19th Sunday after Pentecost
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I’m ready for Christmas. I know I’m supposed to be the one that tells you all to wait and be patient, to not rush the seasons, but I am ready. To be fair, I saw two weeks ago that Costco has an advent calendar out already.
What I want, no what I need, what I think we all need is the prophetic hope of Christmas. The language of those carols and readings brightens a gloomy season.
“A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices” “For He Himself will be our King of Peace” “The government shall be upon His shoulder” “He shall be called wonderful counselor” and the language, “Virgin’s son make here your home”
I could go on and on. The author of Hebrews is calling us to look forward to Christmas as well:
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,
Do you remember the message declared by angels?
And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
The author of Hebrews is calling us to hold fast to the message once proclaimed by Angels on that night near Bethlehem. It is reliable.
The past few years have been disconcerting to say the least. We’ve watched our cities burn and our schools close. The volatility in the markets has been unusual and our world has ground to a halt because the eighth most common element in the universe is difficult to distill. Microchips are in short supply, like our patience.
I was talking to one of you the other day and we were reflecting on this last season when they said, ‘It’s like we went to war and lost’
There’s that old Children’s Christmas carol, away in the manger that is especially appropriate in these moments of acute retribution. “Be near me Lord Jesus I ask thee to stay”
Hebrews v.8 feels about right.
putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.
That is an accurate diagnosis of our present situation, At present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. It feels and seems too out of control for God to have rightly ordered things.
v.9 is where we begin to glimpse into the hope of Christ.
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In Christ God assumed flesh even unto the greatest loss of all, the taste of death.
There’s a terrible poetry in this language of v.9.
Man whenever I begin to get sick the first thing I notice is that my sense of taste and smell goes awry. Coffee begins to just taste like brown water, my nose gets clogged and my breath in the morning is atrocious.
The sharpest reminder of death in our present situation is that one of the major symptoms of COVID is that you can’t taste or smell. So it is with death.
Do you remember the story of Lazarus in Luke 16, where a rich man failed to show mercy on a poor man named lazarus? The rich man dies and calls to Abraham to send Lazarus to cool his tongue. There’s a terrible passage from Christ here speaking to the rich man:
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’
That is no one but Christ. He descended into Hell. When God said that it is not good for man to be alone in Genesis chapter 2 I do believe He is talking about creating a helper but I also believe that passage does more work than just talk about marriage.
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
That last bit, the fit for Him passage is great. Yes, it absolutely corresponds to man and woman and their complementary physiques. But don’t you think it’s possible that it also corresponds to the Church and Christ?
Hebrews seems to allude to this as well.
Look at this:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
The complement to the world is the heir of the world. The redemptive motif is that God cares for what He created. Just as a couple cares for their spouse God cares for you and I so much that he partakes in all that we share in.
The other night Jack was sick and Nat went in and cuddled him and then she came back in and said, ‘he’s asking for you’. I went in and minded to Him and as I was about to leave he said ‘no daddy, lay down snuggle.’ I knew that if I laid down I would get sick. What did I do?
This is how you are to testify about Christ to the world, by sharing in all their life, not just the birthdays and Easters but the funerals and blood draws.
Jesus came and experienced Suffering, death, yes. But also joy and hope. These characteristics are found, felt, and redeemed here in the church through His body. Here, in this church we taste and see that the Lord is good.
God is with us here in a very real and present way. This is the story of Christmas, the account of Hebrews, that God knows it is not good for man to be alone so He came to be with us.
He is our Emmanuel, God with us. This is the source of all peace. Amen