Sermon – Song, Prophecy, Revolution – “The Magnificant”
Luke 1:39-56
Advent 3b; December 18, 2012
Jim Whittaker
Up to this point in our Advent preparations, we have been considering how we can get prepared for Christmas, which is the fact that God has come in the flesh in the presence of Jesus, and Jesus is coming again. Salvation and judgment are both wound up in Jesus. Today our point of concentration is moving from ourselves to God. This is what God did.
There is a song by Mercy Me called “Grace Tells Another Story.” Here is a line in it that says, “they say that the heart of man is too far gone to save, but grace tells us another story.” The story of Jesus is a story of grace. It is the good news. It is the gospel.
When God enters our world, the impossible becomes possible.
Right before the passage we read in Luke, the angel Gabriel came to speak to Mary. The angel announced that she would have a child and he will be called “Son of God.” (Luke 1:35). Paul in his introduction to the book of Romans declares the gospel comes through Jesus Christ. Jesus is declared to be Son of God by resurrection from the dead. Jesus’ good news message of salvation and deliverance begin at the Virgin birth and end at the resurrection.
The virgin birth is impossible we say, but so is the resurrection.
Some say these are just points of faith statements for people who choose to believe in God. Others say faith is a private thing – different people believe in different things. In fact, you can believe anything you want to believe in private, but God did not remain in the private lives of Mary, Elizabeth, or Joseph. Paul states in I Corinthians 15, “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with scriptures.” If that was the end of the story, it would be one man’s private interpretation of the events of Jesus, but Paul goes on to say in verse 6, that Jesus appeared in his resurrected form to over “500 brothers and sisters at one time.” Jesus went public. This isn’t a faith story. This is human history, and we have all been effected by God’s willingness to come in the flesh in the baby Jesus. Paul isn’t giving us his faith story. He is telling us history, and he is a witness to the facts, and these facts demand a response.
The story begins with Jesus’ birth. There is mystery surrounding his birth. Some try to devalue the virgin birth saying it is an impossibility. Perhaps, a better way to look upon Mary’s story is to say “all things are possible through God as Luke 1:37 states, “for nothing will be impossible with God.” The virgin birth is God’s way of saying “wake up, something big is going on here.” God chose at this time in history to intervene in our salvation story.
William Barclay says the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were lacking in justice and mercy and had become a stale religion. God seeks our heart. God desires that we submit to God’s mercy – not that we submit to men’s religious ways. The truth of the gospel will always be found in grace and mercy. As we look at the Mary’s Song the Magnificant today we are labeling 3 ways God is intervening into our world.
Intervention #1 – The Moral Revolution (Based on William Barclays, New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Luke)
William Barclay says, “Christianity is the death of pride.” In our scripture in verse 51, Mary says, “He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.” The verb tense seems strange here. It is stating that it is already done when in fact it won’t be completely done until the final judgment. But, don’t miss the point being said. It is already done. God has acted. There is no turning back. It is a done deal.
The scriptures are full of warnings dealing with pride. In Proverbs 6:16, it states, “there are 6 things the Lord hates, 7 that are an abomination to him. Verse 17 has “haughty eyes” or pride and verse 18 states “a heart that devises wicked plans.” Proverbs 16:18 says, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” I John 2:16 says those who love the world rather than God do these things: “desire of the flesh, desire of the eyes, and pride in riches.” Don’t miss what is being said here. Sin began in pride. The devil lifted himself up above God and rebelled against God. Man and woman lifted themselves up above God and rebelled against God.
Imagine if you will that we are all sitting around the room in a circle and one by one we say our name and our addiction. Hi, my name is Jim and I am a sin addict. What does that mean? I am saying it is all about me. Jesus came to break our addiction to sin.
Listen to Romans 6:7, “whoever (that has died to Christ) has died is freed from sin. Jesus is saying I am breaking up the sin monopoly. Romans 8:2 says, “for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” Now consider where the moral revolution sets in. Romans 6:2 says, “How can we who died to sin go on living in it?”
