Klauslis in Korntal

Christmastime Traditions

One thing that characterizes the Christmas holiday are the traditions that each culture and family brings to the celebration. I thought it might be fun to highlight a few "different" Christmas traditions that we experienced this year in Germany:

1. Herring Salad
This is probably the most unusual one. In Julia's family the "salad" consists of shredded apple, onions, beets, pickles mayo, fresh cream and, of course, cut up pickled herring filets. Although, I am usually not that big a fan of seafood, I took seconds of this.

2. Christmas Eve Service
Nothing that unusual here, with the exception that virtually everyone goes. In the baptist church in Julia's hometown in Braunschweig (the largest of its kind in Germany) they had four different services ranging from classical to gospel choir (2pm 4pm 6pm and 11pm) at which most of the attendees were non-members. Even people who have nothing to do with church the entire year go on Christmas Eve in order to catch the "Christmas mood." Needless to say it is a great opportunity for evangelism, and many churches take advantage of the opportunity.

3. Opening gifts on the 24th
This is an unusual one for me since growing up (and the majority of our friends) opened gifts on the 25th morning. This fits, however, with everybody going to Christmas Eve service.

4. Christmas Goose
As a I kid, I only sang about eating Christmas goose at Christmas time, but having a goose is one of Julia's family's traditions.

5. Christmas Market
Almost every town in Germany seems to have, of one sort or another, a Christmas market consisting of little huts built in the center of town that sell all kinds of gifts as well as traditional Christmas foods. This year we went to three: the one in Stuttgart, the smaller one in Ludwigsburg, and the one in Julia's hometown of Braunschweig. Especially noteworthy were the foot and half long sausages that are grilled up and served on a much smaller roll.

6. Fireworks on New Years Eve
If you can imagine everyone in the USA all agreeing to set off their fireworks at the same prearranged time this would give you some kind of picture of what it's like at midnight New Year's Eve in Germany. At midnight every kind of firework imaginable is set off--not by large firework shows (though these exist, too) but also but in front of every house and apartment building. It's quite breathtaking (or is that all the smoke?) but also a bit chaotic and lots to clean up on New Year's morning. Since our kids went to bed early, we lit sparklers when the sun went down and a couple rockets. The other three rockets we saved for midnight . . . .

Amazed at the Birth of Jesus

Note: This was a devotional for chapel that I delivered on the 12/20/07

Sometimes as we approach Christmas I have heard the Christmas story so many times that I almost become numb to its message. It’s not that I want this to happen, but I think the continuous focus on the historical event of Christ birth, while extremely important, often leaves little time to reflect on the mystery of it all: how is it that the second person of the Trinity became a man?

This morning I want to consider this question from the perspective of eight verses in the NT. And while in the process we will be doing some theology, my goal is not a theological study. Rather, I want to gives us all a chance to hear the Scripture and be amazed again at the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus.

The first three verses are some general statements that emphasize the fact that God became a man.
The first is 1 Tim 3:16.

“And admittedly, great is the mystery of godliness:
He was revealed in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit
proclaimed among the Gentiles,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory.”

By the “mystery of godliness” Paul is speaking of the revelation of the gospel that now makes people “godly,” and at the foundation lies the incarnation of Jesus: “He was revealed in the flesh,” that is, he took on a body.

In John 1:14 we find a further explanation that the “one revealed in the flesh” is none other than God:
“Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us.”

Jesus’ deity is seen in 1:1-5 where John speaks of Jesus in terms of the “Word” or Logos who is by nature “fully God” (1:1) and through whom God made the world (1:3).” The idea is mindboggling. As some have put it, the Creator Himself becomes a creature.

In Phil 2:6-7 we are given a bit more background to Jesus’ incarnation, especially the choice He made to humble Himself in this way and what exactly it cost Him:

“who though he existed in the form of God
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
but emptied Himself
by taking the form of a slave
by looking like other men
and by sharing human nature.”

Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, does not give up His divinity, but for a while, its position in order to be a servant who would die on a cross.

These three general questions have given us the “fact” of Jesus’ incarnation. We now turn to three more that give us a bit more of the “how”. The first is in Gal 4:4

“But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may be adopted as sons with full rights.”

