CHRISTISNOWHERE: How Jesus Can Be King Of Your Christmas - First Sermon of Advent

Lectionary Reading for the First Sunday of Advent: 
Isaiah 64, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, 1Cor 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37


What is Christmas?
What is Christmas really all about. Sometimes we can become so familiar with a story that we forget or forgo the details of the story, which is what originally made it so compelling and transformative.

And that's what the Advent season is for in the church calendar. There is wisdom in the church taking a few weeks to prepare for our Christmas celebration. And if you think that odd or overkill, then that may be a sign that you've become unfamiliar with some of the key elements that make the Christmas story so enduring.

What is Christmas? It's the story of Jesus coming to fulfill the story of Israel in the most radical and unexpected way possible: their God will become their king to personally deliver them from exile and place his Word in their heart that they might become the nation they were called and created to be: a blessing and light to the world. And so God emerges into the world through the infant Jesus, born into scandal and poverty, into a diminished, oppressed, and powerless family of royal descent. 

But what is the historical situation behind this Christmas story? Why does Israel need a savior? Where is their king? Why are they in exile? Where has God been? Why has he been absent? 

In the days of Caesar Augustus, the people of Israel were enduring their fourth empire, and it seemed to them that God was no where. So when the angels announce that in the birth of Jesus that God is now here, it was good news indeed! And yet the arrival of God was not like they had expected, nor did it initiate the rescue they had prayed for. 

In our day, the church is the new Israel, we are the people of God, those who pledge allegiance to Jesus as King, our Lord, Savior and Christ. We are into our 21st century since the ascension of Jesus to his throne at the right hand of God the Father. And though God the Father and Jesus the Son sent the Holy Spirit to be in us, it still feels at times like Christ is no where. Christ came unexpectedly and saved his people in an unexpected way. And now we who yearn for Christ to return can begin to empathize with the waiting of Israel as they waited for God to rescue them. They had no idea how much longer it would be until God came to save them. We have no idea how much longer it will be until Christ returns and set the world right. 

Do you ever get tired of waiting for God? Do you ever lose hope about all that is wrong in our world? In your life? Do you ever grow weary of waiting for Christ to show up and save you from your troubles? You do and Israel did. The season of Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas. What is preparation? Active waiting. You work while you wait, you prepare as you anticipate. And our four weeks of preparation and anticipation are to be a picture of what our larger life is to be like as we wait and work for Christ to return. 

When it seems like Christ is no where, that's when faith becomes crucial and you choose to believe that Christ is now here. We can all be like Thomas, and refuse to trust that Christ is here; and yet like Thomas, we need to hear the words of Jesus to him: you believed because you could see, blessed are those who do not see and yet believe. 

I don't know what you're waiting on this Christmas. I don't know what you are waiting on God to do for you this Christmas. I don't know what what you are praying and pleading Christ to fix for you. Maybe it's health, or your job, or family, friends, your habits, your heart? Maybe you want Christ to do something about the loneliness of Christmas, the grief and sadness of Christmas, the hassle and hustle of Christmas, the unfulfilled hopes and expectations of Christmas, the stress and busyness of Christmas, the commercialism and shopping of Christmas, the pain and suffering of Christmas. 

To prepare properly for Christmas is to be honestly aware of what you want rescued from in your life.  For Christmas to be a proper preparation for our anticipation of Christ's return, we must be clear on why we yearn for Christ to come back now and not later. 

The people of Israel had word that was both a cry of suffering and a cry of hope: Hosanna! Lord save us! It's a word you pray, it can be a word you shout, it was a word on Israel's lips and hearts as they labored and lived under the oppressive cruelty of the empires - Rome, Greece, Persia, Babylon, Assyria. 

The early Christians had a word for that pain and yearning: Maranatha. Come Lord! It's the perfect word for Christians at Christmas. Depending on how you see and say the word, you can say it Marana tha: Come Lord Jesus! Or you can say it Mara natha: Our Lord has come! The first Christians looked back to Christmas and declared: Mara anther: Our Lord has come! And then they would look ahead and declare: Marana tha: Come Lord Jesus. 

For you, when you begin to feel like Christ is no where, you can cry out like Israel, Hosanna, Lord save me! You can cry out like the early Christians, Marana tha: Come Lord Jesus! And when you have been reminded that Christ is now here, you can declare with faith, hope and love: Mara anatha: Our Lord has come! 

And this begins to get at the heart of what it means for Jesus to be king of your Christmas. It means understanding his story and the story of Israel so that you can grasp the first story of Christmas. By delving into this original story of Christmas, you begin to remember what Christmas is all about, and thus you can prepare and anticipate properly. Christmas is not about celebrating a day, but an event.

But more then that, it's celebrating and remembering the one who caused the event, and the one about whom the event is about: the God of Israel who becomes King through Jesus. Christmas is the beginning of the reign of God through Jesus in the world. That's what we are celebrating: the genesis of the kingdom of God where Jesus becomes Lord and Christ and establishes the church through whom he will be present in the world. 

No wonder we need words like Hosanna and Maranatha at Christmas. 

If God became present in the world through Jesus, and now God and Jesus are present in the world through the Spirit, and if God, Jesus and the Spirit are present in the world through the Church, which is the body of Christ, no wonder we despair and feel like Christ is no where. It's easy to see how the church has failed God and humanity and us in so many ways. But we must remember that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against dark powers and evil forces throughout the heavens and the earth.

