The "Spiritual" Season

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.Isa 40: 9-11 ESV

Isaiah’s prophecy of Christ’s coming to earth is often quoted this time of year as it reminds us that 700 years before Christ came, God’s was revealing His plan for salvation through Christ. God’s plan was no “made-up-on-the-fly” type thing – prophecies of the Messiah go back to the book of Genesis. We know the story…how the leading Jews of the day were anticipating a political savior – one who would restore the physical kingdom of Israel, and how this lead them to miss and mistake Christ and His coming. We all learned in Sunday school how His reign was spiritual rather than physical. But look at this text in Isaiah: “he will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.” Tend … gather…carry…lead. Sounds pretty much like physical action to me. And then there are Christ’s words in Mark 12:30 ESV: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Heart and soul and mind bring to mind the spiritual, but “all your strength” is physical. We know that Jesus and the Apostles had a huge physical ministry through healing, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, and even washing feet.

Here’s my point: We must be cautious by even thinking in separate terms of “spiritual” and “physical” because Jesus is Lord over all. This type of thinking is a throwback to the Gnosticism that Paul argues against in Colossians and 1st Timothy and it leads us to create separations that lead us astray. If we focus on the spiritual, then so-called “non-spiritual” things are less important. The reverse is also true if we ignore the spiritual. God’s Kingdom covers all, and so we are always a part of it in all that we do and think. Tending, gathering, carrying, and leading hold the same priority as preaching and teaching. They are all integral parts to our Christian lives and to fulfilling our call. Valuing one over the other is condemned by James (among others) for its lack of works, or empty rituals and a social gospel that is not really the Gospel.

We enter our place of work on Monday and sub-consciously check-out of our holy God-given ministry. A proper understanding is placing God in the center of all we do. Brushing our teeth is a holy work done unto God with our hearts indwelt by His Spirit and our body engaged in necessary work for establishing even this small part of His Kingdom. There is no separation – it is all holy work, important to God and valuable in His sight.

A troubling problem in the church today is clearer to me now than before I was a missionary in Mexico. Although I’m not ordained, I constantly meet those in the US and in Mexico who view my current role as more worthy, or more holy than when I was in business. Churches love to celebrate foreign missionaries and some even put them on a pedestal. This is wrong, if it excludes putting all Christians on the same pedestal. God approved of and valued my work in business as much as He does my work in Mexican missions. It is this same thinking that leads us to segregate our lives into Sunday worship and daily devotional times as the spiritual segments of our calendar and then turn away from God’s purpose in everything else we do. He cares about and ordains every moment of our lives. If we try to create segments, then we deny His sovereignty over and His concern for everything.

So this Christmas, don’t stop celebrating His arrival to earth as a babe nor His sovereign presence in your heart and in this physical world in which we live.