Denise Gallichio

CONSIDER THIS

Have you ever wished you could step back into a moment in time, in your history or the history of the world, to observe what actually took place? I have many of those moments on my list of “must visits,” but only a few stand out and eclipse all the rest. This moment in time, sketched for us in words by Genesis 1:26–27, is one of those for me.

Humankind comes to life from the mud, the ground, of the earth. Breathed into being by the breath of the Mighty God, we walked in the garden of Eden as the vice-regents of creation. And as vice-regents, we were made to rule, lead, guide, steward, shepherd, and curate that creation—as God’s emissaries on the earth.

When the Son of God comes into the world, he comes as one of us—as an image-bearer whose mandate is to steward the creation and shepherd it to its fruition—to become what we know as the new creation. Eden became both our imagined memory and our hopeful vision of the future; for Jesus, Eden was his actual memory (he was there at its creation) and his clear vision of the bright future of humankind.

And that memory, that vision, led him. It led him to serve. To give. To share. To teach. To clarify what being made of clay and divine breath actually means to a sojourner walking with God this side of heaven. To die as an offering for all, and to rise again as the firstborn of all creation, Jesus set the vision in full, vibrant motion.

At the coming of God into the world, to take us by the hand and show us how human be-ing and be-coming is to be done, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection became the vehicle by which the Father took care of all manner of human business. As the “truly human” being, Jesus will show us the path to belovedness and to loving others through Jesus. He will show us the reason for our love of one another, our love of fruitful work, our love of children’s laughter, and the taste of homemade bread. Jesus will show us the way to be human.

The early church father Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons said, “The glory of God is a human being, fully alive.” Jesus will show us the way to live life to its very fullest, in the presence of the Father and in the presence of other image-bearers. Jesus will show us, in his Advent, the path from mud to glory. From him, we will learn to become who we were designed to be: God’s breath in our lungs and God’s light filling our hearts.

THE PRAYER

Emmanuel, today we are living in a story that did not begin with us, but sweeps us up in its narrative. We surrender again to being a beloved child who is here for a purpose, with a calling, with a destiny. Forgive us for seeing our lives as anything less than a mysterious miracle, and your life lived, given, and ushering in new creation life for us all as anything less than the story we now call our own. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTION

• It is fair to say that most of us forget that we are miracles, and that we often forget that central to Jesus’ mission was to remind God’s children of that fact. Using the word “miracle” in your sentence, how would you describe who you are and what the Father loves about you?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.”  Isaiah 11:1–3a

CONSIDER THIS

We all come from someone, somewhere, and something—a people, a place, and a story. We come from someone in our family line—parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so many others form extensions of the root system from which we each descend. We come from somewhere, in that people are always physically located—we live in times and places unique to us, and even as we move from place to place we carry bits of our previous location with us in our hearts and memories. We come from something, in that we come from a story that is uniquely, remarkably, our own—while that story is also uniquely tied to our family line throughout history, and is ultimately tied to God’s great love story with humanity.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that you are not only made up of the breath of God in you and your own genetic configuration, you are also truly from the root of your family line that has gone before you. You are special, a branch from that root, if you will, and have been delivered to all of us as a gift of God’s orchestration, the God who brings our paths to cross.

Entering into Advent, the season that inaugurates the Christian New Year, we open our spirits once again to the whole story of faith that Jesus came to reveal. Each Advent, we enter that story once again with deepened reverence, brimming worship, and expectant reflection on the person of Jesus. It is Jesus toward which the entirety of the biblical narrative points, from the Hebrew covenant to the new covenant, and in which we find the purposes of God acted out for our sake and for the sake of the world.

To understand Jesus, we would do well to discover the root of faith from which he springs. It is a spiritual root system, in fact, that both Isaiah 11:1–3 and Matthew 1:1–17 are eager to convey. The Son of God, it seems, the Lord’s Messiah and our Ascended Master, did not come to us in a vacuum. He didn’t descend from a strange, ethereal heaven in a mysterious cloud of divinity shimmering with an otherworldly glow. He came as a child, born naturally of a mother from a family line herself, and nurtured by a father who knew the names of his own kin many generations into the past. In Isaiah 11:1–3, that great prophetic passage that hails Christ’s birth, we see that Jesus, the Branch, comes from the family line of the great King David, the son of Jesse, and from a long line of the faithful to which we point today saying, “Lord, as they said yes to you, so may we.”

And it is here that we begin our Advent journey. The idea that has been traditionally known as a “Jesse Tree” will be our map. A Jesse Tree is an approach to the preparation season of Advent, leading us toward Christmas, that encourages us to revisit stories from the Hebrew Bible to help us understand the family line of Jesus and the spiritual mandate of the child born to save the world. We will draw from both Jesus’ genealogical ancestry and his faith heritage, as we walk together on a journey through the stories of saints and sinners woven into the family line of the Son of God.

From a root, comes a branch. In that Branch—Jesus—you and I learn to abide in and draw from his unending resources (John 15:1–5), and in so doing, we are born again to eternal life. Let’s begin.

