A Not So Silent Night

A few days ago I played a game on my Facebook page asking people Christmas themed this or that questions. One of the questions was if you prefer Christmas Music or Christmas Movies. I was surprised that the overwhelming answer on my very informal poll was CHRISTMAS MOVIES. Personally I am not a fan Christmas movies, they are basically 100’s of movies that boil down to 2 or 3 plot lines.

I like movies that engage, movies with twists, movies that if you miss a minute you could miss the point.

I think that sometimes we under estimate God as a story teller! Let’s look at some of the basic plot markers...

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 9:6 ESV

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Luke 2:13–14 ESV

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

These scriptures frame the Christmas story and have given us the foundation for some of the greatest hymns ever written (Joy to the World, What Child is This, Silent Night) BUT is this really the whole story? A few weeks ago we talked about the two advents… Today I would like to look at the Not So Silent Night!

How may of you have a Nativity Scene?

Now How May of You have a Red Dragon in your Nativity Scene?

Maybe you should!

Revelation 12:1–6 ESV

1 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

Revelation 12:13–17 ESV

13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

This is the Christmas Story! Let’s look at it in Matthew’s Gospel

Matthew 2:13–18 ESV

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

What happens after Christmas? “The dragon will wage war against those who keep God’s commands and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”

We’ve already talked about life in between the two Advents, The birth of Christ and the Return of Christ. Advent begins in the darkness and ends in the light! We have the hope of Jesus behind us and in front of us! There is a stabilization in our lives because of this. The advent focus on peace, hope, love, and joy all depend on the reality of the life, death, resurrection, and future return of Jesus.

That foundation is in place.

But we see how life unfolds between the two advents right away in scripture. After Jesus is born, Mary and Joseph have to flee with him to a foreign land, a land that represented a history of bondage and slavery to the people of Israel. They live separated from family and perhaps livelihood for months, perhaps years. In the area from which they fled, Herod promptly slaughtered children.[11]

The dragon was unleashed. Just like that, the darkness begins to push in to the light. As John made clear in his apocalypse, that war would continue. Indeed, it has, in great and small ways. The dragon hates the light of truth, love, goodness, hope, joy, peace…. When life feels ‘kingdom good,’ expect pushback. Expect war.

It's often after great moments of God's revelatory light that the darkness pushes in hard.

I’ve not been persecuted in any meaningful sense of the world, so I don’t want to compare my experience with that of the persecuted church around the world.

When I talk about the dragon in my life, I’m talking of the ways in which spiritual/emotional/relational darkness presses in to spiritual light.

I don't know if you've experienced this in your life, but I've often found moments of great depression after times of great satisfaction.

It's the sermon that feels really good followed by a Monday of doubt and anxiety and second-guessing.

It's the fantastic vacation with the family, and two weeks later feeling like there is a relational chasm between us.

It's feeling really good about my fathering one day, and then having the wheels come off the next.

It's thinking one day how much I love the people in my life and the next day having my heart torn out by one of them.

It’s going from a moment where I think, “I am finally grounding my identity in Christ” to days of thinking, “Dear God, I am such a screw-up.”

This is the pattern.[13]

But how does it end? With the resurrection and life. How will history end? With the return of the king to make a New Heaven and New Earth. What happens when my life ends? Joy unspeakable and full of glory.

So we know the beginning, we know the middle, and we know the end of the story. We're just in the middle right now. The light shines, the dark pushes in, the light shines, the dark pushes in. This is life between the advents.

This, too, is an apocalypse of sorts, an unveiling that the Bible makes clear to us and that is confirmed throughout our life. We think of the apocalypse as something earth-shattering and perhaps catastrophic, but in some ways it's the ongoing pattern of our life. Truth is constantly being unveiled to us by the grace of God. We see through a glass darkly on this side of heaven

1 Corinthians 13:12 ESV

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

There is a constant need for an unveiling.

·      It's when we finally understand that obscure passage of scripture.

·      It's when we finally see how a biblical truth applies to our life in a life-changing way.

·      It's when we begin to actually understand the power of repentance, and grace, and justice, and mercy.

·      It's when the biblical interplay of both grace and works clicks.

·      it's when we see the flow of our life in the reality of God's plan.

·      It's when one our Christian brothers or sisters speaks truth into our life that opens our eyes.

·      It's when we see ourselves as God sees us.

·      It's when we learn how to lift up our heads (Luke 21:28)

Luke 21:28 ESV

28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

·      It's when we understand how God in his mercy and power could take people like us and tell us to arise and reflect his light  (Isaiah 60:1) in a way that will bring glory to him.

Isaiah 60:1 ESV

1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

These, too, are unveilings. We participate in an ongoing apocalypse. So one of the questions I have between the two advents of God is this: “How do these dark valleys work in our favor? How does God take the war leveled by the dragon and use it for our good and God’s glory?”

Apocalyptic literature in scripture was always literature of Hope. How does my life participate in that kind of story?

Those who walked in darkness had often walked in the darkness of their own making. In fact, the Bible has far less to say about the attacks from the dragons “out there” than the ones that have burrowed into our hearts. Our greatest threats as Christians and as a Church are not out there.

God told his people through the Prophet Jeremiah in Jer 11 and Jer 29:12-14 that if they humbled themselves and sought the face of God, their nation would experience the blessings that God told them were in store for them if they were true and loyal to God. If they didn't (as Jeremiah warned so vividly), it wasn't going to end well for their nation at all. They were always going to be God’s covenant people, but their experience of that covenant, their experience of life, was going to be radically different based on the posture of their hearts.

Their flourishing in the Kingdom God had planned for them had almost nothing to do with what the nations around them did. It had everything to do with how seriously they took the covenant. And if Old Testament physical realities teach us something about New Testament spiritual realities, our flourishing as Christian individuals and as a church will have almost nothing to do with what our Empire does to us or for us. It will have everything to do with how seriously we take our covenant.

This, I think, is the way in which we experience life more abundant, the fullness of the richness of God’s redemption of the world in our lives. And that can’t help but make us the kind of salt and light in the world that God intends.

Revelation 3:20–22 ESV

20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”

This is an invitation of repentance and communion! Repentance should not be a scary subject, but rather a welcomed part of our Christian life!