Majesty to Manger: Hope in God's Justice

Opening Prayer

Please pray with me:

“[May] the words of my mouth and the meditation of [our] heart[s] be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, [our] rock and [our] redeemer.” (Ps 19:14)

SLIDE 1: MAJESTY TO MANGER (IMAGE)

Introduction

This week marks the beginning of the season of Advent. We, in the Church, celebrate it as our New Year — a time of looking back at the past and gazing forward to the future.

Especially as we look ahead to celebrating Christmas, this season naturally lends itself to a sense of anticipation — for some, it is a time of hopeful expectation, for others, it is a time to remember what we have lost in the past year.

I well remember as a child waiting for Christmas with baited breath. I looked forward to the school holidays (no homework), visiting with family (way too much candy!), and most importantly, opening presents beneath the tree on Christmas morning.

As an adult, the wait seems different. Our family has our Advent Wreath and calendars to count down the days (we have three!). Whether I’m walking in the mall, grocery shopping, or listening to the radio all I hear is cheery Christmas tunes as soon as the Thanksgiving festivities are over.

It has become a time where I prepare for Christmas parties, dig out my ugliest Christmas sweater, and (perhaps) go on a strict diet in anticipation of the 10 pounds I’ll gain over the next few weeks. For many like me, the whole world seems filled with hope, focused on spreading warmth and cheer.

And yet, for some of us, the Christmas holidays also remind us of loved ones we have lost in the preceding year. Those who will no longer join us around the table at Christmas dinner. For some, Christmas can be a time of depression, sorrow, or remorse. For those who mourn, hope is not nearly as clear or easily grasped.

As we look forward to Christmas, we may not always be filled with joyful expectation, but it can — and should — be a time when we look forward with Hope — even though it may be hard for some.

But where in our lives can we find a Hope that speaks to anticipation and sorrow?

As I approached our assigned lessons for this morning, I noticed that we have two very odd ones. Both speak of destruction and justice — not exactly passages that inspire Hope within me. I was challenged to discern how can these passages could speak to our sense of longing and joyful expectation during this season.

As we explore Christ’s Miraculous Journey over the next four weeks — from Majesty to Manger — it seemed to me that we must first understand all of God’s Majesty before we can truly understand what it meant for Christ to come down to us in the humble Manger. I thought to myself, God’s Majesty, when fully revealed should kindle within us a sense of Hope.

After much prayer and thought, I propose that these scriptures do, indeed, speak to the heart of Hope - that is, they invite us to Hope in the midst of both our earthly joys as well as our trials and tribulations. They inspire us to embrace the Justice that is part of the very hope we hold dear as Christians.

They encourage us not to look up on the hopes of the world, but to find true Hope:

Hope in God’s perfect Righteousness,

Hope in God’s works of Redemption for the world, and

Hope in the Resurrection to everlasting life in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

I hereby dub these, the three “R”s of Hope - Righteousness, Redemption, and Resurrection. For the next few minutes, let us take a journey to explore a simple idea:

Our hope rests in waiting for God’s Majesty to be revealed through His Justice!

SLIDE 2: “Witnesses to Righteousness”

Witnesses to Righteousness

When we speak of God’s Righteousness, we need go no further than reading what He has revealed about Himself throughout Scripture. In its pages, God is extremely clear about what exactly He calls “right and just.” In revealing His own nature he likewise declares that He expects the same of all His creation. He has called all of creation to reflect His nature. As His children we are equally called to be His image-bearers — reflecting the image of God’s Righteousness and Justice to the world.

Look at the Ten Commandments, the books of Leviticus and Numbers, the Prophets, and finally Christ’s summation of the Law. God’s Righteousness can be encapsulated in the Great Commandments in Mk 12:28-34:

Righteousness comes from worshiping God alone.

Righteousness comes by loving our neighbor as ourselves.

However, when humanity falls short of that calling, we see examples like Sodom and Gomorrah — filled with idolatry and debauchery — destroyed by fire and brimstone (Gen 18). The wicked nations overtaken by Israel after the Exodus were cleansed from the land in which God chose to dwell (Deut 9:4). Even God’s own people had to be reminded again and again to return to the paths of righteousness, otherwise the land would vomit them out (Lev 18:25)!

Looking at our Psalm for this morning, it describes our God as Mighty, shining forth from his throne in perfection and beauty. He exudes Majesty in all its perfection. Yet when God draws near His Majesty is felt like a devouring fire or a mighty storm.

