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December 31, 2006
The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus
Isaiah 7: 11-17 / Luke 2: 22-38
December 31st, 2006
In the calendar of the Catholic Church from which all us Protestants come the Festival day of the Holy Name of Jesus falls on the second Sunday after Epiphany. That’s January 14th. I discovered after poking around a little that Christians have celebrated Jesus’ naming-day at different times.
In 1530 Pope Sixtus IV designated February 25th the Feast of the Holy Name at least for Franciscan monks. I don’t think Jesus will mind us remembering today, December 31st. Actually, as we learned up at the monastery, tomorrow is the right day. But I don’t think I’ll get too many of us into this place two Mondays in a row.
Why all this interest in the day Mary’s holy child got His name? When your parents and mine knew we were coming to join the family they discussed boy’s and girl’s names and somehow came to the conclusion that you would be named Jim or John, Mary or Grace. Maybe they liked the sound of the name or its meaning. Often we honor grandpa or dad or grandma or mother by assigning their names to our children. But we never celebrate the day on which we named our children separate from their birthday. Why this interest in Jesus’ name among Christians? What’s in a name?
Luke tells us that “at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus.” Why? Because an angel had told Mary beforehand, “You shall call His name Jesus.” His name was very important.
What I have in mind this morning has little to do with when Jesus was named in terms of our calendar. Rather it is the significance to us of the name of the little person born to Mary. I want to notice first how careful Mary and Joseph were to follow God’s directions after he was born and in giving Jesus His name. Second, I hope to make clear what Jesus’ name means. Third, and most important for us is to remember how central Jesus’ name is to our identity, to how we live and to what comes to us after we die.
First, what duties did Jewish parents have to their first born? We’re not told where Jesus was circumcised and named, just that these took place on the eighth day after he was born.
In Genesis we read that eight days after Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah he was circumcised as God commanded. Circumcision was the sign of the Covenant God made with Abraham. It was to be applied to every male child eight days after he was born. Thus, as Paul wrote later on, Jesus was born under the law as a true Israelite.
It was then the parents’ duty to present their little boy to the Lord. In Exodus, just after the Passover, we read that the first-born son is to be presented and consecrated to the Lord. In the Book of Numbers we read that for five shekels this son was redeemed from the duty of serving God in the Temple. We don’t read that Mary and Joseph paid these five shekels. It was an abandoned custom by then.
But they followed the third duty that pertained to mothers. Forty days after Jesus’ birth Mary and Joseph brought two turtledoves or pigeons to the Temple. This was the offering brought by the poor. One of these was a burnt offering; the other a sin offering. The burnt offering was a way of saying thank you to God. The sin offering was not because giving birth was a sin but because the mother was considered ritually unclean after giving birth.
So, we see that Mary and Joseph were faithful in following the important rules of life God gave about the gift of new life.
Then, we remember the angel that announced to Mary the birth of this child said, “you shall call his name Jesus. Why Jesus? Jesus is the same as the Hebrew name Joshua, the name of the sixth book in the Bible. We don’t know why Joshua’s father named him that. Often the names Bible parents called their children are suggestive. Maybe you remember that the prophet Hosea called one son, “Lo-ami, “ which meant, “not my people,” and a daughter, “Lo-ruhama,” which meant, “not pitied.” Isaiah called his sons even stranger names: Shearyashub and Mahershalalhashbaz that were messages of warning to God’s people. At Christmas we remember Isaiah’s speaking of a Son to be born to a virgin whose name would be Immanuel—God with us.
The name Joshua meant, “the Lord is salvation.” It’s first two letters were an abbreviation of the name of God. It was a good name for the man who would lead Israel into the Promised Land. It was a continual reminder that it was the Lord who fought for Israel, who saved them from their enemies. Every time they said “Joshua,” they were reminding themselves, “The Lord is [our] salvation.
Because Joshua was the name of their leader into the Promised Land, his name became popular among the Jews. They named many of their baby boys Joshua—or Jesus. Hidden among all these Jewish babies named Joshua was One baby boy whose name stood for His purpose in life even more than this was true of the first Joshua.
The angel told Mary, “you will call His name, Joshua, Jesus . . . [He] will be called holy, the Son of God.” And Simeon the old man we read about in the Gospel lesson this morning rejoiced, “The Lord God of Israel has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.” Little Jesus was a visitation of “the Lord God of Israel” to bring salvation in a way far more important than the way the first Joshua brought deliverance to Israel from its enemies.
When Jesus was born Simeon recognized that in this little boy-child of Mary, that the first Joshua was a sign pointing to another Joshua who was their salvation.
Every David you and I know calls to mind Israel’s great king. Every Mary and Elizabeth and Paul and Sarah calls to mind biblical people.
But with Jesus it was the opposite. The first Joshua pointed to the great Joshua to come, that is to Jesus, Son of Mary. He was the salvation of the Lord.
