Slow Down, and See - The World As It Is
Notes
Transcript
Christmas is my second favorite holiday.... But, can I tell you this?
The time leading up to Christmas is not!
You see… People start decorating earlier and earlier… the stores start putting Christmas out earlier and earlier… Shopping for Christmas, and the shaming for not shopping early enough begins earlier and earlier… (some of you know what I’m talking about!)
More and more it seems that Christmas is all about buying gifts,… the decorations… and the pageantry… then about the Love and Grace that entered into this world on that first Advent!
Am I wrong?! I mean, when did it become wrong to give a “homemade” gift?! When did it become a REQUIREMENT that we have to decorate a certain way… shop for that perfect gift… and plan the perfect party/meal?!
That’s why so many of us speak out this time of year about it not being about the shopping, or the gift!
I think I heard more outcry this year about not decorating… about not playing Christmas music… about just not getting into the mess… until after Thanksgiving then ever before…
I think this year has just been too much, amen?
Too much craziness… Too much lock down… Too much fear… Just too much…
This year, we need to “slow down,” and SEE “The World as it is.”
Sometimes it seems like our culture… like the world around us… wants us to believe that our lives get “put on hold” during this time of year… Like somehow if we go about spreading good cheer and “tidings of great joy”… that all our problems will just go away!
I am pretty sure that the advertisers would like us to believe that Christmas is the happiest time of the year on earth.
I mean think about it… This is the time of year when everything on TV becomes “Hallmark movies”, amen?
And Hallmark wants us to believe that Christmas somehow makes everything perfect!
Like it’s some kind of magic that will make our families perfect, our love lives perfect, our children perfect, even our finances… done perfect…
But that’s not true, is it?
Life’s tough moments… life’s problems… the challenges and troubles we face don’t just stop, do they?
I think all of us can name someone who has a tough time during this time of the year, right?
We might even know someone who has experienced loss, or troubles that are making this year especially difficult...
This is why we need to “slow down, and pay attention”…
We need to “see” our world…
33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
You see — We will face trouble… We will face trials… But, Christmas holds a promise for those of us who believe…
As Christians, we have a reason to be Joyful at Christmas!
Life doesn’t always go the way we desire… our plans don’t always come to be…, But … Our Savior has been born! And the promise of that truth brings us Hope!
Matthew gives us an amazing example of this by contrasting two completely different characters in the Christmas Story…
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”
24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,
25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
That doesn’t sound much like the “glamorized”… socially acceptable… picture of Christmas we most often hear, does it?
I mean… we’ve got the appearance of adultery… of infidelity… thoughts of divorce and broken relationships… and a terrified, uncertain, insecure, homicidal king…
That really sounds like Christmas doesn’t it?!
But this story is “chocked full” of the reality of this world!
I mean look at it! It could be a front page headline in the local news!
It is full of scandal and villainy...
I can see the headline now: “Faithful Husband Betrayed by Wife, King Wants Their Child Dead!”
Doesn’t that sound like much of what we see in the news today?
But, this is a story of “Immanuel” — “God With Us.”
No matter how crazy… no matter how horrible… no matter how bad our lives seem at the moment, there is Hope… God is with us!
This is what Joseph discovered.
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
Is there any doubt that Joseph was experiencing a pretty traumatic moment in his life?
He has had the woman he loves… the woman who he wants to spend the rest of his life with… (you do realize that betrothal was pretty costly to the husband right?)…
And here he receives news that his fiancee… his betrothed… his wife… Mary… is pregnant!
And he has not slept with her… This child is not his!!!!
Great Christmas gift, right?
I mean… This is front page… tabloid… stuff!
Men, What would you do?
Most of us… if we are honest… would say we’d leave! We wouldn’t put up with that! We’d end it all…
But Scripture tells us that Joseph was different....
Look at verse 19 again.
Matthew tells us that Joseph was “a righteous man”…
Now, who else have we heard described this way?
Abraham.
22 Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.”
So what does that tell us about Joseph?
He was a man of strong faith in God… , and because of that, He was not willing to allow Mary to suffer from public disgrace…
However, could he do that by divorcing her? No!
Unfaithfulness was humiliating for both of them, and dangerous for her… Women were often stoned to death for it.
So, what is he to do?
Joseph’s account in Matthew gives us a view of how a “righteous” man navigates a bad situation.
You do understand… The righteous sometimes suffer.
There is nothing in our relationship with, or our commitment to, God that makes us immune to trials, heartache, and disappointment in our lives.
But, there is hope!
20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
I get the feeling that Joseph spent a lot of time in prayer… begging God for an answer… for help… for peace for his troubled heart…
And then, maybe after not seeming to get an answer…or not understanding the answer… He “resolved to divorce her [in private]” But, God had other plans....
He has an answer for Joseph…
“Joseph, Son of David, do not be afraid...”
I love this! The angel doesn’t just show up and say, “Good News! I have God’s Answer!” Or, give Joseph some sort of “feel good gospel”… He doesn’t tell Joseph, “It’s OK, God accepts you and Mary just as you are!”… that it’s all going to be great!
No, He acknowledges to Joseph that there is a challenge ahead… That it will be difficult… That Joseph might even be afraid to face it…
BUT… He doesn’t have to be afraid, because God has a plan!
We are told over 365 times in scripture to not be afraid! That’s once for every day of the year!
Just like Joseph, we do not have to fear, because God … Has… a… Plan!
