The Roman Empire at its height of power amassed a very large area of influence. It was made up of most of what we call Europe today as well as the country known today as Turkey. It also covered areas at the northernmost tip of Africa. But in order to protect these lands, and in order to conquer them in the first place, the Roman Empire needed a very large and very well trained army. A soldier in the Roman army was called a legionary and was expected not only to defend Rome but to go to battle on Rome’s behalf, to conquer more and more people and land in order to expand the Empire. Roman legionaries came from all kinds of backgrounds, but once they had enrolled in the army, they would be a part of it for the next twenty-five years.
When the apostle Paul wrote his letters, such as the letter to the Ephesians we are currently studying, he was writing to people who lived in the Roman Empire. In fact, Paul himself was a Roman citizen which gave him a great deal of influence and respect. As we read and learn about the Armor of God, it’s important to understand why Paul used this analogy. People would have had dealings with Roman legionaries on a regular basis and understood what they wore and why they used the armor the way they did. You might know THAT a soldier wears armor, but, unlike people back in Paul’s time, you might not know WHY or HOW they used their armor. In order to understand why putting on a “belt of truth” is important for a Christian, which is the topic today, you need to understand why putting on a “belt” was important to Roman solider.
The belt that a legionary wore was made of leather and it would have had bronze plates of various sizes dangling from it. The more expensive the belt, the more ornate the leather decoration and the larger the plates. The larger the plates, the louder the soldier would be as they approached. A belt was called a “balteus” or sword belt because its primary purpose was to hold equipment, most importantly weapons, in place.
When getting dressed for battle, a legionary would first put on his tunic, a large piece of linen fabric with short sleeves, followed by his belt. The belt held the flowing tunic in place so that it was not hanging out loosely from the sides. Belts had lots of loops to hold weapons or other gear. It kept things where they needed to be, held everything together and made it easier to reach the necessary equipment for a battle. Ephesians 6 says that we need to put on the full armor of God so that we can take our stand, fight our battle, against the devil and his schemes. Just like a Roman legionary, the first step to prepare for this battle is to put on your belt—Paul calls it the belt of truth.
I want you to imagine a worker for a business who is supposed to work from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday-40 hours a week. Let’s say that he is getting tired of his job and decides to not go in for the entire week and stays home to catch up on his daytime soaps. His boss calls him up at the end of the week and asks him a simple question, “Were you at work this last week? How many hours did you work?” I want you to decide which of the following answers are true and which ones are lies? I’ll make this multiple choice:
A. Yes, I was at work all week. 40 hours sir. B. Yes, I was at work all week. But I only worked half of the day each day. 20 hours. C. Yes, I did come to work on Monday, but I only worked 1 only and left for the rest of the week. Or D. No, I didn’t come to work at all last week. I worked 0 hours. Which of those answers were true? Well, only the last one, letter D—he didn’t work at all. He worked 0 hours. Does it make a difference if he lied completely and said he worked 40 hours or whether he lies just a little and said he worked one hour? No. A 99.999 percent truth is still a lie.
When I was in high school, I was really good at math. I was two years ahead of my class. One thing that my dad pointed out that has always stuck with me is that in math, unlike English or Social Studies, or Music, there is only one right answer. 2 plus 2 equals 4. Every time. Most other subjects are subjective. You can get partial credit. But in math, if you say that 2 plus 2 equals 3, you don’t get half credit, you either get it right or wrong.
One of the basic tenants of the Christian faith is that there is such a thing as truth. It’s the foundation upon which everything else stands. Jesus is the Son of God—that’s either true or false. You either trust in him completely for your salvation or you don’t . . . there is not any partial credit for good behavior. In the gospel of John today, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The truth is that no matter what you’ve done in the past, you are made right with God by faith alone. But just as true, no matter how good you’ve been all your life, you can’t be saved apart from Jesus Christ alone.
Paul takes the stand that a Christian must begin with truth and that everything else must be based on that. Why? Because if we take our stand on anything else we are susceptible to the devil’s schemes. The devil is the Father of lies. He can smell em a mile away and he will use them to hurt you. You can be fully protected in every other way, but if you go out without your belt of truth on, the devil can still find a way underneath your armor. Kristy and I joke that when one of our children drop a little choking hazard on the ground and can’t find it, Micah will be sure to find it. The devil looks for little lies, or half-truths, or hidden skeletons in your life with as much excitement as my nine-month old does for tiny beads and miniature animals. Every single time that you lie, whether it is out of fear, or cruelty, or even laziness, the devil has an opportunity to gain a foothold into your life.
Remember how I told you that before the belt was put on, a Roman legionary would put on a tunic. A tunic is this long piece of linen cloth that would have been a little more flowing than our t-shirts today. Well, the belt wasn’t just put on to hold weapons, it was also put on to kinda pull the loose tunic in—to keep it in place even when a battle demanded lots of movement. I remember my football coaches always demanding that we cut our hair for the season because he didn’t want people to grab onto our hair in order to tackle us. You might notice that football players keep their jerseys very tight to their pads in order to keep people from being able to grab that. Some equipment has warnings to keep you from wearing loose clothing around it so that you don’t get a sleeve or a tie caught and risk your life trying to get back out! The same was true for the Roman legionaries in battle. The belt held everything in and close.
In the Christian life, we might call this loose clothing, loose morals. You know, those little behaviors that we know aren’t good, but might not seem like a big deal. When the Devil gets ahold of them, these little loose ends can create huge issues. For instance, have you ever wondered why the Bible calls drunkenness a sin? I mean, drinking alcohol isn’t a sin. Jesus made a whole truckload of wine at the wedding at Cana. So, who should care about getting drunk? I don’t know about you, but how many GOOD things happen to people who are drunk? They lose their inhibitions, right? They get loose with their words, their anger, their boundaries and their bodies. They open up the door and let the devil come in and destroy their lives, just because they took off their belts and let it all hang out for a little while. When you are drunk, you do things that you would not have done sober.
Our loose lips also let the devil into our lives in ways we’d never suspect. The more and more I hear stories from peoples’ lives, the more and more I see how subtly the devil uses gossip to kill and destroy. I mean, it’s so easy to talk to someone else about the troubles someone else is having and you think, “I’m doing this because I care about that other person. I want others to know what’s happening in their life.” But even then, before you know it, everyone in town has heard, everyone has an opinion and some of them aren’t so nice. James 3 says, “Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” Wow! What a statement! What if we were committed to only speaking the truth instead of guessing at it?
Without truth, things fall apart. Once again this week, you should each have received a card. You’ve been given this card to remind you of the importance of committing to truth each day of your life as a Christian. You are encouraged once again to write a commitment for the following week on the back. Here are two suggestions.
First, if you have decided to pray for protection each morning against the devil and his schemes. Make sure that you mentally put on the belt of truth each morning. Make a commitment to tell the truth in every situation. I’m not encouraging you to be cruel to others by saying, “Well, to tell you the truth, yes those pants DO make your thighs look big.” That’s not God’s truth, that may simply be your opinion. Commit to following Jesus Christ and the truth that is written in the word of God. Pray for the strength to be faithful to your faith convictions even in the face of fear and the risk of persecution. Sometimes in the Bible, the belt of truth is called the belt of faithfulness. I believe that married couples might be helped a lot by putting on that belt of faithfulness each day. That belt is conveniently placed to remind you of the importance in being ready and resisting temptation on a daily basis.
Finally, the belt of truth may be an opportunity for you to recommit to your faith. There are many religions out there and many ideas to learn about and discover, but Jesus says that truth, real truth, can only be found in him. “I am the way, the truth and the life” he says, “No one comes to the Father except through me. Perhaps, you have accepted 99 percent Christianity and 1 percent something else or you have accepted most of what the Bible teaches, but have thrown out the parts that are too difficult or not socially acceptable. Perhaps today is the day that you wrap around your waist the belt of truth and lay the foundation of your life on Jesus alone.
Jesus Christ came to this earth to shine his light on each of us, to expose the lies we tell and hear, and to expose our darkness. But His light also shines to lead us in the truth so that we can follow him and never fear the darkness of the devil again. The devil may prowl for you like a hungry lion, but with your belt of truth fastened around your waist, he won’t have anything to grab onto. Thanks be to Jesus for setting us free! Amen!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Sermon for January 16th (The Armor of God)
Today is an important day. Today is the day when we give notice to the Devil. We will tell him this: “No more!” We will listen to NO MORE of your lies. We will follow you NO MORE. We will fear you NO MORE! Because you have already been defeated by none other than our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” Amen? Amen! Today, I will begin teaching all of you both the necessity and joy of putting on the full armor of God so that each of you can take your stand against the devil and his schemes.
Over the next several weeks I will seek to prepare you for a great battle. It is a battle that we must fight every single day of our lives and, yet, most of us don’t even realize it’s happening. You don’t recognize who your enemy is and you walk onto the front lines unaware of your protection or your weapons. We wage this battle against the Devil. Ephesians 6, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Have you ever heard the following quote, “The greatest lie the Devil ever told was that he doesn’t exist.” Before we go any further, I realize that I must deal with this great lie because very few of you probably even believe that there is such a thing as the Devil. So why would you prepare to fight something that’s not there? In fact, many of my seminary professors seemed intent on diminishing the Devil’s existence as well.
I remember taking a pastoral care class and reading about an evil spirit causing King Saul to be sad. The bible story tells us that the king would only find relief when David, later king David, would play music. Our professor explained that it probably wasn’t an evil spirit, even though that was what the Bible said it was. My professor explained that it was probably just clinical depression. In another story, there is a girl who is thrown to the ground with a demon and was foaming at the mouth. But in my class, well, we were told that it must have been epilepsy.
We asked, “Well, why then did the Bible writers call these things demons or evil spirits?” Good question. The answers you’ll often hear are that these writers were “uncivilized” and “unscientific” people. They didn’t understand what we do now. But here’s the thing. If you believe that Jesus was the Son of God, unequaled in wisdom, knowledge and power, one with the Father and all, then how do you explain this? “Jesus appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” Why would Jesus give his disciples authority to cast out demons if he knew that there was really nothing there? Wouldn’t he have known the “truth”, being God and all, even if these “poor uncivilized people” didn’t? Why did Jesus cast out demons himself? Why did he talk to them?
