DISCOVER THE WONDER
INTRODUCTION
Let’s have a little fun together...
-I want each of you to think of a number between 1-9.
-Now multiply that number by nine.
-Add the digits of your answer together (if 35, 3 + 5 = 8).
-Now subtract five.
-Now if A=1, B=2, C=3 etc., what letter is represented by the number you have now?
-Now think of a country beginning with that letter.
-Next think of a mammal beginning with the LAST letter of that country.
-Next think of a fruit beginning with the LAST letter of that animal.
So you all started out with different numbers, and now you’re thinking of a country, an animal and a fruit. Let me see if I can read someone’s mind out there... This doesn’t make much sense... There aren’t many kangaroos living in Denmark who eat oranges, are there?
Were you surprised? Maybe just a little bit amazed?
(NOTE: approx. 98% will have that answer. Only 2% will come up with different answers. Some may have a Koala in Denmark who likes apples. An even smaller number will have picked one of two other “D” countries, like Dominican Republic or Djibouti.)
That’s one of the things I’ve always enjoyed about magic. That sense of surprise — that “How did he do that?” feeling.
Magic tricks catch us off guard, and when they’re done really well by a master, they can leave us with a sense of wonder or amazement... and maybe even awe. But in the end we know it’s really just a trick — all smoke and mirrors — and if we knew the secret, we wouldn’t be all that amazed.
Take a moment and think about a time when you felt a genuine sense of awe and wonder...
-maybe it was gazing up into a star-filled sky
-contemplating the beauty of creation
-the power of a storm
-the grandeur of a sunset
-the delicate nature of as rose
-the intricacies of a snowflake
-or the miracle of birth
This morning I’d like to suggest to you that a fundamental doorway into the experience of God is AWE.
The Psalmist once put it this way...
"LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what are mere mortals that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Psalm 8:1;3;4;9 (TNIV)
Awe and wonder opens our eyes to the full reality of God’s presence.
But awe is also something that’s vanishing from our culture... Mystery is out — certainty is in. Let’s face it, these are uncertain times. We all face the unpredictable and the unknown... so we want certainty — concrete knowledge and stability. We want it tasted, touched, felt, and measured.
But with that desire we’ve paid a price. Listen to one writer explaining this predicament...
“The trouble is that there is usually in our society nothing to wonder about any more. You don’t often find wonder present in most churches either. After all, what is there to wonder about? Why should there be any mystery in the average congregation? We know all about God.
“We’ve got God all figured out, because we know our Bibles so well. We study and listen to sermons — in person and by means of cassette. We read books that explain what God and the Christian life are all about. We’ve outlined the Bible, analyzed God and the history of the ages. What can therefore, illicit wonder in our lives?
“Furthermore, we live a space age, and have watched rockets and space shuttles take off and return. We’ve witnessed man walk on the moon. Thanks to TV documentaries, we’ve seen everything from the conception of a baby to the eruption of a volcano. We’ve watched flowers grow; fish spawn; and stars become super novas. There’s no more mystery.”
You’ve had that feeling right? “Been there, done that, even bought the T-Shirt.” One study of life in America found the most common feeling among Americans is: boredom. That’s right — the people living on earth with the most choices and opportunities, we yawn our way though life. “Been there, done that.”
But the truth is that we were created for wonder... for life in a far greater story. And fairy-tales and fantasies are reflections of those deep human longings.
For centuries humans have thirsted for fantasylands — places of mystery and adventure. And storytelling is the one form of communication that has transcended all generations and cultures. We hunger for other worlds; to go beyond our familiar streets into the land of tales — whether it’s “Through the Looking Glass”, over the rainbow to Oz; into Middle-Earth, off to Hogwarts, or to a galaxy far, far away. We want to know that there’s something beyond, that there is something out there.
And what we’re really longing for is God, our Maker; and to be a part of His greater story.
That’s what C. S. Lewis understood as he wrote "The Chronicles of Narnia", and his fantasy-story provides a window into the “something more” of real faith.
In their book, "Finding God in the Land of Narnia", Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware explain it this way...
“With the possible exception of J.R.R. Tolkien, no twentieth-century author more masterfully married the enchantment of fantasy with the enrichment of faith. The Narnia stories are like a meal with the nourishment of meat and vegetables but the taste of cake and candy. Both the dreams of fairyland and the promise of heaven invade the imagination at the same time, baptizing it with wonderful and unexpected effects.
“In ’The Chronicles’, you will find the story of what might happen if there was another world created by God, alongside our own. A magical world where some animals had been given the power of speech. And what if that world had also been invaded by sin and had fallen under sin’s power. And what if God’s Son entered that world, just as He has ours, for the purpose of redeeming it... Lewis created a fantasy world that depicts the central theme of our real world – redemption through the incarnate God’s death and resurrection. The magical part is that this mythical Christ somehow draws us ever deeper to the real.”
So for the rest our time together, I’d like to invite you to rediscover that innate sense of awe, wonder and childlike faith which Jesus said was necessary to really grasp the reality of God’s greater story.