American writer William Sidney Porter born in Greensboro and best known for his pen name O. Henry has this short story:
There was a boy who was brought up in a village. He used to sit beside a girl in class, and they were fond of each other. He later went to the city and moved onto evil ways. He became a pick pocket and a petty thief. One day he snatched a purse from an old lady, and he was quite pleased on well he had done. As he was walking down the street, he ran into the girl he used to know in school. She was still radiant and innocent. Suddenly he saw himself as he was – a cheap and vile person. He leaned his head against a light pole, and said, “God I wish I could die.” Barclay, 19.
Jesus came to save people just like this boy. He came to save me, and he came to save you.
Intervention #2 – Social Revolution
In verse 52, Mary says, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.” Mary had begun her song by saying, “My Soul Magnifies the Lord.” This is the same line in a new song the Praise Band is learning. It means a lot more to me knowing Mary began her wonderful testimony by saying her soul magnified the Lord. Part of her praise goes back to the point that Mary realizes her lowly estate and an almighty God chooses her anyway. She is called favored and blessed.
Mary is young, female, and poor. She is chosen to carry the Son of God in her womb. She realizes that God has chosen to put her in a position of favor that is not deserved according to the world’s standards. Mary receives grace, but that is not all of the story. God says those in position of power and authority, he is bringing down. By 30AD with Jesus on the cross, it appeared that the religious and governmental authorities had won, but by 70AD the temple is gone so the Saducees are gone. The Pharisees survive but in a complete different mode. The Roman government fell around 400AD and Jesus is still on the throne. It should be a reminder to us all who have authority, privilege, and power over those who have no voice.
Muretus was wondering scholar of the middle ages. He was poor. In an Italian town he became ill and was taken to a hospital for waifs and strays. The doctors were discussing his case in Latin, never dreaming he could understand. They since he was a worthless wanderer they might use him for medical experiments. He looked up and answered them in their own learned tongue, “Call no man worthless for whom Christ died.” Barclay, 19.
When we realized what Christ has done for us, we no longer can see no one beneath us. Social grades are gone. Race is gone. Any distinction that we have created as humans to make someone higher and someone lower, they are gone. Christianity puts an end to “labels and prestige.”
Intervention #3: Economic Revolution
The scriptures say, “he has filled the hungry” and sent the “rich way empty.”
This doesn’t square with our normal culture of stuff. A non-Christian society seeks to get all that they can get. As one billionaire said, “the one who dies with the most toys wins.” William Barclay makes this challenging statement in regard to the Christian society, “no one dares to have too much when others have too little.”
We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.
Mother Teresa
Love is an economy that we should all invest in. Mother Teresa reminds us that is not just stuff we are talking about – a hunger in the soul for love and belonging is who we were created to be. Yet our technologies if we are not careful, will keep us from having a true personal relationship with each other. Facebook is not the same as face time.
In our society though, we are fixated with stuff. The latest reports say Americans now are saving about 5% a year and paying off debt. Let’s get one thing for sure – debt does not make one happy. Why then do we collect so much stuff?
Stephanie Rosenbloom wrote in the New York Times and article titled, “But Will it Make you Happy?” The article talked about a couple who took the “100 challenge.” That is they were only going to own 100 possessions. Why should they have so many possessions that kept them in debt, when others could use a helping hand.
So they gave away, extra shoes, extra pants, and just kept going. They even got rid of the TV. They went from 24 crystal plates to 4 every day plates. They got rid of their cars – now obviously, you can’t do this everywhere, but don’t miss the point. They learned to survive with 100 possessions. If you have 4 plates, you only have 96 things more to go. They are earning less, working less, and out of debt. They are volunteering more.
Mary says Jesus is bringing in a whole new type of culture. Luke says “blessed is the poor.” Jesus said, its hard for a rich person to get to heaven. Why then are we captivated by the world’s standards? If there is a secret to living a life well, it is in giving things away no collecting them.
