Christmas 1 – 27 December 2015 – Year C

Christmas 1 – 27 December 2015 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 2^nd Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 41 - 52

Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. ^ When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. ^ After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. ^ When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

^ “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” ^But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

^ Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

It’s interesting that the most important person in history has such a meagre biography.  He walked the earth for thirty-three years.  Four books record those events.  Of the 89 chapters of those books, only four devote themselves to the first 12 years of Jesus life.  Now, to be fair, the most important part of Jesus’ life were those years of His public ministry, suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension; but, still we it would be interesting to know more about Jesus’ early years.  I guess it’s because of our interest in Jesus’ teens that all kinds of books and shows, some more fictional than others, have been published to try to fill in the gaps.  Those gaps, however, won’t be filled in until we see Jesus with our own eyes in heaven. Until then, we must satisfy ourselves with what the Holy Spirit provides in His inspired account as written in the Biblical text. 

Today, we have before us, everything we know about Jesus teenage years; but what we have is incredible.  In these verses Jesus reminds us who He is.  He reminds us that He is – already at age 12, and since the moment of His conception – the perfect God-Man.  He reminds us that He is the perfect God-Man because He is our perfect substitute.

Most of us are reasonably familiar with this account.  Jesus’ parents, Joseph and Mary, take Him to Jerusalem for the Passover.  This is a significant trip that Luke writes about.  At this time Jesus was not yet experienced His bar mitzvah, (the Jewish equivalent of Christian confirmation), he was in the final legs of his ‘catechetical’ instruction.  He would have been going to Saturday School for some time now, learning the Scriptures, getting ready for His Bar Mitzvah.

At the end of the festival, Mary and Joseph head back to Nazareth with the caravan of travellers who had come for the festival.  During these journeys through the desert animals and people all walked together; the women usually in groups chatting as did the men; the young people all gathered together and talked and played together. Mary and Joseph assumed Jesus was with the other boys and they didn’t worry about Him until nightfall.  When they could not find him they panicked, they looked everywhere, finally after three days of frantic searching they found him back at the Temple, sitting at the feet of the Rabbis, listening, asking questions, and replying. 

As all Mums would know, Mary is angered and confused by His behaviour; she demands, “How could you do this to us son!?!?!?”  Jesus He replied, “Mum, didn’t you know that this is what I’d be doing, what I have to do; going about my Father’s business?”  Jesus He went home with them, the perfect little boy, for the next eighteen years.

Friends this is spectacular story of enlightening truths.  We see the boy who is God.  This is not a boy “learning to be God” or “discovering that He’s something special” or wondering “Why do I know these things?”  Teenager Jesus knows who He is and here reminds us why Christmas – Word and flesh becoming one – is such a big deal.

Jesus shows us His eagerness to be as one with His Father’s Word.  Jesus stayed behind, not to hang out with friends, not to wander the streets of Jerusalem, not to see that event or sight Mom and Dad said there wasn’t time to see.  He stayed behind to get into the Word.  He stayed behind to sit at the feet of Rabbis and teachers.  If your son or daughter went missing, how many of you would assume that they were with Christian minister talking theology?  How many confirmed teens are even eager to be in church much longer than they have to be?  Willing and eager to be in the Word, about His Father’s things, Jesus is the perfect graduate who was at the same time is the very God who understood it perfectly.  He mystified the crowds with the insight His questions displayed and the knowledge His answers imparted.  Jesus didn’t take over the class, but He was a participant extraordinaire.  The Scriptures He was taught were the Scriptures that He, through the Holy Spirit, inspired the prophets to write.  Jesus makes use of His divine nature on this occasion, perhaps to lead these Rabbis to a deeper understanding of the Scriptures and to help them focus their eyes rightly on Him as the Christ.

Whilst Jesus understood the Fifth Commandment, His earthly time on earth had its priority in the First Commandment and doing His Father’s will for all peoples.  He was the perfect child.  When Mary and Joseph find Him, He doesn’t make a scene.  He doesn’t roll His eyes at Mum and Dad.  He doesn’t mock them sarcastically.  Yet, He does rebuke them for forgetfulness – after all, angels told them that He was the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.  For this child, they’d gone into exile in Egypt.  Had their memories faded?  Were they taking His divine nature for granted?  Were they so used to His obeying the Fourth Commandment that they forgot about His divine mission having priority?  Jesus reminds them, “This is what I have to do first; this is why I took on flesh.”