You are going to have to make up your mind on this because this issue comes up over and over again, especially in the gospels and the book of Acts. If Jesus didn’t know the truth and was acting just like a “man of the times” then how can we believe that he was really God in the flesh? How is it that he knows everything else, but was still under the impression that demons were there when they weren’t? Or was Jesus acting according to the “prime directive” ala Star Trek and so was unable to tell the truth about what was really happening? Kinda just going along with what everyone else thought? Otherwise known as lying to keep up appearances? “Sure I’ll cast out this demon for you (wink, wink).”
If we believe that Jesus was truly the Son of God and that he told the truth about things like eternal life, sin and forgiveness, then the only reason he would have cast out demons and given other people the authority to do the same was because there were actually demons to cast out! Makes sense doesn’t it? But if that is the case, and as a Christian I believe that there is no other possibility, then that means that we have neglected to protect and prepare ourselves for dealings with the demonic and evil in our lives. We have pretended that this kind of thing just doesn’t exist when, in fact, that would be a lie. Jesus called the Devil, “The Father of lies” and our society has fallen for this one hook, line and sinker.
But why would the Devil want us to believe he doesn’t exist? For what purpose? If he is so strong and powerful why not just come out and scare the pants off of us and make us all cringe or run away? Why the secrecy? For what purpose? If you don’t think that there’s anything to worry about, then you won’t be prepared. And for the most part, I think all of us worry much more about the weather—keeping our ears and hands and noses warm and protected from the cold winds— than we do about keeping our children firm in their faith or protecting our hearts from temptation or preserving our church from hurtful gossip and division.
We don’t bother to take our swords of our their sheaths nor do we bother to learn how to use our protective armor, our helmets and our shields. We walk onto the battlefield dressed to the nines in battle regalia without shoes on. We walk nose to nose with our oppressor and then just say, “Excuse me. I don’t believe you exist”. But, here’s the thing, while there is real danger that the Devil will somehow attack us because we are not ready to defend ourselves, the scariest thing is that we do not take a stand and fight against the forces of evil in our world and in our lives. The truth is that the Devil does not want to fight a fully equipped Christian because he knows that he will lose EVERY SINGLE TIME! James 4:7, “Submit yourselves then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
When you resist the Devil he will flee. He won’t just walk away, he will run! Why? Because a fully equipped Christian scares him. This past weekend, the confirmation kids, their adult chaperones and I went to a Youthquake (a big Christian youth event held in different cities across the country). At that conference, the speaker explained how silly it is for us to believe the lies of the Devil by using this example. Have you ever seen a grown man or woman do something like this, “Oh! Oh! A spider! Get it! Kill it! Get it away from me!” as they run away as fast as they can? Have you ever considered how big you are compared to a spider? You are like, a bizzilion times bigger (approximating)! And yet people like me, I admit it, act like there’s a hungry polar bear running after us when we see a spider.
Today is the day I want you to understand this: because of Jesus Christ, you have the power and authority to stomp on the devil, squash him into the ground, wipe him off with toilet paper and flush him down the toilet. Romans 16:20, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Today is the day when we tell the Devil that we will listen to NO MORE of his lies. We will follow him NO MORE. We will fear him NO MORE! We might know that the Devil exists but we do not believe IN the Devil, we believe in Jesus Christ who defeated the Devil once and for all on the cross!
For the next several weeks we are going to go step by step through this passage in Ephesians. I intend on leading you through ways that you can protect yourself and be prepared for this daily battle that we each face against temptation, the Devil, Satan and sin. Each of you should have picked up a card before the service, if you don’t have one please raise your hand and you will be given one. On the back of this card you have the opportunity to write down one way that you will commit yourself to fight against the devil this week. I’d like you to write one of the following.
First, you might commit yourself to ask for God’s protection each morning. Perhaps you could read Ephesians chapter 6, starting at verse 10 and prepare yourself for the day’s battle under God’s armor. You could write: morning prayer of protection, for example. Second, you could commit yourself to praying for protection and strength when dealing with a particular temptation or situation that is ongoing in your life. Perhaps you feel especially attacked when around another person or at a particular time of day. Ask the Lord for the armor and weapons to fight this evil attack. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. You could write: Pray before (blank) and put in whatever situation you need to put down.
Third, you might commit yourself to pray for someone who is struggling with sin. Remember what Ephesians 6 said, “Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil.” All of us know of people who struggle with sin, or who try and hurt us, or who try and hurt others. The next you get angry with their actions consider this: pray against the devil. Take the fight right to him! Sure, the devil isn’t making them do it (they are happy to do the wrong thing) but pray for them to fight against the temptation to follow the devil’s lies. Your prayers might not only help them be free of their bondage to sin, but it might give you compassion for one of God’s children being oppressed by the devil. You could write: “Pray against the Devil”.
Remember, a fully equipped Christian scares the pants off the Devil. The truth is that you have protection you may have never used and weapons you may have never thought of. I intend on teaching you more about them over the next weeks, but I’m not going to give you anything you don’t already have. Psalm 91 says, “If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the Lord, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.” Today is the day for you to tell the Devil. No more! No more lies! NO more fear! In the name of Jesus Christ, get behind me Satan! Run away! I follow Jesus Christ alone. God is my protector. Amen.
Over the next several weeks I will seek to prepare you for a great battle. It is a battle that we must fight every single day of our lives and, yet, most of us don’t even realize it’s happening. You don’t recognize who your enemy is and you walk onto the front lines unaware of your protection or your weapons. We wage this battle against the Devil. Ephesians 6, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Have you ever heard the following quote, “The greatest lie the Devil ever told was that he doesn’t exist.” Before we go any further, I realize that I must deal with this great lie because very few of you probably even believe that there is such a thing as the Devil. So why would you prepare to fight something that’s not there? In fact, many of my seminary professors seemed intent on diminishing the Devil’s existence as well.
I remember taking a pastoral care class and reading about an evil spirit causing King Saul to be sad. The bible story tells us that the king would only find relief when David, later king David, would play music. Our professor explained that it probably wasn’t an evil spirit, even though that was what the Bible said it was. My professor explained that it was probably just clinical depression. In another story, there is a girl who is thrown to the ground with a demon and was foaming at the mouth. But in my class, well, we were told that it must have been epilepsy.
We asked, “Well, why then did the Bible writers call these things demons or evil spirits?” Good question. The answers you’ll often hear are that these writers were “uncivilized” and “unscientific” people. They didn’t understand what we do now. But here’s the thing. If you believe that Jesus was the Son of God, unequaled in wisdom, knowledge and power, one with the Father and all, then how do you explain this? “Jesus appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” Why would Jesus give his disciples authority to cast out demons if he knew that there was really nothing there? Wouldn’t he have known the “truth”, being God and all, even if these “poor uncivilized people” didn’t? Why did Jesus cast out demons himself? Why did he talk to them?
You are going to have to make up your mind on this because this issue comes up over and over again, especially in the gospels and the book of Acts. If Jesus didn’t know the truth and was acting just like a “man of the times” then how can we believe that he was really God in the flesh? How is it that he knows everything else, but was still under the impression that demons were there when they weren’t? Or was Jesus acting according to the “prime directive” ala Star Trek and so was unable to tell the truth about what was really happening? Kinda just going along with what everyone else thought? Otherwise known as lying to keep up appearances? “Sure I’ll cast out this demon for you (wink, wink).”
If we believe that Jesus was truly the Son of God and that he told the truth about things like eternal life, sin and forgiveness, then the only reason he would have cast out demons and given other people the authority to do the same was because there were actually demons to cast out! Makes sense doesn’t it? But if that is the case, and as a Christian I believe that there is no other possibility, then that means that we have neglected to protect and prepare ourselves for dealings with the demonic and evil in our lives. We have pretended that this kind of thing just doesn’t exist when, in fact, that would be a lie. Jesus called the Devil, “The Father of lies” and our society has fallen for this one hook, line and sinker.
But why would the Devil want us to believe he doesn’t exist? For what purpose? If he is so strong and powerful why not just come out and scare the pants off of us and make us all cringe or run away? Why the secrecy? For what purpose? If you don’t think that there’s anything to worry about, then you won’t be prepared. And for the most part, I think all of us worry much more about the weather—keeping our ears and hands and noses warm and protected from the cold winds— than we do about keeping our children firm in their faith or protecting our hearts from temptation or preserving our church from hurtful gossip and division.
We don’t bother to take our swords of our their sheaths nor do we bother to learn how to use our protective armor, our helmets and our shields. We walk onto the battlefield dressed to the nines in battle regalia without shoes on. We walk nose to nose with our oppressor and then just say, “Excuse me. I don’t believe you exist”. But, here’s the thing, while there is real danger that the Devil will somehow attack us because we are not ready to defend ourselves, the scariest thing is that we do not take a stand and fight against the forces of evil in our world and in our lives. The truth is that the Devil does not want to fight a fully equipped Christian because he knows that he will lose EVERY SINGLE TIME! James 4:7, “Submit yourselves then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
When you resist the Devil he will flee. He won’t just walk away, he will run! Why? Because a fully equipped Christian scares him. This past weekend, the confirmation kids, their adult chaperones and I went to a Youthquake (a big Christian youth event held in different cities across the country). At that conference, the speaker explained how silly it is for us to believe the lies of the Devil by using this example. Have you ever seen a grown man or woman do something like this, “Oh! Oh! A spider! Get it! Kill it! Get it away from me!” as they run away as fast as they can? Have you ever considered how big you are compared to a spider? You are like, a bizzilion times bigger (approximating)! And yet people like me, I admit it, act like there’s a hungry polar bear running after us when we see a spider.
Today is the day I want you to understand this: because of Jesus Christ, you have the power and authority to stomp on the devil, squash him into the ground, wipe him off with toilet paper and flush him down the toilet. Romans 16:20, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Today is the day when we tell the Devil that we will listen to NO MORE of his lies. We will follow him NO MORE. We will fear him NO MORE! We might know that the Devil exists but we do not believe IN the Devil, we believe in Jesus Christ who defeated the Devil once and for all on the cross!
