Do You See What I See Pt 1: Matthew 1.18-21
{This was the first of a four-part series I began on 1 December 2013. The audio file can be found here}
Do You
See what I See? Pt 1
Let me play the devil’s advocate for a
moment, or to put it better, let me ask questions that I think some folks must
be asking every time they “hear” what is commonly called the “the Christmas
story”: And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus,
for He will save His people from their sins. Mt. 1.21 Why? Why is his name
to be Yah Saves or Yah Delivers? Why do people need some god to “save”
them? Okay, so the Angel says it’s because He will save His people from
their sins. Nice, right? But, why is it that he comes to save only His
People and not everybody in the whole world? And why must he be “saving”
them from their sins?
Okay, let’s take a step back for a moment.
There are stories we 21st Century
Global Citizens like to tell ourselves, and they’re usually summed up in
shorthand statements like this one: to err is human. There’s a lot of
stuff packed behind that little maxim. Like, error is the standard of our
humanity, or to say it another
way, we’ve been erring – drawing crooked lines – from the beginning; or error
is in our genetic make-up, for crying out loud. And so, thinking
that’s the case, we can overlook our own messiness quite easily. (1) Oops,
messed up another marriage. Crud, hope I can get it right the next time - if I
even waste the energy on a next time. (2) I can’t help the way I am. It’s my
up-bringing, my genetics, or whatever.
We can get by most of the time saying
these kinds of things to ourselves. But then we step back further and start
scanning the broader horizon of our human condition and we quickly notice that
something is really awry with our picture. Something inside of us tells us –
call it intuition if you want – that this isn’t the way it was all supposed to
be. We know it’s all wrong when Heads of State are torturing their citizens,
vandalizing their lives with scaring brutalities; parents maiming and murdering
their little ones; airport Security people caught stealing; shoppers going
bonkers and striking out violently over “Black Friday” sales – to err is
human – sounds like someone talking into a black hole. And to think, this
is the best our evolutionary processes can muster up, eh? What a wretched scandal
and shame! And the more we try to fix it, the more the garbage and sewage seems
to seep through the seams, and make the place more toxic and messier and
bloodier and uglier! Dear God! What in the world have we done? What in the
world can we do?
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Let me tell the story a different way. Let
me rehearse to you the version we Christians tell. Some of it I won’t be able to prove beyond
any shadow of a doubt, but there seems to be proof and evidence enough
that it seems plausible.
In the
beginning God! Not
capricious, nasty, molesting, dysfunctional gods – but God, out of the deep
reservoir of his own loving being, made everything you can perceive (and things
you can’t perceive) from nothing, in a
short time. And into this beautiful cosmos which he shaped with his love and
delight, he placed his crowing piece of craftsmanship – a man and a woman – the
first of our kind. He was tickled pink
with them. He made them “One” and together they represent his image, they
reflect his inner communion and loving togetherness. And he poured out a
super-duper abundant amount of everything they needed to enjoy this cosmos with
God. Food – fruit, nuts, berries, vegetables, etc.; beauty bursting on the
whole visual sphere; life, love, shamelessness, and unhampered communion with
one another and God – no dysfunctional games, no scheming, no lying, no scamming!
Humanity and creation living in harmony, singing the same melodious sonnet. That’s
Genesis 1 and 2. And if things hadn’t turned in a different direction, that’s
the kind of circumstance we would be enjoying now.
But then into this gorgeous picture of
rich peace, comes a dark, slithering moment in which the whole scenario
changes. The man and woman decide they’re no longer satisfied with God, their
communion, and the beauty. They give ear to another voice – a dark,
calculating, conniving, bitter, and damnable voice – and they reach for forbidden
fruit. In the midst of the burgeoning plenty, they stretch out their hands to take
the only thing forbidden – and the melody suddenly comes crashing down into one
vast, deafening cacophony. The harmony breaks into the shamefulness of selfish
ambitions and empty conceits (Phil. 2.3). Man runs from God in shame, terror, and
dread, and we’ve been running since – It’s called sin. We continue to reach for
the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil so that we can become our own gods,
declaring our own autonomy – all at the expense of one another – all at the
expense of peace and exponential delight – all at the expense of life itself. Maybe
I can shorten the story we Christians tell down to this: To reflect
God is human; To seek to be god is cosmic terrorism!
So, what can be done? Our stories – our
national, tribal, regional, collegial and personal narratives – are all about
finding redemption, release from this blasted shame and overriding sense of
alienation and doom. But medications, psychotherapies, cocaine, extreme sports,
gladiatorial games, etc. are our failed attempts. The landscape is cluttered
with the reeking debris of our endeavors. And if you have the courage to scan
the landscape, you will see that it is a bloody scene of horrific carnage. Dear
God! What in the world have we done? What in the world can we do? Who will
deliver us from this fashionable
self-destruct?
And it’s here that the very God we have
revolted against invades our false-securities, and takes on our own humanity. Think
of it, God-in-his-own-skin! Better still, God-in-our-own-flesh! And why does he do this? To save his people
from their sins. And this moment-in-time-and-place-in-space
has a personal face: Jesus from the backwoods town of Nazareth. And he comes
through the normal, ordinary struggle of the blood and water of the birth
canal.
So maybe you will ask – “How in the world can
this backwoodsy guy be Yahweh saving his people?” Good question. Here’s where
the Christian story gets even more exciting.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a
Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the
Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father
David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom
there will be no end." Luke 1.31-33
And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is
by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "The land of Zebulun and
the land of Naphtali, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the
Gentiles: The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon
those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned." From
that time Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand." Mt. 4.13-17
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has
anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the
brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the
blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord." Luke 4.18-19
The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching
peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—that word you know, which was
proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which
John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with
power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the
devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did
both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a
tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the
people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank
with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the
people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the
living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name,
whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins." Acts 10.36-43
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all
men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed
hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave
Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for
Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. Titus 2.11-14
And so the story we tell – and I am telling
you – really takes off at this point in earnest. Jesus is Almighty God saving his
people from their sins; coming to restore us to his true image – making us
truly human again; diving down deep into the sludge and filth, grabbing us, and
lifting us up out of the mud of our common humanity and shaping us into those
who can once again delight in him – our summum
bonum – to glorify and enjoy him.
What difference does this all make, then?
To reflect God is human; To seek to be god
is cosmic terrorism!
By God coming into our world in Jesus of
Nazareth born in Bethlehem, the door is now thrown open for us to lay down our
arms, and be made new – to be those who reflect God as we were meant to do!
Personal scale – Restored to communion, to delighted
fellowship with God thru Jesus by the Holy Spirit indwelling us. That means we
can finally begin to become complete, truly fulfilled: “you are complete in
Him.” Col. 2.10.
Family level – Now you can be a family, reflecting and
displaying what it means to be in the image of God together; children honoring
parents – as Jesus always honored the Father, parents tenderly caring for
children – as the Father always delighted in his Son; husbands loving your
wives just like Christ loves His church – and wives respecting your husbands.
Larger dimension – whether politics, academia, business,
etc: To reflect God is human; To seek to be god is cosmic terrorism!
Jesus is God saving his people from their sins; and all the catastrophe, rubble
and debris of our fallen humanity which liters the geometrical landscape – Is
redeemable. It can be healed, liberated, and set free – but only as we go
forward in Christ to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. And only
as we offer back to God our scarred, marred and mangled humanness.
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