When the World Became Bigger
Christmas Eve 2020
Brad Bailey
Note: This message was developed for the year in which a pandemic effected all gathering. As such, and used for outdoor in-person gatherings. While there is initial reference to how people may feel “contained” due to the restrictions felt during that season, it can just as easily be applied to the common ways in which many may feel life’s forces to contain and control ... and measure life outwardly.
Intro
My added warm welcome to you in this unusual opportunity to gather in the brisk outdoors on this Christmas Eve.
I couldn’t help but think about all the ways in which our lives may feel more contained this year. For months we have felt the effects of our various worlds being contained ...whether in work, school, social life, travel, and so much of what we just go out and do in life. I imagine that many of us feel our world has become smaller.
So tonight, I want to invite us to consider how big our the world we live in really is...how big the world you know as your life...really is.
I believe God wants us to see that the event of the first Christmas brings a whole new dimension to the way we think about how big our personal lives really are.
I want to invite us to think about Mary...the earthly mother of Christ...and what is involved when heaven is brought to earth. Likely no more than 15 years old... God had communicated that she was now bearing a child... whom He had created in her... that would be the savior of the world. For Mary... a mystery had begun...the creator of the universe... was now within the intimate and fragile nature of her own body.
Nothing could be more powerful and profound...but also... nothing could be more perplexing. Because... nothing around her seemed to correlate with what was within her.
Imagine with me... how much was at work to control and contain her life....and define her life as small... cut off from any great hope by all the forces of this world.
There was the force of a governing empire.... notably the Roman Empire. Never has an empire so boldly believed that it was destined to rule over all. This empire had now taken control of the land of the Jewish people... and it put in place a local Jewish King to manage the people. But as one historian described... “everyone knew that Rome was the power behind the throne.” [1a]
Imagine how the world felt to Mary... as part of the Jewish people Mary was rooted in people being called out by the one true God and creator... and yet now a pagan empire ... the Roman Empire...has surrounded her life... and shown the power to contain and control her life... as a subject of their rule. Imagine the strange position she was in... as source of all creation has conceived a life within your womb... while you are surrounded by a human empire... whose message was so clear...the message was that you may live...but only as a subject who must show allegiance...and understand how little your place is in the world.
And then there was the power of all the circumstances that seemed to have stolen the hope of finding her significance in this world. As a young woman betrothed to be married...this was to finally be her time of being honored... a time when she was given a larger place in the community...but now that was suddenly all reversed. She was with child. It was the experience that every girl knew was usually blessed with smiles and honor. But no one would believe her...no one would understand what God was doing. All the eyes of communal pride now became the looks of disappointment. What would usually have been her time of communal fame... became that of communal shame. The hope of inclusion into communal honor... was one of exclusion. The future she had hoped for... just disappeared... and her world couldn’t get much smaller.
But it did... because Caesar, the ruler of Rome, had declared that everyone must return to their hometowns for a census... and her husband to be was from Bethlehem. Here she was... with the time coming near for this child to be born into the world... with hopes that at least her parents might be there to support her... but no...she will have to travel a hundred miles on foot and donkey... likely 7 or 8 days... sleeping outside where the nights are cold...and when she arrives... there really is no room. Quite literally her world would be reduced to a tiny stable.
Everything was making her world separated and small.
Maybe as you imagine what she felt... you can sense how there are forces that seek to contain and control your world... to isolate you... to make your world small. Maybe you believe that God has come to you in some way... and entered your world...but there are competing forces.
When we look at what was happening to Mary in the events of Christmas...we see that there were two different forces at work... with very different claims. One proclaims that the God who rules the world is now with you... and what is in you is infinite. And the other says that you are the mere subject of the powers that be... powers that contain and control...and that you are alone and on your own.
And what happened that night revealed that the world is not as it may appear... not as it may look...not measured the way this world measures.
The great marvel of this night...the great message of this night...is that the world did became bigger...infinitely bigger.
It’s on this night that we celebrate the birth of Christ ...that we see that in the smallest of spaces... the infinite was born into the finite.
What was in that tiny stable was bigger than the whole created universe. [1b]
The larger has entered the smaller. The outside has entered the inside.
Naturally that can be hard for our finite minds to understand.
From our finite perspective, we can’t fully grasp how the eternal can enter into the temporal nature of our world... how that which exists outside time and space can enter into time and space.
Some have seen glimpses in what we are learning through science... how quantum physics points to our existence having come from that which exists outside time and space.... a mystery we can’t fully grasp the nature of.