But what was this salvation to which Simeon referred? We say Jesus is our Savior. What’s that? We read in Scripture that “He came to seek and to save the lost.” Jesus said to Zaccheus, the little tax collector who climbed up in a Sycamore tree to see Jesus walk by, “Today salvation has come to this house . . . for the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Zaccheus was a little rich man who needed to be saved from his self-destructive life. He was “making it big” in a way that crushed his soul. He was one in a list of needy people Jesus encountered that epitomized the range of what “lost” means.
Christians have often thought of Jesus’ salvation of the lost as referring to deliverance from eternal damnation. “It is appointed unto us once to die and after this the judgment,” we read in Holy Scripture. As Jonathan Edwards reminded a dread-stricken Connecticut congregation many years ago, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. We seldom hear of this today. We’re a bit more into “abundant living” than into fearing God’s judgment against sin.
Indeed, Jesus spoke fearfully about the consequences of sin. But it was not to induce a fearful life. He didn’t try to scare people out of hell. He said, “Follow me.” He told stories emphasizing His goal of seeking and finding those who did not follow Him, that is, those who were lost.
I look at faces in airports and on the street and think of how everyone is trying to make sense of life. I watch the ads on TV that encourage people to find happiness. Everyone is searching, some searching badly. If I look like this, or own what is advertised, or go on a fun vacation, etc.—I’d be happy. But these good things never bring happiness. When Jesus spoke of the lost, He told it like it is.
Indeed, as C.S. Lewis proposed so wisely about hell, “There is something inside you which, unless it is altered, will put it out of God’s power to prevent your being eternally miserable. While that something remains there can be no Heaven for you, just as there can be no sweet smells for a man with a cold in the nose, and no music for a man who is deaf. It’s not a question of God ‘sending’ us to Hell. In each of us there is something growing up which will of itself be Hell unless it is nipped in the bud.”
The name Jesus, “the Lord is salvation,” for sure pertains to what comes to us after we die. But Jesus told us far more about how to live. He came to nip in the bud the way of life that makes us lose our lives as we try desperately to find them.
As the Apostle Paul reminded us again on Christmas Day, it is vital that we have the same outlook Jesus had. “Let this mind be in you.” Christianity is the way of Jesus.
It is strange how things have evolved. Early in the game thoughtful Christians argued about how successful it is possible to be in following Jesus. Some said, “You can and must.” Others said, “You can’t; He was too good. In fact it’s a heresy to think you can.” Still others seemed to infer, “Only super-Christians have to try to follow Him. For the rest of us taking the Sacraments and going to church make God happy enough.” And so it has been.
But I want to remind us this morning that the Son of God, born at Christmas took a NAME so that in knowing it we could know Him and His way. What is His way? Well, it’s all wrapped up in His name. Jesus, “the Lord is salvation” emptied Himself. He took the form of a servant. He humbled Himself. Here is Jesus’ way; here is salvation.
This is what we associate with the name of Jesus. “My will is to do the will of Him who sent me.” Jesus, “the Lord is salvation.” Jesus, friend of sinners. Jesus, Son of God. He came to seek and to save the lost. Are you lost? I hear echoing in my mind the beautiful soprano aria in Handel’s Messiah. Jesus says, “Come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.” My name is Jesus. Trust in me. Trust me!
O Lord, heavenly Father, thank you for sending to us your holy child, and giving Him the name Jesus, “the Lord is salvation.” Amen.
Pastor Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 09:30 AM
December 25, 2006
The Most Important Lesson of the Nativity of Jesus
Philippians 2: 5-11
Christmas Day, 2006
Often at this season of the year we hear Christians plead with one another, "Keep Christ in Christmas." As a sign of this concern we hear many ardent folk try hard to place manger scenes on Courthouse lawns and in other public places. All this so that in the commercialization of Christmas people are compelled to remember, "It's not about buying presents; it's about Jesus."
It is a concern I can understand. But is Christmas really about manger scenes and about the birth of Jesus? First of all we know that Jesus was probably not born in December but in the spring when shepherds were more apt to be out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. Second, only one of the Gospels tells of this scene. Matthew, who tells us about Old Testament prophecies about Bethlehem and the flight into Egypt, and about Joseph's anxiety that his fiancée was expecting a child and about the Wise Men, skips right over the event of Jesus' birth. No angels, shepherds, or the stable in which Luke tells us Jesus was born. Mark and John tell us nothing at all of the details of Jesus' birth.
