I bring you good news that will
bring great joy to all people.
(Luke 2:10)

Greetings from Amsterdam!   It’s the third week of the Advent season, and I’m enjoying it greatly.  I love Christmas lights and Christmas music and Christmas cookies and Christmas presents.  I love special time together with family.  I love observing traditions that tie us into the bigger picture of history, culture, and family…  But did you know that it’s actually kind of an American thing to be so into Christmas (or at least to celebrate it for as long and with as much gusto as we do)?  At times I have to apologize to my Dutch and international friends, if my holiday exuberance becomes annoying. :-)  But so be it:  I just love this time of the year!

This is also a great time of the year for ministry.  It’s a unique opportunity to meditate on the miracle of God coming down to earth and dwelling among us.  And it’s especially meaningful to be able to do this in the context of a Christian community, both local and global.  This year, our church is swimming in the bigger stream of Christian history and culture by lighting Advent candles, singing special songs about Jesus’ birth, and by soaking ourselves in the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  Specifically, for each of the four Sundays of Advent, we’re looking at one of the four Gospels written about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Usually, we take several weeks to go through a book of the Bible, chapter-by-chapter, piece-by-piece—but this month we’re cruising through at a very rapid pace:  four (very large, very significant) books of the Bible in four weeks.  We have to sacrifice some subtlety and some of the details by going about things in this way—but what we gain is a big-picture perspective about what each of these Gospels has to teach us about Jesus.

For the first Sunday in Advent, we walked through the Gospel of Mark, which is perhaps the most succinct, most raw, most primal version of the story.  It connects us with Jesus as the Suffering Servant prophesied in Isaiah 53 and confronts us with the image of Jesus as an individual—fully God… but also fully human.  Consequently, when we read the Gospel of Mark, we’re forced to consider how we will respond to Jesus on the individual level and not just as some theological concept.  It’s a powerful portrait, commanding our attention.

For the second Sunday in Advent, we studied the Gospel of Matthew.  Matthew uses much of the same material that Mark included in his Gospel, but in a sense he takes a step further back and tries to round out the picture of Jesus.  In effect, Matthew’s Gospel says: “Yes, Jesus is an individual.  Yes, he is the Suffering Servant from Isaiah’s prophecies.  But don’t you see?!?  He’s also the long-awaited Messiah—the King of the Jews!”  Jesus is shown to be a fulfillment (and an extension) of everything that God set out to do through His special relationship with the Jewish people.  Even though most of the people in our church (including myself) don’t have much of a Jewish background, there’s something really enriching to see this aspect of Jesus’ Advent.  It shows us a picture of a God who keeps his promises.

For the third Sunday in Advent, we turned our attention to the Gospel of Luke.  Luke is the last of the three Synoptic Gospels (“seeing together” into the story of Jesus), also drawing significantly on the materials from Mark and Matthew.  But again, we see that Luke helps us to take yet another step back, rounding out the picture of Jesus even further.  In a nutshell, Luke says:  “Yes, Jesus was an individual.  Yes, he was the Suffering Servant from Isaiah’s prophecies.  Yes, he was the long-awaited Jewish Messiah… But don’t you see?!?  He’s also the Savior of all mankind!  The implications of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection don’t just apply to Jews.  They apply to all of humanity!”  In a sense, Luke is the one who says to us in Amsterdam—“Hey listen, this story is for you, too!”  As I preached this particular sermon about God embracing the outsiders, there was a tangible response from the others in the room who were seeing the Gospel with fresh eyes.  We were impressed with this picture of Jesus as the Son of Man, who came to seek and to save those who are lost (Luke 19:10).

For the fourth and final Sunday in Advent, we will be looking into the Gospel of John.  Once again, a different Gospel gives us a different angle on Jesus’ Advent—and in this particular story, we zoom all the way out to see Jesus not just as an individual, as a Jewish Messiah, or as a Savior to all mankind… but also as the cosmic Creator of the universe, the beginning and end of all things.  Understanding Jesus on this level helps us to not just relate to God on a personal level, but also to worship him with a sense of awe and wonder.  John’s portrait of Jesus shows him in all his power and glory.

And as our church has gone through this progression of studying the life of Jesus, I’ve come to feel like I really can’t get enough of this whole “Jesus story.”  It’s a beautiful, rich, colorful story, and it’s a great privilege to have been drawn into the story as a person, a family, a church community, and as a worldwide movement.  Isn’t that amazing?!?

Thank you for your involvement in our particular, Amsterdam-based sub-plot of the big Jesus story.  We feel so blessed and encouraged by your ongoing generosity and faithfulness.  We wish we could come over to each of your houses, sing you some Christmas carols, and give you a nice plate of home-baked Christmas cookies—but in lieu of that possibility, we’ll just include a recent family picture. :-) In any event, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year… And we’ll be in touch.

Eric