The statement “born of a woman, born under the law” tells us two important things about Jesus’ birth. That it was “under the law” tells us it took place in human history, that He was born of a woman” tells us that the incarnation is not something estoric or metaphysical, but that He had a normal birth. Although all three of our children were born by C-section, I had the opportunity to be present. While the miracle of birth is wonderful, it is terribly messy process—one which our Lord did not shy away from.

The mystery that God could be born of a human is heightened in the next verse. In Matt 1:20-23 the angel explains to Joseph that his pregnant wife-to-be is still a virgin since,

“the child conceived in here is from the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus’ virgin birth, Matthew explains, is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isa 7:14. The fact of Jesus’ birth is something that I accept from the Scriptures and as something theologically necessary for God to bring about salvation. But that does not mean that I understand it!

Luke’s gospel also takes up the virgin birth and attempts to explain it more through the explanation of angel to Mary when she asks: “how can these things be (Luke 1:34)?” While I am grateful that we have more information, the answer only further deepens the mystery:

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born will be holy;
He will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)”

This Christmas, take time to contemplate the mystery of the incarnation: and just be amazed.

Doing Things Twice

At times, when our children do a task with a poor attitude, we have them do it again. The Lord did this with me last week on my trip to the grocery store. We were going to have company for lunch, and I decided to take a ‘quick’ trip to the grocery store with the kids. By the time I had found stockings, shoes, hats, jackets, scarves and gloves for everyone and we had walked down the steep hill, I already had a bit of an attitude. After about 45 minutes of carefully stacking groceries around kids in the stroller, trying to keep three pairs of hands from shelves, as well as keep the noise level down we were finally standing in the check-out line. It was then that I noticed I had forgotten my wallet in the apartment. I have to admit if my attitude was not the best at the beginning of the shopping trip it was very low at this point. But what else was there to do? Since everything was in our stroller we went back through each aisle carefully placing all items back onto the shelves while the kids were loudly whining about not getting this or that. I mumbled an embarrassed excuse as I tried to squeeze the empty stroller past the lady at the checkout and back we went up the hill to our apartment.

It was at this point that the Lord gave me a chance to reflect on my tense mood. When we went to the store the second time my prayer was more for the ‘how’ of our little trip rather than the accomplishment of the task. We had such a better time. We even met the children’s new Sunday school teacher in the store as well as one of the students from the seminary. It seemed as if the children were reflecting my changed attitude and were very pleasant and helpful on our second round through the aisles. I learned a lesson. Thank you, Lord, for an opportunity to adjust my attitude.

Living in a sandwich

“We are living in a sandwhich” is the way we have explained to our kids our new living situation. We live below the library, above a lecture room and another apartment and next to some dorm rooms and another lecture room. Since living in a house is all our kids have ever known the idea of ‘noise may bother others around us’ has never really been part of their thought patterns. We are learning (and probably not doing a great job at it quite yet) to go through our days a little more quietly. But how do we teach that without constant ‘NOs’? I was so glad when Markus came up with the sandwich idea; the kids love it and are of course very proud to be in the middle - the best part of the sandwich. While we are still working on becoming a little more quiet, it has not been a negative at all and quite often Naomi will remind us (still in her very loud voice) “Mommy, daddy remember, we are living in a sandwich”.

My first week at work . . .

Last week was my first offical week at "work" as a faculty member here at the Academy for World Mission. Since I am not schedueled to teach a class until the beginning of February, these first couple months are devoted to getting me up to speed with things here at the school and to prepare my class. So my week was pretty full, including a number of meetings, working on my syllabus, and sitting in the MA comprehensive exams and new student interviews.

Most striking to me as I watched both the exams and the interviews was the wide range of missions experience and interest brought by both those finishing their degrees and those just beginning the process. Among the examinees, a few had served 20 years or longer in such fields as Japan, Kenya, and Papua New Guinea, while others were on their way to the field in SE Asia and former East Germany. Those who applied at the school were younger people with interests in Bible translation and working among unreached peoples. What an encouragement to see how God is fulfilling the Great Comission through these and many others here, and what a privilege it is for us to be here.

