Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent
The whole reason for the Advent was to initiate the new covenant and to save the lost.
Mary’s Song - Luke 1:46-55
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for He has been mindful
of the humble state of His servant.
From now on all generations
will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me -
holy is His name.
His mercy extends to those who fear Him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as He promised our ancestors.”
Christmas is a time when we, as faithful followers and servants of Jesus, rejoice in the arrival of the Christ Child, the Light of the World. But, the shadow of an unimaginable tragedy has been cast over the celebration this year; the massacre of 20 elementary school children and six adults.
Many folks were asking last week, “Where is that Light, where was God?” Wouldn’t it be a better question to ask where we are in relationship with God? Where was God in the following decision?
Maddalena Douse is one of the smallest premature babies ever to survive in the U.K. — thanks to a pair of scissors.
When she was born six months ago at just 23 weeks, she was so tiny doctors did not know if they should try to save her.
But when they put her on the scales she weighed 1 pound, the minimum weight for a baby to be considered viable — so they fought for her.
Only when she was safely on a ventilator did doctors discover the scissors had been accidentally left on the scales, and that 8-inch Maddalena in fact weighed only .84 pounds, or about 13 ounces.
The lucky baby has now been discharged from the Royal Sussex Hospital and is expected to grow into a healthy child.
“She now weighs 5½ pounds and is getting stronger by the day," Maddalena's mother, Kate, said. "She’s our little miracle, and we’re so glad to have her home in time for Christmas.”
Just take a look at this sentence …
“But when they put her on the scales she weighed 1 pound, the minimum weight for a baby to be considered viable — so they fought for her.”
Where was God in that picture? Did the doctors and nurses gather around the baby and ask God to help them save this precious little life? No, they put her on a scale, if she made the weight she would be rescued. If she was too light she would be discarded like an amputated limb. Some group had chosen a weight and that weight was the deciding point as to whether it was worth making the investment or not to save a baby or let it die. Too much money for too little of a chance for survival. Maddalena would have been thrown away if not for the scissors.
This is just a glimpse of the downward moral spiral that inevitably takes place when ever God is removed from any decision.
But, at Sandy Hook Elementary School these were little innocent children who had not yet even reached the age of accountability so why were they killed. Where was God?
When you look at the history of Israel in the Old Testament you can see that God would judge the nation based on its faithfulness to the covenant they had with God or on their rejection of Him and His law.
Were they faithful to their relationship and walking with Him in love or were they seeking their own pleasure at their own peril?
For instance, when the Lord raised up Babylon in order to discipline Israel for their unfaithfulness the righteous Israelites were taken into captivity right along with those who had rejected Him and turned to false gods for their worship. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, all of them being righteous young men, were all taken captive along with all who had abandoned their faith in God.
Is it too simplistic to say that these young children in Connecticut died as a result of the sin which our nation is not only allowing but embracing? Is it possible for us to run headlong away from God and His protection and then to wonder and doubt when our own actions cause suffering and pain?
With these questions in mind, where do we stand as a nation?
We, as a nation, allow our unborn infants to be slaughtered in the womb by the thousands each day and applaud it as a victory for the independence of womanhood.
We, as a nation, are steadily moving along a course which will eventually lead to embracing all forms of sexual perversion imaginable.
We, as a nation, prosper financially from the use of violence and pornography as entertainment both for viewing and for use in video games. Most of these games are called “first person shooter” games where the player actively stalks and graphically kills various opponents, for fun.
We, as a nation, have replaced God as creator with a myriad of fanciful notions being sold as scientific facts.
We, as a nation, have made Christ just one more selection in a warehouse of god choices, all of which we say will one day bring everyone into some blissful heaven while conveniently removing hell from existence.
We, as a nation, are abandoning the true and living God in droves.
We, as a nation, are growing a group of vocal God-haters in our very midst.
We weep for our children, born and unborn, who die at the hands of evil men and women every day.
And, we weep and pray for the parents of Newtown, Ct who lost their beloved children last week.