THE PRAYER

Root of Jesse, the story you’ve woven together with our lives involves so many faithful men and women, people who lived and died, succeeded, stumbled, fell, got back up, and some who rose in faith to the call of their day. Open our hearts to learn from you as we step onto the path of your story, once again, this Advent season, a story into which you’ve woven us for your glory. We welcome you coming to us in a fresh and revelatory way this Advent. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• Consider your own family line as far back as you have records, and those who sought to walk faithfully as well as those who stumbled and fell. Where can you see the gifts of God leading you to today, potentially those that came to you through your family?

• Consider your natural gifts, your appearance, your ways of thinking, and your location. Can you name a few gifts that came to you through your own family line?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt

When we think of Christmas, and the season of Advent that anticipates it, many of us think of family. It is that strange mix of people we call mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents, and even non-family members who aren’t blood related to us (but feel as though they could be).

For us who follow Jesus, the body of Christ is also our family, and that bond we experience in this season provides us with more than just a spiritual lineage. It provides us with a new family, bonded by love and faith in the covenant-keeping God of the universe. It provides us with a sense of enduring connection to the people and land of Israel. It provides us a sense of our place in God’s covenant story with humanity, weaving relentlessly through our personal and corporate histories—a story that reached its zenith in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus.

Family.

Each family member has roots that we call a family line. Each family member has roots that we call our family homeland. Each family member has roots that we call our heritage or family story.

Jesus also has a family story. And that story is what this book is all about. The following words are from “Jesus Rises from the Root of Jesse,” our first day’s reflection in our Advent Journey:

We all come from someone, somewhere, and something —a people, a place, and a story. We come from someone in our family line—parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so many others form extensions of the root system from which we each descend. We come from somewhere, in that people are always physically located—we live in times and places unique to us, and even as we move from place to place we carry bits of our previous location with us in our hearts and memories. We come from something, in that we come from a story that is uniquely, remarkably, our own—while that story is also uniquely tied to our family line throughout history, and is ultimately tied to God’s great love story with humanity.

To understand Jesus, we would do well to discover the root of faith from which he springs. It is a spiritual root system, in fact, that both Isaiah 11:1–3 and Matthew 1:1–17 are eager to convey.

Jesus, the Lord and Master of our lives, had roots that included a family line, a homeland, and a heritage or story. In his case, his family line could be traced all the way back to a leader like King David and, more specifically, his father, Jesse. The prophetic words of Isaiah point to Jesus’ connection to Jesse, the father of David, and remind us just how important it was to the Hebrew people to understand the influences from the past that shaped one’s life in the present.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. (11:1–3)

Jesus not only had a family line that could be traced back to ancient times, but he also had a family homeland. The little strip of land we call Israel provided the ground Jesus walked on, yielded the fruits and foods he enjoyed, and hosted the towns and cities that dot the landscape of the Gospels and the New Testament. (I walked the streets of Bethlehem at night, many years ago, and found my imagination deeply stirred as I considered how, under those same skies so many revolutions of the sun ago, Jesus was born.)

Jesus not only had a family line and a family homeland; he also had a family story—a covenant heritage that brought together all the hopes and dreams of his people Israel into one, faith-bound narrative and guiding set of eternal truths. One need only to read through a few stories throughout the Scriptures to see that his people, the people of the covenant, are passionate, fallible, incredibly devoted, quick to tears, and as quick to laughter, hopeful yet capable of great despair, trusting yet capable of great disobedience, worshipful, yet capable of great idolatry.

Jesus himself carried those stories of his people, his place, and his story in his own heart. His life and ministry were absolutely, fundamentally built on the long, long story of humanity going back to Genesis.

Jesus has a family story, and Advent is the perfect time to explore it.

Entering Advent Together

When we as followers of Christ celebrate and worshipfully enterthe seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, the Day of Ascension, and the Day of Pentecost, we are orienting our time—the currency of our lives—around the light and life of Jesus.

On a daily basis and with our calendars close at hand, we dutifully check our schedules day in and day out, conscientiously planning work and social events, making space for personal and family gatherings, and engaging thoughtfully with holidays and periods dedicated to honoring cultural voices or themes.

Yet followers of Jesus are invited, even welcomed, to orient our minutes, hours, days, and years in a sacred, intentional way. We can orient our schedules around what God has done to save the world, engaging with Christ-centered seasons designed to help us re-tell and re-enter the stories of the Gospels—year after year— allowing those stories to more deeply enter us.

Church history calls this way of ordering repeated annual seasons around Christ the Christian Year. We like to call it, in the work of Seedbed, the Awakening Calendar.

In his insightful book, Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year, the late Robert Webber said these words: “If we see the Christian year as an instrument through which we may be shaped by God’s saving events in Christ, then it is not the Christian year that accomplishes our spiritual pilgrimage but Christ himself who is the very content and meaning of the Christian year.”¹ Believers over millennia have found these words to ring true.

Advent is the beginning of the Christian New Year, the Awakening Calendar, and leads us into an entire new year of orientation to the fullness of God’s work among us in the person of Jesus.

