DIY Christmas

Do It Yourself

Meet the newest member of the pack: Vin.

Learning a lot about dog training, it has been 20 years since I have had a dog. It’s like having a baby around the house.

There are some things I can send the kids to do. Take her for a walk. Take her outside for a bit.

But she has adopted me as home. Near me is home. Especially for the first couple weeks, if she is away from me, it is potty time. Dylan was in charge of her for five minutes, resulting in an hour of cleanup for me in four different locations.

Sometimes we can send someone else, sometimes we have to do the job ourselves!

Somethings you have to do it yourself. You can’t send a messenger.

I am teaching Vin that this is home. I am teaching Vin that this is family, that we are her pack and that she belongs with us. That takes my time. That takes my attention. And I can’t really outsource that effectively. I am bringing the kids in alongside me in taking care of her so that she will adopt them too.

Angels in Joshua

IN our series in Joshua, we have just seen a major change in the people of Israel.

Crossing the Jordan.

Circumcision of all the men.

Passover and the cessation of manna.

Joshua 5:13-6:2

13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

And he proceeds to lay out the battle plan.

Angels in the Old Testament

This story is of course reminiscent of Moses at the burning bush. And at the beginning of that story it says that it was an “Angel” appearing to him in the midst of the fire.

At critical junctures in history, God sends angels, messengers, to get things done. To speak a Word that people need to know is from God. It is authentic. Or to get something done that no one else could do. Something powerful.

An angel is a messenger with the authentic message from God and power to do His will.

We get angels in trickles through Scripture. Once with the prophet Elisha the servants eyes are opened and see the hosts of angels, a hillside filled with horses and chariots of fire.

But mostly we get little glimpses. One or two men here and there. A couple visit Abraham to promise the child. A couple visit Lot to bring him out of Sodom. Hagar get visited by an angel. Jacob gets one. One visit here to Joshua, one to Gideon, one to Elijah, one to Hezekiah. One to Daniel.

We get the impression of all these angel encounters, but these are spread out over hundreds of years. And most of the greatest figures in the Bible only get an angel encounter once, maybe twice, in their lifetime.

The prophets see visions of angels. Not so much a visitation as a glimpse into heaven, and perhaps with the spiritual being translated into something their brain can comprehend, Ezekiel sees freaky deeky sights of angels, beings with four faces and four wings: human face, lion face, ox fact, eagle face. WEIRD!

Isaiah saw the Seraphim, each with six wings, two covering the face, two covering the feet, singing Holy, holy, holy is YHWH of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.

For my sci-fi friends out there, the Bible is clear that there is non-human sentient life out there. And we know almost nothing about them other than they can sometimes appear as humans, usually are quickly recognized as terrifyingly other, and that God sends them, rarely, on missions of the utmost importance.

The birth of Jesus

But then, all of a sudden, at one moment in history, God becomes the Oprah of angels. You get an angel and you get an angel, and you get an angel.

An angel appears to Zacharias “You will have a son and his name will be John…”

An angel appears to Mary and tells her “you are highly favored of the Lord, and will bring forth a son, and call his name Jesus”

An angel appears to Joseph (who is asking “who’s child is this?”) and says “It’s okay. Mary will bring forth God’s son and call his name Jesus”.

An angel of the Lord comes upon country shepherds, who were just in the right place at the right time, and the heavens spill forth, and a choir of angels, a host of angels, sing and proclaim his birth.

Luke 2:8-14

8-12 There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.”

At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:

Glory to God in the heavenly heights,

Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.

Isn’t in strange that no angels show up throughout Jesus’ story? While Jesus is on stage?

We get one at the end, rolling away the stone and sitting on it, scaring away the Roman soldiers. Two men appear to some of the women to tell them that Jesus is alive: why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but he is risen…”

But while Jesus is on the scene… no angels are needed.

Remember what an angel is? A messenger of God. They carry the authority to speak God’s Word. And they act with God’s power.

They say the really important things. They do the things that couldn’t be done another way.

If you want something done right, do it yourself.

Picking Up Vin

I could have sent a messenger to pick up Vin. I didn’t want to. Amazon Prime. Uber for dogs. I have a coworker in Golden who could have picked her up for me, I just pick her out from the picture online. This was something we had to do ourselves.

God In Person – DIY Christmas

But there is one task that cannot be delegated to a messenger, however super-human, however “spiritual”, however powerful or beautiful. He couldn’t even send the ones with four wings and four faces to do this job.

An angel has the authority to speak God’s Word.

This was going to take God’s Word in person.

An angel has the power to accomplish what human beings cannot.

But this could only be done by God himself. God in the flesh. God become man.

The skies explode with angels because they are witnessing something that is beyond them.

1 Peter 1:10-13

10-12 The prophets who told us this was coming asked a lot of questions about this gift of life God was preparing. The Messiah’s Spirit let them in on some of it—that the Messiah would experience suffering, followed by glory. They clamored to know who and when. All they were told was that they were serving you, you who by orders from heaven have now heard for yourselves—through the Holy Spirit—the Message of those prophecies fulfilled. Do you realize how fortunate you are? Angels would have given anything to be in on this!

13-16 So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives.

God couldn’t send a message: He was the message. He is the message and the messenger.

He speaks the good news: He is the good news. God with us. Messiah, which is the Christ.

From the moment He took on flesh, a baby in the womb even before he was a baby in the manger, from the moment He took on flesh, He took on our mortality. He took on our failings. He took on our temptations. He took on the shadow of death, the shadow of the cross, all of it.

He took on you. He had something to say to you so important he couldn’t send anyone else to say it. He says “I am Jesus, Yeshua, Yahweh in the very process of saving you.”

I am “Immanuel, God with you and always with you, and always for you.”

He took on you. He had something to do for you so important he couldn’t send any angel to do it.

He took on your humanity. He took on your life. So that He could take on your sin. So that He could take on your death. So that He could wrap you up in His pure, righteous life that you might be saved.

From the very moment of incarnation, He took it all on.

And so we read my very favorite Christmas passages.

John 1:1-5

1-2 The Word was first,

the Word present to God,

God present to the Word.

The Word was God,

in readiness for God from day one.

3-5 Everything was created through him;

nothing—not one thing!—

came into being without him.

What came into existence was Life,

and the Life was Light to live by.

The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;

the darkness couldn’t put it out.

9-14

9-13 The Life-Light was the real thing:

Every person entering Life

he brings into Light.

He was in the world,

the world was there through him,

and yet the world didn’t even notice.

He came to his own people,

but they didn’t want him.

But whoever did want him,

who believed he was who he claimed

and would do what he said,

He made to be their true selves,

their child-of-God selves.

These are the God-begotten,

not blood-begotten,

not flesh-begotten,

not sex-begotten.

14 The Word became flesh and blood,

and moved into the neighborhood.

We saw the glory with our own eyes,

the one-of-a-kind glory,

like Father, like Son,

Generous inside and out,

true from start to finish.

Christmas is simple this: we celebrate the Word become flesh and blood, God himself moving into the neighborhood.

Immanuel: God is with us. Sing glory and hallelujah.

Jesus. Yeshua. Yahweh saves us. Sing glory and hallelujah.

Thank you God. Merry Christmas.