I Understand You

CONTEXT

Series: Trust the Promise.

Last week: Esther — I have placed you.

This week. Mary and Joseph — I understand you.

Exile. The prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, promised that God will bring his people back to the Promised Land. This would be a sign that God would send a Redeemer for the whole world. This was bolstered by the example of Esther. She saved her people by trusting that God works through normal people.

Now we move to the New Testament. The New Testament is the portion of the Bible that is grounded in the affirmation that Jesus Christ is the expected Redeemer who saves his people.

About 400 years have passed since the days of Esther. During that time the Persian Empire has fallen. The Roman Empire then emerged as dominant power. In 63BCE Roman General Pompey conquered Jerusalem.

Jews living under foreign occupation. A time, again, of hope for divine deliverance.

TEXT

Luke 2:1–7 ESV

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 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, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 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.

Introduction

Three way conversation about AI. Applicants can use it to fill out a college application. To write and essay. Posts and articles online.

Person said to me, Pastor you are going to be out of a job. AI could write the sermon.

Hmmm…I reflected. If a computer algorithm, AI, could generate a sermon —…entertaining, informative, timed just right, clear transitions,…would I be out of a job? Is there any value added to the sermon, just by the fact that I myself wrote it, that I a human being generated it? For a class essay, application.

I’ve been pondering. I think there is value added. I am speaking to you about shared experience. You are listening from shared experience.

Today’s promise. God speaks to us, and listens to us. Shared experience. We pray to one who understands. He speaks to us and understands us.

Ancient Problem — Does God Understand?

Mary and Joseph are called to be part of a great mission — God’s fulfillment of the promise for deliverance. Not just from Babylon. From Persia. From Rome. But from spiritual oppression and exile.

Angel Gabriel said:

Your son, Jesus, will be great, the son of the Most High (Mary)

His Kingdom will have no end (Mary)

He will save them from their sins (Joseph)

The call to them: to be parents.

Mary, mother, to offer flesh and blood. Her child will be conceived within her by the power of the Holy Spirit.

from her the Son of God will join the human race.

Joseph, father, to offer his social protection, provision.

His son will join in the covenant people of Israel, line of David.

For both, a lifelong commitment to Jesus.

Raising him, teaching him, preparing him for his mission, sharing in it in various ways good or bad.

The greatest calls in the whole bible. To be the mother and father of the Son of God.

Hardships.

journey to Bethlehem. about 100 miles. 4 days, by foot, donkey.

No room in the inn.

Laid the baby in a manger.

Not the circumstances they had anticipated or desired.

They wanted to be with family. In their own home.

They wanted the best for him — clean, secure.

They wanted to do right by God — we are taking good care of our/your son.

Mary and Joseph wanted to please each other, and be happy on this day of becoming parents.

May have been a day of mixed joy, sadness, fear.

Forecasting. If the birth circumstance is this hard…what else are we in for?

Umm…does God understand how difficult and unnerving all this is? How vulnerable we feel? How apprehensive about the future?

Current Problem — Does God Understand?

I wonder if any of us have ever wondered whether God really understands what we are going through.

Senior person, chronic pain. Children just don’t understand. Does God?

Working parent. People just don’t understand. Does God?

Something very troubling: abusive experience, abandonment, substance abuse disorder, compulsive behavior, mental or emotional struggle. Does God?

We have all wondered whether other people can understand what it is like to be us.

You just don’t know what is like to be me

Does God understand what it is like to be me? To have this problem, to feel this stress, this depression, this guilt, this substance abuse disorder.

Hinge: God Understands

Story of Mary and Joseph, does God understand?

Creator: Because he made human beings. How they think, feel, behave.

Omniscient: Because he is observant. He has witnessed millions of births.

Compassionate: Because he cares. He has heard the prayers of parents for thousands of years.

Even MORE: Because he is EXPERIENCING it with them.

Ancient Solution: He is there

God understands because he is in the situation with them.

Father God: is experiencing the birth event

The son of Mary and Joseph, is the Son of God the Father.

The Father watches keenly over the journey, the full inn, the manger, with them.

Watching over Jesus, over Mary, standing with Joseph.

Holy Spirit: is experiencing it with them.

The son of Mary and Jospeh, was conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit intimately united to Jesus and Mary, having given him life, holding him like mother Mary.