Some have noted how higher properties can operate within the more simple... rather than the other way around. A brilliant mind can take on the playfulness of a kitten...but the kitten cannot begin to discuss philosophy.
And some have noted how our longings seem to clearly point to that which must exist in greater perfection outside our world. Those very qualities such as peace ...justice... love... are never fully realized...they are always out of reach ... which suggests that we have been separated from something outside the world as we know it.... yet something we need.
And that is what was born in the stable that night. In that stable... what was outside the current state of our world... entered inside. Something of heaven was brought to earth.
That night...the world became bigger. The Creator had entered the creation itself... to reclaim it.
There was Mary ... a finite creature holding what bore the nature of the infinite ...the earthly holding what had been sent from heaven.
As we may recall, some surprising guests showed up... late into the night... some local shepherds. Those shepherds had found this little stable...and explained how God had sent them to welcome this child. As shepherds...they were generally social outcasts... uneducated and uncouth... who wouldn’t be accepted anywhere else... but somehow they fit into Mary’s strange world where nothing was measured according to this world’s way of measuring size and significance.
But Mary would find that the world outside... the world at large...wouldn’t initially recognize this child for who they were ... let alone welcome what God was doing.
Mary found that the conflict between the two forces trying to define her world was just beginning. The very promise of God was being fulfilled... but the forces set on ruling this world... set on containing and controlling ... reacted even more overtly.
Soon the local ruling King Herod...who represented the Roman Empire... would hear that a child had been born who was destined to be king...and try to kill him. The truth is that no one wants to give up their power... their right to rule. We’re told that Mary and Joseph... had to flee ...and spent a season as refugees.
When this world tries to take God’s loving presence from you... remember Mary. When the presence of the only rightful and righteous king is deemed a threat... remember Mary. When your world seems to become more refugee than royalty... remember Mary.
And when this child, Jesus, is grown and begins to fulfill his mission...Mary would see the forces of cynicism... the cynicism within her own community... the cynicism of those who could not accept tat God would have any special favor on her. Despite all amazement with what Jesus spoke and did... many refused to accept anything could come from such a common place... they would say, “Isn’t this just Mary’s son?”
When the world at large tries to tell you that your world has to conform to what is familiar... remember Mary facing the cynicism of her own people... even while the child born that first Christmas night begins to defy all expectations.
And of course, there were the religious leaders. She might have sensed that she wouldn’t seem to fit in their expectations of the coming Messiah. And in fact... in time, the child born in the stable would confront the religious leaders in their self-righteous ways of judging who was good and who was bad. The whole nature of the way they excluded people based on who was deserving and who is not deserving... was not going to fit when it was God who was present. The religious leaders.... demanded he fit into their categories... or be killed. It was the ultimate step to contain what had come into her world. It would appear to be the definitive statement that Rome and religion had control over her world. But of course it became the moment that proved that the powers of this world cannot contain and control the one who came from heaven... for when he was crucified... on the third day he was raised to life.
So when you find that many feel that a savior for all people has no place... and this world tends to prefer to just want to condemn the wrong kind of sinners... remember Mary... remember how she saw how the love of her son was responded to... how he was crucified.... but then how he was raised on the third day...just as he had said.
Mary would see how the two forces continued... but the presence of this child could not be bound... not by Roman leaders nor by religious leaders. Just as the as the creator of our existence had spoken through the prophet... “To us a child will be born.... and of his rule there would be no end.”
So, as you consider...how big is your world right now...remember Mary... remember how her life depicts that there are two forces at work. One that says that you are the mere subject of the powers that be... powers that contain and control...and that you are alone on your own. And another that proclaims that the God who rules the world is now with all who receive Christ... that the infinite can enter into our very beings.
The truth of Christmas...is that the world became bigger...infinitely bigger.
The nature of heaven... has come to earth.
And I don’t want to leave us with only the enormity of that truth...without briefly stating what of heaven has come to earth.
Jesus was clear that what was at hand was just the start...it was an inbreaking... and in this first coming...there were three elements of heaven that had now come to expand our lives. In fact.... we find that Jesus spoke about each with a sense of deep confidence.... like someone giving a gift that they grasp the power of more than anyone can yet understand.
So what did Christ bear within himself...that changed the world... that brought the reality of heaven to every life who receives him? [2]
Let me quickly state three things that he said could now be ours... three things from heaven that are now available on earth.
In Christ our lives can now be filled with...
