Abc - The Building Blocks Of Faith - Christ Series

Today we continue our series entitled, The ABC’s of faith. The larger idea is based on the idea that we learn over time through an exploration process of success and failure. Everything we come to know and understand is built over time on the foundation of trial and error.

We learned last week, the wooden blocks we have all played with were an idea in 1594, a practical concept 100 years after that, and only then it would take another 175 years to be mass practiced and produced as the blocks we know and love from Brooklyn, New York.

Last week, we talked about the confusion of humanity and this week we continue with our “C” alliteration by building on the ideas of creation, corruption, catastrophe and confusion by talking about the most important aspect of our Christian witness: Christ.

Before I get started today, I’d like to tell you a story.

Dad was sitting watching television, when his little boy came running over. “Daddy, can you play with me?” Dad enjoys playing with his son, and plans to give him plenty of time, but not just yet. “Soon, son, soon” says Dad. “When this program finishes.”

Five minutes later the little boy returns. “Daddy, can we play now?”

“Soon, son, soon. When this program finishes.”

Two minutes later the little boy returns again. “Daddy, is it time to play yet?”

Dad realizes he’s not going to get any peace, so he decides to set his son a task that will take some time. He notices a picture of the world on the front page of the newspaper lying in front of him. He tears the picture out then rips it into small pieces. Now son, I’ve got a game for you. Take the pieces of this picture of the world and put them back together again and then we’ll play together.”

The little boy eagerly takes the pieces away with him and sets to work. Dad’s relieved he’ll get to see the last half hour of his TV program. But to his amazement his little boy is back in less than five minutes. “I’ve finished daddy. Can we play now?”

The father is stunned when he turns around to see his son holding up the picture of the world, each piece sticky taped into the right position. Dad begins wondering whether he has a child prodigy on his hands. “How did you get it done so quickly?” he asks. “That would’ve taken me a good 20 minutes and I’m an adult.”

“Oh, it was easy daddy. On the back of the world was a picture of a person, so I put the person together and that’s when the world came together.”

How do you put the world together? How do you make sense of your world and find your way through it? Christians find that Jesus is the face on the other side of the puzzle. He enables us to make sense of life and our world and to find a path through it.

Source: unknown

This morning we heard a scripture often heard only during Advent and the Christmas season. The words spoken over you were shared as a reminder that it was God's idea to come to earth. He came to fill the greatest need of humanity. A need we all have felt at some point. A hole in our soul craving fulfillment. Driving us to say and do things hoping against hope to satisfy the need. As St. Augustine would once say, “The deepest need of humanity is the salvation of sin.”

A need so significant, God would do what was thought impossible. He would become fully human. He would remain fully God. He would exist with two natures in one person. The idea is the basis for who we worship.

Christian scholars have used the word Christology to describe this idea as well as to describe the work done by Christ.

It hinges on a simple distinction between who one is and what one does. Nothing done by Christ the human could be done rightly without first accepting it was God who did it all. Hence, the reason we use the basic statement of faith: Jesus Christ is the Lord.

It is because of God’s love for humanity (his creation), God would show us the perfect solution to our greatest need while still remaining perfectly just and good. He opened the door to correcting a decision His creation (humanity / us) had and have chosen that prevented our presence with him in a way that wouldn’t corrupt HIS nature.

Have you ever seen food coloring drops in cold water? When drops first enter you see the tentacles and then the process that diffuses the coloring throughout the glass. In the same way, our sin, even a small bit, would color heaven in something less than pure.