And yet, when His parents came.  He went home obediently.  God in the flesh joyfully went home to Nazareth.  He obeyed them in everything.  He isn’t suddenly the boss.  What a radical reversal of our usual response?  We look forward to those moments when we can rub failure into the faces of our superiors – whether it’s Mums or Dads, pastors or teachers, or bosses.  Rather than quietly put ourselves under their leadership, our sinful nature desires to remind them of their failings whenever we can.  Jesus demonstrates that this is not the way for God in the flesh and in so doing reminds us that it is not the way for us either.

Friends in Christ, this is much more than just a good Biblical story. Through his text today St Luke is reminding us today that Jesus is the perfect God-Man.  We must remember that even at this time, this perfect teen was aware of His fate, to be the perfect substitute to die on a cross for our sins.  The story beginning at Christmas – the being born, the growing up, the gaining of wisdom, the obedience to all the commandments – was for our sake; for our eternal forgiveness and salvation. 

This child / man Jesus demonstrated that He is a member of our family, sharing our humanity.  He subjected Himself to all these things for one purpose, to bring all people salvation, to destroy the power of devil, to free us from the slavery of our sins and our fear of death.  He subjected Himself to these things so that at the cross He could be the perfect and faithful High Priest we needed, offering the sacrifice of Himself as atonement for our sins. This teenage boy in our text became all these things, and His sacrifice paid the price.  It did the job.  It redeemed us.  It ended the power of the devil.  It ended the hold that death has over us.  Because Jesus did what He had to do.  He is perfectly God and perfectly man in one Person.  That is what makes the Christmas season so special and joyful for all humankind. How blessed we are!  Amen

The love and peace and grace of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen

Christmas Day – 25 December 2015 – Year C

Christmas Day – 25 December 2015 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this Christmas Day meditation is written in the 1^st Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 1 - 18                        

The Word Became Flesh

1   In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. ⁸ He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

⁹ The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. ¹² But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) ¹⁶ For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Christianity is called Christianity because it is all about Christ – who He is and what He has done for us.  All Christians know this.  The devils of hell know this as well.

Very often, the devil tries to deceive us by fiddling with the identity of the Christ.  He does not deny that Christ is the centre of Christianity.  Instead he offers up a variety of false Christs to be that centre.

Two false teachings about Christ have been particularly stubborn down through the centuries.  One false teaching tries to portray Christ as not fully human.  The other false teaching tries to portray Christ as not fully God. 

The first of these false teachings portrays a Christ who is simply God masquerading as a human being.  There are many variations on this false teaching that seem to fall between two extremes.  At one extreme we have false teachers who teach that Christ was never a human being at all.  At the other extreme we have false teachers who admit that Christ was human while he was here on this earth, but once he ascended into heaven, he dropped the human appearance just the way that an actor takes off makeup after the play is over.

The second of these false teachings is willing to admit that Jesus might be some sort of being that is superior to humanity.  They might even admit that Jesus had certain god-like qualities.  Never the less, they refuse to believe that Jesus is an eternal member of the Triune God Who is equal in majesty and glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Last evening, we read the Gospel account from Luke describing the human birth of the Saviour.  This account is part of the Biblical record that teaches us that Jesus became fully human in the womb of the Virgin Mary and that He is still human even as He reigns in eternity.

This Christmas Day we read the Gospel account according to John the Evangelist.  John is very much interested in showing us that the baby born to the Virgin is truly God the Son, a full and equal member of the Triune God.  To do this, John does not begin His Gospel account at the manger in Bethlehem.  Instead, he takes us clear back to creation.  He proclaims Jesus as the Word made flesh Who was intimately involved in the creation of all things.

Thus, it is no coincidence that the Gospel according to John and the First book of Moses both begin with the same phrase: ^{[Gen. 1:1; John 1:1]} “In the beginning …” John is taking us back to the account of creation according to Moses.

The first few verses of Genesis introduce us to the Triune God.  Already in verse two we hear ^{[Genesis 1:2b]} “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”  This verse introduces us to the Holy Spirit and teaches us that the one and only God is a community of persons.

Then in verse three we hear ^{[Genesis 1:3]} “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”  This verse shows us that God’s creative activity takes place through His Word, but there is something odd about this Word.  The Bible does not tell us that God had to create the Word before He spoke it.  The Word was already with God before creation.  Before creation, there was nothing except God.  So, however strange it sounds, the Word through which God created everything must be God.  So it is that, in the creation account, Moses speaks of God the speaker, God the Word, and God the Spirit.  As time went on, God revealed Himself more fully as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

So it is that the Holy Spirit inspired John to begin his Gospel account with these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.”  John directs our focus to the very Word that Moses told of in the account of creation.  He reminds us that the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  Here John is already teaching us that God is a community of persons and that the Word is one of those persons.