I’ve made 2 trips to the swap shop this week and filled the truck with trash and recycling yet I have hardly made a dent in the stuff. I decided to count my books that weren’t packed up somewhere and I counted around 550 books, meaning I probably do have around 1,500 books. I mean does that like too much too you. I still haven’t dealt with my shoes. Dianna said 30 was undercounting.
I still have to deal with the words – A Christian does not have too much when others have too little.
The less I have, the more I can give. Wow! That is a revolution.
Jesus saves us and that leads us to transformation.
It begins with ourselves. You want to get rid of the Grinch out of Christmas. Then deal with pride and selfish attitudes.
You want to get the Grinch out of Christmas, then we have to realize that we are no better nor no worse than anyone else. Our skin color does not qualify us for special consideration nor disqualify us. Our place of birth or your family name does not make any of us any better or any worse than anyone else.
If you want to get the Grinch out of Christmas, then we are going to have to deal with stuff. Some have too little. Some have too much. Jesus wants us to move from “self love” to “godly love.” This is where salvation is found.
Jesus died on the cross for us to demonstrate too us what true love is. Jesus died on the cross to pay our sin debt not his. Jesus died on the cross so that we could have our sins forgiven. Jesus only thought of us.
I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.
Mother Teresa
Our salvation begins here in the baby Jesus. He became God in the flesh to feel our pain, and to bear our sin. This is what God did. It began at Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year.
Amen.
That Antidote to a Self Centered Christmas
John 1:6-18
December 11, 2011
Jim Whittaker
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
15(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.
Light into the Darkness
<<Video of House Lights in Fort Lauderdale, Fl.>>
We are fascinated by lights. What else would move us to do such an extravaganza? It thrills our soul. Lights make us happy. Lights bring out the inner child in us all. Look at our sanctuary. We have a tree full of lights. We have 3 advent candles lit and two other candles that all signify to us “Christ is the light to the world.”
When John gave us those words in verse 9, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” what was John thinking?
We continue with our sermon series titled “Get the Grinch out of Your Christmas.” N-laws and X-laws, Christmas dinners, visits to family, gifts to buy, trees to decorate – while all fun and good sometimes can just send us over the edge. Today, we contemplate does something need to go for me to truly enjoy Christmas or maybe a better thing to ask is how do we put “Christ” back into Christmas?
I looked on the internet to see what things people listed about hating Christmas. I give you a few.
1. Christmas starts way too early.
2. Christmas parties – often compel us to do something that we don’t really want to do.
3. Christmas gifts – can we truly put a price on a loved one.
4. Christmas cards – Is a generic card really the way to say I care about you?
5. Christmas lights – can we say burning that much electricity for lights is getting out of hand or do we really care about our environment?
6. Tacky Yard stuff – what do lollipops, Dalmatians, etc. have to do with Christmas?
7. Christmas Trees – does it make sense to cut down a tree to display for 30 days and put gifts under? I might also add to that – how many trees do you need?
I don’t think the people that posted stuff were Christians, but they asked a very serious question – is this how you worship Christ for Christmas? If Christ were to come today, what would Christ himself say to our Christmas celebrations? I do believe there is more to Christmas - don’t you.
Point #1 – You Can’t Hide Light
John brings us to an important point in the gospel. You can’t hide from the true light. John is saying – Christ bursts into our world. How does our Christmas of self-absorption tie to the gospel? I think we all know that it doesn’t.
Dianna and I went to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. We lived near Huntington, WV at the time, and we had heard it was the longest known cave in the world with 392 miles of known passageways. By that time, I was actually surveying in the coal mines so being in the dark was nothing new to me. Yet, it was still amazing when the tour director instructed us all to cut off our lights and put our hand in front of our face. Then, move your hand toward your face until you could see it. I never saw my hand. I only knew it was close when my hand touched my nose. This is what it means to be in total darkness. It is a complete lack of light.