1. The Peace of Heaven’s Reign
Every human heart can understand the desire for peace on earth... the desire to see an end to hate and violence and war. But what’s notable...is that under our own rule of the world...we have never known peace... we have never experienced true harmony. As long as anyone has ever known... our world has never come close to living in a state of harmony. Conflict has been running through every sphere of relationships.
We may negotiate a treaty to pause wars... but they are simply attempts to agree to limit the expression of hatred and conflict that is still at work.
The very thing that more people say they want at this time of year... which is peace on earth seems hopeless within our reign of this world. This world seems to be ruled by the inevitable need to gain power over others... the inevitable need to fight for some elusive sense of security and significance. We seem to be cut off from the very peace we long for. Either peace doesn’t actually exist... or if it does exist... it’s outside our capacity when ruling ourselves.
It is precisely the peace that exists in heaven which came into our world in Christ. When the angels declared... peace on earth and good will towards men... they were declaring the peace that that exists in a different realm...under a different reign...was coming.
That is what was at hand in this child. And that is what this child would ultimately state they were leaving. [3]
Jesus said,
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. - John 14:27
Whose peace? His peace. He was very clear... it was not from this world. It existed in him. His eternal existence was rooted in the harmony of heaven. It is captured in the Hebrew word “shalom” which speaks of all of life relating as it should... not mechanically but in a deep relational manner with one another.
There is peace that exists in the nature of God...that will prevail.... a harmony that humankind has never known. It is the peace which begins with reconciling the heart of the creature with their creator... it is the peace that can begin to root our lives in the security and significance they were always to have known...and from that place of security and significance...we can begin to relate to others out of goodwill.
What does that mean? It means that even if believe that war may be a tragic necessity on earth... I no longer believe in war as what ultimately rules the world. It means that I no longer believe that life will ultimately be ruled by violence and force. In Christ our lives can now be filled with the peace of Heaven’s Reign.
And this relates to the second way that Christ saw our lives becoming bigger...
In Christ our lives can now be filled with...
2. The Joy of Heaven’s Love
When John summed up the coming of Christ, he said,
To all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. - John 1:12-13 (NLT)
Christ came to make it possible that we could become those who can live in relationship to God as children. We are not like Jesus... who is the eternal son whom we worship... and who has existed in the eternal love between he and the Father. But he came to make it possible for we who were created to reflect God’s nature... and who were given life by His spirit... to be restored into the love of living as God’s children. He came to share the joy of living in that same unending love that he had with the Father in heaven As he said to his first disciples...
“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them. We will come to them and make our home with them. - John 14:23 (NIrV)
And shortly after he said,
“Just as the Father has loved me, I have loved you. ... I have told you this so that you will have the same joy that I have. I also want your joy to be complete. - John 15:9,11 (NIrV)
Jesus wants to share his joy with you...the joy of living in unending love.
You may recall that at the very start of his ministry the Father spoke over him... declaring “This is my son...in whom I am well pleased.” And that is the identity and love that Jesus lived in... that no one could take away. [4]
This love didn’t mean that the suffering he bore on earth wasn’t real... it meant it wasn’t defining. When we are suffering... perhaps we feel sick... or lonely... there really are two parts to the experience... there is the temporal experience of feeling pain...and then there is the meaning of that experience. Many of us know that when we feel sick or lonely... we can also tend to feel less valuable or less loved. Jesus knows that when we know that we are loved... eternally loved... we can feel the pains of earth even while we know the joy of heaven... the joy of knowing that we are never alone... that we are eternal bonds of love.
When we look at Jesus...we see that he was so centered in the father’ eternal love.... he was free to truly love the world. He was free from needing people. Free from fearing people. When people rejected him... he still knew the joy of being loved forever.
There was only one moment in which Christ experienced separation... it was the moment that the Father turned away because the guilt of all the sin of this world was laid upon Jesus as he bore the sacrifice of death on the cross. In that moment... we have the greatest gift exchange we could ever imagine. He took the rejection we deserve and gave us the right to be a part of eternal love once again. He accepted that separation...and now we can know that the Father will never look away from those who now receive Christ. If we are now united with Christ... nothing can separate us from the Father’s love.
There is no Christmas gift exchange that will ever compare to this. Heaven exchanges our separation with eternity’s love.
There is nothing we could possibly want for Christmas... or get for Christmas... that could compare with the joy of heaven’s love.
Technology might make your world seem bigger... but it can never truly connect you to the source of life.
Clothes may be a wonderful way to dress ourselves... but they will never tell us who we are.