So I wonder if we should not realize that the most important detail about Jesus' birth is given to us by the Apostle Paul in this passage from Philippians that we have read every year on Christmas Day. Here Paul gives us the great lesson of Jesus' nativity. And this lesson is about something that is to take place in our hearts and minds because this is what took place in the heart and mind of the Son of God. He writes: "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus." This is a good literal translation, but what does it mean. It means, "Think of yourself as Christ Jesus thought of Himself." Paul goes on to tell us how Christ Jesus thought. Even though He was in every respect Deity, He did not cling to the unique privileges of Deity. Instead He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, a human one [rather than an angelic one]. Not only that but he humbled Himself and was obedient to the point of death, death, in fact, on a cross."
The meaning for you and me of Christmas, then, is being reminded that as Jesus emptied Himself "of all but love," as Charles Wesley put it, so I must empty myself of that which makes me cling to rights and privileges I believe are due to me. This is a hard idea to grasp. Have we not been told to "love your neighbor as yourself," which means I must love myself? Does not my defense of my neighbor's well being find its standard in my defense of my own well-being? Does not the Bible present to us these paradoxes often? These are not contradictions, but apparently so. In this case it seems to me there is an ascending scale of value. It is indeed a high-minded thing to love my neighbor as myself, but I know I stand in danger of loving myself more than I ought as well as less than I should. So, to love my neighbor as I ought I really have to go one step farther than loving her as myself. I must empty myself in order to really be able to love her.
How often the problem for us is that we are so "full of ourselves." How important I am! How important are my opinions! How important is my well-being! I cannot love my neighbor as I ought until I do something about this primary interest in myself. And since loving my neighbor aright is parallel to loving God aright, I hear Paul's advice, "Think of yourself as Jesus did. He emptied Himself. He did not even claim His rights.
The lesson of Christmas for me begins with realizing what happened in the life of the Godhead as it pertains to the life in my head.
The lesson for me of Christmas unfolds from there. I who appreciate being served must see myself as a servant. When Paul tells us Jesus then took human form, I think it was to distinguish Jesus' service as a man from the service of angels. But a servant may be proud, so we need to see that Jesus was not a proud servant, but a humble servant. Jesus taught us that we should realize that even if a servant has done an excellent job, he "deserves" no praise to bolster his ego, or to feel good about himself. He's only done his job, after all (Luke 17: 7-10). If we have learned well the lesson of Christmas we will become tireless servants who ask for no reward, expect none, and are not bothered when none comes. This does not mean that God will not reward faithful servants. Indeed, Jesus taught about the reward of hearing God say to us, "Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world" (Matthew 25: 34). But look at the kind of faithfulness that draws this welcome word from God!
Finally, Paul taught us that Jesus' birth points to His obedience that is to be our frame of mind too. Jesus was obedient to the Father even to the point of death. We who value so much our freedom, our point of view, and our personal dignity have the example of Jesus, who was obedient to the task His heavenly Father gave Him, which was His complete delight to do, to point of the most horrific kind of death.
Obedience is not a virtue to us naturally. We endure it when we're in the military out of a sense of duty. We put up with it, sometimes more or less, when we're children in the home. But we look forward to the day when we're our own bosses. "I did it my way," ol' Blue Eyes sang in a very popular song. Jesus did it His way only in the sense that His will was to do the will of the Father.
Is this not the most important lesson of Christmas? So that if we are successful in getting manger scenes on every courthouse in the land, and have Christmas carols played as the musak in every department store and in every other way imaginable we flash before the world true Christian symbols of Jesus birth, but do not have in our minds and hearts the view Jesus had of Himself, we're not keeping Christ in Christmas.
Here is the secret of the Christian life. Here is the key to happiness in churches, to letting our lights so shine before others that they notice and give glory to God.
For many years now I have pondered this section of Paul's Letter to the Philippians that seemed to me to present the real heart of the Incarnation story. As Clement of Alexandria told us so well, "He became like us so that we could become like Him." He actually put it more forcefully than that. Christmas, then, is about us and Jesus; about Jesus becoming like us, and then about us becoming like Jesus." Merry Christmas. A very Merry Christmas through you to others in this
terribly hurting world.
Let us pray: O God, for the gift of Your Holy Child we thank you. And for the high call and possibility of becoming like Him we praise you. Help us to follow Him. Amen.
Pastor Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 12:46 PM
December 24, 2006
Jesus and the Song of the Angels
Psalm 91 / Zechariah 4: 1-7
Hebrews 1: 1-4
December 24th, 2006
This morning the Sedeji family lit the last candle in our Advent wreathe. It reminds us of the angels that are part of the Christmas story. An angel announced to the shepherds the birth of Jesus, and then many other angels joined this one singing “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to people well pleasing [to God].”
In one of my favorite movies, a dour old curmudgeon who teaches at Bamfylde School says of them, “Angels--tosh, gibberish, and balderdash.” Make believe, that’s what they are. But why this make-believe about angels? Why was “Touched by an Angel” so popular for so many people for so long on American TV? Is it not an attempt to account for the strange serendipities that happen to so many people?