The Son of God is God himself in human form in the manger. He is right there!

One equal with God, at the Beginning of Creation,

vulnerability shown in his dependence on Mary and Joseph.

Surrounded by glory and angelic servants

A life of hardship shown by no place in the Inn.

The one to whom all creation in heaven and earth

A life of poverty shown in being placed in the manger.

Mary and Joseph at first an incredible call on them…does God understand the implications of the call he has placed on us?

Over the years, increasingly an awareness Jesus’ call, to establish a true point of union between humanity and God.

to bring forgiveness of sins,

by taking on the position of a sinner

the kingdom of God,

by abandoning his power and being a servant.

for all people,

by becoming a person himself.

Heaven and Earth are meeting in this moment.

God and humankind are joining in this moment. Shared experience.

In Christ God joins in the experience of being human. Not by observation. Not by sympathy. But by experience.

Point of radical comfort and perspective for Mary and Joseph and all Christians.

When they saw Jesus with nowhere to lay his head — God knows what it is like to feel homeless.

When they saw Jesus hungry — God knows what it is like...

When they saw him rebuffed ---

When they saw him suffer and die ---

When they saw him rise from the dead and go to heaven — God and NOW a human knows what it is like to enter into glory and live forever.

Peter — imprisoned: Jesus/God understands. Crucified: Jesus/God understands.

Paul: shipwrecked: Jesus/God understands. Ridiculed by people, beaten: Jesus/God understands. Lonely without friends, spouse: Jesus God understands. Suffered a physical ailment in his eye: Jesus God understands.

Trusting that, they pressed on in life, vocation to serve God, because he understands.

He has called me and understand what I go through.

I want to understand what he has gone through, to enter into glory.

He joined with me, so I can join with him.

Current Solution

We have a call on our lives.

child, parent, student, spouse. Elder, Deacon. All kinds of calls.

Difficulties.

We may be tempted to think that God cannot understand. But he can. Through Christ.

EX: counseling. Education and training AND human exp. Not AI platitudes.

EX: Shared circumstance support groups. Substance Abuse disorder people seek out those who have been through what they have been through to find comfort and solace.

Shared natures support with Jesus. He has been tempted, tried, in every way that we have so that he is a faithful and compassionate priest.

Switch from doubting that he understands, to desiring to understand him. join in his upward journey.

Man in the Mirror. Michael Jackson tribute artist last night.

We were made in the image of God. God made into our image. We can look to Christ and see a real person.

Conclusion

AI generated sermon or a sermon that I create and present.

real people talking and listening about shared experience of God.

God present.

I love you. I will be faithful to you. I have a plan for you. I will refresh you. I will go with you. These all make sense because a personal God says them to us and understands our experience.

Children’s Sermon

Communion and flowers. Beautiful. The center piece of our religion. Life, death, and resurrection

Pastoral Prayer

We praise and thank you, O Lord, that you have fed us with your Word [and at your table]. Grateful for your gifts and mindful of the communion of your saints, we offer to you our prayers for all people.

God of compassion, we remember before you the poor and the afflicted, the sick and the dying, prisoners and all who are lonely, the victims of war, injustice, and inhumanity, and all others who suffer from whatever their sufferings may be called. [Silence]

O Lord of providence holding the destiny of the nations in your hand, we pray for our country. Inspire the hearts and minds of our leaders that they, together with all our nation, may first seek your kingdom and righteousness so that order, liberty, and peace may dwell with your people. [Silence]

O God the Creator, we pray for all nations and peoples. Take away the mistrust and lack of understanding that divide your creatures; increase in us the recognition that we are all your children. [Silence]

O Savior God, look upon your church in its struggle upon the earth. Have mercy on its weakness, bring to an end its unhappy divisions, and scatter its fears. Look also upon the ministry of your church. Increase its courage, strengthen its faith, and inspire its witness to all people, even to the ends of the earth. [Silence]

Author of grace and God of love, send your Holy Spirit’s blessing to your children here present. Keep our hearts and thoughts in Jesus Christ, your Son, our only Savior, who has taught us to pray: [Lord’s Prayer]

Faith Alive Christian Resources; Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. The Worship Sourcebook, Second Edition . Faith Alive Christian Resources. Kindle Edition.