For the next several weeks we are going to go step by step through this passage in Ephesians. I intend on leading you through ways that you can protect yourself and be prepared for this daily battle that we each face against temptation, the Devil, Satan and sin. Each of you should have picked up a card before the service, if you don’t have one please raise your hand and you will be given one. On the back of this card you have the opportunity to write down one way that you will commit yourself to fight against the devil this week. I’d like you to write one of the following.
First, you might commit yourself to ask for God’s protection each morning. Perhaps you could read Ephesians chapter 6, starting at verse 10 and prepare yourself for the day’s battle under God’s armor. You could write: morning prayer of protection, for example. Second, you could commit yourself to praying for protection and strength when dealing with a particular temptation or situation that is ongoing in your life. Perhaps you feel especially attacked when around another person or at a particular time of day. Ask the Lord for the armor and weapons to fight this evil attack. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. You could write: Pray before (blank) and put in whatever situation you need to put down.
Third, you might commit yourself to pray for someone who is struggling with sin. Remember what Ephesians 6 said, “Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil.” All of us know of people who struggle with sin, or who try and hurt us, or who try and hurt others. The next you get angry with their actions consider this: pray against the devil. Take the fight right to him! Sure, the devil isn’t making them do it (they are happy to do the wrong thing) but pray for them to fight against the temptation to follow the devil’s lies. Your prayers might not only help them be free of their bondage to sin, but it might give you compassion for one of God’s children being oppressed by the devil. You could write: “Pray against the Devil”.
Remember, a fully equipped Christian scares the pants off the Devil. The truth is that you have protection you may have never used and weapons you may have never thought of. I intend on teaching you more about them over the next weeks, but I’m not going to give you anything you don’t already have. Psalm 91 says, “If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the Lord, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.” Today is the day for you to tell the Devil. No more! No more lies! NO more fear! In the name of Jesus Christ, get behind me Satan! Run away! I follow Jesus Christ alone. God is my protector. Amen.
Sermon for December 26th (Rescue)
The EMT’s got the call and arrived at the house as quickly as they could. As they walked in the door, the sight they saw was sick and terrifying, gruesome. A new baby boy lay on the ground, dying from the result of not simply neglect, but obvious abuse. These guys had seen it all, multiple times, but this scene made them want to throw up. As their stomachs churned and the tears came to their eyes, they did the only thing that seemed right at that moment. They got some water and baptized that little baby just before it died in their arms.
That’s where Jesus belongs. In the middle of a house full of death and abuse. That’s where he shows up as Emmanuel “God with us”. You see, God was not only with the men holding that child, but with this child who might never had known as much love as those emergency workers showed it. This is where God belongs, where his promises are most at home, in the depths of this type of hell. And in the middle of the living room within the confines of this house of evil and despair, God brings hope and the promise of new life. No matter what was done before to this child, God says, I have washed him clean in the waters of the resurrection.
That story. That day. That’s why Jesus was born. That’s why we still celebrate Christmas so many years later. Not just because Jesus was born, but because he suffered and died to free us all from the results of sin and death. Hebrews 2:14, “Since the children have flesh and blood, Jesus too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
Christmas Day was quite a miracle when you think about it. Virgin birth. The Son of God born in human flesh. But really, the most audacious claim we make as Christians is not that our God was born, but that he stayed with us. He didn’t just live and die, he suffered. Very ungodlylike. It’s the day after Christmas, and God is still with us. Why? Because God knows something that few of us ever fully realized: we are trapped. We are imprisoned. We are slaves. We need Jesus to set us free.
Hebrews says that we are held in slavery by our fear of death. How can fear enslave you? When Kristy and I lived in Lincoln Nebraska, after we were married, we lived in the apartment above our church at the Lutheran Student Center. We were in charge of all janitorial duties, opening and closing the church, and hosting Sunday mornings as well as Husker game days. A couple of months after we lived there, we participated in a paint-a-thon where we volunteered our time to paint a woman’s house who couldn’t afford to have it done otherwise. Someone in the group brought up that we might want to be careful that we didn’t get paint on our wedding rings, so we took them off and left them in the apartment while we were gone for the day.
Several hours later, Kristy came home and noticed that some of the stuff from our apartment was lying in the fellowship area, then she noticed that our door was wide open—our house had been broken into! After the cops came and looked around, they found a knife that was used to pry open the door. Not much was taken. 50 golden Sacajawea dollar coins that I had received for our wedding and, you guessed it, our new wedding rings! I don’t ever remember feeling as vulnerable or betrayed than after our house had been intruded upon and robbed.
But what I especially remember was the time after that. The fear. The fear Kristy and I had that it would happen again. I mean, we didn’t know who had done it, they never found out, so who knew if they would come back? It was either that night, or the next, when we spent hours looking out the window watching the cars drive by. “Didn’t that car drive by once before!” “Yeah, I think it did!” “Do you think that they will come back, do you think that’s them?” So we turned off the lights and hid, watching out the window for that same car to come again. Alert, watching, waiting, fearful, terrified that we might be robbed again. Scared of what would happen next. And completely imprisoned in our house, unable to move or function for the next hours or, really, the next week. That’s what fear does.
Do you remember the 9-11 attacks? I was just leaving a placement test for my Master’s Degree at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music around 11 o’clock when I noticed that some people were watching a TV very closely. When I turned on the radio in my car, they just kept talking about someone jumping from one of the twin towers in New York City—I thought that it was a suicide. When I came home, I turned on the TV. About a week later I turned it off. I don’t know what I did between the one day and that next week. Kristy and I were glued, day in and day out. I went to work. I went to school. But that’s it. Those were the only vacations from the news. I was imprisoned, trapped, enslaved by the fear of what had happened. In a very real way I was a prisoner by my fear of death.
Jesus was born so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Now fear is natural. It is ingrained into us to keep us alive. We have fight or flight reflexes that tell us what to do when there is danger. But being enslaved by fear is something else. God being with us doesn’t mean that we won’t sometimes be afraid of things, but knowing that Jesus is your Savior means that fear never gets the last word.
Let me read something for you from the 1st letter of John chapter 4, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” This isn’t referring to the natural fears of life, but that you need no longer fear death. The final judgment of God has already been given—he looked at you and said, “No. No you have not lived up to my expectations.”
By yourself, without Jesus, apart from Jesus, you are under God’s wrath. You must fear his punishment. You are imprisoned with the Devil as your prison guard. 1 Corinthians says that the string of death is sin. You see death, by itself, shouldn’t be that bad. In fact, in some cases, we wish for death because life seems too difficult because of disease and sickness, or hardship and despair. Sin, separation from God, creates our fear of death. Without Jesus, the Devil just keeps reminding you of your sins. He accuses you. He tells you that you deserve your predicament. That you have nothing to hope for.
But Jesus Christ was born to destroy the works of the devil. Our victory comes through Jesus Christ. He rescues us from God’s wrath. And his perfect love for you in the only thing that has the power to drive out your fear. It’s not that you and I don’t have a reason to be afraid of God at times (we are to fear, love and trust God) but because of Jesus Christ’s love for you, you can be assured that you are protected.
In Star Wars Episode One, when the Jedi are considering adding Anakin Skywalker as a young jedi, Yoda says, “Fear is the path to the dark side... fear leads to anger...anger leads to hate.. hate leads to suffering.” Much of the suffering in our lives comes from fear. Perhaps you live in fear. Fear of messing up. Fear of living alone or dying alone. Fear of being wrong. Fear of pain. For some, these fears imprison them to a life of running from God. Is that what you are doing?
Do you turn to drugs, or sex, or food to escape physical or emotional pain? Do you bully others and put them down to cover up your own fears of inadequacy? Do you withdraw from friendships to keep from feeling loss again? That’s where fear leads us, or rather, when it traps us. Do you know that Jesus was born to save you from that kind of fear?
But maybe you can’t believe it. Maybe you think that this is all a bunch of psychological mumbo jumbo. Maybe you tried to escape this fear before, but have failed. You’ve been to therapists, but you keep playing the same tapes over and over again. What is falling part in your life? What part does your fear play into that?
Jesus was born to rescue you. This isn’t about the power of positive thinking. It’s not psychological. This is a spiritual battle and your freedom and happiness is the prize. When Jesus was born, God threw out a life preserver into the an ocean full of drowning sinners, shackled to their fears. Jesus’ death broke the chains of fear the Devil had placed on you and God has wrapped his loving arms around you. He has rescued you from the depths and given you a promise of new life. He was born to live through the worst of times with you.
Are you afraid of something? Do you believe that there is anywhere God wouldn’t go to rescue you? There is no need to hold onto your fear—it cannot save you. I know it’s comfortable. It’s a friend. But that fear is a prison and it can lead you away from the truth of God’s perfect love. If you need freedom from this fear—call out to Jesus. He was born to be with you. He has come to rescue you. Just like he rescued that little baby boy, he walks into the depths of your hell and despair, washes you with the promise of his love and frees you to live with hope of eternal life. Jesus says, “Do not be afraid. I have come to save you.” Amen.
That’s where Jesus belongs. In the middle of a house full of death and abuse. That’s where he shows up as Emmanuel “God with us”. You see, God was not only with the men holding that child, but with this child who might never had known as much love as those emergency workers showed it. This is where God belongs, where his promises are most at home, in the depths of this type of hell. And in the middle of the living room within the confines of this house of evil and despair, God brings hope and the promise of new life. No matter what was done before to this child, God says, I have washed him clean in the waters of the resurrection.
That story. That day. That’s why Jesus was born. That’s why we still celebrate Christmas so many years later. Not just because Jesus was born, but because he suffered and died to free us all from the results of sin and death. Hebrews 2:14, “Since the children have flesh and blood, Jesus too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
Christmas Day was quite a miracle when you think about it. Virgin birth. The Son of God born in human flesh. But really, the most audacious claim we make as Christians is not that our God was born, but that he stayed with us. He didn’t just live and die, he suffered. Very ungodlylike. It’s the day after Christmas, and God is still with us. Why? Because God knows something that few of us ever fully realized: we are trapped. We are imprisoned. We are slaves. We need Jesus to set us free.