I did not choose to read this morning the familiar passage about angels that we will hear again this evening. In fact, I chose for our hearing passages from the Bible that we do not usually read at Christmas time--that mention angels. I could have chosen many other passages because in both the Old and New Testaments angels are mentioned very often. It is not my purpose this morning to tell all that the Bible says about angels.
Instead, I want to share with you some thoughts that have come to me as I’ve thought of angels and their role with us and with God. Where do I begin?
My impression is that when God created that part of the world that we think of as spiritual, He created it with three parts that would work together as His agents in fulfilling His will.
So we might say there is a three-tiered spiritual aspect of God’s creation. First, the uncreated Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who works directly in the world; second, created special agents of a kind we call angels, and third, human beings—created in the image of God. We plus angels—purpose to do God’s will.
We see in the first chapter of the prophet Zechariah these three-tiers. The Lord talks to the angel as the angel speaks with the prophet who speaks for God to people. In the Book of Judges we see an angel of the Lord appearing to Gideon, and then a different word is used to describe this Being a few verses later. It is the Lord. And we wonder what’s going on. Here we see an integration of the Lord, the angel, and Gideon. Did the Lord come to Gideon in the form of an angel?
The same thing seems to happen to Abraham in Genesis 18. Three men come to him as he is encamped in the shade of oak trees. One of them who speaks to him is referred to as “the Lord.” It is the name of God. The Lord disappears and the other two angels keep on after this moment with the Lord and Abraham. They next appear with Lot, with a mysterious power to defend themselves against the aggression of hot-blooded men in Sodom and then to punish the city with fiery destruction.
In the Old Testament the word for angel (mal’ak) sometimes refers to what we think of as angels, but very often the same word is used to mean simply “messenger.” When I read some instances where the word “angel” is used in our translation I can see that it may either refer to a human being that God sent for a particular purpose or to angel per se. In either case “angel” refers to God’s agent to do the will of God, whether it be a gracious act of deliverance or to implement God’s punishment.
From this I get the idea that God may sometimes accomplish His purposes directly, or by using an unseen “angel,” or God may choose to use—dare I say it--you and me as “angels,” that is, as “messengers” to do his good work. This was what I had in mind in speaking to the children this morning.
Bonnie and I remember two spooky instances. The first was when I was in seminary and we weren’t able to buy groceries. My income as pulpit supply pastor just scratched the surface of our need. An envelope appeared in our mailbox with two $100 bills in it at a time of dire need. We’d not told anybody. Was it a human being or an angel?
Then we remember a time when we sat in our car at the intersection of Yeager Road and Rt. 52. The light was red. When it turned green something kept me from accelerating as I usually do. We sat there long enough that the driver behind us beeped his horn. And then we saw a semi come barreling through the red light. We would have been crushed. We wondered immediately if God had sent an angel to protect us. It was spooky and comforting. “He will give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.” The word for “way” also means path or road.
Sometimes, of course, we are not miraculously delivered. The Hockerman family was hit by a drunk driver and two of their children were killed. Did the angel of the Lord forsake them? We say, “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me.” We cannot understand why God sometimes seems to intervene and at other times lets ill come to us. But this we know, no danger can threaten anything more than death of the body. On the other side of bodily life we trust that the Great Giver of life will keep us.
You and I don’t know when we are functioning as God’s angels, that is, messengers. When God’s Spirit prompts us to do something—that is, we feel a strong urge that we should do something out of the ordinary—we should do it. It may very well be God nudging us to serve as His messenger—as His angel.
Often we will do God’s bidding anonymously—so that the person we help thinks not of us but of God’s supply when the good comes to her. Jesus taught us, “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven.” Did Jesus give us “angelic” guidance here? Let them see your good work—not you. And when they see the good work, they glorify God!
Angels play another role, we might say, not as agents of blessing but in order to see if we act as God’s ministering servants. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we are told: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” It is at the end of this passage of exortations that we find the benediction with which I close every worship service. “Now the God of peace make you perfect in every good work to do His will.” We are God’s agents. We are to do “every good work” because this is God’s will for us.
Let me conclude with impressions from the angels word to the shepherds in the well-known passage in Luke 2. After the single angel announced to the shepherds the birth of Jesus, it was joined by many other angels singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among well-pleasing people.” I wonder why the angels did not break out into the Doxology that we sing. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow . . . praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” Instead the angels ascribe glory to God and then bless with peace people who are well-pleasing to God. Why did not the angels praise the new-born Christ-child?
They had things straight. They praised God because they remain in awe of God, like the six-winged angels described by the prophet Isaiah. “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts; all the earth is full of His glory.” This is the first order of business, on their part, freely to acknowledge the awesome glory of God.