This type of darkness represents our life without Christ. We cannot see nor can we find our way without God’s help. The Gospel of John says, “the true light….was coming into the world.” Light is a big part of Christmas. Who hasn’t wanted to go see some tree lights. Here in the book of John, we find that Jesus is the true light. All of those lights we saw in the video, they are not the real thing. Jesus is the real thing. If Jesus is the real light, we should seek out Jesus during Christmas. We should seek out his words, his presence, and his works. We can easily let everything but Christ be in our Christmas.
Point #2 – Light Exposes the Darkness
You might be able to recall a summer storm. It is dark outside, you hear the wind, hear the thunder, and hear the rain, but you can’t see anything. Then all of a sudden, the lightening comes and lights up the dark night. Perhaps for only a brief second, you can see everything. This is what we mean when we say Christ is the true light and the darkness did not overcome the true light.
Christ is a revealer. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day did not accept him. Jesus had critiqued them.
· You wash your cups to represent cleanliness, but you don’t allow God to clean your hearts.
· Observing your religious practices is not more important than taking care of your fellow human being. Both are important. Religion should not be used as an excuse to not help.
· Paying more money to church does not excuse you from taking care of your elderly parents.
· Burning toast is a poor excuse for divorce, we should take marriage more serious than that.
It is ever so tempting to create our own world in our own self image, but if we really look for Christ, the Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Messiah and Savior of the World, it is going to be hard to focus on our self. What was the Grinch’s problem? He had all the focus on himself. His feelings. His likes. His dislikes. Never for a moment did he consider the feelings of someone else. That is what it means to have a Grinch Christmas – it is about me, us, and we never consider the others of the world.
Point #3 - Light transforms the darkness
John is clearly making this statement in the gospel – “I once was blind, but now I see.” Jesus is our Savior. We have redemption through him. Because of that redemption, we should be becoming more and more like Christ. Jesus helps us see through the darkness and evil of the world and to live out love and full life. God is not going to let us live Christmas in darkness unless we choose to live there. So here are some pointers for Christmas.
a. Take a break.
The Bible calls time that we set aside to see God, Sabbath. We should have a weekly Sabbath. We might set it aside on Sunday morning. Use this time to reflect on how blessed you are to live in this country where food is not an issue.
- Consider giving food to someone less fortunate in honor of the Christ who came to feed the hungry.
b. Plan a gift for Jesus.
We don’t want Christmas to become a time of self absorption so we need to help ourselves plan a self giving gift. Don’t look around for a friend. Look around for a need.
- World Vision is always looking for people to adopt children of the world.
c. Be a friend
Christmas while it is a wonderful time, for many, it is a reminder of someone who is no longer with us. We should be reminded of the redemption story, the resurrection story, the story of hope, but we should also be mindful of those who may just need a friend during the Christmas holidays.
d. Ask the question
Is there something that I really am going overboard on Christmas? Dianna and I had started collecting lighted houses years ago, but now we have so many we don’t know what to do with them. Consider what is that you have allowed yourself to have too much of, and share with someone who may have too little.
e. Try Simplicity
Jesus was born in a barn. Remember that as we have to have our Christmas just so so. Try having a Christmas more simple than last year. Don’t allow yourselves to get stressed out with shopping, decoration, or cooking.
f. Practice Random kindness
In the beginning, I named some of the things people hated about Christmas. Most of them, were things that didn’t fully express caring, loving, and kindness in a real way. So let’s make it real. This week practice 3 acts of random kindness – something unexpected for 3 people.
This will help you get the Grinch out of your Christmas. Jesus came into the world and he revealed our sinfulness, but he did not leave us in a state of sin, but invited us to come into a relationship with him and walk with him for all of our days. Amen.