Hebrews says that we are held in slavery by our fear of death. How can fear enslave you? When Kristy and I lived in Lincoln Nebraska, after we were married, we lived in the apartment above our church at the Lutheran Student Center. We were in charge of all janitorial duties, opening and closing the church, and hosting Sunday mornings as well as Husker game days. A couple of months after we lived there, we participated in a paint-a-thon where we volunteered our time to paint a woman’s house who couldn’t afford to have it done otherwise. Someone in the group brought up that we might want to be careful that we didn’t get paint on our wedding rings, so we took them off and left them in the apartment while we were gone for the day.
Several hours later, Kristy came home and noticed that some of the stuff from our apartment was lying in the fellowship area, then she noticed that our door was wide open—our house had been broken into! After the cops came and looked around, they found a knife that was used to pry open the door. Not much was taken. 50 golden Sacajawea dollar coins that I had received for our wedding and, you guessed it, our new wedding rings! I don’t ever remember feeling as vulnerable or betrayed than after our house had been intruded upon and robbed.
But what I especially remember was the time after that. The fear. The fear Kristy and I had that it would happen again. I mean, we didn’t know who had done it, they never found out, so who knew if they would come back? It was either that night, or the next, when we spent hours looking out the window watching the cars drive by. “Didn’t that car drive by once before!” “Yeah, I think it did!” “Do you think that they will come back, do you think that’s them?” So we turned off the lights and hid, watching out the window for that same car to come again. Alert, watching, waiting, fearful, terrified that we might be robbed again. Scared of what would happen next. And completely imprisoned in our house, unable to move or function for the next hours or, really, the next week. That’s what fear does.
Do you remember the 9-11 attacks? I was just leaving a placement test for my Master’s Degree at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music around 11 o’clock when I noticed that some people were watching a TV very closely. When I turned on the radio in my car, they just kept talking about someone jumping from one of the twin towers in New York City—I thought that it was a suicide. When I came home, I turned on the TV. About a week later I turned it off. I don’t know what I did between the one day and that next week. Kristy and I were glued, day in and day out. I went to work. I went to school. But that’s it. Those were the only vacations from the news. I was imprisoned, trapped, enslaved by the fear of what had happened. In a very real way I was a prisoner by my fear of death.
Jesus was born so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Now fear is natural. It is ingrained into us to keep us alive. We have fight or flight reflexes that tell us what to do when there is danger. But being enslaved by fear is something else. God being with us doesn’t mean that we won’t sometimes be afraid of things, but knowing that Jesus is your Savior means that fear never gets the last word.
Let me read something for you from the 1st letter of John chapter 4, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” This isn’t referring to the natural fears of life, but that you need no longer fear death. The final judgment of God has already been given—he looked at you and said, “No. No you have not lived up to my expectations.”
By yourself, without Jesus, apart from Jesus, you are under God’s wrath. You must fear his punishment. You are imprisoned with the Devil as your prison guard. 1 Corinthians says that the string of death is sin. You see death, by itself, shouldn’t be that bad. In fact, in some cases, we wish for death because life seems too difficult because of disease and sickness, or hardship and despair. Sin, separation from God, creates our fear of death. Without Jesus, the Devil just keeps reminding you of your sins. He accuses you. He tells you that you deserve your predicament. That you have nothing to hope for.
But Jesus Christ was born to destroy the works of the devil. Our victory comes through Jesus Christ. He rescues us from God’s wrath. And his perfect love for you in the only thing that has the power to drive out your fear. It’s not that you and I don’t have a reason to be afraid of God at times (we are to fear, love and trust God) but because of Jesus Christ’s love for you, you can be assured that you are protected.
In Star Wars Episode One, when the Jedi are considering adding Anakin Skywalker as a young jedi, Yoda says, “Fear is the path to the dark side... fear leads to anger...anger leads to hate.. hate leads to suffering.” Much of the suffering in our lives comes from fear. Perhaps you live in fear. Fear of messing up. Fear of living alone or dying alone. Fear of being wrong. Fear of pain. For some, these fears imprison them to a life of running from God. Is that what you are doing?
Do you turn to drugs, or sex, or food to escape physical or emotional pain? Do you bully others and put them down to cover up your own fears of inadequacy? Do you withdraw from friendships to keep from feeling loss again? That’s where fear leads us, or rather, when it traps us. Do you know that Jesus was born to save you from that kind of fear?
But maybe you can’t believe it. Maybe you think that this is all a bunch of psychological mumbo jumbo. Maybe you tried to escape this fear before, but have failed. You’ve been to therapists, but you keep playing the same tapes over and over again. What is falling part in your life? What part does your fear play into that?
Jesus was born to rescue you. This isn’t about the power of positive thinking. It’s not psychological. This is a spiritual battle and your freedom and happiness is the prize. When Jesus was born, God threw out a life preserver into the an ocean full of drowning sinners, shackled to their fears. Jesus’ death broke the chains of fear the Devil had placed on you and God has wrapped his loving arms around you. He has rescued you from the depths and given you a promise of new life. He was born to live through the worst of times with you.
Are you afraid of something? Do you believe that there is anywhere God wouldn’t go to rescue you? There is no need to hold onto your fear—it cannot save you. I know it’s comfortable. It’s a friend. But that fear is a prison and it can lead you away from the truth of God’s perfect love. If you need freedom from this fear—call out to Jesus. He was born to be with you. He has come to rescue you. Just like he rescued that little baby boy, he walks into the depths of your hell and despair, washes you with the promise of his love and frees you to live with hope of eternal life. Jesus says, “Do not be afraid. I have come to save you.” Amen.
December 25th (Christmas Day)
What are you celebrating today? The birth of Jesus right? I mean, we are celebrating other things too I know, like special time with family and friends, delicious food, the end of another year, but it’s the birth of Jesus that gives us the true meaning of Christmas. And yet, is it just another birthday party? Where the sugar cookies and hamballs take the place of cake and ice cream? Where we celebrate another year of being a Christian and go back to life as normal? I hope not. I hope not because that’s not why Jesus was born.
What are we celebrating? The birth of Jesus is the correct answer, but let me add a little something to it. “Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” We are celebrating Jesus’ birth BECAUSE—because he has saved us from our sins.
In other words, if you didn’t know or don’t know that Jesus has saved you from your sins, if you don’t believe that, you have nothing to celebrate today. He’s just another dead guy with a lot of name recognition. We’ve all been to those kind of parties, where you don’t really know the person you are celebrating, but you show up and eat their cake and ice cream all the same. That’s what Christmas means for many people—free cake and ice cream, presents, neat songs playing on the radio, happy feelings. But for you who are gathered here this morning, you have the opportunity to celebrate much more.
Jesus didn’t just come to give, but to take away. He didn’t just come to give you a reason to party, he came to give you life and take away your sins—take away your death. The angel, God’s messenger, told Mary to name her son Jesus, the Greek form of Joshua, which means “the Lord saves” because he would save his people from their sins. We aren’t just here to celebrate his birth, but to celebrate the fact that we needed a Savior, we really did, and then He was born. There was no way we could find peace with God, there were problems involved, we weren’t holy, we weren’t acceptable, we did awful things to one another and then, one day, Jesus was born to destroy take away those things. We needed him to be born. We were once separated from God by our sin, but Jesus came to bring God close to us and destroy sin once and for all.
And we aren’t just celebrating the fact that our Savior was born a long time ago; we are celebrating the fact that we need him just as much today as any day in our life. We need a Savior each and every moment of our lives. This day is about so much more than a birthday party, but a chance to worship God and what he means to us each and every day of our lives. Not just that God saved us from our sin, but that he promises to never leave us—ever. We need to make every day Christmas. We need to remember that Jesus wasn’t just born—we needed him to be born. And even more than that, we can’t go one more moment without him in our lives. He is Emmanuel, God with us. The cake and ice cream, cookies and hamballs mean nothing without salvation.
Christmas Day isn’t just another fun celebration—it’s something we can’t live without. In fact, no one can. Not everybody knows this, that’s for sure, but that’s why it’s so important to point it out. The invitation is out there for everyone, including all of you here, but you’re missing more than a good party if you don’t know the birthday boy. Today, you will each have an opportunity, at least one, not only to share who Christmas is about, but why that matters. Who will you deliver the invitation to today?
We are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ today, but it’s important not to leave salvation out of the Christmas story. Therefore, let us take a moment now to confess not only our need to be saved but that God was indeed born to save us in Jesus Christ.
What are we celebrating? The birth of Jesus is the correct answer, but let me add a little something to it. “Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” We are celebrating Jesus’ birth BECAUSE—because he has saved us from our sins.
In other words, if you didn’t know or don’t know that Jesus has saved you from your sins, if you don’t believe that, you have nothing to celebrate today. He’s just another dead guy with a lot of name recognition. We’ve all been to those kind of parties, where you don’t really know the person you are celebrating, but you show up and eat their cake and ice cream all the same. That’s what Christmas means for many people—free cake and ice cream, presents, neat songs playing on the radio, happy feelings. But for you who are gathered here this morning, you have the opportunity to celebrate much more.
Jesus didn’t just come to give, but to take away. He didn’t just come to give you a reason to party, he came to give you life and take away your sins—take away your death. The angel, God’s messenger, told Mary to name her son Jesus, the Greek form of Joshua, which means “the Lord saves” because he would save his people from their sins. We aren’t just here to celebrate his birth, but to celebrate the fact that we needed a Savior, we really did, and then He was born. There was no way we could find peace with God, there were problems involved, we weren’t holy, we weren’t acceptable, we did awful things to one another and then, one day, Jesus was born to destroy take away those things. We needed him to be born. We were once separated from God by our sin, but Jesus came to bring God close to us and destroy sin once and for all.
And we aren’t just celebrating the fact that our Savior was born a long time ago; we are celebrating the fact that we need him just as much today as any day in our life. We need a Savior each and every moment of our lives. This day is about so much more than a birthday party, but a chance to worship God and what he means to us each and every day of our lives. Not just that God saved us from our sin, but that he promises to never leave us—ever. We need to make every day Christmas. We need to remember that Jesus wasn’t just born—we needed him to be born. And even more than that, we can’t go one more moment without him in our lives. He is Emmanuel, God with us. The cake and ice cream, cookies and hamballs mean nothing without salvation.