But then they join with God’s purpose in sending His Son. Remember God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. So, as Jesus was born for the sake of us people, so the angels declare this purpose—to bring peace to us when we are well-pleasing in God’s sight. The angels did not lose sight of the purpose of the Incarnation. Nor did Jesus ever forget this.
Never in the Gospels do we see Jesus waiting for applause when He demonstrates His love and power. Unlike many sports heroes who wait for us to stand in awe of them, to praise them and pay them immense sums of money, Jesus did not expect more than to be despised and rejected of men. He did not love us in return for our anticipated gratitude. He loved us because this was His nature to love us. He did not say, “Praise me all creatures here below.” We sing this if we are right minded, but He never demanded that we do.
Here Jesus as Master-Servant provided us the example of how we are to serve in His name. If nobody notices, that’s beside the point. If nobody says, “Thanks,” we’re closer to Jesus than ever. It is the task of God’s angels, of all God’s messengers simply to do what is pleasing in His sight.
I proposed earlier that there is this three-tiered spiritual aspect in God’s creation. God, the uncreated One pours out His blessing, sometimes directly. But God also employs created beings we call angels to do His bidding. Sometimes, in fact, there is such an integration between God Himself and His special messengers, as in the situation of Gideon I mentioned earlier, that it seems God appears in the guise of a person. Gideon thought it was a man, then that it was an angel, and then realized it was God—so that he had to prostrate himself in adoration.
We read, “Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord, and Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! . . . Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord.”
As Christians, as followers of Jesus, we have a very high purpose in life. It is your calling and mine to be continuously available to be an angel, so to speak. We are different from angels in that we live in bodies; we can marry and have children. Angels that we think of as angels cannot do that. Sometimes we can see them as they masquerade in human form. Most often we cannot see them. But you and I can always be seen. And that instinct in us that makes us think in terms of God is not to be enjoyed as a mystical tendency, but as a faculty God has put in us to make us useful.
Every Sunday morning you and I leave this place as messengers of God, to be ready on an instant’s notice, to do His will. At this time of the year we think of the Incarnation of the Son of God. What does that mean? It means that the uncreated, formless God took on Himself our form in order to personally do a work of grace. This Incarnate God said of those who believe in Him, “Greater things than these they will do because I go to the Father.” How so? Because, as the angels serve at God’s sending, so do we—if we see ourselves aright. Belief is not clinging to right ideas about Jesus alone. Belief is submission to the high purpose for which Jesus was born. We who believe are all over the world as agents of God’s purpose, angels, we might say.
I pray it may be so of you and of me. Let us pray: grant, O God, that as you care for us we may be your messengers to care for others according to your purposes. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Pastor Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 09:30 AM
December 17, 2006
The Privilege of the Lowly
Ezekiel 34: 11-16/Luke 2: 8-20
December 17th, 2006
I am nearing the stage of my days as a pastor when I wonder if I have stressed what is most important in my preaching. I sometimes feel the most important part of my work is spent with those who most know how needy they are. I have little to offer someone who feels he needs nothing.
In the sector of Christendom that has been my home I have often listened to preachers and Bible teachers stressing the importance of taking the Bible literally. I was taught not to like to hear people say before reading the Bible in church, "Listen FOR the Word of God." No. Listen TO the Word of God! The Bible does not contain the Word of God. It IS the Word of God. And so I still believe. For this reason I have preached from Old and New Testament, from popular and unknown parts of the Bible.
But my impression is that though the words themselves are of primary importance--which is why I have devoted so much energy throughout my years as a pastor to sharpening my skills in Hebrew and Greek, the words are somewhat like the trees in a forest.
You've heard the little adage, "He can't see the forest for the trees." Well, I sometimes get the feeling that we have short-changed ourselves by so focusing on the trees that we do not see the wonder of the forest.
The forest, of course, is the grand picture that God has painted for us of His will for us in the Bible as a whole. Sometimes we need to listen FOR the Word of God as well as TO the Word of God. That is, we need to look at the forest and not just at the trees.
Or, to think of it in another way, we need to see the panorama of God's Word to us and not just the individual brush strokes in the picture. Some of the brush strokes aren't all that glamorous, but O, the grandeur of the whole picture.
When we focus on the words without regard for the picture God is painting, we single out this or that brush stroke for emphasis. Thus, in our day of proof-text-ing, of snatching this or that verse as proof for a point of view, we have latched on to this or that tree in the forest as though it gives us the essence of the forest itself.
When I look at the panorama of the Bible a few truths stand out from the rest. I see that when Jesus summarized God's expectations of us, he honed in on two points: 1. Love God with everything and 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. Here Jesus spoke timeless truth as it relates to our response to God. He did not summarize here what God has done for us.
We have, in our doctrines, spent much time on examining what God has done for us, while Jesus summarized God's teaching by explaining our rightful response to God. So that if I do not love God with everything I am and do not love my neighbor as myself, I have missed the forest, not seen the picture –of God's purpose in giving us the Bible.