Sermon – It All Starts Here
Mark 1:1-8
December 4, 2011
Jim Whittaker
We enter the second Sunday of Advent with the gospel for this lectionary year – Mark. Mark doesn’t have the familiar Christmas stories that we love to hear. Those come from Matthew and Luke. In this case, Mark is more similar to John. John begins his gospel with the words, “in the beginning was the Word.” Mark also uses such an introduction, which is actually a title for the gospel, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” John states the beginning is completely within God’s own creative acts. John goes back to the words of Genesis, “In the beginning.” Mark’s purpose is to write down what he has learned from Peter (one of the 12 disciples and an eyewitness) probably shortly after Peter’s death. The title in itself proclaims what is important: God’s salvation has been made plain through Jesus the Christ (the anointed one or Messiah), and this is the good news (gospel) given directly from God himself. In other words, Mark is saying the good news message of salvation through God made manifest in the flesh began this way.
It began in the prophets.
Mark claims Isaiah the prophet and uses part of Isaiah 40:3, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord” as he states the people must get ready for Christ’s coming. This is also reflected in his beginning with Malachi 3:1, “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.” Many commentaries consider the 300 or 400 years before Christ appeared as silent years in that no new words or revelations were coming from God. John the Baptizer claims to be the one who is preparing the way for the Messiah to come. John claims the role of prophet with his simple clothes and his simple diet. His clothes were not refined. They were more like the clothes of cave dwellers and the Neanderthal. His food was the food he could find in the field. Certainly, there was no refinement here. What John claims is the message of preparation for the coming of the Lord. He proclaimed “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” We are going to group these in three areas: repentance and confession, baptism, and forgiveness.
First and foremost, John’s message was one of repentance.
There has been some movement in the mainline church to replace the color of the advent candles from purple to blue. The color blue represents royalty, and certainly there is a strong statement of the Kingship and Sonship of Jesus at Christmas, but we are in the period of advent. Advent is the time we get ready to meet our God. How did John state we should get ready? We should repent. The purple candle in the advent wreath stands for repentance. We have 3 Sundays of repentance on one Sunday for joy (pink candle) during the period of advent. It seems to me that purple most clearly represents getting ready to meet our God.
Repentance by definition means to change our mind or to change our ways. This means we decide to do God’s will rather than our own. Repentance is not easy. When we say we are going to allow God to fully permeate our life, we really don’t know where that is going to lead us. One thing is for sure, when God moves into our life, things change. God doesn’t force us to change, but if we are open to God’s Spirit in our life, our prejudices, self-centeredness, and hatred will have to go. God desires to peel off the banana skin (our tough outer shell) to get into the real us where God can use us fruit bearers for the Kingdom of God.
William Barclay retells where the famous evangelist Billy Sunday preached and changed entire communities. Several news services and reporters were following Billy Sunday with the hope of tainting the ministry. They went to one town and talked to one of the store owners in town. The reporters talked about the cost to the town of bringing in a famous preacher and wasn’t that a needless expense to the community. The unchurched store owner said that if the town wanted Billy Sunday to come back again, he and his unchurched friends would raise the $11,000 cost of having the evangelist in town. He said, the circus coming to town will cost us about the same, but when it leaves town, we are left with nothing but perhaps some memories. When Billy Sunday comes to town, he leaves us with something. We all have been changed by the word given by this preacher.
William Barclay also recalls where a young preacher named Billy Graham came into town and liquor sales dropped 40% during the revival and Bible sales were up 300%. There is an important message here – when God permeates our lives, things change. The critical point is this part of getting ready to meet God for the first time, or in a new way this Christmas season is it begins with our own willingness to change.
John the Baptizer modeled a change that we all need to be reminded of.
His clothes and his food were simple. John wanted no distractions from the word. The more complex our life becomes it seems, the less time we have for the things of God. Within the very essence of repentance, we find that we must confess that we easily hold other things above God. Our things of life that we enjoy can easily become a hindrance to our growth in God.
We also need to be reminded how the Jewish people who were looking for the coming of the Messiah responded. They repented. They desired a change. I give you this quote by Andy Law.
