Babies change everything, or at least a lot of things change for a family when a baby is born. For mothers, a selfless devotion to her child kicks in. Life revolves around what the baby needs, not her own needs. New fathers find a place in their hearts that was not there before. A sense of pride and care rises up. That's my child! Babies change our identities. Even becoming a grandparent changes the long-time parent.
On a practical side, there a lot of changes. New furniture for the baby makes you rearrange the house. Car seats take up space in the car. Schedules change, priorities for time and money change. Diapers are changed. Had to mention that. The parents' world is turned up side down. It can be chaotic sometimes. It can be exhausting. Sometimes it's both chaotic and exhausting.
On the other hand, Babies give us hope, they inspire dreams of the wonderful things the baby might do when grown. But a baby is all potential. Babies haven't done anything. It is yet to be seen what they will actually do.
The birth we are celebrating this week is of course Jesus' birth. Jesus indeed changes everything. His life turned the world right side up again. If we believe the prophecies about him, his potential is astounding. And the expectations for the coming Jewish Messiah were high.
Let's read Isa 9:1-7
“Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.”
Let's pray,
Lord heavenly father, thank you for this advent season, for the past three weeks of experiencing the meaning of Christmas in a different way, to experience with our hearts and minds what it's like to wait, to genuinely long for your promises to come true, wanting to know for sure you will keep your promises. We need endurance and patience. I am especially thankful today that you have kept this promise - and that is - to be with us. You did not leave us orphans when Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. You send your holy spirit to reveal Jesus to us. You have chosen to dwell in our hearts by faith. Be with us now as we consider your wondrous love. May we know it and receive it anew. In Jesus' name, Amen
What a glorious picture this prophecy painted for the future of the nation of Israel, God's people, so long ago. When they were carried off to a foreign land and enslaved, year after year, they longed to be back in their homeland to be God's people, gathered together again. It's going to happen, the prophet says. Hope will break out like the light of dawn. The restoration of their nation will bring joy and blessing. Even the evidence of war will be burned up. All the bad memories will fade away. No more slavery. What a complete rescue from oppression in a foreign land!
How will it happen? A child will be born - a human child with astonishing potential. Notice the divine characteristics: Might God, Everlasting Father, no end to his kingdom, upholding the government with justice and righteousness forever . And finally, the Lord Almighty takes responsibility for making it happen.
If that's true how can it fail?
Well, it may seem to have failed for us today. Where do you see everlasting peace on the earth? The governments in various countries are overturned, warfare destroys whole towns. Innocent people suffer. Famine, floods, other natural disasters occur regularly. Even in our stable and very safe society in this country, we are distress by a lot of things. Drugs, crime, corruption. Personally, we suffer injustices, disappointments, hardships, loss, grief.
Where is the child that is so full of potential? Why is the world still so bad? Why have I suffered so much in my life? Why do I struggle so much inside with my own weaknesses, and the things I regret? It must be God's fault. If he's really God, then why does evil continue on and on?
As I worked on this message for today, I got angry with God. Here is the baby Jesus doing nothing while the world languishes, yet he claims to be God in the flesh. Can't you make everything right - right now and take away my struggles? Where is the peace on earth and goodwill toward man that you promise?
Expectations are still high for Jesus to come through somehow and make the whole world right.
I'm guessing I'm not the only one who has felt this way. And, I think we can make our way though this difficult question. Let's think for a moment what we are asking God to do. What kind of God would be required to take away all the bad in the world?
First, he would have to be all-good, knowing the difference between good and bad. He's also have to be perfect, no weaknesses or flaws. He'd have to know everything so he could judge situations properly. So far that's all-good, perfect, all-knowing. OK, now how about having the authority to judge? He would have to be the master of creation to be in a position superior to the bad actors to bring then into account to him. God would have to be the creator of the universe and have supreme authority. Make sense so far? Add to our list creator and Lord. So that's an all-good, all-knowing, perfect, supreme, creator-Lord, with all authority, who expects his creation to do what is good because that's all that comes from this all-good God.
What about power? He would need to have all-power to subdue any evil that is out there to bring it under control and destroy it.
What about justice? He must exact punishment to fit the crime. If a baddy deserves it, they get it. No playing favorites. A just judge. This is what we want right, for ourselves and the world? We are expecting God to do this.
The God that I need to fix my suffering must be a God who is all-good, all-knowing, all powerful, perfect, the supreme Creator-Lord, who is also a just judge of his creation.
If I want this God to judge all evil including the evil that makes a victim, then I must be willing to be subject to the same judgment. If I was allowed out of God's judgment, he would be playing favorites. And that is not justice. So if God is really the God of the universe, I must bow to him too. I'm not responsible for the evil outside myself. But I am responsible for the evil in my own heart.
I know jealousy is there. I know envy is there. I know fear leads me to do things I regret.
Romans 6:23 says, the wages of sin is death. What I earn for myself is death because I act on the sin that is there. That accounts for part of my suffering. It's not all outside myself. I can't blame God for what I chose to do.