The Holy Spirit then inspired John to illustrate how the Word was intimately involved in creation.  In fact, John speaks of the role of the Word in creation in two different ways just make sure that we get the point.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  This reading teaches us that the Word is not a created being.  Instead we learn that the Word is active in the creating process.  We learn that every person of the Triune God participates in the activities of God.  And we learn that the Word is one of those persons.

John has made it very clear that the Word is indeed God – fully equal to the other persons of the Godhead.  He has told us that the Word was not created, but always existed.  He has told us that the Word was active in the creation process.

Then, as we skip down to verse fourteen, we learn an amazing thing about the Word: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  Here John is telling us that the Word who is fully God took on human flesh and lived among us on this earth.  Furthermore, John tells us that he and others have seen His glory.

Who is the Word who is both God and Man?  John the Evangelist tells us that John [the Baptist] bore witness about him.  Finally, John tells us the name of the Word: the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is the Word who is both God and man.

So it is that the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to teach us that Jesus is a real man in real history.  He is the Son of Mary that the shepherds found in the manger.  The same Holy Spirit also inspired John to teach us that Jesus is the Word who is God from all eternity.  He is a fully equal person of the God head.  Jesus Christ both fully God and fully man.  But why is it so crucial that we know and believe that in the person of Jesus Christ, we have both God and man?

God the Father sent Jesus into this world in order to do battle for us and earn forgiveness for all our sins.  This battle is against a supernatural foe.  Jesus must be able to stand toe-to-toe with sin, death, and the devil.  Furthermore, His sacrifice had to be sufficient for all people.  If Jesus were only human, then the forces of evil would defeat Him, and even if Jesus could withstand the forces of evil as a mere human being, His sacrifice could only earn salvation for one other human being.  It would not be enough for the entire world.  Thus, a Saviour who was just a man could not earn salvation for the world.  Our Saviour must be God.

At the same time, the battle involves suffering and death.  The Saviour must be a substitute for those whom He wishes to save.  Our Saviour must be human in order to take our place under the law and keep it perfectly.  Our Saviour must be human in order to suffer and die to take the punishment of our sin onto Himself.

The true message of Christmas is that the warrior who will be our champion and fight for us has entered the battle via the womb of the Virgin Mary.  God has put on humanity to fight for humanity – to save humanity from sin and its guilt.  In the one person of Jesus Christ, God and man are brought together to live a perfect life, take our sins to the cross, and rise from the dead.  On this Christmas Day we celebrate a major milestone in Christ’s victory for us – the milestone of His human birth.

The little baby in the manger is the Almighty God who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity.  The little baby in the manger is Christ our Saviour coming forth to conquer sin, death, and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He has risen from the dead, and lives and reigns to all eternity.  This is most certainly true.  Amen

Christmas Eve – 24 December 2015 – Year C

Christmas Eve – 24 December 2015 – Year C

Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for this meditation is written in the 2^nd Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 1 - 20

The Birth of Jesus Christ

 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. ² This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³ And all went to be registered, each to his own town. ⁴ And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵ to be registered with Mary, his betrothed,² who was with child. ⁶ And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. ⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

⁸ And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. ¹⁰ And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel ^ha multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

¹⁴ⁱ“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”³

¹⁵ When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. ¹⁷ And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. ¹⁸ And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰ And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Merry Christmas!  What joyful good news: Christ our Saviour is born.  This evening’s Gospel relates the account of God the Son taking the next step in His mission to make it possible for God to be with us in joy instead of terror.  By the power of the Holy Spirit the Son of God had taken up His humanity and spent nine months gestating in the womb of the Virgin Mary.  He took no short cuts.  He has indeed experienced everything that all humans experience including a time of maturing within His mother.

This evening’s Gospel tells us that after the normal human period of growth within His mother, He was born just like any other human being.  Indeed, He is fully human.  Already we see the great love that God has for us, for Jesus is the almighty Son of God, who reigns in heaven along with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  Never the less, He endured the beginning of life just as we do in spite of His exalted position.

Most of us have heard this account many times before.  God worked through the rulers of the earth to move the holy family from Nazareth to Bethlehem and so fulfilled the prophecies that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.  When the time was right, Mary gave birth and laid the baby in a manger.  In learning about the culture of the day, we have learned about swaddling cloths.  By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke does a masterful job of pulling us into the story.

