Sermon Tone Analysis
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Good evening, Gateway Chapel!
Welcome
Song #1 - Joy to the World
Song #2 - O Come All Ye Faithful
Sandy
Song #3 - Hark
Song #4 - Angels
Dorraine
Song #5 - Go Tell it On the Mountain
Song #6 - O Come Emmanuel
Sermon
What does Christmas teach us about God?
What is he like?
How do we relate to him?
As Dorraine and Sandy read, we hear this story every year.
What do we take away to grow in our understanding of God?
I think sometimes, God can be like the relative you see once a year at Christmas.
I know who they are, I know some things about them, but I don’t really know how to talk with them.
It’s usually the crazy uncle, right?
So say it’s your mom’s brother and your mom has told you a lot of things about him, but you’ve never really had much interaction with this person.
Again, it’s not like you don’t know who they are, it’s your uncle for crying out loud, but if it was just you and them in a room, I don’t know what you’d talk about.
In Matthew 1:23, we see Jesus is given the title Immanuel - God with us.
And even as Sandy read in Luke 1:28, the angel tells Mary, God is with you!
Christmas teaches us that because of Jesus, we can live with God.
There is a with-ness to God.
But what does that mean and what does it show us about how we relate to him?
In his book, “With” Skye Jethani makes the argument that we often have a hard time thinking about living ‘with’ God.
Rather, we think about living UNDER God, OVER God, FROM God, or FOR God.
And tonight we’re just going to look briefly at each of these, reflect on which might be you, and see how living WITH God is the life we all need because of Jesus.
Under God
The first false image of God is living UNDER God.
If you grew up in public school, you said one nation UNDER God over and over again.
This is not bashing that dynamic at all.
This is the view of God through the lens of most world religions.
God is huge, you are small, obey the rules or you will be crushed by God.
It’s like living your life under a giant anvil, and if you don’t work to appease the God, the anvil will fall on your head and smash you.
It’s the view of God that says he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sakes.
It’s the view that if you have a bad Christmas, you must have done something wrong, God is upset and now he’s working to punish you for your sin because he wants to let you know how bad you are.
Maybe this was you growing up, but think of the kid who does chores vigorously at Christmas time to appease their parents because they know if they don’t do everything just right their parents will get mad and ground them.
Why is this view appealing?
It gives us a sense of control.
Even though we’re living under God, we seek to be above him by puppeteering God through our behavior.
If I read enough of my Bible, pray hard enough, and go to church, then I can avoid bad things in life and sneak by the three headed monster.
The second view of life is living
Over God
This is the view of God some may call Deism, or if you don’t believe in God, atheism.
This is the view of God that says Christmas teaches us there is so much wrong with the world, so much pain, so much strife and conflict, so much suffering, so much death, that God is just not in the picture.
If he did make the world, he’s not here anymore.
And many believe if you look at the current state of affairs, it’s evident he’s like Santa Claus and never existed in the first place.
This is the view of God that says because of modern understanding of science, medicine, psychology, and other things, we know what really runs the world, and it’s not God.
Gravity is the reason we stay on the planet, the sun rises every day because that’s just what it does.
I have the ability to think and reason and love and hate because I am an evolved person over billions and possibly trillions of years.
There is no with-ness to this God.
This God has no interest in being with his people, but is now as distant as a star millions of lightyears away, uninterested and cold-hearted to the world today.
Planner - going about planning my week without praying
Why is this view appealing?
It puts us in the driver’s seat.
Humans control our own destiny.
We are at the helm of this ship.
I have no one to answer to but my self, my own heart, my own desires because I am living OVER God.
Under God, Over God, and third...
From God
This is the view of God where he just ends up looking a lot like me.
God’s kingdom is my kingdom.
God’s will is my will.
Whatever I want is obviously what God wants.
In our consumer culture, God becomes a means to an end, to just give me what I want.
Did you know the average American sees over 3,500 desire inducing advertisements a day?
We are conditioned to covet.
And without thinking about it, God becomes a tool by which we can get what we want.
Jethani says
“...see a divine butler, a cosmic therapist, a holy vending machine who dispense the wares and wisdoms they desire.”
This Advent season we did a sermon series called “The 4 Gifts of Advent.”
We talked about Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy.
In the “From” God view, we don’t really need Jesus, we just want his gifts: Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy.
Jesus didn’t come to give us himself, he came to give us his stuff.
God is like your uncle at the Christmas party who just gives $100 to everyone because he wants everyone to have a good time.
He’s the funcle!
Why is this view appealing?
Again, it puts us in control.
I can appease God through some basic things like reading, praying, serving, so he can give me what I really want: good feelings and safety.
I think this is the religion of many in our churches, and sometimes in my own heart.
Where does this image break down?
When things go wrong.
And we think, “Surely God would never allow this in my life!
How could a good God allow me to go through this?”
And yet as CS Lewis says...
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pains: It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
UNDER God, OVER God, FROM God, and fourth,
For God
This is the view of God that says God loves me, but he doesn’t really like me.
He loves me most when I do things FOR him.
He’ll be happier with me next Christmas when I read my Bible more, pray more, serve more.
I remember driving home one day from church, telling God, “I promise I’ll never do that again!”
I thought that’s what God wants from me.
More good stuff, less bad stuff.
He’s kind of disappointed with me right now, but if I can just get things together he’ll be happy.
This is the child who does more chores than any kid in the history of the world not because they love their parents but because they are TERRIFIED of getting coal.
What’s appealing about this view?
Again, I am in control.
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