122105 Midweek Advent 4
Sermon: Advent 3 on Quempas, stanza 4, and “Resonet in Laudibus”
“I wish things could have been some other way.” How many times do we wish we could take things back, like Words, actions, thoughts? If only life had an “Undo Button” like on computer solitaire. But there is no redo button in life. However, there is a God, who can redo things, and does.
Christmas reminds us of these truths: 1God takes the things that are and brings them to nothing. 2God also takes the things that are nothing and makes them to be something. God does not merely wish that things were otherwise, as we do. He changes things. He sees the brokenness and tragedy of the world caused by man’s fall into sin and makes things otherwise. Naturally speaking, we don’t expect such wonderful things through the birth of a little baby boy. But, much greater things are actually happening in that one miraculous birth. The Quempas Carol exults with words of explanation:
“God’s own Son is born a child, is born a child;
God the Father is reconciled, is reconciled!”
Everything is made different through the incarnation as God takes to himself human flesh. In that eventful birth, our Heavenly Father has been reconciled to us, and we who share human flesh and blood, to him. Isn’t that the ultimate in making things different than they might seem? I think so.
Consider what it means to reconcile. Reconciliation implies and requires a harmonious relationship between two persons when there had been some kind of breech and brokenness. Both people agree, in this, and conduct themselves as being together again. So, God and man are reconciled by the decisive action of God in the incarnation of his Son. We know that based upon God’s truth stated in 2 Corinthians 5:19: "that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation."
The most similar way that we can understand this reconciliation is when an estranged husband and wife are brought back together as one. All humans are estranged from God ever since Adam and Eve fell into sin. And everyone wishes it could be otherwise. But we see the cure in the creative Greek word that gets translated “reconcile.” That word also means “to make radically different, to make otherwise.” That is a powerful word given for us sinners.
Let’s illustrate. Have you ever noticed how a child is capable of ignoring the facts when confronted? Parents hear the evasions they try to make. Take the little girl who says: “I know you told me to clean my room, but I couldn’t find any place to put the stuff that was on the floor.” Or, the little boy who says: “I don’t know my memory work, but I didn’t have time to do it this week.” Or, “I know I shouldn’t have kicked the teacher, but he was bugging me.” Children sure can come up with a lot of “buts.”
Adults also wish that things had been otherwise. “I wish my children could be here with me at Christmas instead of at my ex-wife’s.” “I wish I’d worked harder to keep my marriage together.” “I wish we hadn’t waited so long to have children.” “I wish my parents lived closer to us now so that they could see their grandchildren more often.” “I wish we hadn’t overindulged our children, so that now that they are adults they wouldn’t expect us to support them.” “I wish I hadn’t gossiped about others in the church.” “I wish others would stop talking about certain things that make me uncomfortable.” Our wishes that things were otherwise than they are only reinforce the fact that our lives are mightily mangled. So, like children, we try to give our excuses. And we keep using those powerful “buts” that keep us from recognizing and dealing adequately with our own reality of sin. And it all comes from Adam who even had his “buts” in the garden when confronted with his sin by God: “But, Lord, the woman you gave me, she gave me some of the fruit and I ate.” Sadly, we humans have been trying to excuse ourselves ever since.
But all the “buts” in the world do not change a thing. Our excuses only testify to the fact that we wish things could be otherwise. As God confronts us with our sin, we want that to be otherwise. We don’t want to be seen as sinners, but, as righteous people. We want God to accept us just as we are, sin and all, but, we are troubled by God’s Word that says no such thing can enter into His glory. But, but, but we say. But God says, “But nothing!”
Facing our realities for what they are means we can move forward. You see, God is able to make that something worthwhile out of nothing. He is the God who creates just by the power of his word. He is, “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were” (Romans 4:17 NIV). He is the God who “chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:28 NIV). You see, God intentionally makes our “buts,” our excuses, our evasions to be nothing, so that he himself in Christ might become everything for us poor miserable sinners.
Sometimes, we are offended at the God who is willing to make something out of nothing, and here is why: it implies that we ourselves are nothing. The depth of our sinful brokenness remains profoundly deep. Without the revelation of God, we could not understand the effects of the fall. We are constantly deluded into thinking that we ourselves can fix what is broken, that we can make things otherwise, that we can make it up to God, that we can reconcile ourselves to him. I can’t help thinking about all the times I’ve heard someone say, “I’ll do better next time.” “I’ll make it up to you.” We are so deluded that we think we can steal what belongs to God and he will not notice it. But, we can neither steel His authority, nor usurp it! And that is a good thing.
God takes our nothing and makes it otherwise. He comes born of a virgin, arriving without status in the world. He is born without proper parentage, of the Holy Spirit. He is born in weakness and humility: wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. What good is that? He appears as being under everyone’s thumb and at everyone’s beck and call. But, He comes not “to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28 NIV).
He is “God ever reigning, Yet of Mary manhood gaining.” So everything through Him is made new; everything is made otherwise. There are no “buts” to move, no self-fix to administer, only the admittance that we who are nothing become everything in him and thus find ourselves reconciled to our Heavenly Father. That is so cool!
And so even though our “buts” are nothing, the divine “buts” mean everything, they are everything. “God’s own Son is born a child,” “Heav’nly gifts for us obtaining.” Sometimes people get caught up in the appearance of things. In Christ, all unseen, all unexpected, all lowly, all humble, all wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. 1He appears a peasant, but is a King. 2Appears a servant, but is a Lord. 3Appears to need saving, but comes to seek and to save the lost. 4Appears defenseless against evil, but defends and protects us from all evil. 5He Knows no sin, but becomes sin for us. 6He is life itself, but suffers death for us.
What an overpowering joy we ourselves experience that the divine “but” has been set in the world to separate us from death. We raise hymns of homage with our voices. We cry out in high celebration and in holy joy, “God’s own Son is born a child. God the Father is reconciled!” No wonder Luther said, “Angels in heaven cannot contain themselves for joy, that they burst forth giving poor shepherds in the field a chance to hear them” (AE 52:13).
Freed from our evasions, excuses, and “buts” we become enabled to cheerfully forgive those who sin against us, because we recognize that we have nothing to lose. The Lord Jesus Christ long ago lost all that was His, for us.
“God’s own Son is born a child.
God the Father is reconciled!” Amen.