Jesus colliding with you and me...

Hey Friends…
 
Sherri and I are so thankful for each one of you. That’s not just a blanket statement made blindly to a mass email. As I scan through our distro list this morning, I see each of your names. As I do, it brings so much joy to my heart as I contemplate who you are and what you mean to us. We love each of you genuinely and are so grateful to be able to serve with you in the Body of Christ here at Mt. Hope.  I’ll tell you more in a tad shorter Deeper Thoughts below as I imagine your Thanksgiving weekend is a busy one…
 
But first… just a few quick reminders:
 
·      NEXT Sunday evening, December 8, 5:00 p.m. Our annual Christmas Pageant and All-Church Christmas Party: Our kids and middle schoolers tell the story of Christmas in music and drama. Then, we gather for a festive potluck dinner and fellowship. The pageant program begins at 5:00, dinner around 5:45. Click here to sign up for what you can bring!
 
·      Ladies: Join us for a Christmas Cookie Exchange December 14 from 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Come dressed in your Christmas attire and enjoy some fun, fellowship, and delicious cookies! Click here to RSVP!


·      Mark your calendar for two more prayer vigils as we seek God for the future of our church: A 12-hour prayer vigil throughout the day on Saturday, December 14 and another 24-hour prayer vigil and worship night sometime mid-January. We’ll have more details for you next week!
 
·      Please consider joining us for prayer every week—Sundays, 9:15 a.m. for our 25-minute weekly prayer meeting in the sanctuary.
 
·      Don’t forget “The Daily Six”, our 6-minute video released every Monday through Thursday as we study through the Book of Acts together. Click here to sign up for daily reminder emails—or you can just find the videos on our YouTube channel each morning.
 
OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who prefer anonymity over connectivity. BUT…
 
 
Some Deeper Thoughts…
 
Something we love about Mt. Hope: We are not an anonymous church. Sherri and I know just about every single one of you on this Friday email list. We know more about some of you--your family, your interests, your challenges, your joys—and we know a little less about others.
 
But whatever our level of relationship, you matter to us.
 
(BTW… if you’re one of those we know a little less about, let’s fix that… let’s hang out!!)
 
You matter to us just because you are you. And that mattering is all the more significant because you matter to Jesus. We love Jesus, and his love over you inspires us to lean into loving you in more than just a simplistic or generic way. The value he has poured out over you makes you of immense value to us.
 
His love is strong. So strong that he has collided with our worlds.
 
You and I have a wide range of realities in our individual worlds that are complicated, demanding, challenging, and complex. Family, relationships--or loneliness—children, work, finances, responsibilities, possessions, homes, pets, health… the list goes on and on. Those complexities demand our attention and effort, and as a result, Jesus is often an afterthought in the back of our minds as we push and push through these daily responsibilities.
 
But whether we perceive it or not, Jesus is constantly butting in. He is colliding with these matters because you matter.
 
This is what we call “the incarnation.” It is what we celebrate during the Advent season that begins this Sunday—the four weeks we uniquely contemplate Jesus coming in the flesh to meet us in our circumstances, to collide with our worlds.
 
“Incarnation” comes from the Latin phrase, in carne’, meaning, “with meat.” It is God with “meat on his bones.” God come in the flesh. God taking the form of a servant, humbling himself to be found in the fashion of a man, going all the way to death on the cross for you and me. God comes in the flesh to collide with our world. (See Philippians 2:6-11).
 
This Sunday as we kick off Advent season, we will explore the link between Jesus’ colliding incarnation and our study of “The Normal Christian Life.” As we talked about last Sunday, we have a calling from God to be incarnational with each other. We’ve been wired up for it--created for it—and when we do this, we become Jesus’ hands and feet. We become the incarnation of the incarnate. We become “God with meat on his bones” for everyone we know.
 
This is why you matter to us. It is what we have been created to do.
 
I hope you’ll join me and Sherri this Sunday at 10:00 a.m. in-person if you can, or online livestream if you’re away with family. We will enjoy sitting back and letting our beloved Pastor Will Cravens put some very practical meat on the bones of understanding how we live incarnate with the incarnate—how we let Jesus collide with every person that is a part of our complicated world.
 
Much love to you all… can’t wait to celebrate you and Jesus this Sunday!!
 
Chris Eads
Mt. Hope Pastor
Friend