Another truth that leaps out of the panorama God paints in His Word is that loving my neighbor is essential to loving God with everything I have and am. I do not love God well if I study the details about Him in Scripture but do not love my neighbor.
Two questions come to mind. 1. Who is my neighbor? 2. Why do I need to love my neighbor as myself?
Jesus answered the question, "Who is my neighbor?" with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan cared for an enemy after he'd been robbed, beaten, and left for dead. This is a pretty broad hint at the Forest God wants us to see in His Word. Love the one you think of as an enemy. Love the one that you're tempted to pass by, looking the other way because it's too costly of time or resources to reach out to him. Jesus said this is how to love my neighbor, as he pointed out who is my neighbor.
Second, we ask, "Why do I need to love my neighbor as myself?" Because God created my neighbor. Because part of why God created me was to love my neighbor. Not only that, but because I am somebody else's neighbor.
When I'm down and in need, and look to see who will be a Good Samaritan to me, I am grateful when someone reaches out to me. I join ranks with others in this troubled world that have been robbed, beaten, and left for dead.
The way God intends to care for me is through the one who sees me as her neighbor—that is, someone who loves me as she loves herself. When someone cares for us out of the blue, invariably we think, "There is someone who really loves God."
You were stranded on the highway. It was cold; night was drawing near. Your cell phone went dead. Cars whizzed by. You prayed, "O Lord, help!" Someone stopped. He wondered if it might be a trap. Maybe he would get held up when he stopped to help. But he stopped anyway. You at first were afraid. Is it someone who will do as we sometimes see in crime stories on TV? It wasn't this kind of person. You said, "You were an answer to my prayer!"
On Friday morning Mike and I were in the Tippecanoe County Courthouse where we saw quite a few people waiting to suffer the consequences of their misdeeds before a black-robed judge. We saw defense lawyers and the prosecuting attorney clumped up near the bench, talking, as people waited to know their fate. We saw four people sitting in front of us, humbled, in handcuffs, chained about the waste, shackles on their feet, dressed in jail-clothes, dark blue. Public humiliation was the first stage in their punishment.
I found myself thinking, "Give me the justice of God any day." "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me." Not so for the wretched ones who stand before us needing grace! The law loses its majesty if not tempered with mercy—as judge and defendant both see their need for the grace of God.
I didn't know the offenses that brought these folk to their humiliation, but I know the offenses that land a lot of people in our jails. I learn of this each Tuesday evening. Often their offenses are the offenses of the poor. It is a vicious cycle. They try to drown out the sorrow of life in hurtful ways—alcohol, drugs, promiscuous sex that leads to children being born who need support that the unwed mother or divorced parents cannot afford. The poor sink in a miry pit with quicksand at the bottom. Deeper and deeper they sink into misery. Our system nearly guarantees many will not get out. Something inside me shouts, "They are my neighbor too. Jesus said, 'Love your neighbor as yourself, Stuart'."
I have a hunch that sexual promiscuity is not always a product of raw lust. Sometimes people hope for a sexual encounter that will provide a moments’ happiness. Instead they often reap an unwanted child or AIDS.
I read Psalm 40 and wonder if it applies to them too or only to me when I'm in need? "I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure."
I look at people in the deep trenches of need and I see before me in the flesh the Bible's description of the lost sheep without a shepherd.
In the prophet Ezekiel we read this morning of God's fond promise, "I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out . . . I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness." It is one of the gentlest, kindest pictures of God and people. God is like the best, the most tender of shepherds, while we are like the most lost of sheep.
In the preceding verses Ezekiel writes, "My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill . . . with none to search or seek for them." These words Ezekiel wrote in the sixth century before Jesus was born, when God's chosen people were all in exile. They were scattered over the ancient world, from Egypt to Babylon. Indeed, so surely was their scattering now a part of their identity that the two strongest centers of Judaism were in Alexandria, Egypt, and Nehardea, Babylon. It was in Egypt, far away from Jerusalem, that the great Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible was made. It was in Babylon that the greatest body of Jewish oral tradition was written and edited that we find in the Babylonian Talmud.
But God's care for His people was not symbolized in Egypt or Babylon, but in Jerusalem. The prophet, Jeremiah wrote in the century before Ezekiel, "As a shepherd seeks out his flock . . . I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered."
He went on to promise, "I will feed them with good pasture, and upon the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture . . . I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them; he shall feed them and be their shepherd."
When Jeremiah wrote this, he remembered the promise we find in the prophet Isaiah, that we hear in Handle's "Messiah" each year at Advent and Easter, "He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young."