The church is the one people on earth where God chooses to dwell by the Spirit of Christ to demonstrate his redeeming love. God's design for the church is that they be a people on earth through whom he can bless all the peoples of the earth.

The church is to be a light to the world of what the kingdom of God can look like - a community where righteous justice prevails alongside humble mercy.

The church is the one people on earth that calls on Christ as their Lord, learning to be led by him, learning to serve him, and be his servants of blessing and rescue from evil.

When the church fails, we cry out Hosanna,  and when the the church gets it right, we can cry out Maranatha!

When we lose our way, we can look back to Christmas and remember where our story begins, but then we can also look ahead and remember where our story goes: just as God come once through Jesus to renew the kingdom of God through the church, so God will come again with Jesus to fully establish the kingdom of God on earth, and finally justice and peace will kiss. 

He Learned Trusting-Obedience

Hebrews 5

Who was Jesus? It seems that Jesus had several key identities. His title of Christ was a challenge to Caesar.  It is the Greek word for Messiah, which means "anointed one" in the Hebrew language. An "anointed one" referred to either a prophet, priest, or king. As Messiah to the Hebrew people, Jesus came as all three.

In this letter to the Hebrews, the author is connecting the dots between Jesus the Messiah and Israel's True High Priest. Jesus was the ideal High Priest for the people of Israel. He was compassionate with sinners. He was set apart by God, he didn't seek the position out for himself. Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow before God as he offered up his priestly prayers on behalf of the people. What a gift this kind of High Priest would be to the masses. 

I imagine that this kind of generous and kind behavior from Jesus would have irritated and enraged the reigning and former High Priests of Israel. They had been politically appointed, had amassed great power and wealth, and sought to stabilize Israel's future with Rome. And then Jesus comes along, anointed as a High Priest of Israel, mediating between God and the people with beautiful results. No wonder they wanted to kill him!

What's interesting is that the one writing this letter to the Hebrews makes a point to remind us that Jesus had to learn "trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do." We are often closest to Jesus when we suffer. Though we might even be suffering because of our own sins, even that has been fueled by those that have sinned against us - and it is there that we suffer like Jesus. And it is there, like Jesus, that we can learn trusting-obedience in God.

Jesus lived out a picture of what a True High Priest of Israel out to be. As this gracious High Priest, full of lovingkindness, Jesus laid down his life as if he were the unblemished lamb on the Day of Atonement. He's the High Priest that laid down his own life for the people of Israel. He's also the High Priest that becomes the scape-goat that wanders into the wilderness bearing on his backs all the sins of the people, carrying them away to be remembered no more.

Jesus is the Holy High Priest of Israel, through whom the world can be rescued from their sins as well. Anyone who believingly obeys Jesus, following his example, keeping his instructions, trusting his way, will find eternal salvation. Salvation from our sins that begins in this life and continues into the next. 

A salvation that changes us into priests for God like Jesus in our world - ones who mediate between YHWH and the people in our life. We treat sinners graciously, we learn trusting-obedience through our suffering when sinned against, we weep as we pray on behalf of the people in our life.

Jesus learned trusting-obedience, and so should we until our last breath, until "It is finished."

Take The Mercy, Accept The Help

Hebrews 3-4

This letter was possibly written by Priscilla, a well-regarded Christian woman who collaborated with the Apostle Paul. Since no author has been attributed to this thoughtful and rich letter, lots of theories have emerged. Some say Paul wrote it, but the style is much different then his other letters.

We know it was written by a Hebrew to Hebrews, hence the title it was given. It was written by someone with a deep love for Israel, a mastery of the First Testament, a deep understanding of their history, and unwavering loyalty to Jesus the Messiah.

The Hebrew Christians who received this letter needed assurance of their faith. They also needed more thorough explanations of how Jesus is connected to Israel as the High Priest, to God as the Son, and to the world as fully human. The author of this letter will draw extensively from Torah, but also the Poetry, the History, and the Prophets of the First Testament. This is an excellent letter to read with a Reference Bible - and then follow the "links" it provides, connecting the letter to the Hebrews with the hundreds of references in the First Testament.

It is vital that these Hebrews and Hebrew Christians that are reading the Bible don't make the same mistake as that first generation of Israelites who followed Moses out of Egypt. The Exodus was God's intervention for his people to deliver them to the Promised Land. And along the way, the people gave up on God, they turned a deaf ear to him, they quit trusting him. And so it is with this first generation of Christians - don't repeat the same mistake of our ancestors, don't turn a deaf ear to Jesus. 

So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He's the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. 

In our life, it's too easy to take our eyes off of Jesus. We can make other issues too important, too distracting. When it comes to our life as Christians, Christ is the focus. Christ the person, Christ the one who lived and died, the one who was resurrected and ascended. Christ the one who rescued us from sin and restores us to new life, reconciled with God and ready for life in the age to come. It's important that we not just focus on what Jesus does for us, but what Jesus was like and what he did for others. 

Now that we know what we have - Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God - let's not let it slip through our fingers. We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all - all but the sin. So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

Isn't that a great image of Jesus? He's eager for us to meet, to talk, to be present in the same place. At times he tracks us down, he follows us to our dark places, he stays with us despite our defiance and doubts. And then, when we're ready to turn around, he's right there, ready for us to receive what he has to offer. Are you ready to take the mercy and accept the help Jesus has to give?