And nothing we get from earth will last forever. But the joy of heaven’s love will never end. The Bible says that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ. [5]
Right now.... the love that has existed eternally ...between Father and son... is shared with all who receive the reign of Christ who was born in our world. And that love... makes our world’s infinitely bigger. No matter what forces are at work around you... no matter what condition you find your life in ...physically... or relationally... you can know a love that never ends.
And that explains one more thing Jesus was excited to leave with us from heaven.
In Christ our lives can now be filled with...
3. The Ongoing Work of Heaven’s Presence
In the Gospel of John... chapter 14... we hear Jesus explain...
I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you. The Spirit will show you what is true ...will keep on living in you. - John 14:16-17 (CEV)
Jesus was excited to share how things were just getting started. He would defeat the powers that ruled this world... the consequences of death.... and God would now continue to work in this world. What Jesus had begun... would now continue...but not through his distinct physical body... but through the Spirit of God who would come be at work in the lives and bodies of all who receive him.
This spirit gives life again to our spirits...and allows God to work with us and within us. In the Holy Spirit... heaven continues to be present on earth. In no way is our condition fully united with heaven.... but the Holy Spirit is a deposit. As the Bible says...
He has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us. - 2 Corinthians 1:22 (NLT)
The Holy Spirit has been sent from heaven... as a deposit that is now at work...to guide us in truth...and to empower the work of God in this world. [6]
In many ways this continues what began in Mary. God came to a young woman and the mystery of heaven indwelling earth began. The infinite was now at work in the finite. The nature of eternity was now at work in a human life. And now God will indwell all who receive that life from heaven... the Christ of Christmas... with His Spirit.
And like Mary, the world around us will involve many forces that may claim to contain and control our world...but the indwelling Spirit is bigger than the whole world. Like Mary... our world can become infinitely bigger... knowing that the peace of heaven has come to earth...and revealed it’s power to overcome the powers of this world. Like Mary, we can know that God is with us...and loves us.
And so I invite each of us to consider:
How big is your world?
Is the size of your life defined by what is on the outside...or what is on the inside?
Tonight... look at the events of that first Christmas... look at all the ways this world tried to contain and control what defined the size and significance of Mary’s life. Look at all the ways that this world tries to measure the size and significance of a life from the outside. No matter what we assess outwardly...it’s always finite and often a vain way to try and give more meaning to something than there really is.
On this Christmas Eve... I encourage you to discover the profound truth that Mary discovered... that eternal life has come to dwell within us... and if we receive that life...we will discover that what is on the inside makes our lives infinitely bigger.
So I encourage us to join Mary’s response. When Mary first heard of how heaven sought to come be born on earth through her... her life was going to change in ways she couldn’t even imagine. But her response provides a posture that all our souls can learn from.
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”– Luke 1:38 (NLT)
PRAYER
CLOSING CANDLE LIGHTING
Notes:
1a. Michael White - Professor of Classics and Director of the Religious Studies Program University of Texas at Austin; THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND JUDEA. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/portrait/jews.html
1b. The description of the stable being larger inside, draws from the C.S. Lewis reference.
“It seems, then,” said Tirian, smiling himself, “that the stable seen from within and the stable seen from without are two different places.”
“Yes,” said the Lord Digory. “Its inside is bigger than its outside.”
“Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”
– C. S. Lewis, from The Last Battle (The Chronicles of Narnia)
He (Jesus) existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Col. 1:17
2. As we often note, the central declaration which Jesus made...was that the Kingdom of God had come...that is...that in himself, the reign and rule of God was breaking in... in the truth he spoke and the works he did.
By the shear fact that this was so central to al he explained and expressed... described and demonstrated... tells us how foreign it was to the current condition of our world. It’s as if he knew how lost we were... how little sense we had left about what life is like when it operates out of life centered in God’s love... how hard it is to understand justice...and mercy.
And what does that rule bring? What did heaven bear that would now come into this world?
Again... listen to what Jesus... the Christ of Christmas was so clear had now come.
3. And also, Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you!." John 20:21 (NIV)
4. We can hear Jesus speak of the joy he knows, shares, and that is mutually shared in heave,
Luke 10:21
At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.
Luke 15:5-7
When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
John 17:13
But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.
Hebrews 12:2
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
John 8:29
And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”
John 16:20-22
Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy
1 John 3:1-2 (NLT2)
1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. 2 Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.
5. Romans 8:31-39 (NLT)
31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”[a]) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
6. Also, “The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance - Ephesians 1:14 (CSB)