Christmas Day isn’t just another fun celebration—it’s something we can’t live without. In fact, no one can. Not everybody knows this, that’s for sure, but that’s why it’s so important to point it out. The invitation is out there for everyone, including all of you here, but you’re missing more than a good party if you don’t know the birthday boy. Today, you will each have an opportunity, at least one, not only to share who Christmas is about, but why that matters. Who will you deliver the invitation to today?
We are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ today, but it’s important not to leave salvation out of the Christmas story. Therefore, let us take a moment now to confess not only our need to be saved but that God was indeed born to save us in Jesus Christ.
Sermon for December 24th (Christmas Eve 2nd Service)
Christmas Day is tomorrow. And after that we’ll be focused on something else. We’ll be getting ready for our New Year’s Eve parties. We’ll watch the top 100 blanks of the year on TV. We’ll try to get in as much fun as possible before school starts again and we will have forgotten all about Christmas. There is just so much to do to get ready for this Christmas day thing that by the time it comes we are sick of it We are over Christmas before it has begun. Tired of the songs, the lights, the sales, the bellringers. Christmas will be over and that will be it.
But did you know that when Jesus was born, he was called “Emmanuel”—God with us? Yet we’ve accepted just the opposite of that. Once Christmas Day is over, Jesus is excluded, for all intents and purposes, from our daily lives. He’s out the door with the leftovers, back in the cupboard with the wrapping paper and Christmas dishes until next December comes. It’s not that he’s not important, we tell ourselves, it’s just that the celebration is over and it’s time to get back on with our lives.
In the gospel of John, we heard that “the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” What does that mean? It means that the world has Christmas all mixed up for the sake of good advertising. In Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, there is a video lesson called “Buyer Beware”. In the lesson, he explains that we are inundated every day with advertisements and that these marketing ploys affect our decision making. It’s tough not to be influenced by thousands of commercials, radio spots, internet pop ups and billboards. If you are not careful and aware, you will find yourself buying things you didn’t have the money to buy.
If you don’t know by now, though my family does watch programs on Hulu and many movies on Netflix, we don’t have a television. Why not? Well, many reasons, but everytime we go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for an overnight stay I realize how happy I am that we don’t have a TV. You see, when you don’t watch a lot of TV, you realize how much of TV is just commercials. And then you realize suddenly what kind of an effect those commercials have on little ears. One day, my kids had never heard of a pillow pet, but after one thirty minute cartoon (with three pillow pet commercials) guess what they couldn’t live without? When I was little, my dad would joke that all he’d have to do to get me to eat something was have it dance on TV. So, he’d get a couple of forks in the two sides of the meatloaf, carry the pan over to the television, lift it up and do a little song and dance for me to get me to eat. Funny, but consider how much of what you buy for your kids is based not on nutrition or even tradition but on television.
Our faith has been manipulated as well by marketing, especially by Christmas marketing, and the results aren’t pretty. I don’t think that people intentionally focus on something other than Jesus; it’s just that there’s not enough room for a big God like that is our normal everyday lives. Not with everything else we have going on. There’s no room at the inn, no room under the Christmas tree, no time to go to church on Christmas Day, no money left to give an offering after buying all those Christmas presents, no time to read the Bible when there are Christmas cards to write. I get it. I struggle too. We all do.
When God became flesh to dwell among us he really did take up a lot of room. As it was explained to me once at seminary, he’s like your big, fat uncle who travels to your house at Christmastime and takes over. He sits in your favorite chair, sprawls out over your couch, grabs the remote with one hand and has the other in the snackbowl. He sets his big ol rear down and takes up all the space you once had. And then, the next day, he won’t leave! That’s Jesus in the flesh! And come the day after Christmas, he’s still here whether we want him or not. Jesus promises that he’s not going anywhere. He’s Emmanuel, God with us. And he won’t be leaving. He’s staying indefinitely.
Jesus is like your loving and overprotective father teaching you to ride that new bike you got for Christmas. He holds onto the handlebars and runs alongside you saying, “Keep pedaling! Keep pedaling!” But while an earthly father will let go and watch you ride off into the sunset once you get the hang of it, Jesus never lets go. Ever. He’s still running alongside you to this day cheering you on but holding on tight. For some, this feels condescending, stifling, like he’s not giving you enough freedom. But if you are like me and have a hard time keeping your balance in this life. Knowing that God is right there, in the flesh, in all circumstances—well, that feels like a glorious comfort.
The sales will only last another day, radio stations will stop playing Christmas songs, everyone will forget about Jesus and church and faith and start focusing on what 2011 will bring. But I pray that you will have a different experience after Christmas. That you’ll look on the world with new eyes. Aware and prepared for what lies ahead. That’s you’ll live and breathe and ride along in a new way. Not because you’ve changed who you are, but because you’ve been changed by the one who’s riding along with you. You’re not going anywhere alone ever again. Jesus Christ is born today. God is with us. And he’s come to stay with you forever. Amen.
But did you know that when Jesus was born, he was called “Emmanuel”—God with us? Yet we’ve accepted just the opposite of that. Once Christmas Day is over, Jesus is excluded, for all intents and purposes, from our daily lives. He’s out the door with the leftovers, back in the cupboard with the wrapping paper and Christmas dishes until next December comes. It’s not that he’s not important, we tell ourselves, it’s just that the celebration is over and it’s time to get back on with our lives.
In the gospel of John, we heard that “the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” What does that mean? It means that the world has Christmas all mixed up for the sake of good advertising. In Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, there is a video lesson called “Buyer Beware”. In the lesson, he explains that we are inundated every day with advertisements and that these marketing ploys affect our decision making. It’s tough not to be influenced by thousands of commercials, radio spots, internet pop ups and billboards. If you are not careful and aware, you will find yourself buying things you didn’t have the money to buy.
If you don’t know by now, though my family does watch programs on Hulu and many movies on Netflix, we don’t have a television. Why not? Well, many reasons, but everytime we go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for an overnight stay I realize how happy I am that we don’t have a TV. You see, when you don’t watch a lot of TV, you realize how much of TV is just commercials. And then you realize suddenly what kind of an effect those commercials have on little ears. One day, my kids had never heard of a pillow pet, but after one thirty minute cartoon (with three pillow pet commercials) guess what they couldn’t live without? When I was little, my dad would joke that all he’d have to do to get me to eat something was have it dance on TV. So, he’d get a couple of forks in the two sides of the meatloaf, carry the pan over to the television, lift it up and do a little song and dance for me to get me to eat. Funny, but consider how much of what you buy for your kids is based not on nutrition or even tradition but on television.
Our faith has been manipulated as well by marketing, especially by Christmas marketing, and the results aren’t pretty. I don’t think that people intentionally focus on something other than Jesus; it’s just that there’s not enough room for a big God like that is our normal everyday lives. Not with everything else we have going on. There’s no room at the inn, no room under the Christmas tree, no time to go to church on Christmas Day, no money left to give an offering after buying all those Christmas presents, no time to read the Bible when there are Christmas cards to write. I get it. I struggle too. We all do.
When God became flesh to dwell among us he really did take up a lot of room. As it was explained to me once at seminary, he’s like your big, fat uncle who travels to your house at Christmastime and takes over. He sits in your favorite chair, sprawls out over your couch, grabs the remote with one hand and has the other in the snackbowl. He sets his big ol rear down and takes up all the space you once had. And then, the next day, he won’t leave! That’s Jesus in the flesh! And come the day after Christmas, he’s still here whether we want him or not. Jesus promises that he’s not going anywhere. He’s Emmanuel, God with us. And he won’t be leaving. He’s staying indefinitely.
Jesus is like your loving and overprotective father teaching you to ride that new bike you got for Christmas. He holds onto the handlebars and runs alongside you saying, “Keep pedaling! Keep pedaling!” But while an earthly father will let go and watch you ride off into the sunset once you get the hang of it, Jesus never lets go. Ever. He’s still running alongside you to this day cheering you on but holding on tight. For some, this feels condescending, stifling, like he’s not giving you enough freedom. But if you are like me and have a hard time keeping your balance in this life. Knowing that God is right there, in the flesh, in all circumstances—well, that feels like a glorious comfort.
The sales will only last another day, radio stations will stop playing Christmas songs, everyone will forget about Jesus and church and faith and start focusing on what 2011 will bring. But I pray that you will have a different experience after Christmas. That you’ll look on the world with new eyes. Aware and prepared for what lies ahead. That’s you’ll live and breathe and ride along in a new way. Not because you’ve changed who you are, but because you’ve been changed by the one who’s riding along with you. You’re not going anywhere alone ever again. Jesus Christ is born today. God is with us. And he’s come to stay with you forever. Amen.
Sermon for December 24th (Christmas Eve 1st Service)
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Do you know what this writer saw? Can you imagine what Mary and Joseph saw? What did those shepherds see? What did the wise men travel so far to witness? They saw God himself in the flesh. Can you imagine what they saw?
I can tell you. It’s true. I can tell you what they saw. I will attempt to express for you the awesome glory, the glory of God, full of grace and truth. Are you ready? Take a deep breath. You’re lucky that your pastor is willing and able to share this wondrous picture for you. I can tell you what they saw. When they saw Jesus, they . . . saw . . . a baby. A normal, human baby. That’s it.
Jesus was born a baby. He was not glowing from what we tell or at least nobody mentioned that in any of the stories. He had no visible halo like the drawings show. If he was smiling, it was because of gas, because he was a baby—a real one, and newborn babies don’t smile they just stare at you for the first six weeks.
Depending on how soon after the birth those shepherds came, baby Jesus would have been pretty red and swollen from labor and all that comes with that. Mary would have had a natural birth, no planned C-section. He was probably wrinkly, maybe with some of that cheesy langua stuff all over his little face and in his armpit creases. Depending on how long the birth lasted, baby Jesus may have been a conehead for all we know. That, my friends, is the glory of God, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. He probably looked like your kids when they were babies.
In fact, he had better look like your kids and my kids or else the whole story would be one big lie! Because, as the gospel of John puts it, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Jesus became one of us. He would have looked like us, smelled like, felt like us and (despite what the song Away in a Manger says) eventually he would have cried like us too. Because if he didn’t he wouldn’t have been a real baby! The glory of Christmas is that Jesus WAS a real baby. A real human being. If you’d like to see God in all his glory, you need not look any farther than Jesus nursing at his mother’s breast. It’s in that helplessness, in that humility, in that picture of complete fleshiness that we see God’s glory!