It’s that kind of simple childlike faith that prompted C.S. Lewis to pen his classic "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe". In that story, which has just been released as a holiday motion picture by Walt Disney, four children — Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter — live in World War II England and have been sent the rural country home of an elderly professor for safety. During a game of “hide and seek”, the youngest, Lucy, opens up a wardrobe looking for a place to hide. But instead of finding a place to hide, the wardrobe opens up to her something totally unexpected. An alternate world that coexists alongside her own, yet totally unseen and unknown by others. As she steps into the Wardrobe, she actually steps into the unseen and unknown world of “Narnia”.
Now while Narnia is fictional, the Bible tells us that there actually IS such a thing as an Unseen World, filled with awe and wonder.
So let’s look together at...
THREE ESSENTIALS FOR RECOVERING... A W E
And the first is this...
• AWAKEN TO GOD’S GREATER REALITY
What if a Wardrobe really existed? What if there actually was a portal through which we could step into an unseen world that exists simultaneous with ours?
I know what some of you are thinking right now... “The Pastor’s been watching the Sci-Fi Channel a little bit too much, again”. But before you dismiss the idea of an actual Wardrobe, I’d like to suggest to you that there’s more to this world than what meets the eye.
Now many people today would ask. “Where’s the proof? How can these facts be verified?” We don’t know if we can believe it without seeing it.”
Over past 100 years we’ve become people who don’t believe that there’s anything that exists that can’t be seen or touched, heard, tasted or smelled.
But people haven’t always been that way. In fact, up to 18th century, all great thinkers believed that the really valuable things were all unseen. In fact the goal for most of our ancestors was to try to bring their life into conformity with that unseen world. But then somebody pulled a great switch, and began to say nothing exists but that which is material— that which we can see, hear, taste, feel, or smell. And now goal of life is to bring that material world to us in such a way that it makes us happy.
Yet there’s still something of our ancestors in us; isn’t there? Aren’t we still open to idea that things exist that can’t be seen? In fact, right now in this room there are many things we can’t touch, see, feel or taste, but they’re real. Can you think of one?
-Sound waves. Can you see them, or touch them? No, but if we had radio, we could turn it on and all of sudden pick up that which is unseen but very real.
-There are light waves in here can’t see. Human beings can only see about 30% of spectrum of light. But if a hummingbird were here, that hummingbird could see more of spectrum that’s invisible to us.
Now some may be thinking: “Yes but we could see these things if had right technology.” But there are things in here we can’t see no matter what technology we have.
For example there’s love in here; and can’t see love, can you?
Someone might counter, “Yes but I can see the effects of love; results of love. I can’t see love, but I can see husband reach across and take his wife’s hand. Or mother hug child. Or see people caring for each other— I can see results of love.” ‘“I can’t see the wind but I can see the tree blow.”
Friends, that’s exactly way historic Christianity has argued for the existence of God and the spiritual world. You can’t see God but you can see the effects, the results— His fingerprints are all over the place. Scripture tells us that there is a whole unseen reality and that within this reality are found ultimate questions that really matter.
The Christian faith makes a bold and unapologetic claim to be supernatural faith. It claims that Creator of the Universe made personal visitation and appeared on this earth, born to a virgin. This God-become-man named Jesus lived perfect life, then died for our sins, then rose from the dead. Then He went back to be with His Father, and one day He will return and make everything right.
That’s a supernatural message, and it’s a wonder!
The Scriptures proclaim...
"Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom." Psalm 145:3 (NIV)
As the old black spiritual put it...
“I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus, the Savior, did come for to die.
For poor, ornery people like you and like I
I wonder as I wander out under the sky.”
The Christian faith states there’s spiritual world that exists in reality in same way our physical world exists in reality. And during the events of the first Christmas those two worlds came together in the person of Jesus— Emmanuel, God with us.
But you and I stuck in our physical worlds aren’t we? The world of jobs and bills, cars that don’t start, and holiday lines at stores... So it’s not unexpected that our celebration of Christmas will tend toward natural rather than supernatural.
We’ll go shopping, go to parties, send Christmas cards, buy trees, string lights, open presents, argue with our in-laws, and eat lots of food. But the chances are won’t be running into any angels, or any pregnant virgins, or any shepherds that have seen them.
Yet we still long for that supernatural world don’t we? There’s something in us that reaches out from our souls for that something more. We shouldn’t be surprised at that longing because Bible teaches us that we have been created in image of God. There is this mark of God in our souls...
In Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes we’re reminded that…
"God has set eternity in the human heart..." Ecclesiastes 3:11 (TNIV)
There’s something about being a human being that stirs us toward the eternal.
Scripture sometimes refers to us as “strangers, foreigners, or nomads” looking for our true homeland. And no where does this longing for the eternal more powerfully draw us than in the wonder of Christmas story where the supernatural world met the natural world in stable in Bethlehem.
This Christmas season, let’s be willing to step through the Wardrobe and awaken to God’s greater reality.
Another essential is that we...
• WITHSTAND THE PULL TO REDUCE GOD
There will always be a temptation to make God less than He really is. But the one true God can’t be boxed-in to our personal plans, or forced to get in line with our individual interests.