Then there are the shepherds.  How wonderful that God does not notify the king or the High Priest, but lowly shepherds.  From the shepherds, we learn that God has not taken on human flesh just for the rich and powerful, but also for the poor and lowly.  God calls all people to worship this child who will save them from their sins.

This evening, I want to call your attention to the sensory verbs that Luke was inspired to use in this narrative – the senses of seeing and hearing.

It begins with the angel giving them a sign.  “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”  A sign, by its very nature, is something that works with one or more of our senses.  As the angel said, it is something that we can find.  The whole point of a sign is to draw our attention and so it was for the shepherds.

The shepherds responded to the angel’s message.  The shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”  They expected to see the sign.  And they were not disappointed.  They went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.  They became witnesses along with Mary and Joseph of the birth of the Christ.

The Holy Spirit, once again inspired Luke to reinforce the idea that the shepherds saw the child.  When they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.  Luke reinforces the idea that the shepherds are witnesses of the new born Christ.  They saw Him.

Then, as if we have not already heard the faithful witness of the shepherds, the inspired words of Luke tell us once again that the shepherds really did see the Christ.  The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.  One of the many, many marvellous details in this inspired story is the emphasis on the witness, the seeing and hearing of those involved in these events.

The Holy Spirit is working through Luke to tell us that this birth is not a fairy tale.  It is not a once-upon-a-time bedtime story.  This is real history.  The Holy Spirit inspired Luke to include witnesses and details that forever prevent us from taking this narrative as anything other than fact.  God really did take on human flesh.  Nine months later, He was really born.  He was born in Bethlehem, a village that you can still find today.  There were witnesses: Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and who knows how many other people.  Luke gives historical detail.  Caesar Augustus was the emperor.  Quirinius was governor of Syria.  There was a special enrolment for tax purposes.  All these things are the kind of detail that put into an account if you want people to check out the facts and you want people to check out the facts so that you know that the account is reliable and accurate.

There are many false teachers in this world who want you to believe that the Bible is just an imaginative work of fiction – an epic fairy tale.  They hope to attack your faith by attacking the book that informs your faith, the Bible.  They attempt to tell you that the Bible is just a collection of myths and fables.  They want the Bible to lose credibility in your eyes.

One of the ways in which they attack the Bible is to point at all the other myths and fables that seem to have a resemblance to the accounts of the Bible.  Most of the ancient mythologies have stories of miraculous births, miracles, resurrections, and so forth.  There are myths that agree with the creation account, the flood account, the giving of the law on Sinai, and so forth.  The enemies of the Gospel use these mythical accounts to attack the truth of God’s Word.

The account of Christ’s birth in Luke shows us how to overcome these enemies.  The Gospel account fits into the world.  We have historical and archaeological records that tell us when Augustus was emperor, when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and when there was an order for a census during their reigns.  We can book a trip to Bethlehem with a travel agent.  We can go to the places where this all happened.

You can’t do that with any of the ancient myths.  There is no corroborating evidence in the historical or archaeological records.  You would expect this since most of the myths take place in the realm of the pagan gods and not on this earth – places like Olympus, Valhalla, and so forth.  Even the ancient accounts of these myths tell them as other worldly stories that only have an indirect affect upon the reality of this world.

The Holy Spirit inspired Luke and the other Evangelists to make it very clear that the story of Jesus’ love is not an unseen thing above, but a very real thing that many people saw and that really happened down here, on this planet.

Why is it so important that we know that the account of Jesus’ birth is real, historical, and accurate?  The words of the angel tell us the importance of these facts.  “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”  These words make us aware that the whole point of this birth is our salvation.  The title Christ the Lord tells us that this baby really is God in human flesh.  This baby is the Christ Who will suffer, die, and rise from the dead on the third day.  This child is God come into the flesh to do the gritty, bloody, sacrificial work that we cannot do – the work of taking away our sin.

The devil, the world, and our own sinful nature are content to let us dwell on the story of the baby in the manger when it is only a quaint, little, fairy tale.  On the other hand, they do not want us to know that this baby is real.  A real baby grows to become an adult.  The baby in the manger grew to be a man – a man who lived a perfect life and suffered a sacrificial death on a cross – a man who not only died, but also rose from the dead – a man who freed us from the power of the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature – a man who now brings the Kingdom of God to us in peace and joy instead of terror and punishment.  This baby, even as it lies in the manger, is already doing the work that gives us peace with God.

Luke’s inspired account of the history of Jesus’ birth is there to remind us that at a real time, in a real Bethlehem, there was a real birth of a real human being, and that human being is your real saviour Who rescued you from sin, death, and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.  This is the real saviour whose birth we celebrate tonight.  Amen