Something that I am wrestling with is this idea of “living for God” that seems to permeate our sermons, our exhortations, and our wisdom. I can recall so many times (and I’ve even done this myself) when someone is struggling with something and seeking the advice and encouragement from a fellow believer, and the advice and encouragement they receive is along the lines of “Well, you really need to just start living for God,” or “You just need to give that up to God and He’ll take care of you.”

These Sunday-school answers are so different from the example I see in Jesus. To me, “living for God” just sounds way too neat and tidy, and it implies a degree of separation from all things not-God that I think is misleading. Jesus spoke in parables and answered questions with questions; why do we insist on giving one-liner responses when someone is really hurting?

Some parts of living for God that I’ve often overlooked:

- being engaged and in community with the people around you
- helping those people who are the farthest away from God
- living for God is not a 100% individual pursuit!

I really feel that the individualism and consumerism that I’ve been used to for so long is going to be the biggest hurdle in my desire to become more like Jesus. It sure is a good thing that He’s put people in my life that are willing to share in these experiences with me.

Did that have anything to do with incarnation?

“In December of 2001 (the Year of Epihanies), I decided to record a collection of Christmas songs at home in Brooklyn, as a kind of musical benedictions to a tumultuous year. It would be something to give as gifts for my family and friends, something with which to appease the apprehension of everyday life, which had been uprooted by all the extraordinary events in the world.

What did the angels renounce in the wake of the shepherds’ trepidation? “Have no fear,” they petitioned with trumpet blasts and a garish display of constellations. But that’s like waving a gun in a bank lobby and demanding: “Everbody stay calm!” Music, of course, works much differently. The most discriminating of chord progressions can disarm the most arrogant of men, including myself. Christmas music does this to the highest degree. It intersects a supernatural phenomenon (the incarnation of God) with the sentimental mush of our mortal lives (presents, toys, Christmas tree ornaments, snow globes, cranberry sauce), leaving in its pathological wake a particular state of mind one can only describe as “that warm, fuzzy feeling.” Was this what I was after? The search for existential significance in all that sentimental oatmeal? Perhaps, but I’m not so ceratin “Silent Night” and “Jingle Bells” can be used as an exegesis for the big questions in life.

Or can they…”

Sufjan has much more to say about what Christmas means to him, and there’s many interesting and moving tidbits written in the liner notes. It’s really been making me think. I love the comparison between the Angels saying “Have no fear,” and the bank robber saying “Everybody stay calm!”; I laughed out loud when I read that the first time.

It is so wonderful to leave the Porch every week still chewing on what we discussed, and then continue to chew on it throughout the week! I’m still wrestling with what we discussed 3 weeks ago - how cool is that?! I think the environment of worship that God is creating in the Porch is something that really will help us to live the “transformed lives” that McLaren and Barna talked about at the conference. Sweet!