Issue 288
Welcome to the New Series of WORKTALKweekly
We continue our series looking at words that need to be redefined, but now our series overlaps with a five week advent series. This is the third in that series.
By now Joseph has learned the language of dreams. God has decided that this is a language which suits his temperament and the carpenter from Bethlehem seems quite capable of receiving clear instructions via this medium.
During this season of communications, announcements and greetings it might be worth reflecting on whether you have figured out God’s preferred method of passing key messages to you. It will certainly be linked to your temperament since He designed the means by which you receive as well as your capacity to transmit. Don’t rule out dreams, visions and the unusual – but notice how Matthew is very careful to connect the dreams with both their fulfilment and the biblical backdrop. Whatever your temperament everything will need to be benchmarked against the bible for health and safety reasons.
Meanwhile back in the night, a paradox is unfolding. Joseph is asleep dreaming a dream which is telling him to wake up, get up and go now. This dream is urgent and requires immediate action. There are some times when God impresses a message upon you and it is not meant to be filed, stored or reflected on; it requires immediate action. For Joseph it was, ”get up now, take your wife and child and get out.”
If you have learned the language that God uses to speak with to you, then you will do well to remember that it is not always wise to wait and ponder. Sometimes you have to do it now.
So what is God saying to you, in your language, to do now – today – this minute – even as you finish reading this piece? This is a wake-up-call for Christians, churches and groups – you may be concerned about your Christmas programme of carol services, candle-lights and lessons, but there is a marketplace in crisis all around which requires action. What is the response now? If all is well with you – help someone else. If you are a leader at work – care for your staff. If you are a leader at church – make sure your Christmas programme is relevant to the marketplace – Christmas is a lot of things, including a commercial festival so at a time when a huge percentage of income is generated for the rest of the year may I suggest that Christians support this venture of survival. For Jesus’ sake let’s wake up, act and take the Child of Christmas with us.
This dream was bizarre; the place to take the Child was Egypt. This country was full of unhappy memories for the first century Israeli. Egypt was the place of pain and work and hardship where all the people suffered with the stress of extreme overload and terrible working conditions. In an apparently backward step, Joseph is told to seek safety in a strange land full of unhappy memories.
I don’t know what God is saying to you but I do know that he is unconventional. He will use your language to wake you up, jolt you into action and go somewhere you would not normally go.
I am not being the slightest bit cynical because I love the formal celebrations of the Christmas message, but the same old format of church programmes is going to bypass the action if we don’t take the Christmas Child into the pain of the marketplace this year. It’s bad enough that the innkeepers missed the manger event but it’s even worse if we hide the message in a cloak of religion. You can dream on if you like, but the message of this dream is to wake up before you die.
Matthew 2:12 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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