When we read this of God, we see God pointing His finger of destiny at Jerusalem, and Judea, and Jesus, born in the region in which little Bethlehem nestled into the countryside, the least of the clans of Judah—as Micah wrote. And when God stirred the prophets to remember God as a shepherd who cares tenderly for His sheep, gathering them to their familiar grazing land, to Jerusalem and Judea, the focus of God's finger singled out humble shepherds to first know of His grace.
Every Christmas we look at one batch of trees in the forest of God's great panorama of salvation. Luke 2 charms us in its description of shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appearing to them, scaring them, then saying, 'Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
Thus we faithfully put shepherds in our manger scenes—one of the most beautiful trees in the forest. And we think, how wonderful it must have been to be one of those shepherds. What a privilege, at least that one night, to be a lowly shepherd outside Bethlehem, in the field, keeping watch over my sheep.
I must close, but when I see this tree in the great forest of God's Word, I see a primary truth of the Gospel illustrated. Shepherds were humble folk. Sometimes proud, swaggering, redneck types. But in terms of how society saw them, they were humble folk. And if you'd got into a conversation with the toughest of them, with that leathery hide that comes from self-defense, and penetrated beneath the leather exterior, you'd see that his expectations of life were very tender. Their needs were as basic as the need of their sheep.
The shepherd psalm says, "The Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need." And your need and mine is very basic too. At the beginning and end of our lives we're back to basics. What do you need, I mean really need, even more deeply than you need food, clothes, and shelter? As a baby needs most the tender warmth of its parents, and as a dying person needs most to know she is not alone as she approaches the valley of the shadow of death, so you and I need to know of the love of God, mediated through the love of people.
And if you and I love God, and love our neighbor as ourselves, people at their moments of greatest vulnerability, of greatest need are equipped to receive God's love mediated through us.
A number of times of late I've seen fellows hardened by life's circumstances at the jail speak about God when they feel we care about them. And they will even say they're glad things have gone ill for them because it brought them to realize the most basic element of their need for God. It is a gift, then, to be brought low.
I pray that as we strive for comfort and security and plenty and happiness we may also realize how very basic is our own need. And I pray that we will respond to the needs that we see in others in such a quantity and with such affection that they may see how the Lord is their shepherd, and find themselves gathered into the fold of His care. Is this not part of the grand picture? Is this not a view of the forest that summaries the words of the Holy Bible?
O Lord, may it be with us and through us according to your Word. Amen.
Pastor Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 09:30 AM
December 10, 2006
The Glory of the Virgin Mary
Matthew 1: 2-6
December 10th, 2006
In the few minutes I have this morning I want to remind you again how essential not only Mary is to the Christmas story, but of the pivotal, dare I say, crucial role four other women played in fulfilling God's promise to Abraham. After all, this is what we celebrate at Christmas. Then was born to Mary, of a very interesting lineage, the One of Abraham's seed who brought blessing to all nations.
So I remind you of some verses from Matthew's Gospel we seldom read. In the old King James Version the word "begat" is repeated thirteen times, because Matthew's "Jewish Gospel," considers begats of great importance. After all, the first Divine command was "Be fruitful and multiply." Not only that, but along the way as God's sovereign plan was unfolded there were moments when the begetting did not come easy.
Who can forget Sarah, Abraham's wife who until age 75 had begotten no one so that she laughed when an angel told her she would bear a son. Isaac's name meant, "He will laugh;" which reminded generations ever after how surprising was his birth. There was old Elizabeth too, finally a mother when she was very old, to a wee boy we know as John the Baptist.
I'm tempted to say that part of the message of Christmas is "Expect the unexpected." Look at the genealogy Matthew provides in those opening verses of the Gospel. Judah began Perez of Tamar. Who was Tamar? She was a Canaanite woman taken as wife by Jacob's son, Er. After Er died, not leaving an heir, it was his brother Onan's duty to marry his older brother's widow. But Onan refused to provide his brother an heir by his widow, Tamar. So this Canaanite woman, profoundly loyal to her deceased husband, did the unthinkable. She seduced his father. So that Judah continues the lineage of the Messiah by a dreadful deed forbidden in the later law given to Moses. We would choose a different, more proper lineage for the Messiah if we had the choice to make. But God's ways are unlike our ways. A woman who would have been stoned to death becomes a link in the chain leading to the Messiah. "A chain is no stronger than its weakest link," we say. Expect the unexpected with God. Tamar played a "crucial" role in the coming of the Messiah. She bore a cruel cross, we might say, as a deeply good woman, who did the unthinkable to achieve her place in the plan of God for the salvation of the world. With God, expect the unexpected
Then there is Rahab, a Canaanite harlot, who not only provided a way for Israel to begin its occupation of her homeland, but she also went on to marry an Israelite man by whom she bore the great-great grandfather of King David. Then there was Ruth, the Moabite girl, that is, from a people descended from an incestuous union between Abraham's nephew Lot, and one of his daughters. Who would have imagined such a plan? Rahab and Ruth were important links in the chain leading to the Savior of the world in far more than a physical way. With God, expect the unexpected!