The book of Hebrews says that Jesus, “was made like us in every way” The glory of God full of grace and truth was born and would eventually. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he mighty destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
This Christmas, you each have an opportunity. The same opportunity people had back on that first Christmas Day. You can begin a relationship with God in the flesh. Not with a God of fear and judgment with a long white beard and a loud booming voice sitting on a heavenly throne, but with God the infant who giggles, and burps and cries. You may already call yourself by his name—a Christian—one of Jesus Christ’s. But I pray that tonight, God has drawn each of you into this place to build a relationship with that same Jesus. I pray that God plants within your heart a faith to believe that newborn baby is your Savior.
You have another opportunity to get to know God in the flesh. He’s no different than you are except that he has the power to do something you and I could never do. You see, as we grow up we hurt one another, we destroy ourselves with addictions, we make mistakes and choose evil even when we’d said we’d stop doing all that. Jesus grew up with those same temptations and yet he lived a perfect life in God’s eyes. And so, when he died on the cross, God promised to forgive all of your sins. Jesus died in your place so that you might be forgiven. If you can believe, even for a moment, that Jesus was really born and truly died to save you from your sins, then you might begin to see how glorious that day was this baby, Jesus, was born. For yes, Jesus was born just a baby, and that was wonderful, but even more fantastic than that, he was born, God in the flesh, to save you and give you eternal life.
I can tell you. It’s true. I can tell you what they saw. I will attempt to express for you the awesome glory, the glory of God, full of grace and truth. Are you ready? Take a deep breath. You’re lucky that your pastor is willing and able to share this wondrous picture for you. I can tell you what they saw. When they saw Jesus, they . . . saw . . . a baby. A normal, human baby. That’s it.
Jesus was born a baby. He was not glowing from what we tell or at least nobody mentioned that in any of the stories. He had no visible halo like the drawings show. If he was smiling, it was because of gas, because he was a baby—a real one, and newborn babies don’t smile they just stare at you for the first six weeks.
Depending on how soon after the birth those shepherds came, baby Jesus would have been pretty red and swollen from labor and all that comes with that. Mary would have had a natural birth, no planned C-section. He was probably wrinkly, maybe with some of that cheesy langua stuff all over his little face and in his armpit creases. Depending on how long the birth lasted, baby Jesus may have been a conehead for all we know. That, my friends, is the glory of God, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. He probably looked like your kids when they were babies.
In fact, he had better look like your kids and my kids or else the whole story would be one big lie! Because, as the gospel of John puts it, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Jesus became one of us. He would have looked like us, smelled like, felt like us and (despite what the song Away in a Manger says) eventually he would have cried like us too. Because if he didn’t he wouldn’t have been a real baby! The glory of Christmas is that Jesus WAS a real baby. A real human being. If you’d like to see God in all his glory, you need not look any farther than Jesus nursing at his mother’s breast. It’s in that helplessness, in that humility, in that picture of complete fleshiness that we see God’s glory!
The book of Hebrews says that Jesus, “was made like us in every way” The glory of God full of grace and truth was born and would eventually. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he mighty destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
This Christmas, you each have an opportunity. The same opportunity people had back on that first Christmas Day. You can begin a relationship with God in the flesh. Not with a God of fear and judgment with a long white beard and a loud booming voice sitting on a heavenly throne, but with God the infant who giggles, and burps and cries. You may already call yourself by his name—a Christian—one of Jesus Christ’s. But I pray that tonight, God has drawn each of you into this place to build a relationship with that same Jesus. I pray that God plants within your heart a faith to believe that newborn baby is your Savior.
You have another opportunity to get to know God in the flesh. He’s no different than you are except that he has the power to do something you and I could never do. You see, as we grow up we hurt one another, we destroy ourselves with addictions, we make mistakes and choose evil even when we’d said we’d stop doing all that. Jesus grew up with those same temptations and yet he lived a perfect life in God’s eyes. And so, when he died on the cross, God promised to forgive all of your sins. Jesus died in your place so that you might be forgiven. If you can believe, even for a moment, that Jesus was really born and truly died to save you from your sins, then you might begin to see how glorious that day was this baby, Jesus, was born. For yes, Jesus was born just a baby, and that was wonderful, but even more fantastic than that, he was born, God in the flesh, to save you and give you eternal life.
Sermon for December 19th (The Virgin Mary)
Do you ever feel like, as a Christian, there are a lot of things you HAVE to believe? Just little things that you are supposed to agree with, like it or not? And it’s not that you don’t necessarily believe them, but they seem inconsequential or silly—you don’t understand them. And we figure that it really doesn’t matter if we believe everything. I mean, we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, right? Not how pure our doctrine is or how much we agree with the church party line.
The doctrine or belief in the virgin Mary fits in this category for many Christians. It’s written in the Bible, we confess it in the Apostle’s Creed, but it certainly doesn’t seem like a very important thing to believe. I mean, it’s her own business whether she was a virgin or not when she had Jesus, right? Who cares! Jesus was born, the Savior of the world! That’s what matters. We could care less about Mary and her past activities.
There are a lot of people who question whether Mary was actually a virgin or not. Did you know that? And in the face of so many questions, it’s easy to say, “Who cares! It doesn’t really matter! Believe whatever you want to believe. It doesn’t affect much.” But, you know what? That is a trap. By the end of my message today, I hope that you see that it actually does matter. What you believe about this matters a lot. And why is that? Because like many doctrines of the church that we don’t think are very important, what you believe affects your faith in Jesus. It’s part of the foundation. Sometimes, we don’t realize how central some peculiar doctrine is to our faith until everything begins to crumble around us and we can’t figure out why. The doctrine of the virgin Mary is one of them so we’d better talk about it.
First, you need to know some of arguments AGAINST the doctrine of the virgin Mary. I want you to understand the issues involved. There are three categories: scientific, historical and grammatical. You can probably guess the scientific problem with a virgin birth: Babies do not just show up out of nowhere. Scientists know how a baby is conceived and, if you don’t know, you might need to ask. To put it simply. In order for a baby to be created, you need something from a mommy and something from a daddy. Two human beings make a human baby. It’s very simple science.
Knowing this fact (that all human babies need something from a mommy and something from a daddy) some scientists argue that Mary might have THOUGHT she was a virgin, but maybe she just hadn’t had “the talk” yet about the birds and the bees. They didn’t have to take health class back then, so, perhaps, she was just ignorant. Of course, other people don’t give her the benefit of the doubt and just argue that she must have simply been lying. She isn’t the first young woman, they might point out, to maintain her purity in the face of obvious proof to the opposite just to not get in trouble with her parents or, in this case, her fiancée.
Then there is the historical argument. In the book “Christology” by Hans Swartz, he writes that throughout history, “many important figures were allegedly born of a virgin even if their parents were well known.” For example, Ra, the Egyptian Sun-god was supposed to be a virgin birth, so were all the heroes in the Greek and Roman pantheons such as Perseus. Other important historical figures were said to be virgin births such as Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great. Had you ever heard about these so-called virgin births before? And what do with do with information? Were the Christians just copying the idea from their neighbors?
Swartz points out a problem with comparing these different examples, “In the Near Eastern and Hellenistic context there is always a sexual element present, a divine marriage, for instance, in which a divine male in human or other form impregnates a woman.” For example, the Greek god Zeus was said to take the form of a swan and has a romantic encounter with a lady named Lena. As the story goes, they create the beautiful Helen of Troy—the face that launched a thousand ships. But Swartz points out, “There is no clear example of virginal conception in world or pagan religions that plausibly could have given first-century Jewish Christians the idea of the virginal conception of Jesus.”
What does all that mean? It means that Jesus’ conception, the concept of a virgin Mary, is unlike any other historical examples. So, either the biblical writers were really bad at copying from other stories or else they weren’t copying anything at all.
Finally, there is the grammatical argument. There are some who have argued that the word translated “virgin” from today’s Isaiah text is actually better translated “young woman” or “maiden” . Therefore, these scholars would argue, it is not necessary to believe that Mary had to be a virgin in order to fulfill this prophecy, she just had to be a young woman, which she was. Some argue that the only reason the earliest Christians thoughts she was a virgin was because they were mistranslating what Isaiah really wrote. However, I am always skeptical of these translation arguments. I mean, if it “could” be translated “young woman” it also “could” still be translated “virgin”. Since people 2000 years ago were probably better at both their Hebrew and Greek than I am, I tend to think that since the church has believed she was a virgin for two centuries, that’s probably still the truth today.
Well, those are the main arguments AGAINST a virgin birth. Some of them may be more convincing to you than others. The fact of the matter is that the virgin birth has always been a problem for good reason—it was a miracle! I mean, that’s kinda the point isn’t it? God appears to have wanted it to be difficult for us to fathom since he never did it before or has done it since. All we have got is the biblical evidence. S what do you believe and why does it matter?
Just to make it clear, the virgin birth is not about Mary’s purity; it’s about Jesus’ divinity. Jesus’ divinity is at stake here, not Mary’s reputation. Why do I bring this up? Because I think even people in the church have gotten this confused. Sometimes I think that it sounds like the fact that Mary was a virgin made her more “holy” than other women. But that’s not the point. A married woman is just as “holy” and beloved in God’s sight as Mary. This isn’t really about Mary at all! It’s all about Jesus.
In order for Jesus to be truly God and truly a human being, Mary must have become pregnant through the power of God, through the Holy Spirit. She would have had to be a virgin or else Jesus isn’t God—pure and simple. And is Jesus isn’t God, then he’s just another guy who died in history. If God himself was not born in the flesh, then God could not have died in the flesh or been raised from the dead and that means our faith is just in some popular guy in the first century. Jesus’ death means nothing if he is only human. Jesus death means something only when he is the
innocent, sinless, spotless, lamb of God sacrificed for your sins.
In the Old Testament, in order to be assured of the forgiveness of your sins, you had to sacrifice a lamb without blemish to God. When the laws of God were broken, blood had to be spilt and the lamb would take the place of you. Instead of you dying for your sins, a lamb would be sacrificed on your behalf. But you had to do this over and over and over again in the old sacrificial system. Lots of dead lambs in exchange for a forgiven you. This was a shadow of things to come.
