Remembering Advent 2014

As I make time to reflect on the meaning of Advent 2015, my mind returns to Advent 2014. Nancy and I were driving south along I-85. The rhythmic thwap-thwap-thwap of the tires rolling over the asphalt grew mind-numbing, so we turned on the radio and scanned for something worthwhile to listen to on a Sunday afternoon. That’s when we came across a preacher – a Baptist, we learned at the end of his message. He was in the middle of his sermon.

There was nothing erudite about his sermon. But oh! What he said immediately captured and then held our attention.

“Thank God for Jesus.”  He repeated those words again and again during the several minutes we listened to him. 

Speaking of the first Advent, he reminded his congregation: “Jesus came as a baby and lived 33 years so that He could die for your sins and my sins.  Thank God for Jesus.”

He paused only a moment, and then continued, “He was glad to do what He did because of His great love for you and me.  Thank God for Jesus.” Then he asked his congregation, “Do you thank God for Jesus?”

A few voices in the background answered, ‘Amen.”

Then paraphrasing from chapter 16 of St. Matthew’s gospel, he said to his congregation, “Jesus asked the people, ‘Who do you say that I am?  And some said Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”  And then Jesus looked at His disciples and said: ‘But who do YOU say that I am?”

The preacher paused for emphasis before continuing: “Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of God."  And Jesus said to him, “You are blessed, Simon, son of John, because flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Father in heaven revealed it to you.”

Then he challenged his audience, “Is Jesus your Lord?"  He took a breath and continued, “Do you know of Jesus because your preacher told you about Jesus?  Do you know about Jesus because your parents told you about Jesus? Or do you know about Jesus because GOD told you about Jesus?"

”Do you thank God for Jesus?" he asked once again.

 

His sermon ended a few moments later.  Nancy and I turned off the radio, and for the next several miles talked about what we’d just heard. 

The simple preacher with a simple message reminded us of the very erudite St. Paul’s words to the church at Corinth: “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”  (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).

This Christmas, as we open the gifts set for us under the tree, may God help us – oh God, help us – help us reflect on the gift You gave us in Jesus. And, please Lord, this Advent and every day until the end of our days, help us to always say from our hearts:

“Thank God for Jesus.”

Why Mary?

Why did God choose Mary to bear His Son? What did He see in her that moved Him to select the Virgin to nurture, comfort, and educate the Savior of the world?

I think those are reasonable questions to ask, especially perhaps during the Advent season. Truth is, of course, we don’t know the answers. Scripture is silent. But we can infer several reasons from what Scripture does tell us.

First, Mary possessed courage. In first century Israel, unmarried pregnant girls were outcasts. Israelite culture considered sexual immorality a capital offense, punishable by stoning. That’s why the adulterous woman in St. John’s gospel (chapter 8) would have died had Jesus not intervened. Mary, knowing her unwed pregnancy would cost her reputation, probably her betrothal to Joseph, and perhaps even her life – nevertheless, laid herself at God’s feet and told the angel, “Be it done to me according to Your word.”

Mary knew Scripture. In an era when the culture didn’t consider it a priority to teach Scripture to girls, it's clear Mary read and memorized God’s word. Her adoration of God (Luke 1:46-55) is an example. She quotes or alludes to at least six Old Testament texts in those short eleven verses (1 Samuel 2:1-10, Psalm 34:2, Psalm 35:9, Psalm 98:1, Psalm 103:17, Psalm 107:9).

Mary also demonstrated humility. She could have told the angel, “You’re asking too much of me. Send someone else.” But instead, she answered, “May it be done to me . . .” In other words, she said not her will, but God’s. Not her plans, but His. Perhaps as she spoke, she remembered Solomon’s conclusion in Ecclesiastes, “The last word, when all is heard: Fear God and keep his commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Perhaps she remembered the Proverb, “Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30).