Who would bear the child in David's line to lead to the Messiah? Well, it was Bathshebah, a Hittite woman, or at least married to a Hittite man. We cringe to read the story of the way King David sired Solomon by Bathshebah. In the process he became a murderer and an adulterer. And from this adulterous union, "whitewashed" ever so briefly with a murder, the chain grew that would lead to the birth of the Messiah, Jesus. With God, expect the unexpected!
In this glorious season, then, we remember how unexpected was the way the "wondrous Gift was given." Mary, the mother of this Gift, was not yet married when she became pregnant. She was apparently unable to tell Joseph what the angel Gabriel told her about giving birth to a child, though she was not married. How could she say this to Joseph? He would hardly believe her. But he noticed her slender figure was changing. How could he say anything to a girl he knew very well was anything but promiscuous with her favors? So God intervened in such a way that enabled this fair and good man to put up with the seeming indecency of his betrothed sweetheart. Joseph and Mary were learning prior to the birth of the Savior of the world to expect the unexpected with God.
As Matthew unfolds this genealogy he dips into Jewish history citing embarrassing links in the chain of God's fulfilling His promise to Abraham. From the books of the Hebrew Bible, the Bible of the Jewish people, he draws undisputed evidence of a "blemished" lineage. Of course, there were many other offenses against the ideal that are found in the generations of God's chosen people. Moses, in fact, may have been married twice; first to an Ethiopian princess, if Josephus tells it like it is, and then to a Midianite lass, daughter of a Midianite priest. So much for the purity of the Levitical lineage. Levites were to marry within their own tribe. But here goes Moses, marrying not only outside the tribe of Levi, but also outside the family of Israel altogether. Expect the unexpected with God!!
Perhaps it was Mary's awareness of how odd was the birth of this heralded child that fed into a native humility an even greater trait, a kind of contrition, as though she had committed a sin in being pregnant before she was married. The psalms tell us that a humble and contrite heart is God's chosen dwelling place. As Paul would later say of Jesus Christ, that "He who knew no sin became sin for us," so Luke's Gospel tells us of Mary that when she learned that she would be part of a plan that would look very unseemly, in which her reputation would look flawed, humbly she accepted her role. "Be it unto me according to your word," she told the angel. Even though she did no sin in this, she appeared as though she had committed a grave sin, and she felt the censure of those who only judged by appearances. In her humbled state, humiliated as well as by nature humble, she was the perfect home for the Son of God.
It is very tempting to become lyrical about this grand scheme at Christmas. But of what use is this to us, to become lyrical at Christmas? What is important for us is to see how Mary exemplified the state of heart and mind that is essential to carry on the work begun in her womb. In the prologue of John's Gospel we read, "To all who receive him, who believe in his name, he [i.e., Jesus] gives the right to become children of God; who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." As Jesus was begotten by God, so when we have trusted in Jesus so thoroughly that we yield the authority over our lives to God, as Mary did when she said, "Be it unto me according to your word," then in an odd sort of way, we become like Mary. God is born in us too.
This can become very mystical as I think of the parallel between our simple trust in God and Mary's simple trust in God. In fact, when it comes to some aspects of our relationship to God in Jesus, we cannot help but realize we have stepped beyond the ordinary.
But there is a place where our will joins our helpless trust, as it did for Mary. Had she refused to allow the Son of God to be conceived in her body, the Holy Spirit would not have imposed this on her. She said "yes," and then followed up on that "yes." It begins with you and me with a "yes" too. And we must follow up on that "yes" in order for Christ to grow in us, as He grew in the womb of Mary. Paul wrote, "Christ in you the hope of glory." Very mysterious. Very parallel to what happened in the story of Jesus birth to Mary. Expect the unexpected with God.
I pray that as we contemplate the glory of Mary, and the remarkable place she played in the drama of God's fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, we may also realize that our feelings of unworthiness are gently ministered to when we read the story of the family line leading up to Jesus. Who would have thought that Tamar belongs in this lineage? Or Rahab, the harlot of Jericho? Or Ruth, the Moabite woman—of a people who began with a son by incest of Lot, Abraham's nephew? Or of Bathshebah, or, for that matter, of Mary who was with child before she was married? Maybe you and I fit very well into the picture of how God applies His grace in this world. Expect the unexpected with God. Indeed, offer yourself to God that He may do the unexpected through you.
Let us pray: O Lord, it is not only when we consider the heavens that we wonder at your ways, but when we consider also your ways in bringing to us salvation, the forgiveness of our sins, the hope of perfect life. Grant to us the wisdom of Mary who offered herself so wholly for your use, and grant that we too may be sources of unspeakable blessing. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Pastor Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 09:30 AM