Year C Fourth Sunday of Advent 23 December 2012
Michah 5:2-5a Luke 1:47-55 Hebrews 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)
I wrote a Christmas song some years ago with the words; “I could wish you joy and peace and love eternally, but don’t you realize what a futile wish that would be? Joy and peace and love is there, has been and will be… what I wish, my prayer for you is your eyes opened to see….”
We’ve reached the fourth Sunday in Advent and hopefully we are all prepared to celebrate the incarnation, where God became flesh. I say this with a grin, because I suspect many of you are like me and so busy with the organizational that you probably just wish you could go on a nice quiet retreat and reflect on this truth.
We’ve heard the story each year. We know the readings of Advent. We know what it has meant in our lives in the past, but what does it mean for us right now? How does it impact our lives today?
Micah 5:4-5a “He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be our peace…”
Many times we’ve heard that God’s care for his people is like a shepherd with his flock. It isn’t like in modern Australian sheep farming, this kind of shepherd knew their flock and bonded with their flock in a way such that the shepherd could say, “my sheep know my voice…”
First question: Are we so bonded with our shepherd that we recognize his voice?
Mary was a young lady who knew the voice of God. We realize this by her declarations about God. She rejoiced in God and acknowledged him as her saviour. She knew that he is mindful of the humble, that he feeds the hungry, and that his mercy extends from generation to generations of those who fear him. She declared that he keeps his promises.
It must have been a frightening and exciting thing for Mary to realize that she had a part in the promise keeping of God. There would have been so many challenges for her as an expectant mother whose child didn’t belong to the man to which she was betrothed. I honestly don’t think I could have said, “yes” to the will of God as she did. But then again, sometimes it isn’t until we are placed in certain positions that we realize the strength with which God has gifted us.
What does it mean for us, that God keeps his promises? He has promised to come again. Do we acknowledge this reality and live our lives accordingly? All of our lives are a testimony to our beliefs….. or our doubts.
One of the gifts that God had given to Mary was a cousin who was also carrying a child whose conception was due to miraculous circumstances. The confirmation of Mary’s role in the salvation of humanity was declared by Elizabeth.
Luke 1:41-45 “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Once again we are reminded that there was a sure promise to be fulfilled and an exhortation that there is a blessing for those who believe.
Which begs the question; What does it mean to believe?
After researching a little I discovered that the Greek word which is translated as “believe” in the Bible is a verb. This implies that to believe is an action, as opposed to a passive mental agreement.
The implication for us is that if we believe the message of Christ then our whole lives should be a testament to our belief.
To believe in the message of Jesus means that we adhere to his words, we trust in him, cling to him and rely on him. Mary, who believed that God would fulfill his promise, would surely have experience great anguish, in the many different times and with all the consequences of the promise. There was an escape to Egypt that happened in the night to escape Herod’s decree to kill all the baby boys and who knows how many other trials in the explaining to Joseph and her family about the circumstances of her condition. Yet Mary clung to, trusted in and relied on God…. She believed…. What else could she do?
But why do we believe? What is the purpose of our belief?
In our culture we often miss the message of salvation. We live with so many privileges and with so many good things. We have our faith in doctors to heal us, our government to provide for us, our legal system to keep us safe etc… we live in the here and now and rarely think about eternity unless we experience death and even then we mourn our loss and rarely think beyond to discover the complete salvation of God.
We are not the hungry or the humble in need of lifting up. We are all pretty well taught in self-promotion and probably generation x and y better than any previous generations.
Every now and then amidst the lavishness of our lives we spot our inability to control our lives and an inability to achieve and succeed and these things are a blessing in disguise, because then we just may turn our thoughts to God.
We might often feel that we are good enough for our friends and family, but in a time of failure we will realize that we are not really that good after all. And if we aren’t good enough for family and friends, how can we possibly be good enough to be accepted by God?
A barren woman, Elizabeth, felt the rejection of a society that valued mother-hood. She knew that she found acceptance by God, not because of any goodness in her – she was like a blemished lamb – not fit for the sacrifice offered to God. But Elizabeth experienced the mercy and grace of God.
We too, all have our imperfections. Though our society strives to justify our imperfections and normalize sin, the Israelites in the time of Mary and Elizabeth, were surrounded by rejection that reminded them of their fallen state. Certain places in the temple were for men only… how could a woman find the love and acceptance of God.
Those who can acknowledge their failure are those who can acknowledge their need for a saviour. The Israelites had a way of acknowledging their failure and finding acceptance by God. In many ways it mirrored the religions of those around them and required animal sacrifices to take away sin and make them acceptable to God. Modern people reading about this system find it quite crazy, but that is the system understood by the people. God used this understanding and then brought about a revelation that changed history.
Hebrews 10:8-10 “First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Jesus completely and perfectly fulfilled the will of God and he sets aside the system of sacrifices for the atonement for sin, because he completed it…. He finished it. He makes it very clear that his one sacrifice of himself was once for all.
But what does it mean for us? We know that Christ died for our sins once and for all, but how does it affect us now? Do we believe it, and is our life a testament to the amazing Good News that so few seem to fully grasp?
We have been made holy.
Ah… so you see, each time we realize our failure and we realize that we do not deserve the love and acceptance of God we can stop right there and thank God. REMEMBER this little phrase, “We have been made holy”.
Here is true freedom. What are the implications of this fact?
We have been made holy. What a celebration of life to know that we have unconditional acceptance and approval by God. I know that some have stopped me in the past because this unconditional acceptance and approval by God just seems too good to be true. But from all that I read and understand of God, this is the message I find loud and clear….
This holiness is not conditional on anything that we do, but only on what Christ did.
So…. I could wish you joy and peace and love eternally, but don’t you realize what a futile wish that would be? Joy and peace and love is there, has been and will be… what I wish, my prayer for you is your eyes opened to see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FXQPRLc40o
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Readings for 2nd Week in Advent
JUST CALL ME JOHN!
Luke 3:6 "And all people will see God's salvation"
Lately I've come to realize that I'm a bit "strung out". The signs of that, are that I seem unable to cope with things going wrong.... and things DO go wrong. So what has this got to do with this weeks readings?
Malachai 3:2-3 " But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,"
As we travel through this Advent season, preparing for Christmas, we not only remember and celebrate the coming of the Lord as the baby Jesus, but we recall that He will come again. We remind ourselves that we have a faith that is alive and happening, something with a promise for the future and not just a past story which serves as a moral guide.
Most of us don't spend too much time thinking about this future aspect of Christ's coming and just a few actually really look forward to it, which always amuses me, because of the verses of scripture, such as this one from Malachai, which are very clear that there is a refining process. I tend to think a refiners fire will be anything but comfortable!
So here I am, complaining about every little thing that goes wrong. How would I ever stand up to the refiners fire? I can tell you now exactly how..... I'll grumble and complain like crazy, just like now, not realizing that the hand of God is behind it all.
Phillipians 1:3-6 "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
We are all a work in progress. One of the aspects that I love about scripture prophecy is that they have an application for the Messianic period (the time of Jesus on earth year 0-33 AD approx.) aswell as for end times and as well as for the contemporary situation.
We are being refined as we speak (read / write). There are people and situations in our lives that are preparing us for the coming of Jesus. We could call them "John". It was the role of John the Baptist to be the messenger of God to prepare the way for the Lord, but in our lives there is another with the role that John had. We can sometimes be like the Pharisees and not see. Some would say that they refused to see that John was that great prophet, but in reality it was way more complicated than that.
The Pharisees were the religious people who knew the scriptures. They knew them so well and were very comfortable with how they opperated in their own tradition, but when someone was a little different.... well it just didn't seem like it was God talking. These people knew the law of God, the Torah, and they saw themselves as the authority on how to have your sins forgiven and live a godly life. The law required sacrifices for sin to make atonement. I have no doubt they thought the baptism of John was superflous and unnecessary... and undermining their ministry.
I would imagine the ministry of John irritated the pharisees. Do you know of anyone or thing that irritates you? Perhaps there is a message in the irratation that will actually help prepare you for the coming of the Lord???
The Pharisees were the "keepers" of the law. Who was John?
John was the son of a Priest. He was born under miraculous circumstances and he was a prophet. In fact John's very name was prophetic and stands in vast contrast to the role of the Pharisees. When John was named, the people were surprised that he wasn't named after his father, but his father was told what to name him - THEREFORE, his very name was part of the message of God that John would herald. John means "God is gracious".
Luke 3:2-3 "during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
The Pharisees had prescribed sacrifices for sin atonement, but John came preaching that the people needed to repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of sin. Can you understand why the Pharisees were suspicious of John?
The baptism of John was a call to "change your mind". The Greek word for repent means to "change your mind". This means that those who heard John's message were convinced that they were sinners and needed to be "washed" clean. Although this wasn't something usually done by the Jews for forgiveness of sins, ritual washing was something cultural, and required for certain circumstances and understood as a sign of the covenant with God.
As Christians, our denominational disagreements over the aspects of baptism show that our understanding is limited.
To understand the message that John proclaimed we need to look at the prophecy of his father:
Luke 1:76-79 "And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
We know that John was a prophet who prepared the way for the ministry of Jesus. There is something to be said about this also. How many of us perform some ministry simply as preparation for someone else to build on?
John began the message of the forgiveness of sins because of the tender mercy of God. Although John is usually portrayed as a confrontational kind of person, his message was about the grace and love of God.
The grace of God would come like the rising sun shining on those living in darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death. The valley of the shadow of death is the reality of our condition under the law. These people knew the commandments and knew that they sinned. Having God's law revealed to them, had meant that they were aware of the many ways in which they failed to keep the law. Sadly, like many Christians today, although the love of God had also been revealed to them, the people lived with the knowlege that they were separated from God by sin.
St Paul writes about the Law: Romans 7:10 "I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death."
Sadly, as I said, there are many Christians who have not grasped the Good News of God's salvation. They've heard it, but haven't fully understood it.
Most of us live with the understanding that if you are good enough, you make the grade and if you are not - you fail, you lose. We transfer this to our relationship with God. EVEN, when we know that Christ died for our sins, and we accept his salvation, we then go back to trying to earn his favour. This is what it actually means to fall from GRACE!
Galations 5:4 "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace.
NOW, here is the GOOD NEWS, and the message of the Gospel this week: "John" - God is gracious. Grace meaning, undeserved favour.
Oh... but there is more fantastic news: The refiner's fire is already at work in our lives. The Holy Spirit is "a" coming of Jesus and almost unconsciously the Holy Spirit is refining us through our everyday circumstances.... even when we grumble about it.
The Holy Spirit is a "John" in our lives. It is a message of God's grace. When the refiner refines, he does it! The object being refined does nothing but does become purified in the refiners hand.
Undeserved favour means we have God's attention as if we were His only child. To begin this process we acknowledged that we are sinners in need of forgiveness and unable to help ourselves - We accepted the salvation of Jesus Christ. To continue the process we continue to acknowledge that we are sinners in need of forgiveness and unable to help ourselves. As soon as we think we can help God out by keeping the law by ourselves we fall from Grace and straight into heresy and walk again in the valley of the shadow of death... maybe into death itself.
In our lives we have the Holy Spirit preparing us, but we are called to also prepare the way for others. Not by telling them to keep God's law, because that would mean we are just a new version of the Pharisees. We prepare the way for Christ's second coming for others by being "John" - declaring that God is gracious and full of tender mercy. Yes this does mean that people need to change their mind about their need for God - they need to realize that we all are sinners, but there is very Good News; God is gracious.
I want to leave you with one more thought. I would like you to imagine that these are the prophetic words said to you:
Luke 1:76-79 "And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Luke 3:6 "And all people will see God's salvation"
Lately I've come to realize that I'm a bit "strung out". The signs of that, are that I seem unable to cope with things going wrong.... and things DO go wrong. So what has this got to do with this weeks readings?
Malachai 3:2-3 " But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,"
As we travel through this Advent season, preparing for Christmas, we not only remember and celebrate the coming of the Lord as the baby Jesus, but we recall that He will come again. We remind ourselves that we have a faith that is alive and happening, something with a promise for the future and not just a past story which serves as a moral guide.
Most of us don't spend too much time thinking about this future aspect of Christ's coming and just a few actually really look forward to it, which always amuses me, because of the verses of scripture, such as this one from Malachai, which are very clear that there is a refining process. I tend to think a refiners fire will be anything but comfortable!
So here I am, complaining about every little thing that goes wrong. How would I ever stand up to the refiners fire? I can tell you now exactly how..... I'll grumble and complain like crazy, just like now, not realizing that the hand of God is behind it all.
Phillipians 1:3-6 "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
We are all a work in progress. One of the aspects that I love about scripture prophecy is that they have an application for the Messianic period (the time of Jesus on earth year 0-33 AD approx.) aswell as for end times and as well as for the contemporary situation.
We are being refined as we speak (read / write). There are people and situations in our lives that are preparing us for the coming of Jesus. We could call them "John". It was the role of John the Baptist to be the messenger of God to prepare the way for the Lord, but in our lives there is another with the role that John had. We can sometimes be like the Pharisees and not see. Some would say that they refused to see that John was that great prophet, but in reality it was way more complicated than that.
The Pharisees were the religious people who knew the scriptures. They knew them so well and were very comfortable with how they opperated in their own tradition, but when someone was a little different.... well it just didn't seem like it was God talking. These people knew the law of God, the Torah, and they saw themselves as the authority on how to have your sins forgiven and live a godly life. The law required sacrifices for sin to make atonement. I have no doubt they thought the baptism of John was superflous and unnecessary... and undermining their ministry.
I would imagine the ministry of John irritated the pharisees. Do you know of anyone or thing that irritates you? Perhaps there is a message in the irratation that will actually help prepare you for the coming of the Lord???
The Pharisees were the "keepers" of the law. Who was John?
John was the son of a Priest. He was born under miraculous circumstances and he was a prophet. In fact John's very name was prophetic and stands in vast contrast to the role of the Pharisees. When John was named, the people were surprised that he wasn't named after his father, but his father was told what to name him - THEREFORE, his very name was part of the message of God that John would herald. John means "God is gracious".
Luke 3:2-3 "during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
The Pharisees had prescribed sacrifices for sin atonement, but John came preaching that the people needed to repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of sin. Can you understand why the Pharisees were suspicious of John?
The baptism of John was a call to "change your mind". The Greek word for repent means to "change your mind". This means that those who heard John's message were convinced that they were sinners and needed to be "washed" clean. Although this wasn't something usually done by the Jews for forgiveness of sins, ritual washing was something cultural, and required for certain circumstances and understood as a sign of the covenant with God.
As Christians, our denominational disagreements over the aspects of baptism show that our understanding is limited.
To understand the message that John proclaimed we need to look at the prophecy of his father:
Luke 1:76-79 "And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
We know that John was a prophet who prepared the way for the ministry of Jesus. There is something to be said about this also. How many of us perform some ministry simply as preparation for someone else to build on?
John began the message of the forgiveness of sins because of the tender mercy of God. Although John is usually portrayed as a confrontational kind of person, his message was about the grace and love of God.
The grace of God would come like the rising sun shining on those living in darkness and in the valley of the shadow of death. The valley of the shadow of death is the reality of our condition under the law. These people knew the commandments and knew that they sinned. Having God's law revealed to them, had meant that they were aware of the many ways in which they failed to keep the law. Sadly, like many Christians today, although the love of God had also been revealed to them, the people lived with the knowlege that they were separated from God by sin.
St Paul writes about the Law: Romans 7:10 "I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death."
Sadly, as I said, there are many Christians who have not grasped the Good News of God's salvation. They've heard it, but haven't fully understood it.
Most of us live with the understanding that if you are good enough, you make the grade and if you are not - you fail, you lose. We transfer this to our relationship with God. EVEN, when we know that Christ died for our sins, and we accept his salvation, we then go back to trying to earn his favour. This is what it actually means to fall from GRACE!
Galations 5:4 "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace.
NOW, here is the GOOD NEWS, and the message of the Gospel this week: "John" - God is gracious. Grace meaning, undeserved favour.
Oh... but there is more fantastic news: The refiner's fire is already at work in our lives. The Holy Spirit is "a" coming of Jesus and almost unconsciously the Holy Spirit is refining us through our everyday circumstances.... even when we grumble about it.
The Holy Spirit is a "John" in our lives. It is a message of God's grace. When the refiner refines, he does it! The object being refined does nothing but does become purified in the refiners hand.
Undeserved favour means we have God's attention as if we were His only child. To begin this process we acknowledged that we are sinners in need of forgiveness and unable to help ourselves - We accepted the salvation of Jesus Christ. To continue the process we continue to acknowledge that we are sinners in need of forgiveness and unable to help ourselves. As soon as we think we can help God out by keeping the law by ourselves we fall from Grace and straight into heresy and walk again in the valley of the shadow of death... maybe into death itself.
In our lives we have the Holy Spirit preparing us, but we are called to also prepare the way for others. Not by telling them to keep God's law, because that would mean we are just a new version of the Pharisees. We prepare the way for Christ's second coming for others by being "John" - declaring that God is gracious and full of tender mercy. Yes this does mean that people need to change their mind about their need for God - they need to realize that we all are sinners, but there is very Good News; God is gracious.
I want to leave you with one more thought. I would like you to imagine that these are the prophetic words said to you:
Luke 1:76-79 "And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”