After the service, one of my enrollees approached me, and with the short discussion with her, I gathered 2 things that most people think when they hear the word “theology”:

1. It’s boring — “Kuya, sigurado kang exciting to ha. Baka naman magsisi ako?”, and

2. It’s hard to understand – “Isinasama ko nga si ___ (friend’s name) kaso di pa raw sya ready sa hard stuff”.

I can’t blame her for thinking that way. In fact, it’s pretty normal to think that way about theology. Now a days, when people talk about theology, they actually  mean “I want to confuse you”. Seriously, theology has become so confusing that it becomes boring for most people.

Theology simply means a study about God. Anything about God — his character, his love, his holiness. In my case, I want to discuss about His grace. I tried to explain that the reality is, everything that we talk about in church has an underlying theological concept. This Sunday, our lead pastor talked about the importance of having a loving and caring small community. The theological concept behind that is “Fellowship”. He didn’t mention that term, but who cares as long as the concept is presented and understood well! Last year, one of the most interesting and much appreciated message series was “TXT”. It talks about the Bible. The attenders learned and understood it’s concepts — little that they know that Kuya Prudy is talking about the theological concept called “Sola Scriptura”.

So, theology can be understood and can even be fun!

“Ah, parang Theology for Dummies?”, she commented.

Great term! I like that. :D

I was able to read one of those “For Dummies” books and I was really amazed on how the author explained a complex topic in such a way that it become simple and interesting. He uses simple terms, graphics, even comedy in presenting the hard facts. The book didn’t water down the obviously hard-topic-to-explain. It simply explained it in such a way that it could be understood.

Theology needs not be confusing. It can be understood. It can be exciting. I guess it all depends on how it is be presented. And, yes, understanding God’s grace can be  challenging than the usual “inspirational topics”, but sure it can penetrate the heart, it’s life changing. And even Johann, my 4 year old kid, can understand it. It’s just a matter of presenting it in an exciting, non-boring, and understandable way.

So, Tuesdays 7:30 at Kopiroti, The Columns will rock! Believe me. :D

The whole gift receiving thing

Take note that I didn’t say “gift giving”, that’s for a reason. And let me tell you why our generation has screwed up the Christmas season big time because of this practice.

* What do we teach our kids and what had we learned when we were kids? Gift receiving, that’s right! We are told that if you are good, Santa — actually that’s mom and dad, sorry for the spoiler for those of you who still do not know — will give you gifts. And so the kids are excited for the gifts that they will receive. What happens when dad is fired from his job and the kid will not be receiving a gift this time around? How will you explain to a kid that Christmas is NOT about receiving gifts anyway?

* Exchange gifts happen during Christmas parties. We have “quotas” for the gift price, right? Come to think of it, the focus is the kind of gift that someone will receive. It has to be within the range.

* And yes, families, friends and loved ones, we all give gifts to one another this season. But this is what I have noticed during the gift buying process (does not apply to all, but this is a general observation) 1) we only give gifts to those who we consciously or unconsciously believe we will receive gifts from, and 2) we are so conscious about the price of the gift, thinking that if the receiving person notices that gift is cheap, s/he might be offended. On both cases, the focus is receiving.

Cliche as it is, Christmas is not about receiving, rather it’s about giving. The reason why we celebrate Christmas is because of the “Christ” who was sent as a gift of God to man. “For God so loved the world that he gave…”

The traditions and peripherals

If you still have not noticed, Christmas has become all about snow flakes, Rudolf the red nose reindeer, Santa, Jingle bells, Frosty the snow man and a whole lot of stuff and characters

Not that these things and traditions are bad, but I just don’t get the connection between these things and the “real reason for the season”.

The most disappointing fact is that there are actually a lot of people who don’t want to equate the season to Christ anymore. This is very apparent in western countries, at least in the US as I know — the seat of post-modern thinking. They even refuse to greet “Merry Christmas” and instead use “Happy Holidays”. Have you noticed this in movies and marketing materials on TV and print ads? When they say “Happy Holidays”, they mean, I don’t care about the reason why you celebrate Christmas because I have my reasons, but don’t “force me into this Christ thing”.

Sigh…

We lost the meaning of Christmas, really.

The gifts, the parties, the tree, the lights — all these are meaningless if the center of the season isn’t Christ-mas.