A reason for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, exactly one week since we arrived here in Korntal, we celebrated our first Thanksgiving. As for our own celebration, we had a traditional dinner together with an American couple visiting from CIU and a friend from New Zealand that both Julia and I knew during our CIU days. But Thanksgiving is more than Turkey (yes, and football) and I think it's appropriate to note some of the ways the Lord has blessed us and our family even in the last few days:

1. Love from Lake Cities and Trinity Fellowship in saying goodbye.

2. So many in helping us finish up the last minute details of our move.

3. Being able to sell our car (even on the way to the airport!)

4. A smooth, uneventful flight to Stuttgart.

5. A comfortable apartment that we could move directly into.

6. Provision of furniture, sometimes free or at a reasonable price, and help from friends here to go and get it!

7. A few weeks of downtime before the new schedule starts up.

Thank you Lord, and thank all of you for  your faithful prayers and support. God bless you all.

-MTK

We're here!

After two flights with three kids and twenty-one pieces of luggage, we finally arrived in Korntal, Germany on Thursday, November 15th. Like a dream come true we are still a bit in the "dream" as we recover from jet lag and what has been a whirlwind of moving, goodbyes, and last minute details (even selling our car literally on the way to the airport).

We were greeted here by friendly faces, a comfortable-functionally furnished apartment (pictures to come), and even a light dusting of snow. In short, the Lord has been very gracious to us and has helped us to make a good initial transition.

We will write more and post some pictures in the days ahead. We just want to express our gratefulness to the Lord for His guidance and to all of your for your prayers.

-MTK

Moving sale!

It is just over two weeks before our planned departure to Germany. In the meantime, we are busily packing and trying to tie up loose ends here. One of the loose ends is to sell some of the our household things that we are not going to be taking along. If you are interested in these items follow the the page link in the right column "Items for sale." Email us if you would be interested in any of these items.

Thoughts on the "Parable of the Sower"

This coming weekend I will have the opportunity to give the message at Zion Congregational Church in Cheyenne, WY. The message that I have been working on has been on the "Parable of the Sower" from Luke 8:4-15 (//Matt 13:2-23; Mark 4:1-20). In general, I have understood this passage as an explanation by Jesus to His disciples of the mixed response to His message of the kingdom. On the one hand some, like the disciples, respond with faith to what Jesus says, while on the other hand, others, like many of the religious rulers (Mark 3) or even Jesus' home town (Luke 4), do not. Thus for me, the parable was essentially "negative"--a warning to the hearer to avoid being part of the "failed crop" but instead, to belong to the harvest of the "good soil."

After reading William L. Lane's commentary on Mark this week, I wonder if my usual take on this parable misses the bigger picture of what Jesus wants to say. From all three gospels we see that Jesus' explanation of the parable was given only to His disciples--those who had responded by faith to His message. Thus, the point of the parable is not to focus on those who do not respond, but to highlight the miracle that any actually do. We would expect a fallen world to reject God's Son. What is not expected is that some respond in faith and, as  Luke's version states, bear a crop "a hundred times as great" (8:8).

While I will leave the theological implications of this to my Calvinist and Armenian friends, Jesus' observation should greatly increase the joy of any one who "has ears to hear." This is the miracle of salvation, the miracle of faith. The Parable of the Sower is not primarily about a failed crop. Rather, about a harvest, one that is sure to take place.

"Click or wait"?

"Click or wait" adequately summarizes my thoughts last Saturday morning as I prepared to book our tickets on Delta.com for our move to Germany. Ever since the AWM asked us to come for a three year ministry and we were approved by Liebenzell USA to raise support, we have been preparing for this moment. Why the hesitation? For one, in order to go somewhere new, one must leave behind something familiar and comfortable. We have been the last eight years in Dallas and have come to know this community and love and care for our friends here. To go means to maintain these ties in a new way while trying to establish other ones elsewhere--a worthwhile, though hard task. Second, we still have a lot to do. When we moved here we came with a car load of stuff from the Northwest and seven boxes sent from Germany. Eight years and three kids later, despite a weeding out process we still have a lot to sort and sell--not to mention the plethora of other details associated with moving anywhere. Third, one always wonders if it is the "right" time. Are we really ready? The wisdom here clearly does not come from within. God gives wisdom and counsel through revealed Scripture, trusted voices (such as church and mission board), and circumstances. In our case, the alignment of the latter two that does not contradict the first, seems to indicate that this is the way forward. Does this mean 100% certainty. It never will. It is only as we go step by step that God unfolds the details of a plan in which we only play a small part. So, with this in mind: "click."