What about this following verse, where do we as a nation stand when we are read into this verse?
Isaiah 5:20
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
John 3:19
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”
And then, in the midst of all this chaos and the repercussion of the sins of our nation, we have Christmas, the birth of Christ, the birth of the Messiah, the long awaited one, the Holy Child of God.
How does that fit in?
Let me ask you a question …
Does anyone here know what an old cesspool is? It’s like a septic tank but usually was just a pit dug into the ground into which the toilets of the house would flush.
Would you ever think of diving headfirst into a cesspool?
Would you jump into a cesspool to save a child?
How about to save a criminal; someone who hates you?
Well, that’s exactly what Jesus did when He entered this world in order to save us from ourselves! He dove headfirst into the cesspool of humanity in order to show us the way back to the Father and to bring us abundant life in relationship with Him.
When Jesus entered the world it was much like ours.
Rome had an “anything goes” attitude all sorts of perversions which they called pleasure.
The political leaders were drunk with power.
The soldiers served with blind obedience. If they were instructed to go into a village and slaughter all of the baby boys under the age of two they would do it.
In Jerusalem much of the Jewish hierarchy was corrupt with greed as evidenced by the setting up of a market place within the very temple of God Himself.
But Jesus came anyway!
Jesus came anyway out of His great love for us!
This tiny spark of hope was the Creator of this vast universe wrapped in the flesh of an infant, born of a virgin mom.
God did not create the world for it to be a cesspool of sin!
He created it to be a garden of holy delight and fellowship with Him!
We, in cooperation with the evil one ruined it!
God the Father sent God the Son to make it right!
Yes, He could have used the same power He used at creation to set it all right all at once, but, He chose to set it right one person at a time through holy lives of obedience and love made possible by absolute faith in Christ and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and who are we to question the wisdom of God?
You see, God created us as free moral agents. We can decide by the enabling grace of God to live holy lives with holy actions or we can decide to reject God’s grace and live evil lives with evil actions and our actions, good or evil, are like rocks tossed into a pond causing ripples to flow out and affect the lives of those around us bringing joy or sadness, healing or harm.
Jesus, the baby born in a stable and placed in a manger was and is the greatest Rock of all, the cornerstone on which our very salvation rests. And, when this Stone hit the water the wave it caused carried enough power and life to turn this world around and save each one of us individually from the awful bondage to sin and self-destruction.
This is why we can experience peace today and why in the midst of such carnage we can have hope.
In closing, I would like to read to you a message sent out this week by our Board of General Superintendents.
On December 25, 1864, the son of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had recently been wounded in the American Civil War, Longfellow’s wife had been killed in an accidental fire, and it seemed as though the war would never end. Upon hearing the bells ring that Christmas day, Longfellow was stricken by despair and grief. He began to write a poem, Christmas Bells, to articulate the awful darkness that seemed to cover the world. As he wrote, his grief and despair were overshadowed with the hope of Christmas ringing out in the chiming bells.
Today there are many reasons for despair in our troubled world. Senseless killings, unending wars, injustices in so many places, refugees looking for a safe place, thousands dying from famine and drought, the brokenness of unfaithful relationships ... it is an unending list.
As you survey the darkness around you, it is our prayer that the Light of Christmas will bring a renewed sense of hope to your heart — that grief and despair will indeed be overshadowed with the hope of Christmas.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, affirms this hope in
Luke 1:
"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come... to rescue us... to enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days... to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace."
You see, the real question at this time of national sorrow, is not “where is God” but “where are we?”
Where are you?
Do you know the peace of Christ in the midst of turmoil?
Are the ripples of your life damaging yourself and others because of your rejection of Christ and the folly of evil actions?
Or, are the ripples of your life bringing healing and restoration to those around you because Jesus is living in and through you?
The truth of the incarnation, the truth of the birth of God the Son in human form is that you can have the peace of living and walking in a relationship with God all the rest of the days of your life.
The only difference is that when you come to Christ for salvation it is you who will be born or as the Bible says, born again and that will be the greatest gift of your eternal existence!