Further, Mary presented herself obedient to God. "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.” If Eve, the Mother of mankind, had answered God as Mary, and not disobeyed the Father’s commandment about the forbidden tree, salvation history would be different. But Eve disobeyed, and Mary, by her obedience, fixed what our first mother broke.

And finally, if there is a final word about the Theotokos (Greek for “God-bearer” or, “Birth-giver-of-God, or “Mother of God”) Mary didn’t model herself after the world, but let love for the Triune God transform her into a useful vessel for Him.

No wonder God chose her to carry and mother His Son. 

When Christians recite one of the earliest statements of Christian faith – the Nicene Creed – we declare, “by the Holy Spirit [Jesus] was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.” In so doing, we remember we can look to Mary as an example worthy of imitation of her obedience, humility, courage, purity and knowledge of God’s word. 

God chose the Virgin Mary to bring the God-Made-Flesh into the world. By imitating Jesus’ mother, we bring Him to our world.

But God

Advent can be a time to refocus our thoughts on God’s promises. This one from the ninth chapter of the prophet Isaiah holds special meaning for me: “But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish . . . . The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.”

I still remember when I stared into the face of my own darkness. September 17, 1972. In one of my rare reflective moments I cringed at the memories flooding my mind, memories of promises to God I’d broken. Memories of people – so many people – I’d hurt. Memories of my failures and cowardice and betrayals. I knew on September 17 my life was dark. But even then, I didn’t know how dark it really was.

At least twice over the preceding few years I’d told God I didn’t want Him in my life. I didn’t want His rules fettering my fun.

Fun. That’s what I called what I was doing. Using others for my own purposes. The lusts. The drugs. The drunkenness. My volatile temper and mean-spirited mouth. The ripples of my darkness, even 43 years later, still unsettle my life. I wonder if those ripples still influence the lives of those who crossed my path so many years ago.

But God. I love those two words when they appear in together in Scripture.

I was dead in darkness, but God’s incredible mercy and compassion overlooked my earlier rejections and once again shinned His light on my desperate need. Once again God offered me the way out of my despair. Only those who’ve known such darkness can know what it is like when God’s light illuminates the way out.

This time, unlike those other times in my life, this time when I saw His light, I followed it to Golgotha’s cross.

That is why Advent, for me, is a time for looking back – for looking back to the time when God sent His Son to a filthy manger to shine for me the way out of shame and remorse and gloom and anguish and darkness.

And that is why I am writing this reflection – to assure you on the authority of God’s promises, Advent can also be the same for you. All you need to do is agree with God about your own darkness, and ask Him to light your way out.   

And as He does for everyone who asks – He will shine the light for you on Golgotha’s cross.

Gun Control and the Elephant in the Room

The reason God may not fix this is not likely about gun control. It has to do with the proverbial elephant in the room. It is called national sin.

We kill one million (1,000,000) babies each year in American abortion clinics, and write laws to ensure the slaughter continues. We can’t even agree as a nation that selling baby parts is nothing short of what the Nazis were guilty of.

We have elevated sexual perversions to the law of the land. We gleefully substitute the almighty and holy God for gods of power, lust, fame, and money (we even had a TV show, “American Idol’).  We have voted for men and women for all kinds of political and judicial offices who openly mock God, who have voted to remove any mention of God in schools, or the market place.  We send our children to government schools where they are taught to mock God and promote various sexual sins.

I could go on and on.  So can you, I suspect.

Yet we like to think, in the midst of all our willful national sins, God will run to our aid?

Ancient Israel lived with a similar perverted notion of the holy God. They did exactly what we are doing, and they also expected God to deliver them. They learned a very hard lesson when He did not – although He has warned them again and again.

For example, 2 Chronicles 36: “15 The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; 16 but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy.”

One of the prophets Israel mocked was Jeremiah. Here is what God said through that prophet (chapter 7): “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, 10 then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—that you may do all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the Lord. . . .