My ideal Christmas season

While the following ideas are almost impossible to happen in this commercialized, post-modern “it’s all about me” generation, let me just end this short series by how the story of the grinch ended — a happy one.

I’m dreaming — not of a “white Christmas” — but a Christmas season where:

1. The focus is Jesus.

Stripped down, simple yet celebrative and contemplative. Everything is focused on what happened on that night in Bethlehem.

We thought that Easter is the most important aspect of our Christianity since it is the season where we commemorate the suffering and death of Jesus. I will argue that it’s not. God’s sacrifice started on Christmas day when Jesus decided to become a creature even if he is the creator.

My all time favorite illustration to show this fact is to say that it would be humiliating for human beings like us to become ants. That, impossible as it may seem to happen, is only a transformation of a higher form of creature to a lower form of creature. What Jesus did is different and more humiliating than we can ever imagine. He was the creator who became a creature. Everything is done on Christmas day so we can have Easter — when Jesus would die for your sins and my sins so that upon having a relationship with him and accepting him as Lord and Savior of our life, we can live with him forever.

I believe that the reason why for most, Christmas is about everything else other than Jesus is because of lack of relationship with him. The Christmas season could have been the best time of the year to remember that.

2. We actually give without thinking of receiving

Gift giving in it real essence is just emulating what God did. “For God so loved the world that he gave…” (John 3:16a)

What if we give gifts without thinking of what we can receive? What if, instead of giving well-wrapped gifts to your office mates, friends and relatives, we spend everything that we normally spend during Christmas season to buy food and clothing for the poor — people that doesn’t have any capability whatsoever to give a gift in return?

God is the model of this. When he gave Jesus to us, he wasn’t expecting anything in return. The Bible said, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. In the book of Isaiah, it is said that our most sincere attempt to do good is as filthy as a rug in the eyes of God. Why? Because we are all sinners and God is holy, holy, holy. How then can God expect anything from us?

That’s why when Jesus came on Christmas eve as a gift from God, He is not thinking of anything in return. He did it because he love us. He did it because there’s no other way than Jesus. He did it because he is our only chance.

How will you respond to his love?

This Christmas, my prayer is for us to go back to it’s origin — the very reason for this act of grace by God, and sincerely search our hearts and answer that simple yet profound question.

Yesterday, our dearest hangout place, Glorietta, exploded. A bomb ruined the place. People are hurt. Some died. And if that happened the day later — making that Saturday, same time at around 1:30 pm, we could have been one of those who are affected. “Kids-at-work” located at the 3rd floor of Glorietta 2 is where Johann, my 3 year old kid frequents during weekends. Joy and I enjoyed window shopping along those clothing stores in that area. So, yes, if the terrorists decided to postpone the plan for another day, we could have been one of those who are hurt… or dead.

Two things running through my mind right now:

1. You’ve got to be ready to die anytime, any day. Even how hard it is to accept, that’s a fact. Bomb or no bomb, we can die anytime. You may be healthy today, you can be shot dead by some hot headed motorists tomorrow. You feel well today — then you receive a call from your doctor about the results of your physical exam, and it is devastating. So, yes, “life is like a mist”, apostle James said.

The real question is, are you ready to die anytime, any day? If not, how can you prepare yourself to the afterlife? Do you know where you are going? If not, what are you doing to know?

2. Live life to the full. Enjoy your time with your family everyday of your life. Don’t be afraid of the future, do what you have to do today. Stop doing the things that’s hurting you and straighten your life for good. It’s hard, I know. With your own strength, that is. You need help. Jesus, the one who came so that you can “have life and live it to the full” (John 10:10), can help you. He is, in fact, the missing piece.

Update from my Multiply.com blog: To the victims of Glorietta tragedy�

* Steve Murrell shares a great analogy on how understanding your sinfulness affects the way you respond to God’s grace.

* I thought we should put Jesus first in our lives? Steven Furtick says, no. We should put Jesus on the center of our life instead.

* Perry Noble‘s New Spring Church launched a new website called ParentsAreClueless.com to coincide with their new series on parenting. If you are a parent, you’ll agree with me that we are clueless most of the times, don’t we?

* I’ve started a Pinoy Paypal users group. If you are a Paypal user or plan to use it in the future, join us as we try to shoot down possible problems that we can encounter.