21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
The angel is giving Joseph a challenge… Either he can believe the Angel’s words, trust God’s plan, and do the difficult thing… Or, he can save his own reputation and divorce her quietly, which may condemn her…
We have a “choice” to make this Christmas… Either we trust God with our hurt and troubles, or not…
We know what Joseph chose!
Joseph chose to remain with Mary! To trust God’s plan… and to raise Jesus together with Mary....
But, I wonder if we realize just how difficult and complex that decision was? Sometimes I think that we think it was easy, that the task was simple, but that’s not the case…
You see… He could have taken the easy road, the one that society lays out for men (and women in our age) and left all of the “punishment” for Mary to endure, but he chose the “high road,” and trusted the angel’s word, and the hope that God’s plan was greater.
Do you realize what that meant for him?
Not only would he be raising a child that was not his — anyone who has knows how difficult that can be — but, it also meant risking his reputation…
In the bethrothal period, sex was not an option, even between the husband and fiancee.... So, for Joseph, this meant either shaming Mary anyway, by admitting the truth, or suffering the shame himself by claiming Jesus as his own.
I think we often miss that in the Christmas story… Joseph willingly sacrificed himself — his reputation — for Mary’s sake!
That’s Love!
And that’s what Christ did for us!
It would have been easier for Joseph to take another road, one that allowed him to not suffer, but he didn’t!
The righteous man chooses to trust God’s plan and takes the narrow path.
13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.
14 For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
In our lives today, we have many opportunities to choose which way we will go: the culture around us, or Jesus.
When we experience the tough decisions — the situations that require us to choose the high road of reliance on God’s wisdom (and we will), how do we respond?
Do we take the easy road that the culture offers, or do we stand firm on the truth of God?
The truth is — We will choose one or the other.
Matthew doesn’t stop here, with Joseph the Faithful Witness… No, he goes on to present us with another man who also had to choose.
1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,
2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”
3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him;
4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.’ ”
7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.
8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”
9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.
10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.
11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
Every story needs a good villian, right?
That villian is King Herod… Matthew takes us from the righteous, faithful example to the worldly man.
Herod wanted to direct his own destiny. His story parallels that of Pharoah in the OT… Both men were tyrannical rulers, filled with the paranoia of losing their power.
This paranoia drove Pharoah to kill all of the boys under two years old, for fear of Moses…
And this paranoia drove Herod to the point of even executing his own sons for fear of losing his power to them.
Herod here is confronted with a choice....
The wise men visit him looking for the promised Messiah, in that moment, he had a choice to make: He could either trust God, and receive the Messiah, or choose the world, and protect his life…
Well.... We know what he chose...
So, what does this story mean to us today in the gloomy world we live in?
There is Hope!
We don’t live in a world where we are in fear for our lives because of a king who is a known enemy of God… But, we do live in a culture that can distract us from seeing God and realizing that Jesus is in the midst of everything!
His Grace and Love are with us!
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.
Immanuel has come!
God is constantly at work within us… within our lives… We discover solid ground for a life without fear, in-spite of our circumstances, even in threatening and troubling times when we realize God With Us!
Like Joseph’s life, our lives are filled with ups and downs, with triumphs and tragedies, that come without warning… But no matter what comes our way, WE HAVE HOPE!
Immanuel! God With Us!
There is nothing more powerful, and more Hope-filled, then that name...
God with us.
“Oh, May God teach you the meaning of that name, Emmanuel
God with us
Emmanuel, it is wisdom’s mystery
God with us
Sages look at it and wonder
Angels desire to see it
The plum line of reason cannot reach half way into its depths,
The eagle wings of science cannot fly so high,
And the piercing eye of the vulture of research cannot see it,
God with us
It is Hell’s Terror,
Satan trembles at the sound of it,
His legions fly a pace, the black winged dragon of the pit quails before it,
Let satan come to you suddenly and do you but whisper the word,
God with us
And back he folds confounded and confused,
satan trembles when he hears that name,
God with us
“It is the laborer’s strength,
How could he preach the Gospel,
How could he bend his knees in prayer,
How could the missionary go into foreign lands,
How could the martyr stand at the stake,
How could the confessor acknowledge his master,
How could men labor if that one word were taken away,
God with us
Is the sufferers comfort,
Is the balm of his woe,
Is the alleviation of his misery,
Is the sleep that God gives to his beloveds,
Is the rest after exertion and toil,
God with us
Is eternity’s sonnet,
Is the Heaven’s Hallelujah,
Is the shout to the glorified,
Is the song of the redeemed,
Is the Chorus of Angels,
And is the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky,
God with us” — Spurgeon
We have in this beautiful birth narrative the reminder that no matter what we might be going through, God is with us!
Adam Clarke says it this way: “Jesus is called Immanuel, God with us, in His incarnation; God with us, by influences of His Holy Spirit, in the holy sacrament, in the preaching of His word, in private prayer. And God with us, through every action of our life, that we begin, continue, and end in His name. He is God With Us, to comfort, inform, protect, and defend us, in every time of temptation and trial, in the hour of death, in the day of judgment; and God With Us and in us, and we with and in Him, to all eternity.”
Immanuel speaks — not only of Christ’s saving purpose — but also of His purposes for salvation.... That we might live in a personal relationship with God.
Let me tell you…
We are not living our salvation if we do not live daily with the experience of God with us.
One place that we experience that relationship is at the Communion Table...
So… As we come together at the Communion Table of Our Lord, let us come with one prayer in our hearts today: Lord, may we experience God With Us.