13 And now, because you have done all these things,” declares the Lord, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer, 14 therefore . . . . I will cast you out of My sight  . . . .”

16 “As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you.”

I quoted only a small portion of this text in chapter 7 of Jeremiah, but I hope the point is clear enough. God’s patience is not without limit.

We talk too much of the love of God and of prayer to the nearly complete exclusion of His demand for our holiness.

In fact, speaking of God only with regard to His love, and not balancing that concept with the equally true concept of His holiness, judgment, and wrath is to simply repeat the ancient church heresy called Marcionism. You can read about that here:  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcionism

No, guns are not our problem in America. Our rejoicing in our sins is our problem.  And only when we turn our attention back to God in national repentance will our many problems be resolved.

Why We Say, "Merry Christmas!"

I am sure Joseph was confused. I suspect he was also angry. His beloved Mary was pregnant, and the child was not his.  But because he loved her, he would not disgrace her. Instead, he decided to send her away secretly.

Then Gabriel spoke to him: “[D]o not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” *

St. Matthew, quoting from the prophet Isaiah, then writes: "Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:  “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

Christmas is not at all about brightly wrapped packages under a decorative tree. Christmas is not about hot cocoa around the fireplace, and family gathered around a dinner table – although there is nothing wrong with any of these things.

The first Advent we celebrate at Christmastime is about the One who “was rich, yet for [our] sake He became poor, so that [we] through His poverty might become rich."

It’s about the One “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be [asserted], but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men."

It's about the One who though sinless, became “sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

It's about the One who “had to be made like [us] . . . so that He might . . . make [atonement] for the sins of the people.”

The first Advent had its supernatural beginning in the womb of the Virgin so her Son – fully human on His mother’s side, and fully God on His Father’s side – so that God-Made-Flesh could do what only the supernatural and sinless God could do: Pay the penalty your sins and mine deserve.

It is because of the first Advent, culminating on Golgotha’s cross and an empty tomb, that each sin-sick man, woman, and child who believes in Christ will not only receive forgiveness for their confessed sins, but also have eternal life.

Oh, think of it! Forgiveness and eternal life. THAT is why we say to one another, “Merry Christmas!”
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* Texts quoted in this essay are (in order of use) from: Matthew 1:20-21; Matthew 1:22-23; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:6-7; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 2:17

Immanuel

There are a few words in any language that have the power to change your life.  A spouse says “I want a divorce.” The physician says, “You have cancer.”  You answer the doorbell and the police officer tells you, “There’s been an accident.”

I was four when my mother sat me down on our black cushioned couch. It had flecks of silver threads throughout the fabric. She said to me, “Daddy told me he won’t be coming home anymore.”

You might not think those words would have a similar impact as those words in my first paragraph. But I remember them as clearly today as I did 61 years ago.

I didn’t know it at the time – how could I? – but God was with me when my mother spoke those words. I didn’t know He was with me because I couldn’t see Him. Or feel Him. But today, sixty-one years later, I know He was not in the shadows of our one-bedroom apartment. He was not sitting beside me on the couch. He was sitting with me in His lap, His arms tightly embracing me.

Through Isaiah, the Holy Spirit talked about the first Advent this way:  “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” 

Immanuel. The name means, “God with us.”

Whoever you are and whatever the words that have changed your life, you need to know “God with us” was with you then. And Immanuel is with you now.

Right this moment.

You don’t see Him. You don’t sense Him. But He is holding you in His lap. And His arms are embracing you.

You can trust that to be true because Jesus promised, “I will never leave you or forsake you. I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  And Jesus cannot lie.

Advent is a time when we make time to look back to the time God sent His son into our darkness and sorrow and emptiness and loss. Advent is a time we make time to look forward to the great day of the second Advent, when God returns for His own. And Advent is a time we make time to look at our present time with renewed confidence that “God with us” means whatever our life-situation, whatever the words that changed our life, God’s arms enfold us. Now.

This moment.

Always.