Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Book Review: Under Wraps, The Gift We Never Expected.

"Under Wraps: The Gift We Never Expected" is an all-church advent study by Jessica LaGrone, Andy Nixon, Rob Renfroe, and Ed Robb.  It was published in 2014 by Abingdon Press.

I'll readily admit that I'm tough person to please with an advent study. I've been through many, MANY of them over the years, and to me they're often a dime a dozen.  I did three different studies this year alone.  One I did for my personal devotions, one I did with my family, and this one, Under Wraps, we did as a church at Community United Methodist.  It was my second favorite of the three, though honestly it had a tough task to be as good as the Bonhoeffer one that I've been doing as personal devotion!

Generally speaking advent devotions are grouped into four themes, one per week between the start of advent and Christmas.  These correspond to the 4 candles in the Advent wreath.  Usually the themes are something along the line of love, peace, joy, and hope.  Most devotions take these four rather broad themes and stumble through the four weeks, putting out a lot of words without managing to say much at all.  Fortunately, "Under Wraps" is different.  The book is indeed grouped into 4 themes, but they're quite different.  They explore 4 attributes of the nature of God:  God is Expectant, God is Dangerous, God is Jealous, and God is Faithful.

The first chapter, God is Expectant, is by Jessica LaGrone.  This theme centers around the idea that we're not the only ones who wait expectantly during Advent.  Have you ever gotten a friend, relative, or spouse what you considered to be the perfect gift, something you just know they'll love?  That sense you have as you wait to see the reaction on the person's face when they open it is the same kind of expectation that God has as he waits for us to unwrap the perfect gift of his son, Jesus.  This gift was not cheap either, in fact it cost Jesus his life.

The second chapter, God is Dangerous, is by Ed Robb.  The word "dangerous" is not something we often associate with cute little baby Jesus sitting in all of our Nativity scenes at Christmas, but Christ, and therefore God, is dangerous.  Abraham was called out of his homeland to go into an entirely different land.  Moses was called back to Egypt, where he was wanted for murder, to confront the ruler of the land in order to free the Jewish people.  Most of the disciples suffered a martyr's death, and even in modern times, people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer have been executed for acting on their Christian beliefs.  God has big plans for his children, and sometimes, they call for sacrifice and danger.

The theme of the third chapter is God is Jealous by Andy Nixon.  He reflects on the state of what I call the "corporate Christmas" and talks about how God wants to be first in our lives, not just at Christmastime, but through the whole year as well.  This isn't jealousy in the form of a jilted lover. The Hebrew word in the Old Testament that is translated as "jealous" is qin'ah, which means warmth or heat.  It is evocative of the passion that God had for us and the passion that he wants us to have for him, and for each other.

The final, and perhaps most powerful chapter is by Rob Renfroe and centers on the idea that God is Faithful.  Pastor Renfroe talks about the difference between a contract and a covenant.  In a contract, the agreement can be nullified if one party does not fulfill it's end of the bargain.  However in a covenant, a wounded or unfulfilled party is still called upon to execute their end of things even if the other party does not.  Sometimes in life you want a contract.  When you build a house, you don't want to have to pay if the contractor only builds half of your house.  However in a marriage you want a covenant.  You make a vow for richer or poorer, for better or for worse, and you want your spouse to stand with you even when you fail.  God is a covenant God, and sticks by us even though we are far from perfect.  He sticks by us so much that he sent his only son, born in a manger at Christmas, to die on a cross for our own shortcomings.

All in all this wasn't my favorite Advent study, but it was a good one and was certainly both different from your run of the mill devotions and meaningful.  Some chapters were better than others, but I thought each author did a good job making their point.  There are also supplementary materials such as a leaders guide and a DVD available should your church decide to do this study.  Both were informative, even though some of the video was nearly a word for word rehash of the book.  If you're looking for a new Advent study to try out next year, this one would be a good place to start.

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