This poses a dilemma. I want God to judge the evil outside of me, but I can't escape the judgment I'm due. So if I want the world to improve as we should expect it to since Jesus has come, then I must accept his judgment of me.
Thankfully, there is one more trait that we need to know about God. The trait that really isn't needed to take evil out of the way. God could wipe out the human race any time. That would take evil out of the way for the most part. But he didn't do it that way because God is love. That is where my journey through Advent has brought me.
I have come back to the manger where God shows up in the flesh. The way out of judgment is wrapped up in that baby, just lying there. It's an offer. It's an invitation. It's a game-changer.
This perfect, all-good, just God holds out a standard of perfect goodness that he wants his creatures to live out. He wants to do this in relationship with us. He wants to communicate his wisdom to us so we can know how to live the good and perfect life that brings joy and peace to us and the world. He wants a people of his very own.
But back in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve listened the Satan's lies instead of trusting God's instructions, so their sin, their disobedience infected all of creation and the whole human race.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
The glory of God is the complete goodness that God wants to reveal to us and help us to live out.
What does God do? He has every right to condemn us since we broke his good laws. But he doesn't do that.
Why? Because God is love. God's love is his central trait. All the other traits we outlined are motivated by his love. So, he set the standard of perfect goodness, then he met the standard of perfect goodness by sending his perfect son Jesus Christ at his own expence.
Jesus was the perfect human substitute for all of humanity because he was human. Because he retained his divine nature, he lived a perfect moral life, and no sin of his own was found in him. So, when God poured out his wrath on Jesus when he was crucified, the punishment for the sins of the whole world was satisfied in his suffering and death.
John 3:16
“For God love the world (the whole human race) in this way, he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
God's righteousness is directly connected to his love. There is a line in the The Christmas hymn “Joy to the world” that goes like this:
“He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of this righteousness and wonders of his love.”
God remains completely righteous by finding a righteous substitute for unrighteous humanity and show off his love by doing it! This is the love of God! At his own expense, the expense of his only Son's life. Jesus gave up his life so we might have life in him. God's love is self-giving. Self-sacrificing. Life-giving, redeeming, and rescuing. He is so powerful that even the evil that happens to us God can change into something good.
Romans 5:6-11
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Col 2:13
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”
The connection between God's righteous standard and God's love which solves the problem of unrighteousness brought me back to the manger, where Jesus was born and all his work was still potential and not actual. Jesus in the manger is an invitation to trust him to keep working out this salvation, to continue to rescue the human race from the sin and death. He can do it. He is doing it. He will not stop until he is satisfied.
There is a line in the familiar hymn, “This is My Father’s Word” that goes like this:
This is my Father’s world,
Oh, let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world,
The battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.
Join me in this responsive reading from Colossians 1:15-23
I’ll read first:
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
People: He will be called Everlasting Father
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
People: He will be called Mighty God
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven,
People: He will be called Wonderful Counselor
By making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
People: He will be called Prince of Peace
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.
In the midst of gloom and distress, live by faith, hold on to the hope of the gospel.
“The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.”
Have you seen the light of life in Jesus Christ?
He has broken the yoke of the oppressor, set us free from sin and death, the government is on His shoulders, not on the US constitution or any other government, it's on him. He will make good on his potential.
1 John 3: 1-2
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
Evil people will continue to hate us and hurt us. Jesus said “they hated me, they will hate you.” “In this life You will have trouble; but take hearts I have overcome the world.”
John continues verse 2
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”
That's how you escape the effects of evil. Live in the love and hope of Jesus.
Even though you suffer. Even though life gets tough and messy. Or just plain wrong. Jesus is this powerful, almighty, righteous, loving God-with-us God. God's love will accomplish it.
At the table, we come to Emmanuel, we come to God-with-us and remember his instructions on the night that he was betrayed. Jesus knows all about betrayal.
Jesus took bread and broke it so everyone who have enough, and said “this is my body given for you. Take eat and remember me.”
In the same way, so everyone would have enough, he took the cup and said, this is the new covenant in my blood, that means God promises to keep his promise to you, to cleanse you, to heal you, to give you power to overcome the evil that still resides in your life. He will write his laws on your heart, and he will remember your sins no more.
We are safe as sinners in the hands of a loving God because in his presence we won't stay a sinner. God commended his love toward us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
Jesus is the God-with-us God.
If you want to feel close to God, embrace the baby, kiss the face of God.
If you know you are a sinner, look on the cross and see love, no use hiding. See Jesus suffering in your place, receive the forgiveness of your sins, receive the compassion and kindness God pours out for you, he knows you are just human, like dust, Its God's kindness that leads you to repentance
If you want out of your problems look at the resurrected Jesus, the King, the Ruler of the nations, though the wrong is oft so strong, Jesus is the ruler yet, it's not the end of the story. Trust him, follow him, and all things will be made right when he is comes again.
Come to receive the elements as you are ready. And receive the love of God in Christ Jesus.