There are lots of ways we can make God less than who he is... but there are two I’d like to highlight...
-Too often we “Shrink Wrap” God.
We take what we know and understand about God, and we wrap Him up in a cocoon of our own understanding. As I mentioned earlier, we’ve sometimes acted like we’ve got God all figured out, because we know our Bibles so well.
But the Christian life isn’t a puzzle to be solved; it’s a mystery to be lived. Listen to how Paul expressed it:
"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever!" Romans 11:33-34; 36 (NIV)
-Sometimes we also “Freeze Dry” God
For some Christians God’s story has stopped. God has done all that God is going to do, and God’s voice is freeze-dried in the Bible. The problem with freeze-dried stories is the same with anything that has the living water drained out of it: They taste terrible and crumble when you hold them tightly.
The Bible says, “Unto us as Son is given” It doesn’t say: “Unto us a Law is laid down” or “Unto us these teachings are handed down.” The Bible points us to a living relationship, not a set of stale, lifeless rules. Being a Christian is more about relationship with God than beliefs about God. It’s more about knowing God’s activities than just knowing God’s attributes.
And Scripture tells us that whenever we “Shrink Wrap” or “Freeze Dry” God, it’s actually idolatry because we’ve re-created God in our image.
The prophet Habakkuk asks this question, which is as relevant today as it was centuries ago...
"Of what value is an idol that someone has carved? Or an image that teaches lies? For those who make them trust in their own creations…" Habakkuk 2:18 (TNIV)
If we desire to recover a sense of awe in our relationship with God, we must withstand the pull to reduce God down to our size or understanding.
Finally, if we want to step through the Wardrobe and regain our sense of awe, we must...
• EMBRACE THE MYSTERY OF AN “AWE-FULL” FAITH
Real faith is full of awe, and the Christian faith is mysterious to the core.
Now most of us think of mystery in terms of a television show or a novel or a film in which the mystery is solved at the end. Often right before the credits we find out who did it. So the mystery gets solved and our questions get answered.
But the Bible has an entirely different understanding of mystery. True mystery, rooted in the infinite nature of God, gives us answers that actually plunge us into even more questions!
Truth always leads to more truth. Because truth is insight into God and God is infinite and has no boundaries or edges.
It’s like a pool you dive into, and you start swimming toward the bottom, and soon you discover that no matter how hard and fast you swim downward, the pool keeps getting deeper. The bottom will always be out of reach.
As another author puts it, “If you study the Bible and it doesn’t lead you to wonder and awe, then you haven’t studied the Bible.
The Psalmist puts it this way...
"Let everyone in the world fear the LORD, and let everyone stand in awe of him." Psalm 33:8 (NLT)
Now that concept of “fearing the Lord” may sound strange, or at least old-fashioned: What in the world does that mean?
C.S. Lewis offers some light on this in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"... The children are on their way to meet the great lion Aslan. A husband and wife are guiding them, and Lucy says, “I feel rather nervous about meeting Aslan.” The wife says, “That you will, dearie, make no mistake. If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.” Lucy then says, “Then he isn’t safe?” “Safe,” says the husband, “Don’t you hear anything my wife tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe... but he’s good.”
They are right to fear Aslan the lion, because he isn’t safe and tame. But there’s the other side of it... he is good.
It’s the same way with God. The fear of the Lord is the understanding that he is way bigger than we are, and the reverence and awe that goes along with that.
It’s what author Mike Yacconelli writes about in his book "Dangerous Wonder", when he asks:
“How did we end up so comfortable with God? How did our awe of God get reduced to a lukewarm appreciation of God? How did God become a pal instead of a heart-stopping presence? How can we think of Jesus without remembering His ground-shaking, thunder-crashing, stormy exit on the cross? Why aren’t we continually catching our breath and saying, ‘This is no ordinary God!’?”
And this kind of awe, seeing the God of biblical proportions, opens a passageway into the reality of an authentic faith.
CONCLUSION
You know, so many other things have come to define Christmas in our culture that the true meaning of it, the thing that really matters — the supernatural truth that God has appeared on earth in Jesus— can been forgotten. Well this is nothing new. It’s been said many times before — Christmas has been commercialized. But a great problem than Christmas being commercialized is that Christmas has been trivialized.
Of greater concern than the commercialization of Christmas is the trivialization of Christmas.
Christmas should be a time when we discover the wonder and embrace the awe of what God has done and is still doing as Emmanuel — God with us.
It’s my hope that through noise of this Christmas season, God will whisper that wonderful truth to you... that there’s more than meets the eye. Life is a bigger adventure that we ever expected. And the full meaning of your life is not to be found only here... in this world. This Christmas, take a look in the Wardrobe...
Let’s pray together...
RESOURCES USED AND QUOTED IN THIS MESSAGE:
"Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell
"Finding God in the Land of Narnia" by Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware
"Out of the Question... into the Mystery" by Leonard Sweet
"Dangerous Wonder" by Mike Yaconelli
...with additional thanks to other SermonCentral Narnia submissions.
