The Real Twelve Days of Christmas

Here's an article from ChristianHistory.Net that you may be interested in. It begins:

The Real Twelve Days of Christmas

Celebrating Christ's birth with saints of the faith during the actual Christmas season.

Edwin and Jennifer Woodruff Tait

Sometime in November, as things now stand, the "Christmas season" begins. The streets are hung with lights, the stores are decorated with red and green, and you can't turn on the radio without hearing songs about the spirit of the season and the glories of Santa Claus. The excitement builds to a climax on the morning of December 25, and then it stops, abruptly. Christmas is over, the New Year begins, and people go back to their normal lives.

The traditional Christian celebration of Christmas is exactly the opposite. The season of Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, and for nearly a month Christians await the coming of Christ in a spirit of expectation, singing hymns of longing. Then, on December 25, Christmas Day itself ushers in twelve days of celebration, ending only on January 6 with the feast of the Epiphany. Exhortations to follow this calendar rather than the secular one have become routine at this time of year. But often the focus falls on giving Advent its due, with the Twelve Days of Christmas relegated to the words of a cryptic traditional carol. Most people are simply too tired after Christmas Day to do much celebrating.

The "real" twelve days of Christmas are important not just as a way of thumbing our noses at secular ideas of the "Christmas season." They are important because they give us a way of reflecting on what the Incarnation means in our lives.

Read the rest of the article.

Church Attendance Boosts Student GPAs

Here's an interesting article about a study published in the winter 2008 issue of the Sociological Quarterly.

Church Attendance Boosts Student GPAs

The article says "If you want to boost your teenager's grade point average, take the kid to church."

"Students who attend religious services weekly average a GPA .144 higher than those who never attend services, said Jennifer Glanville, a sociologist at the University of Iowa."

"The study ... identifies several reasons the students do better:

• They have regular contact with adults from various generations who serve as role models.
• Their parents are more likely to communicate with their friends' parents.
• They develop friendships with peers who have similar norms and values.
• They're more likely to participate in extracurricular activities."

"Kids who attended church were also more likely to have friends with higher GPAs who skipped school less often, Glanville said."

Read the article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080819/sc_livescience/churchattendanceboostsstudentgpas

Secondhand Witnessing

Christianity Today sent me an email promoting a piece titled Secondhand Witnessing by Holly Vicente Robaina.

The email made this interesting comment "the desire to share our faith through Christian paraphernalia often comes from a good place: we want others to experience the difference Jesus can make in their lives. But this approach may do just the opposite, repel rather than invite conversation."

Read the entire blogpost at Walk With Me - A Today's Christian Woman Blog.

Midwest Flooding

Here's a report on what's going on with the LCMS and the Midwest Flooding:

Members turn to each other for help after flooding hits Midwest

By Linda C. Hoops

While storms continued to sweep over much of the Upper Midwest Thursday (June 12), LCMS congregations and members began assessing damage, but still managed to find some rays of hope amidst the devastation.

Read the full article

Issues, Etc

You may have heard about LCMS radio show, Issues Etc. that was taken off the air. Here's a Wall Street Journal Online opinion piece that is helpful in understanding what's happening.

WSJ

HOUSES OF WORSHIP

Radio Silence
By MOLLIE ZIEGLER HEMINGWAY
March 28, 2008; Page W11

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120667366412170875.html

The folded napkin

There is a story floating around the Internet on the folded napkin mentioned in John 20:7. The interpretation given in this e-story is that the folded napkin is a symbolic message from Jesus meaning that Jesus is coming back. I had never heard this story before, so I thought I'd check out what commentators say about John 20:7. The ones that I checked were unanimous in saying that since things were orderly in the tomb, this meant that there had not been a grave robbery.

None of them mentioned a symbolic meaning, "I'm coming back." Of course we believe that Christ will return but probably the folded napkin is not a coded message from Jesus. It seems that this story originated in 2007. No one knows where. Here are a couple of places that you can check this out.

JerusalemPerspective.com Exploring the Jewish background to the Life and Words of Jesus
http://forum.jerusalemperspective.com/viewtopic.php?t=377

Truth or Fiction.com The Folded Napkin in Jesus' Tomb
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/f/folded-napkin.htm

Forgery Trial In Israel

As you may know I have an interest in Biblical archaeology. A number of years ago an ossuary (bone box) with an inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," came to light. It became quite famous. Eventually the Israel Antiquities Authority declared it a forgery along with some other rather famous artifacts. It seems to some that the story is over but in fact nothing has been settled yet. A number of scholars believe that the James ossuary inscription is authentic. Read a commentary on the Forgery Trial here. http://bib-arch.org/trial/bswbTrialIntro.asp

Lutheran Church Burned in Kenya

Springs of Life Lutheran Church, nursery school, and the newly remodeled Luther Health Centre in Kibera, Kenya, were looted and set ablaze Thursday afternoon as riots continued for the fifth day following heated presidential elections. "No amount of pleading would stop them," said Rev. David Chuchu, Project Coordinator for ELCK (Evangelical Lutheran Church Kenya). He also said a neighboring African Inland Church was burned.

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LCMS missionaries OK in Kenya

Two Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod missionary couples stationed outside of Nairobi, Kenya, are safe and do not appear to be in harm's way despite five days of post-election rioting in the city that has led to more than 300 deaths, widespread destruction of property, and the displacement of more than 100,000 people.

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