God’s Majesty is not without teeth. It is not impotent. It demands that all in its presence humbly accept their inadequacy to be in its presence. Our psalm serves as a reminder to Israel to come back to the paths of Righteousness and avoid injustice — if they fail to do so, God’s arrival will also serve as their judgment.

In our passage from Luke, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem is also a judgment against Israel. God’s own people have strayed away from Righteousness and must turn back to Him. The coming judgment serves to cleanse the path for our Lord to return in all His glory.

God’s Majesty flows out as Righteousness. Justice and Judgment are simply the natural consequences of the perfect Creator when he draws forth into a creation and people mired in unrighteousness.

You may be asking yourself, “how does this bring me Hope?” If God’s arrival also brings judgment, what hope can we possibly have?

Thanks be to God that, along with His judgment, he has also provided us with the means of our Redemption (our ability to stand before Him on that day).

One part of our hope, then, is that in God’s Majesty, His very nature and presence exudes righteousness and justice. God, wanting to dwell in and among His Creation, in His Grace, his very presence will cast out unrighteousness. Yet, He has also granted us the hope that He can and does offer Redemption.

SLIDE 3: “Agents of Redemption”

Agents of Redemption

Jesus tell his disciples in our Gospel passage, to “raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Lk 21:28). At least for them, there is hope. But what does this Redemption look like?

When we think about God’s Redemption, let me begin by saying that what I am talking about is more than a “Get out of Hell free!” card. It is also more than the fact that we as Christians are “saved.”

Many Christians have been brought up in the faith with a skewed and anemic view of God’s redemptive work. On the extremes, they either focus on:

trying to do more “right things” than “wrong things,” thus “earning” salvation, or

resting so heavily on the power of Christ’s redemptive sacrifice that no matter what wrongs they commit, they can just say some “magic words” and their sins will be erased.

Between the two extremes rests a single truth: Christ’s death and resurrection has saved us from power of sin and death, but unless we fully rely on God, we cannot live a righteous life. As fallen creatures, we will continue to sin — and no amount of doing “right things” will ever sufficiently redeem us from our own fallenness. It is only by Christ’s redemptive work that we can seek to be Righteous as He is Righteous and stand before Him on the great day of His return.

And this is normally where most people stop: “I’m saved, that’s enough.” Yet Christ’s Redemptive work on the cross accomplished far more than just saving us from sin.

Bishop N. T. Wright, in his book, Surprised by Hope, addresses this very issue. He argues that a focus on

Surprised by Hope (1. Introduction)

… ‘Christian hope’ in terms of ‘going to heaven’, of a ‘salvation’ which is essentially away from this world …

is missing the point almost entirely.

God’s redemptive work in Creation is more than our personal salvation.

God has worked to redeem His Creation throughout history — from

establishing a “people of promise” to declare God’s redeeming work to others

to that people’s repeated judgment and restoration when it was defiled by idols, sin, and unrighteousness

to the promise of reconciliation into a right relationship with God through the blood of Jesus Christ

to the eventual restoration of the whole world in the final cleansing of Creation from the power of evil so He might dwell fully among us

— all of this is God’s redemptive work in the world. It is not just about saving me from “going to Hell.” It is a call to follow God’s lead to bring His Justice into the world today — in the here and now.

In doing this, we must step boldly forward into the chaos of the world, not run away from it! As image-bearers of God and witnesses to His redemptive power we must not only proclaim Christ’s sacrifice to those who do not know Him, but serve as agents of redemptive change. Thus, by God’s guidance, we seek to:

right the evils we see in the world,

reach out a loving hand to our brothers and sisters in need,

defend the poor and the weak,

steward our finances and our gifts in order to serve others, and

show the world what it looks like to live lives with Christ as our Lord.

Our second hope, then, is that we are also agents of God’s Redemption — the restoration of God’s order in a chaotic world. We are a crucial part of His redemptive work — proclaiming His Justice and His desire to redeem us from our fallenness.

Our work, as redeemed image-bearers, is not to “balance the scales” of our own sin, but rather to bring forth the Kingdom of God that has been actualized (made real) in the death and victorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

SLIDE 4: “Cleansed by Resurrection”

Cleansed by Resurrection

As we turn to Resurrection, I cannot say it better than our Lord did. In order for someone (or some thing) to be resurrected, it must first die.

The Apostle John records Jesus as saying:

John 12:24 (ESV)

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

God’s Justice requires that all unrighteousness be cleansed from the places His Majesty is to dwell. In His glorious presence, unrighteousness, evil, and strife must be cast away and die.

