The picture above this journal entry reminds me of a line in a song. Long ago, I used to have the privilege of conducting Handel’s Messiah. It’s nice work if you can get it. Perhaps you have had the opportunity to sing in a presentation of Messiah. Or at the very least, I hope you enjoy hearing its beautiful Baroque tones.

The picture reminds me of a line in the most famous segment of Handel’s Messiah, “The Hallelujah Chorus”. The lyric is taken from Revelations, Chapter 11, verse 15. Handel directs the orchestra and singers to softly perform in low tones the words, “the kingdom of this world [pause for dramatic effect]… is become”, and then with a roar of power and great contrast singers and orchestra are instructed to leap up an octave, play loudly, and proclaim, “the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ”. The statement doesn’t end there, Handel crafts melodic lines that gather momentum and intensity with the words, “and He shall reign forever and ever!”

Two kingdoms are represented in this picture. The Capitol of the State of Idaho. The manger. The kingdom of this world. The Kingdom of Our Lord and of His Christ.

There they were, living on this earth, doing their fallen, human best to make things work. Then it was Caesar Augustus and Pilate, now we have our own governors and magistrates. But it’s still the same. Around the globe, people doing their best, on their own to make things work in this fallen world.

And then…something happened, something completely outside of Rome’s strategic plan or Jerusalem’s power hungry hopes. A baby is born, down the road from the center of human authority, amidst dust and damp straw, infant tones. Into “the kingdom of this world” comes one beyond our imagining, power humbly wrapped in love. In His coming everything changes. The kingdom of this world becomes, the Kingdom of Our Lord, and of His Christ. Jesus, the Messiah, has come.

Either this is the new arch of history or a ridiculous myth or nice fable to share and celebrate. I believe, we at Northwest Nazarene University believe, it is the coming of God into His world. Word became flesh. Dwelling among us.

I believe that when Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come…” He was calling us to remember that He is the answer to this prayer. He has come and in His coming His Kingdom has been established. Yet it is not fully here. He has come. He will come. In between, He calls upon us to continue working on His behalf, to incarnate Him and in so doing to be His Kingdom agents, His Kingdom citizens.

That is what motivates us as a university. To continually discover where people are living in a lowly state and to go to them and gloriously proclaim that “the Kingdom of Our Lord and of His Christ” has arrived. We, and the world, will never be the same.

As you celebrate this Christmas, I hope and pray you will join me and the NNU community in remembering that He who came will come again. And until He does, He calls upon you and me to learn ways to sing His song of redemption, peace and good will.

He gave. At the heart of what we call Christmas is God giving. Not the gift of something, but someone. God, the One who spoke worlds into being, now gives a gift that reveals, reconciles and redeems. He gives Himself. World-creating word becomes human flesh and lives among us. His self-revealing gift of Himself.

I don’t claim to know the theological intricacies of the incarnation. But I know about being a father, receiving a child into the world and then participating in giving that child to the world.

Me, with the two children I had the privelege of receiving and giving.

That is, in effect, what happens with parents and children (that’s a photo of me, with the two children I had the privilege of receiving and giving). We are presented with this gift, this child. We receive the child into our midst, as if it is ours, and yet, in just a few short days, we come to realize that though this is our child it is “other”. The gift-child—fragile and vulnerable—with needs and cares quickly displays its tendency to choose and grow, express and become.

We make choices for the child, but we also guide the child in learning how to make its own choices. Choices for the child’s good. Choices that align with what we value and hold dear, yet always the knowledge that this child of mine, is learning to choose, and act, and be.

I know that it’s somehow silly to draw comparisons between heavenly Father and earthly parent, to say nothing of looking at Christmas and thinking of college. Yet that’s how I’m wired, so here I go.

God gave. We give. All that God was and had He revealed and gave to His Son. Likewise, we who parent, give and display ourselves for our children to see and become. And then, probably for reasons different than God’s, we end up at the same place God and His Son ended up, that time, that junction, when that which was gift-received must have the privilege and responsibility of choosing to leave. To become gift-given.

Philippians Chapter Two beautifully captures the wonder of the Jesus Child’s choice, leaving His place with the Father, setting aside His place of privilege and coming to fulfill His destiny. And there’s us, as we who have the privilege of being parents reflect upon the wonder of Christmas, may we, in a few moments of our time reflect upon how we too must give away our children. Allow them to make choices of destiny and eternal purpose.

May we look to the heavenly Father and learn from His loving, vulnerable example, that for our children to become fully alive we must learn the loving art of giving them away to fully become themselves.

Alumni Chapels have an interesting place in the life of the university.  They are not the most popular chapel in the eyes of the students.  Someone has invaded their campus.  Someone is sitting in their chapel seat.  Alumni.

Yet, despite the invasion of the institution’s routine, Alumni Chapel is incredibly important.  It is important because it provides us an opportunity to highlight the lives and accomplishments of our own.  We honor people who have been our students, who are now our graduates, our alumni.  In effect, it affords us the opportunity to take our measure.

In certain respects Northwest Nazarene University is unique.  It is a place where the norms of success, accomplishment and notoriety are different than those of the world.  NNU professes and teaches ways of knowing and being counter to the trends and conventions of our materialistic, monochromatic world of self-centered values.

Consequently, to attend the NNU Alumni Chapel is to expect something different.  Remarkable.  I wasn’t disappointed.  As I sat in the NNU Alumni Chapel I marveled at the lives of those being honored.  I was astonished by the humility, the imagination, the commitment and zest for life displayed by each of the award recipients.  These people are changing the world; not just their world, the world.

Jennifer, Christine, Rand and Judy are rescuing children from slavery and prostitution, teaching a country to care for its sick and frail, healing the spirits of those damaged by life, bringing beauty and elegance to places otherwise barren and dreary.

In celebrating these few, we are asking; is what we stand for, what we teach, transferring, transforming?  We are checking our posture.  How have those we sought to shape taken shape?

The results are truly remarkable.  I was genuinely humbled by these good people and the lives they are leading.  As I listened to them, I was once again struck by the fact that NNU is a place where success is measured in service.  But don’t just take my word for it; take their word for it.

Watch the following NNU-Tube clips, short interviews with some of the honorees; I hope you are as gratified, as I was, by what you hear.  I am so very proud of them and the hope, help and love they provide.   I’m glad to call them Alumni of NNU.  And I am proud of the place and the people that had a part in shaping them for their life’s calling.