In celebrating Advent, Christ can meet us profoundly, as individuals and as communities, in dedicated seasons when we focus on an aspect, or an epic theme, of his world-loving story (John 3:16).

The journey we will take together this Advent, I trust and pray, will culminate in a deep joy for you on Christmas Day. Grace and peace to you as we enter Advent together—and as we explore the family story of Jesus.
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^1. Robert E. Webber, Ancient Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2004), 24.

This resource comes with an invitation.

The invitation is as simple as it is comprehensive. It is not an invitation to commit your life to this or that cause or to join an organization or to purchase another book. The invitation is this: to wake up to the life you always hoped was possible and the reason you were put on planet Earth.

It begins with following Jesus Christ. In case you are unaware, Jesus was born in the first century BCE into a poor family from Nazareth, a small village located in what is modern-day Israel. While his birth was associated with extraordinary phenomena, we know little about his childhood. At approximately thirty years of age, Jesus began a public mission of preaching, teaching, and healing throughout the region known as Galilee. His mission was characterized by miraculous signs and wonders; extravagant care of the poor and marginalized; and multiple unconventional claims about his own identity and purpose. In short, he claimed to be the incarnate Son of God with the mission and power to save people from sin, deliver them from death, and bring them into the now and eternal kingdom of God—on earth as it is in heaven.

In the spring of his thirty-third year, during the Jewish Passover celebration, Jesus was arrested by the religious authorities, put on trial in the middle of the night, and at their urging, sentenced to death by a Roman governor. On the day known to history as Good Friday, Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. On the following Sunday, according to multiple eyewitness accounts, he was physically raised from the dead. He appeared to hundreds of people, taught his disciples, and prepared for what was to come.

Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus ascended bodily into the heavens where, according to the Bible, he sits at the right hand of God, as the Lord of heaven and earth. Ten days after his ascension, in a gathering of 120 people on the day of Pentecost, a Jewish day of celebration, something truly extraordinary happened. A loud and powerful wind swept over the people gathered. Pillars of what appeared to be fire descended upon the followers of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, the presence and power of God, filled the people, and the church was born. After this, the followers of Jesus went forth and began to do the very things Jesus did—preaching, teaching, and healing—planting churches and making disciples all over the world. Today, more than two thousand years later, the movement has reached us. This is the Great Awakening and it has never stopped.

Yes, two thousand years hence and more than two billion followers of Jesus later, this awakening movement of Jesus Christ and his church stands stronger than ever. Billions of ordinary people the world over have discovered in Jesus Christ an awakened life they never imagined possible. They have overcome challenges, defeated addictions, endured untenable hardships and suffering with unexplainable joy, and stared death in the face with the joyful confidence of eternal life. They have healed the sick, gathered the outcasts, embraced the oppressed, loved the poor, contended for justice, labored for peace, cared for the dying and, yes, even raised the dead.

We all face many challenges and problems. They are deeply personal, yet when joined together, they create enormous and complex chaos in the world, from our hearts to our homes to our churches and our cities. All of this chaos traces to two originating problems: sin and death. Sin, far beyond mere moral failure, describes the fundamental broken condition of every human being. Sin separates us from God and others, distorts and destroys our deepest identity as the image-bearers of God, and poses a fatal problem from which we cannot save ourselves. It results in an ever-diminishing quality of life and ultimately ends in eternal death. Because Jesus lived a life of sinless perfection, he is able to save us from sin and restore us to a right relationship with God, others, and ourselves. He did this through his sacrificial death on the cross on our behalf. Because Jesus rose from the dead, he is able to deliver us from death and bring us into a quality of life both eternal and unending.

This is the gospel of Jesus Christ: pardon from the penalty of sin, freedom from the power of sin, deliverance from the grip of death, and awakening to the supernatural empowerment of the Holy Spirit to live powerfully for the good of others and the glory of God. Jesus asks only that we acknowledge our broken selves as failed sinners, trust him as our Savior, and follow him as our Lord. Following Jesus does not mean an easy life; however, it does lead to a life of power and purpose, joy in the face of suffering, and profound, even world-changing, love for God and people.

All of this is admittedly a lot to take in. Remember, this is an invitation. Will you follow Jesus? Don’t let the failings of his followers deter you. Come and see for yourself.

Here’s a prayer to get you started:

Our Father in heaven, it’s me (say your name), I want to know you. I want to live an awakened life. I confess I am a sinner. I have failed myself, others, and you in many ways. I know you made me for a purpose and I want to fulfill that purpose with my one life. I want to follow Jesus Christ. Jesus, thank you for the gift of your life and death and resurrection and ascension on my behalf. I want to walk in relationship with you as Savior and Lord. Would you lead me into the fullness and newness of life I was made for? I am ready to follow you. Come, Holy Spirit, and fill me with the love, power, and purposes of God. I pray these things by faith in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

It would be our privilege to help you get started and grow deeper in this awakened life of following Jesus. For some next steps and encouragements, visit seedbed.com/awaken.
Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt