1st SCRIPTURE LESSON: Luke 1: 26-38
2nd SCRIPTURE LESSON: Matthew 1: 18-24
Sermon Dec. 15, 2024 Matt and Luke
Jesus
is born, for us. This is the first line
of Our Story (Capital S), Jesus was born for us.
Jesus was baptized for us.
Jesus lived for us.
Jesus died for us.
Jesus arose for us.
Jesus ascended for us.
Jesus prayed for us.
And where does God start with us?
In a season of peace and protection. For those of you who were with us
for the Cantata last Sunday, wasn’t it amazing?
It was for me, a moment that I hope was not too different from that Mary
and Joseph, from what the Shepherds, from what even the animals in the stable,
when Christ was born that night. The
power of God shone around them. It says
the shepherds were afraid, but I hope that we were not. I hope that we were able to revel in the
divine presence, to let the language of worship sing to us, to feel God’s
presence surrounding us. What an amazing
thing to simply come into the presence of God and wildly understate things by
saying “Wow”.
The
fact of the matter is that this presence of God did not just drop down onto
Bethlehem like some enormous inverted glass bowl of peace and delight. It was set in motion long before, before
Creation itself. Neither did it simply
drop into the laps of Mary and Joseph.
Promises were made to them of what was to come, promises that are made
to us today. Promises made by God through
an angel.
Notice
first what Gabriel said to Mary after he informed her that she was not only
going to be mother, but favored by God in this roll. An unwed mother, favored by God. But that’s another sermon. No, Gabe looked to the future. He said, He will be great, and will be
called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne
of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and
of his kingdom there will be no end.’
Jesus will be GREAT (Wonderful, the Mighty God). Jesus will be called the Son of the Most
High, upselling the usual language of the Son of God. It is a reminder of who God is, the power
behind what is to come. Jesus is to
receive from the Lord God the throne of his ancestor David. We could go on and on about David, the
beloved of God, the greatest king, closing thing to an emperor, the symbol of
freedom and independence in a world where God’s people have been conquered for
the last fourteen generations. Jesus
will reign over the house of Jacob for ever.
This fulfills a promise made that there would be an heir to sit on the
throne of David forever. But best of
all, for us at least, there will be no end to Jesus’ kingdom. Promise beyond
that we are a part of the joy and wonder to this day.
So,
dearest Mary, God is about to do something in your body that is going to rock
the world. But the words that Gabriel
spoke are not simply for Mary, but for all of us as well. This is the promise in the Dome of
Wonder. Why do we have Peace in this
moment? Because there is NO END to the
kingdom of Jesus. There is no end to the
power of Jesus. There is no end to the
Peace of Jesus.
This
is the promise of what is to come. Has
anyone here ever heard the expression that “It’s all about the process?” I think that means something like it’s about
the Journey and not the destination (I think).
Because what Gabriel offers to Mary (and to us) is not simply in the
prophecy of what is to come, but in the process of what is going to happen on
Christmas, in the present, in the here and now.
Hear these words,
Gabe said: ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most
High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he
will be called Son of God. So here
is something for us to consider. Before
Jesus, God did not have children. God
had God’s people. God had servants. God had those He was in covenant with. Keep up your end people and I will keep up
mine. But that all changed at Pentecost,
which, in Our Story, is when Jesus prays for us. The Holy Spirit came upon us, came upon the church. The power of the Most High overshadowed us,
overshadowed the church, and nothing was ever the same again. In this moment, Gabriel tells Mary that the
Holy Spirit will do the same, therefore the child to be born will be holy, he
will be called Son of God.
Follow me with
this, in the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Mary, Jesus will be called, will be
Son of God. We already know He will be
the Son of the Most High from the first part of Gabriel’s words. But how about this? In the coming of the Holy Spirit is the child
of God made. Maybe, just maybe, in that
moment of the promise of the Holy Spirit upon Mary, the Holy Spirit upon us is
that moment when we too became fully adopted children into God’s family. Not God’s people, not God’s servants, not
those God has covenanted with, but God’s family, a promotion from being God’s
creation to the order of being God’s family.
Yes, Jesus has
some more details to live into and prophecies to fulfill (spoiler alert, the
Season of Easter), but in this moment, Jesus redefines the relationship with
God for all people.
This is Mary,
but it not only to Mary that the angel of the Lord appears (although Gabriel is
not named in the gospel of Matthew, but then again, Gabriel appeared in person
to Mary, could be introductions are different when an angel comes in a vision). Joseph is the man who will raise the Son of
God on earth. Compared to Mary, we know
very little about him, beyond that he was a carpenter. Much has been supposed about him, but what we
do know is that, in this moment, he had the legal possibility to have Mary
brought out to a public trial and execution for adultery. Some might argue that under the law of Moses,
it was his responsibility to do so. But
that was not his way. He was going to
‘put her away quietly’. Maybe send her
to live with her Aunt Elizabeth whom Mary had just returned from. But the angel of the Lord has other words,
‘Joseph, son
of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived
in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you
are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’
And that was it,
the angel said it, Joseph believed. This
is all it took for Joseph to be convinced.
In verse 24 it says, When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel
of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife… God said it, Joseph was good with it. But, not forgetting his audience (us),
Matthew inserts a piece for we who are reading this, clarification for what God
has already spoken in the distant past-why Joseph believed.
2All
this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him
Emmanuel’, which means, ‘God is with us.’
We gain the full sweep of history in these two promises. With Mary, Gabriel looks forward to what
Jesus shall accomplish, who Jesus shall be, how, in the power of God, Jesus is
to achieve all of this. With Joseph, so
he will act in the present, the angel looks back, to the promises of the Old
Testament, of the Messiah whom God promised from the earliest chapters of
Scripture (Genesis 3 if you want to take a peek).
This is our
story. Jesus is born for us, from the
promises of what came before to the fulfillment of what is to come. This is God’s Word wrapped around us,
protecting us, fulfilling us when we come together to sing of Jesus’ birth,
when our children share with us the pageant of Jesus’ birth, when we join our
hearts and voices in the family service of lessons and carols. When we children of faith come to the manger
in this season, we come in the promises of God’s protection that shines around
us today.
In
one of my first sermons here, we considered the intersection of the law as
given to us in Christ Jesus, that we love God, with how we are to carry out
that law, with our very soul-strength, a place where our intellect, our
emotions, our desires, all find root, the very place where God’s soul, the Holy
Spirit, touches our own spirits. It is in that place where we contemplate. We don’t ‘do for God’, we exist in the
magnificent power of God.
That
is the gift of Christmas, an intentional moment where a tiny baby, so
vulnerable to a cruel and harsh world, is so protected by God’s gracious
power. It is a moment that I hope and I
pray we can identify with, that we can see ourselves, vulnerable and otherwise
lost in a sinful world, encased in the cocoon of love and hope, a place of joy
unshadowed by the darkness that surrounds us in this world.
A
sidebar to our Deacons meeting this past Thursday. Eleanor shared a devotional with seeking to
do nothing, simply to be in times of overwhelming busyness. We Christians are blessed with God’s dome of
wonder to be able to find peace and comfort in Jesus to simply Be.
I
find myself thinking of the rather un-Christmas hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our
God”, that God’s grace sets us above the busyness of the Holiday mayhem of this
season. In a season where goodwill
spikes, so does it’s opposite, seasonal depression to a point where suicide
rates are highest in these weeks. If
that was not a call to action for we who have been graced with the Peace of
Jesus to be living it and sharing it and praying it out to our friends and
family, it is now.
The
Seasons of the Church give us an interesting calendar. We have the seasons of Advent and of
Lent. Now Lent is a season of
preparation, giving something up as an active reminder to ourselves of what
Jesus gave up, his very life, for our sakes.
It’s the time when we take on the struggles of the world, because we
know what is coming. We know that in
Holy Week, Jesus will go the heart of that struggle, to the heart of sin and
death itself and he will kick its can to rise up in glory.
But
Advent is a season of celebration. In
human terms, this may feel like we are putting the cart before the horse. Should we not prepare ourselves for what
Jesus has done for us before we celebrate what Jesus has accomplished at
Easter? Maybe if it were ever actually a
struggle. Maybe if the power of God were
actually ever truly challenged by the powers of darkness. Maybe if the results were ever truly in
doubt. That makes for a great human
story, the cliff hanger, the nail biter, the stunning climax. But the results of ‘good versus evil’ have
always been a foregone conclusion, though the devil may work his hardest to
convince us otherwise.
So
first, we celebrate. Call it the
foretaste of glory divine, to borrow from another hymn. The angels from the
realm of glory have come out to take their stand. Does God need them? No, but God is doing this for us. The angels we have heard on high are the
living sentinels, proclaiming the Peace of our God. That’s why we listen.
Hark,
the Herald Angels sing, “Glory to the newborn king”.
Amen.
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