But when Jesus died, God did something new. According to the book of Hebrews, Jesus was the spotless lamb of God and “He sacrificed himself for our sins once for all, when he offered himself.” No more dead lambs! Jesus Christ, the only human being who did not deserve to die because he had no sin, had to die in order for us to see the truth of our sin and the possibility of our salvation. God had to sacrifice himself, in the form of his only Son Jesus, in order to make us holy and acceptable in his sight. The book of Romans says, “Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
Jesus had to be more than just a human being, but also truly God. And in order to be truly God, his mother had to be a virgin—there is no other way around it. So why does the virgin birth of Jesus matter? Because if Mary wasn’t a virgin, then Jesus isn’t God and that means you will die and that’s the end. But I have good news for you: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that all who believe in him may not perish but will have eternal life.” When Jesus was born, God was born. He was called Emmanuel-God with us! God was born and died for you, so that you might live in heaven forever. Is it hard to believe? Yes. Unfathomable, unlikely, impossible. Of course! It takes faith in God’s Word against the scientific, historical and grammatical arguments that may be going through your head. But does it matter? Yes, it does. Especially for you. A virgin Mary is the difference between your death and your eternal life. That’s something worth believing in. Amen.
The doctrine or belief in the virgin Mary fits in this category for many Christians. It’s written in the Bible, we confess it in the Apostle’s Creed, but it certainly doesn’t seem like a very important thing to believe. I mean, it’s her own business whether she was a virgin or not when she had Jesus, right? Who cares! Jesus was born, the Savior of the world! That’s what matters. We could care less about Mary and her past activities.
There are a lot of people who question whether Mary was actually a virgin or not. Did you know that? And in the face of so many questions, it’s easy to say, “Who cares! It doesn’t really matter! Believe whatever you want to believe. It doesn’t affect much.” But, you know what? That is a trap. By the end of my message today, I hope that you see that it actually does matter. What you believe about this matters a lot. And why is that? Because like many doctrines of the church that we don’t think are very important, what you believe affects your faith in Jesus. It’s part of the foundation. Sometimes, we don’t realize how central some peculiar doctrine is to our faith until everything begins to crumble around us and we can’t figure out why. The doctrine of the virgin Mary is one of them so we’d better talk about it.
First, you need to know some of arguments AGAINST the doctrine of the virgin Mary. I want you to understand the issues involved. There are three categories: scientific, historical and grammatical. You can probably guess the scientific problem with a virgin birth: Babies do not just show up out of nowhere. Scientists know how a baby is conceived and, if you don’t know, you might need to ask. To put it simply. In order for a baby to be created, you need something from a mommy and something from a daddy. Two human beings make a human baby. It’s very simple science.
Knowing this fact (that all human babies need something from a mommy and something from a daddy) some scientists argue that Mary might have THOUGHT she was a virgin, but maybe she just hadn’t had “the talk” yet about the birds and the bees. They didn’t have to take health class back then, so, perhaps, she was just ignorant. Of course, other people don’t give her the benefit of the doubt and just argue that she must have simply been lying. She isn’t the first young woman, they might point out, to maintain her purity in the face of obvious proof to the opposite just to not get in trouble with her parents or, in this case, her fiancée.
Then there is the historical argument. In the book “Christology” by Hans Swartz, he writes that throughout history, “many important figures were allegedly born of a virgin even if their parents were well known.” For example, Ra, the Egyptian Sun-god was supposed to be a virgin birth, so were all the heroes in the Greek and Roman pantheons such as Perseus. Other important historical figures were said to be virgin births such as Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great. Had you ever heard about these so-called virgin births before? And what do with do with information? Were the Christians just copying the idea from their neighbors?
Swartz points out a problem with comparing these different examples, “In the Near Eastern and Hellenistic context there is always a sexual element present, a divine marriage, for instance, in which a divine male in human or other form impregnates a woman.” For example, the Greek god Zeus was said to take the form of a swan and has a romantic encounter with a lady named Lena. As the story goes, they create the beautiful Helen of Troy—the face that launched a thousand ships. But Swartz points out, “There is no clear example of virginal conception in world or pagan religions that plausibly could have given first-century Jewish Christians the idea of the virginal conception of Jesus.”
What does all that mean? It means that Jesus’ conception, the concept of a virgin Mary, is unlike any other historical examples. So, either the biblical writers were really bad at copying from other stories or else they weren’t copying anything at all.
Finally, there is the grammatical argument. There are some who have argued that the word translated “virgin” from today’s Isaiah text is actually better translated “young woman” or “maiden” . Therefore, these scholars would argue, it is not necessary to believe that Mary had to be a virgin in order to fulfill this prophecy, she just had to be a young woman, which she was. Some argue that the only reason the earliest Christians thoughts she was a virgin was because they were mistranslating what Isaiah really wrote. However, I am always skeptical of these translation arguments. I mean, if it “could” be translated “young woman” it also “could” still be translated “virgin”. Since people 2000 years ago were probably better at both their Hebrew and Greek than I am, I tend to think that since the church has believed she was a virgin for two centuries, that’s probably still the truth today.
Well, those are the main arguments AGAINST a virgin birth. Some of them may be more convincing to you than others. The fact of the matter is that the virgin birth has always been a problem for good reason—it was a miracle! I mean, that’s kinda the point isn’t it? God appears to have wanted it to be difficult for us to fathom since he never did it before or has done it since. All we have got is the biblical evidence. S what do you believe and why does it matter?
Just to make it clear, the virgin birth is not about Mary’s purity; it’s about Jesus’ divinity. Jesus’ divinity is at stake here, not Mary’s reputation. Why do I bring this up? Because I think even people in the church have gotten this confused. Sometimes I think that it sounds like the fact that Mary was a virgin made her more “holy” than other women. But that’s not the point. A married woman is just as “holy” and beloved in God’s sight as Mary. This isn’t really about Mary at all! It’s all about Jesus.
In order for Jesus to be truly God and truly a human being, Mary must have become pregnant through the power of God, through the Holy Spirit. She would have had to be a virgin or else Jesus isn’t God—pure and simple. And is Jesus isn’t God, then he’s just another guy who died in history. If God himself was not born in the flesh, then God could not have died in the flesh or been raised from the dead and that means our faith is just in some popular guy in the first century. Jesus’ death means nothing if he is only human. Jesus death means something only when he is the
innocent, sinless, spotless, lamb of God sacrificed for your sins.
In the Old Testament, in order to be assured of the forgiveness of your sins, you had to sacrifice a lamb without blemish to God. When the laws of God were broken, blood had to be spilt and the lamb would take the place of you. Instead of you dying for your sins, a lamb would be sacrificed on your behalf. But you had to do this over and over and over again in the old sacrificial system. Lots of dead lambs in exchange for a forgiven you. This was a shadow of things to come.
But when Jesus died, God did something new. According to the book of Hebrews, Jesus was the spotless lamb of God and “He sacrificed himself for our sins once for all, when he offered himself.” No more dead lambs! Jesus Christ, the only human being who did not deserve to die because he had no sin, had to die in order for us to see the truth of our sin and the possibility of our salvation. God had to sacrifice himself, in the form of his only Son Jesus, in order to make us holy and acceptable in his sight. The book of Romans says, “Just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.
Jesus had to be more than just a human being, but also truly God. And in order to be truly God, his mother had to be a virgin—there is no other way around it. So why does the virgin birth of Jesus matter? Because if Mary wasn’t a virgin, then Jesus isn’t God and that means you will die and that’s the end. But I have good news for you: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that all who believe in him may not perish but will have eternal life.” When Jesus was born, God was born. He was called Emmanuel-God with us! God was born and died for you, so that you might live in heaven forever. Is it hard to believe? Yes. Unfathomable, unlikely, impossible. Of course! It takes faith in God’s Word against the scientific, historical and grammatical arguments that may be going through your head. But does it matter? Yes, it does. Especially for you. A virgin Mary is the difference between your death and your eternal life. That’s something worth believing in. Amen.
Sermon for December 12th (Patience)
I’d like you to look at the symbol up on the screen this morning. It is the Chinese word for patience. In the Chinese language, words are expressed through symbols or pictures. Some words are made up of two or more word-pictures put together. In this instance, the Chinese word for patience is made up of two other word-pictures: the word for knife and the word for heart. The Chinese word for patience is expressed with a knife pictured directly above a heart.
What a magnificent expression of what being patient actually feels like! As that knife hovers over the heart, it seems as easily able to stab as to be taken away. There is a sense of expectation, of dread, of relief and of fear all wrapped up into one—all the feelings that are involved with being patient. “Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming.” The book of James tells us.
There are many different times to be patient. We must be patient when we are waiting in line for a hamburger at McDonalds and there is a new girl training as a cashier. We must be patient when we are stuck in traffic during rush hour. We must be patient as we wait for our children to grow older and more mature. We must be patient as we pay off our debts and put off buying the things we really want. But, in the book of James, and in the story of John the Baptist that we will read again in a moment, we are called to be patient in another situation.
The book of James was written for a Jewish audience who had become Christians. Just before James calls his readers to patience, he has been talking about the oppression of believers at the hands of wicked people. It appears that these wicked people must have been rich landowners who were acting unjustly to their workers and harvesters so that they might claim more money for themselves. Those workers were probably the readers of this letter. James tells his listeners that, rather than grumbling against those wicked people, they ought to be patient and wait for the Lord to act. To continue suffering rather than making it go away by their own power.
Romans chapter 12, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” It is hard to allow someone to hold a knife over your heart. The word that we translate today as “patience” is sometimes translated “longsuffering” in the Bible and I think that that particular word might get to the point better. To wait on the Lord to fulfill his word often means suffering not just a little while but a long time. Patience is the hard road, the narrow road that Christ calls us to take. Even when it would feel better to take matters into your own hands, being patient means to suffer the wait of God’s perfect timing.
Being patient isn’t easy for anyone . . . not even for our favorite short-tempered, locust eating prophet John the Baptist. He was the one who cried out, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.” He was the one who was preparing the way for the Lord. He was the one foretelling the coming Messiah who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire! John was there when the Spirit of God descended on Jesus like and dove. He was there when the voice came from heaven saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
But, after that great day down by the riverside, time passed. Jesus began to preach, he called his disciples, he healed the sick and all, but the world wasn’t changing all that much. John was suffering in jail and there was the supposed Messiah, Jesus, walking around across the countryside. You might imagine that John was a little disappointed. The results he had hoped for had not occurred. Where was the kingdom of heaven that he had believed was so near?