"Unless you are prepared to give up something valuable you will never be able to truly change at all, because you'll be forever in the control of things you can't give up."
This moves us to the second point – A desire to change is imbedded in action.
The Jews had many symbols and activities that they did to remind them that they need to be cleaned up to get ready for God. The ceremonial cleansing of the hands and the cup that Jesus spoke about was one of those activities. John brought something entirely new with baptism. In its very essence, baptism is proclaiming I need entirely not partly cleansed up. To say that you have been baptized in Christ is to say there is no other thing in my life that is more important than serving and loving my God.
It is a desire that says God completely and fully take my life.
I KINGS 8:61 - "BUT YOUR HEARTS MUST BE FULLY COMMITTED TO THE LORD OUR GOD, TO LIVE BY HIS DECREES & OBEY HIS COMMANDS."
Mark’s words “baptism of repentance” means fully committed to change for God. This begins when we say “yes” to Jesus as Savior and as our Master. We should be reminded during advent that we have allowed other things to get first before God.
We can’t find time to pray.
Isaiah 64:1-9 – Get the Grinch Out of Christmas
November 27, 2011
James Whittaker
64 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence— 2as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! 3When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. 4From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. 5You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed.
6We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. 8Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.
What is it about the Grinch that makes it so compelling? I loved watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” when I was growing up. The Grinch has a “bad Christmas attitude.” I guess we all get in that type of funk on occasion. Christmas just doesn’t seem like Christmas this year because of – you fill in the blank. There obviously has to be more to the story. Of course, the more is the Grinch was changed. Isn’t this a story about the hope that even the people who seem to be filled with evil may find God as the who’s did – care for each other, share, and give thanks. If we want to find this transformation during advent, we need to dig deep. What is advent? First, advent means “coming.” This first Sunday in advent we typically not only think of coming of Jesus as the child in the manger 2,000 years ago, but we fast forward to Christ’s second coming. I want to give you another word. It is “marantha.” It means Lord come quickly. This word helps move us to what the Jews felt. They preached and they prayed, Lord come and make things right. Lord set your justice in order. Make the sinners pay. The gospel lessons today all center around being awake for the second coming or in faithful waiting. Our Old Testament passage is a little different. It is kind of a prayer. Today, we will look at 4 points to keep the Grinch out of our Christmas.
Point #1 – God show the world who you are.
I was listening to the news this week. The super committee failed to come up with a workable compromise in order to put our economy on sure footing. There was another school shooting this week in Raleigh. A woman starts shooting people in a love triangle. Egypt protestors tell the Generals they must get out so that a president can be elected. Wall Street occupiers get pepper sprayed.
Don’t you just feel like our writer today. God come down and show these people who you are. I am tired of hard headed people. People whose solution is violence. People who care not for the feelings of others. It is an impossibility it would seem to get people to behave and to care for others first.
In Alice in Wonderland, the White Queen said to Alice, "Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." If we don’t learn anything else in getting ready for Christmas, we should know this: With God, the impossible is possible. Christ came into the world so we could be transformed, and changed. That is the key to the Grinch story. He was so foul, that the words to describe him were stink, stank, and stunk. Yet, the impossible is possible.
Our prayer today is “God show them who you are.” Hasn’t that already occurred? Wasn’t that God made manifest in the flesh? Wasn’t that Jesus living a life as God intended here in our world? Was that event that occurred 2,000 years ago so far removed from us today that we can’t see God at work now? Isaiah was reminiscing about the good old days. You know crossing the Red Sea. A cloud by day and a fire by night, manna and the quails – I mean wasn’t God evidenced in those days. That’s what we are looking for – God show these hard headed people who you are! God came, and many never saw him.
If we were to really pray this prayer today, “God show them who you are!” God may just bring it back to us – “Children, show them who I am!” The gospels tell us to be awake, because Christ is coming again, and we will all find that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, ruler of all, and he is going to show us all who he is. The gospels tell us to be faithful until Christ does come again and show us all who he is. What would that look like? I give you this story.
