshiping according to the ancient pattern of Advent first, Christmas second. Notice that Advent and Christmas are not the same thing. They are two distinct seasons. Advent is the four-week period immediately preceding Christmas Day. Christmas begins on Christmas Day and lasts until January 6 (Epiphany). ...

Linn and I watched The Tree of Life two weeks ago. Written and directed by Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line), it is a powerful movie. I found it to be beautiful, provocative and full of depth. It's also a very polarizing movie. The film received the highest prize at the Cannes Film Festival but was also booed by many. What really blew me away about the movie, though, was Malick's courage. A devout Episcopalian, Malick assumes God's existence from the beginning of the film. The opening scene uses this quote from the book of Job. God, ...

Expectation is part of the Christian life. Regardless of who we are, we are called to expect life in midst of death. This may not seem that significant or even that demanding, but it is. Why? Death is all around. Everyday, people are diagnosed with life-threatening or life-ending diseases. Relationships fall apart. People live in famine, poverty, or under broken institutional structures. Individuals experience racism or discrimination. Those with little to nothing are violated. Some struggle with depression. Others die, sometimes t ...

Two weeks ago, Jerram Barrs preached a really good sermon on suffering. You can find that sermon here: Sorry, your browser doesn't support iFrames. Please <a href="http://www.graceseattle.org/resources/multimedia/details/?id=127450" _mce_href="http://www.graceseattle.org/resources/multimedia/details/?id=127450">click here</a> to view this media. In response to that sermon, a friend asked me about the difference between suffering for the sake of the faithfulness to God and suffering in general. ...