The Slave Is Our Brother – A Call To The Poor
O come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel.That mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel, shall come to thee, O Israel.
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above your deep and dreamless sleep,the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the everlasting Light, the hopes and fears of all the years, are met in thee tonight.
Truly He taught us to love one another, his law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, let all within us praise His holy name
The words of these Christmas songs drip with longing, restoration and joy. The forgotten exiles, holding on in a choppy sea of hope and fear clinging to that hope until the Son of God appear to fulfill that hopes, snuff those fears, rescue, renew and send with new hearts that seek to break the chains of injustice where the slave and the immigrant is our brother and each of us partner with Him to see that all oppression cease.
This is the Christmas story, the Christ story, the Good News, the Gospel which each us is invited to live in and to live out; the gift we are called to regift (over and over and over and over).
Doug and Kelly’s Next Step:
God has called Kelly and me to a new role, to a new role with the ReWire team of Church Resource Ministries. Called to bring a new discipleship for a new era. Called to create Kingdom minded missionaries among the poor; ordinary people living as missionaries in their own community — Ordinary People Living The Extraordinary Way of Jesus — to break the chains and live as agents of restoration and peace to the oppressed so that all the world might sing sweet hymns of joy and praise His holy name.
I am deeply grateful for Creekside, for the role that it (each of you) have played in shaping Kelly and me and allowing us to hear our call. We are leaving, but at the same time we are staying as well — in the “neighborhood,” as missionaries of Creekside. Our ministry is your ministry, a natural extension of the trajectory that God has Creekside and us on, to Stay So We Can Go (deeper inward to Jesus, fuller together in community and outward with boldness to the least, lost and left behind.
We are excited (and a little afraid sometimes) as we prepare to step out in faith and obedience. I look forward to meeting with each of you in person to tell you more about this amazing ministry opportunity and how you can play a role helping us free those who mourn in lonely exile here in Redmond/Bellevue/Seattle and beyond.
God has called me to to be a missionary among the poor and to launch other missionaries among the poor, and he has called Creekside to the that as well.
Peace, hope and love Doug