The way of Christ
A man unfamiliar with Christianity was accompanying a Christian missionary on a car trip in Africa. The missionary had been trying to explain the Christian message to his companion, but the man was having trouble understanding how Jesus would come to die for people who hated him.
Then the car began to act up, and they had to stop alongside the highway. There wasn't much traffic, but when finally a truck carrying two men passed, the pair tried to flag them down. But the truck did not stop.
After a while, by tinkering with the engine, the missionary was finally able to restart the car. They had not gone far when they came upon the truck, now stalled by the road. Outside it were the two men who had not stopped.
The missionary's companion said, “Now we can pay those fellows back in kind. They passed us up and now we will pass them up.”
“No,” said the missionary. “We must stop and help them.”
After they did that and were again under way, the man who’d been trying understand Christianity said, “I now begin to understand what you have been trying to tell me about Christ coming for his enemies.”
From Proclaim Sermons:
We are to show Christ to the world now. This seems like an impossibility yet that is the message of Christmas – the impossible becomes possible. So the next time we look at the world in despair and pray “God come down and show them who you are!” Let us remember, God has asked us to show Christ to the world – even to our enemies. That is the miracle of the Grinch story. The who’s accepted him, did not judge him, yet sang with love in their heart. How can that be? In Christmas, God in the flesh in our world the impossible becomes possible.
Point #2 – God desires to demonstrate his love toward us.
“4From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him.” – Isaiah 64:4
In the Grinch story, it is the who’s who reach out in love to the Grinch. That story represents the greatest story of all: God reaches out to us, comes down to our world, and shows us who he is. As Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates his love toward us that while we were still sinners he died for us.” The story begins with the baby Jesus.
The story of Jesus from 2,000 years ago intersects with us as we are waiting on Jesus’ return. We recall the scripture, God “works for those who are waiting for him.”
“Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.” G. Campbell Morgan
Waiting is not a state of inactivity.
Point #3 – God before you, we are all sinners.
God’s love toward us as a babe who entered into our world, God’s love toward us as a man who showed us what it means to live for God, God’s love toward us as one who sacrificed it all by giving his life for us, God’s love for us toward the one who is coming again to join his children – Before this God, we are humbled and realize that we are sinners. When we realize that we will be judged, we realize that we are in the need of God’s grace.
The answer to the world is not griping, complaining, or moaning about how bad it is. The answer to the world is Christ, but as we wait for Christ to come again, we are called to claim God’s grace through Christ and then demonstrate that grace of Christ to others.
Waiting is not inactivity. Waiting is not griping about the sins of others. Waiting is showing Christ’s love right now to a world filled with sin who doesn’t always do as we would have them to do.
This is the story of Christmas, the impossible becomes possible through God. Was this the awakening moment for the Grinch? Did he realize he was a sinner, he had done wrong? I am not sure on that but he did have to make amends with those he had offended. If we want love in the world, we have to give it.
Point #4 – God use us as you will
This perhaps is the hardest part of the story. It is the hardest part of the prayer. We began by asking God to show his stuff to the world. Judge them. Rebuke them, yet here at the end things seem to have changed. God came into the world as Jesus. God came demonstrating love, healing, acceptance, and grace. His critiques were for those who thought they were better than others or had all the answers.
If we truly pray this prayer during advent, God use me as you will. Then God may just use us to do what God does – make the impossible possible. We maybe prompted to do the impossible. Let our prayer be God give me those “6 impossible things before breakfast” and help me through you to make it possible.
Our prayer should be this Christmas – God get the Grinch out of me. There is not going to be any stink, stank, stunk in our Christmas. Yes, I am waiting on God – Christ’s return, but I am not sitting around doing nothing for the Kingdom of God. May we demonstrate Love to the world. Amen.
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