Don’t tell me you don’t understand this. I know you get this. This kind of disappointment is par for the course for a Christian. It happens every time you come home from church all inspired to live a new life and then get in a big fight with your spouse. It happens when you are on your way to celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas and run across a homeless man holding up a sign for needing food on the side of the road. It happened to the disciples when they saw their Lord and Master, Jesus, dead on the cross that Good Friday. We know what God has promised. We believe it. But as time passes and suffering increases we start to doubt the words, we doubt ourselves and we get impatient.
A professor of mine tells a story of a older man and woman who called him over one afternoon. They drank coffee for a while and then the husband asked his wife to go into the other room to get him something. She got up slowly and hobbled out to the front room with great difficulty. The husband looked at my professor and said, “Jesus said that he came that we might have life and have it abundantly.” He looked at his wife and motioned toward her, “So how do you explain that?” How do we explain this discrepancy between God’s promises and our predicaments? How do you think John felt when he was sitting in prison even though he knew, he knew, that the Messiah of God had finally come?
“When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” You can just hear the disappointment maybe even the impatience coming out of that statement. Here God’s people have been waiting and waiting thousands of years for the Messiah to come and save them, to deliver them, and finally he comes and . . . and . . . yes he’s a nice guy, but . . . where’s the new kingdom? Why doesn’t he just take out his sword and start cutting off the heads of God’s enemies take over! The Israelites were expecting a warrior Messiah and what they got was Jesus.
But Jesus doesn’t back away. He’s knows what’s going on here. John is disappointed. He’s upset. He might even be a little mad! But Jesus says, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Even though the world wanted a warrior Messiah who took charge and took names, that’s not what God had promised. God spoke through his prophet Isaiah chapter 35, “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.” And Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of the Sovreign Lord is on me, because the Lord has appointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Jesus knew that it was necessary for him to die on the cross for the salvation of the world and so he followed God’s will rather than the will of others.
After James reminds his readers to be patient and wait until the Lord’s coming, he warns them against the temptation to do just the opposite. What is the opposite of patience? James says, “Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” Think about it. When things don’t go your way, when you are standing in line for the checkout with ten bazillion people in front of you, when you are sitting in a chair waiting for your wife to try on her twentieth pair of jeans, when your husband says there are only one and half minutes of basketball left on the clock and you know that it will be another half hour what do we do? We grumble. We complain. We gossip. We slander. And yet, when we refuse to wait for God to do His work in His perfect timing and choose to go our own way the results can be disastrous.
James says to be patient until the Lord’s coming. That God has things under control and he will take care of it. Even, as I said before, if you are suffering! But it is so hard to keep suffering, to be patient, as we wait for God to do his thing. If we feel that we are suffering unjustly, we get impatient for God to relive that suffering and so we take matters into our own hands. Maybe if we hurt those who have hurt us by speaking negatively about them our suffering will end. At least we’ll feel better. It might be aimed at the slow cashier, your spouse or your boss. I don’t care if it is the truth or a lie—talking negatively about another person in public is slander. When we get impatient with God and slander another person we believe we are only hurting them, but God tells us differently, “Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.”
Jesus said, “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean’. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unlcean.’ And it is not simply those who are speaking who are suffer the consequences, it takes two to gossip and slander-a speaker and a listener. Please don’t do it! Repent and turn away from this behavior before it destroys you. There are going to be many times in your life when bad things happen to you or when you want things to change. God tells us to cry out to him, to leave room for his wrath, not to speak out against others in our wrath.
When you are struggling to be patient, the temptation is to grumble, to complain, to gossip and slander. But God teaches a different technique for dealing with suffering. It’s called: hope. Romans chapter 5, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces chatacter; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” We are called to trust in God’s power and in His perfect timing and not our own. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even in the midst of suffering, we have an opportunity to see the future that God has planned for us. To wait patiently and hope. God’s work is always worth waiting for. Amen.
What a magnificent expression of what being patient actually feels like! As that knife hovers over the heart, it seems as easily able to stab as to be taken away. There is a sense of expectation, of dread, of relief and of fear all wrapped up into one—all the feelings that are involved with being patient. “Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming.” The book of James tells us.
There are many different times to be patient. We must be patient when we are waiting in line for a hamburger at McDonalds and there is a new girl training as a cashier. We must be patient when we are stuck in traffic during rush hour. We must be patient as we wait for our children to grow older and more mature. We must be patient as we pay off our debts and put off buying the things we really want. But, in the book of James, and in the story of John the Baptist that we will read again in a moment, we are called to be patient in another situation.
The book of James was written for a Jewish audience who had become Christians. Just before James calls his readers to patience, he has been talking about the oppression of believers at the hands of wicked people. It appears that these wicked people must have been rich landowners who were acting unjustly to their workers and harvesters so that they might claim more money for themselves. Those workers were probably the readers of this letter. James tells his listeners that, rather than grumbling against those wicked people, they ought to be patient and wait for the Lord to act. To continue suffering rather than making it go away by their own power.
Romans chapter 12, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” It is hard to allow someone to hold a knife over your heart. The word that we translate today as “patience” is sometimes translated “longsuffering” in the Bible and I think that that particular word might get to the point better. To wait on the Lord to fulfill his word often means suffering not just a little while but a long time. Patience is the hard road, the narrow road that Christ calls us to take. Even when it would feel better to take matters into your own hands, being patient means to suffer the wait of God’s perfect timing.
Being patient isn’t easy for anyone . . . not even for our favorite short-tempered, locust eating prophet John the Baptist. He was the one who cried out, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.” He was the one who was preparing the way for the Lord. He was the one foretelling the coming Messiah who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire! John was there when the Spirit of God descended on Jesus like and dove. He was there when the voice came from heaven saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
But, after that great day down by the riverside, time passed. Jesus began to preach, he called his disciples, he healed the sick and all, but the world wasn’t changing all that much. John was suffering in jail and there was the supposed Messiah, Jesus, walking around across the countryside. You might imagine that John was a little disappointed. The results he had hoped for had not occurred. Where was the kingdom of heaven that he had believed was so near?
Don’t tell me you don’t understand this. I know you get this. This kind of disappointment is par for the course for a Christian. It happens every time you come home from church all inspired to live a new life and then get in a big fight with your spouse. It happens when you are on your way to celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas and run across a homeless man holding up a sign for needing food on the side of the road. It happened to the disciples when they saw their Lord and Master, Jesus, dead on the cross that Good Friday. We know what God has promised. We believe it. But as time passes and suffering increases we start to doubt the words, we doubt ourselves and we get impatient.
A professor of mine tells a story of a older man and woman who called him over one afternoon. They drank coffee for a while and then the husband asked his wife to go into the other room to get him something. She got up slowly and hobbled out to the front room with great difficulty. The husband looked at my professor and said, “Jesus said that he came that we might have life and have it abundantly.” He looked at his wife and motioned toward her, “So how do you explain that?” How do we explain this discrepancy between God’s promises and our predicaments? How do you think John felt when he was sitting in prison even though he knew, he knew, that the Messiah of God had finally come?
“When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” You can just hear the disappointment maybe even the impatience coming out of that statement. Here God’s people have been waiting and waiting thousands of years for the Messiah to come and save them, to deliver them, and finally he comes and . . . and . . . yes he’s a nice guy, but . . . where’s the new kingdom? Why doesn’t he just take out his sword and start cutting off the heads of God’s enemies take over! The Israelites were expecting a warrior Messiah and what they got was Jesus.
But Jesus doesn’t back away. He’s knows what’s going on here. John is disappointed. He’s upset. He might even be a little mad! But Jesus says, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Even though the world wanted a warrior Messiah who took charge and took names, that’s not what God had promised. God spoke through his prophet Isaiah chapter 35, “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.” And Isaiah 61, “The Spirit of the Sovreign Lord is on me, because the Lord has appointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Jesus knew that it was necessary for him to die on the cross for the salvation of the world and so he followed God’s will rather than the will of others.
After James reminds his readers to be patient and wait until the Lord’s coming, he warns them against the temptation to do just the opposite. What is the opposite of patience? James says, “Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” Think about it. When things don’t go your way, when you are standing in line for the checkout with ten bazillion people in front of you, when you are sitting in a chair waiting for your wife to try on her twentieth pair of jeans, when your husband says there are only one and half minutes of basketball left on the clock and you know that it will be another half hour what do we do? We grumble. We complain. We gossip. We slander. And yet, when we refuse to wait for God to do His work in His perfect timing and choose to go our own way the results can be disastrous.
James says to be patient until the Lord’s coming. That God has things under control and he will take care of it. Even, as I said before, if you are suffering! But it is so hard to keep suffering, to be patient, as we wait for God to do his thing. If we feel that we are suffering unjustly, we get impatient for God to relive that suffering and so we take matters into our own hands. Maybe if we hurt those who have hurt us by speaking negatively about them our suffering will end. At least we’ll feel better. It might be aimed at the slow cashier, your spouse or your boss. I don’t care if it is the truth or a lie—talking negatively about another person in public is slander. When we get impatient with God and slander another person we believe we are only hurting them, but God tells us differently, “Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence; whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.”
Jesus said, “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean’. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unlcean.’ And it is not simply those who are speaking who are suffer the consequences, it takes two to gossip and slander-a speaker and a listener. Please don’t do it! Repent and turn away from this behavior before it destroys you. There are going to be many times in your life when bad things happen to you or when you want things to change. God tells us to cry out to him, to leave room for his wrath, not to speak out against others in our wrath.
When you are struggling to be patient, the temptation is to grumble, to complain, to gossip and slander. But God teaches a different technique for dealing with suffering. It’s called: hope. Romans chapter 5, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces chatacter; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” We are called to trust in God’s power and in His perfect timing and not our own. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even in the midst of suffering, we have an opportunity to see the future that God has planned for us. To wait patiently and hope. God’s work is always worth waiting for. Amen.
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