This is why Christ’s death and resurrection holds such great Hope for us. It is through His sacrifice that the power of sin and death has been broken. It is why Jesus calls us to take up our own cross (Mt 16:24-26) and die with Him. Those chains of sin and depravity within us must first die before they can be replaced with God’s righteousness.

And, like us, God’s now-fallen creation must also suffer a sort death for its own cleansing.

In our Gospel passage, Jesus warns that, before His return in glory:

Luke 21:25–26 (ESV)

25 “… there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

At the end of the Age, the world as we know it will fall away and be stripped of all that has been overtaken by unrighteousness. The heavens, likewise, will be shaken. In their place, God’s righteousness will enter, restore, and dwell among all His Creation.

Creation itself will be resurrected!

John, the elder, writes in Revelation, that, at Christ’s return he sees:

SLIDE 5: Rev 21:1-2

Revelation 21:1–2 (ESV)

1 … a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Resurrection, therefore, is two-fold. We look forward to the restoration of our earthly bodies into glorified ones, freed entirely from the bondage of sin. We also look forward to the restoration of God’s Creation where:

all wrongs will be made right,

justice will be served upon the wicked, and

mercy will be granted to those who sought after God’s grace.

At the very end — at Christ’s return — heaven and earth will be reunited as one under God. Evil, pain, suffering, death, disease, hunger, deprivation, sorrow, hatred, oppression — all will be no more.

The first heaven and first earth will pass away — and in their place will stand a resurrected Creation: a glorious city, illuminated day and night by the Majesty of God in our midst — fully and gloriously dwelling amongst us.

Our final hope, then, must be to look forward to that day of ultimate justice where all of Creation will be cleansed by Resurrection and prepared for God’s return in all of His glory.

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

Application

SLIDE 6: Three “R”s of Hope

As we look forward to these four weeks of waiting and hope, I would ask you to consider two questions offered by Bishop Wright in his book, Surprised by Hope:

Surprised by Hope (Preface)

What are we waiting for? And what are we going to do about it in the meantime?

As for the question of what we are waiting for, I would argue that:

Awaiting God’s Majesty means waiting for God’s Justice

That Justice is the working out of His Righteousness, through His Redemption, and made complete through Resurrection.

Thus, the second question comes into focus: What are we going to do about it?

First, God’s call to Righteousness is that we become image-bearers of God — acting with His Righteousness and proclaiming His Justice to the world .

Second, God’s call to Redemption is to come alongside God’s work in our present world in our present situations — where we work and live. We are to reach out to our brothers and sisters in need, to proclaim the redemption that others may find by being united to Jesus Christ, and to seek to bring forth God’s justice in the places where unrighteousness has taken hold.

Third, God’s call to Resurrection is to hold fast in the sure knowledge that one day, God’s work will be completed on this earth. The old Creation will pass away, replaced by one where God and His people will be reunited in a world no longer tainted by the effects of sin. The new Creation has been prepared for those declared Righteous to live in eternity with God.

This, then, can be the entirety of our hope, that God’s Justice will most certainly bring forth His Kingdom on the earth, bringing with it His Righteousness. We are agents of that work of Redemption. We look forward to the day of cleansing Resurrection when all will be made new!

Beloved brothers and sisters … We are the sons and daughters of God, called to live into a Righteousness that come through no one by Christ alone. We are called to be co-workers with God, according to His will, for the restoration and redemption of the world. We are the ones to proclaim the message that Christ brings redemption to a lost and broken world. We must declare that God is coming in Majesty and His Justice will resurrect His fallen creation — and … this … is … Good News! It is the Greatest News we can share as we celebrate the first coming of our Lord on Christmas.

Let us go forth and boldly proclaim our Hope! The hope that we look forward to that day when God’s Majesty will fully be revealed and His Justice will reign over all of creation, where, as Revelation declares:

Revelation 21:4 (ESV)

4 [God] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

SLIDE 7: MAJESTY TO MANGER (IMAGE)

Closing Prayer

Please pray with me.

Almighty Father, adorned in Majesty and in whom Righteousness and Judgment go hand-in-hand, grant us Your grace to find our Hope solely in You: empower us to seek paths of Righteousness; embolden us to proclaim your Redemption to the world; and bring us safely to that blessed day when we will see You face-to-face and dwell eternally in your presence. We ask this all through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, now and for ever.

Amen.