After 400 silent years most probably thought, He isn’t coming…He has forgotten us. The words to one of the most beautiful Christmas anthems say it like this.”Long lay the world in sin and error pining, til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.” No one expected Christ to come when he did and how He did. Oh the waiting.
Advent is about waiting and preparation. We celebrate the nativity -our spiritual history and the return of Christ -our future, Culturally, we know that inward preparation has all but disappeared. The world has aimed at reducing Advent to the finite number of shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas but as Max Lucado has written, “We are not confined to the finite because we are hardwired for infinity and eternity.”
Because…We believe in God who said.”In the beginning.” We believe in God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit who at a powerful production meeting long ago said “Let us make man in our image.” We hold to the promise that a Savior was needed, and a deliverer would be sent to rescue all of mankind.
We celebrate that the manger presented itself as the cradle of hope on the landscape of life itself with a cross in the foreground bringing the greatest gift of all referenced by God Himself “As the indescribable gift.”
Redemption!
Salvation!
Joy to the World!
The Lord is Come!
And if we are not careful, the enemy can disturb our peace, and rob our joy. After a few socially distanced gatherings, phone calls with friends and family battling disappointment, holiday news and traffic, my goodwill is more like goodbye. Though we celebrated His first coming that first Christmas, we need to season our celebration with the salt of truth, recognizing we are waiting, and anticipating His imminent return.
Marty Bullis in “The Miraculous Journey,”said it like this “We Still live in the in between of now and not yet” but just like Mary, we do not wait alone. Two mothers, Elizabeth and Mary, are waiting for babies at different ends of the spectrum but both exclaiming,”What?? I’m having a baby?” God sent Elizabeth as a co-labourer in the truest sense of the word to comfort Mary. Now we like Elizabeth and Mary, we wait…but not alone. We have the Holy Spirit and each other. We have the Holy Spirit to guard our hearts, guide our thinking, helping us control our impulses to wound. The Holy Spirit can bridle our tongues…oh that tongue! He can tenderize our hearts for peace making, and forgiveness convicts us of our own personal sin. Not just the corporate stuff-the private stuff you know corporate Christmas is different than personal Christmas. Indeed, Christ came for us and perhaps the most fitting message that belongs in a Christmas card could be from John 14.. “Let not your heart be troubled.”
Max Lucado in his book “When Christ Comes,” wrote these words. “Christmas celebrates a coming. An arrival. It reminds us God shows up. Not showing off with the angel driven chariots or magic kingdom fireworks. But showing up on a donkey with a carpenter in the belly of a peasant girl.”
God’s most uncommon decision leaving the illuminated celestial throne to enter a dark womb. Luke 2:11 tells us, “There has been born for you this day, a savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Lord of all. Lord of the living and the dead. Lord over every authority! Indeed, Christ has come and He brought change. Unexpected Grace where laws of expectation and ritual reigned.
Changing religion to relationship.
Changing plans, ask Mary and Joseph.
Changing hearts, ask Paul.
Changing worship by starting with crossing cultural lines in both directions.
Inspiring humility and surrender among the wealthy and the educated, ask Zaccheus and Nicodemus.
Elevating the lowly, ask the shepherds. He drew them in as a private audience to an angel concert with an amazing announcement of good tidings that the waiting was over.
Indeed, Christ has come! Christ coming down the wilderness road, bringing revelation to John that the wait was over and inspiring John’s declaration “Behold! Here is the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world.
Christ came and brought hope with Him. He brought hope to the blind, lame and the woman at the well. Christ brought joy to Jairus and the widow Naan. Mary and Martha sorrowfully stating,”Lord if only you had come.” But the words
“Lazarus come forth” turned a funeral into a party. Oh yes! Christ has come.
We were cowering in darkness of our sin and Christ came and he pulled the shade up and sunlight, heavenly sunlight burst in. Radiant beams from His holy face shone on us. Christ came to earth fully illuminated, God up close, warm and personal. The Word who was in the beginning became flesh and blood and then as The Message says, “moved into the neighborhood.” Heavens glory ripped open wide, 400 years of unfulfilled empty ritual came to an end. Hallelujah! Christ came! Christ came down at Christmas to adopt all of us orphans and street beggars and give us a home. Embracing us and saying”You can come home with me.” God did not go to all the trouble of sending us His son merely to judge with a pointing accusing finger, telling us how bad we were. He came to help put the world right again. He came to make the crooked way straight.
Christ indeed came with love and light to rescue us from the darkness of our failures, rebellion, lies, broken relationships, deep wounds inflicted by a cruel unrelenting world. Christ came to shed light in the dark car of life, stalled out and stranded on the roadside where we could finally see the map of life and make our way home. Christ climbed in our car and said “Move over; you’re tired. I’ve got the wheel.”
Christ came with His love lamp and let light creep under the closet door of fear and saturated the attics of our minds, shedding light on the imprinted memory of joy of the man and woman in the garden with the Father before that awful day of falling into the black hole of our own will, separating us from God. Christ came with a lantern of tender presence glowing in the barns of workplaces and the vineyards of our labor in daily life.’
Christ came bringing illumination, distinct and accurate enough for our God, the pre-eminent cardiologist to perform delicate healings and repairs to broken and wounded hearts, transplanting His heart into our chest if we would but ask.
Christ came holding the caring, faithful spotlight on the stages of our lives where we try to sing His song in our off-key untrained voices while the audience of the world turns it’s back and boos. If we look out and up, we will see Him standing, cheering and clapping.
Indeed, Christ came into the gallery of our lives and turned our smudgie crayon drawings into masterpieces. And Christ has come, shining a candle in the window of our home in heaven, staying up late, waiting with a fire roaring, the table set, and a clean bed with a soft warm blanket. Christ came , bursting forth onto the battlefield with the evil one, conquering the foe of death forever and surprising us with the glorious sunrise of Easter resurrection. By the way, our Warrior said “The kingdom of God is near”
He paid our ransom as prisoners of war and bought us back and set us free.
Indeed, He came and He will come again. I John 3:2 “We know that when Christ comes again, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He really is.”Are we ready?
Advent is about preparation. It is about readying ourselves. I’ve tried in this series to reflect on those involved in the nativity account to glean from their experiences that we might ready ourselves to accept the true invitation to celebrate Immanuel, God with us. I Have been working hard at moving my priorities and trying to grasp some long slow Christmas moments. Certainly, the pandemic has given me time.
Today on a busy day, I want to have a long slow encounter with Christ. I want this day and these moments to be about Him. Because when I read the scripture, I learn that anyone who had an encounter with Christ was changed. And Lord, among the tangle of life’s Christmas light problems and the sometimes sound of my weak voice attempting to be heard above the noise of sleigh bells and memories of office and family party din, Far above the bad news and naysayers, I need a fresh encounter with the Living Lord. You Jesus. I need you.
Mary and Joseph taught us about a long slow encounter. Without Christ, Mary would have been just another nice Jewish girl. Joseph delivered the Son of God. Oh yes, they were changed.
The Shepherds teach us about encounters in the workplace. God knocked on the door of the hillside that night and the shepherds opened it, accepting His invitation to celebrate in the ordinary. Christ still knocks on boardroom doors, visits school classrooms, strolls hospital corridors, hangs round office cubicles and yes even on Zoom, calling those who would respond to an opportunity to see Him, to see Christ. To rejoice over Him, to be in a moment with Him like the shepherds. Or maybe, I am too busy, I have to ask myself do I want this Christmas to be different? Not pandemic 2020 different. But deeper, refreshing revival? Or am I Christian that wants the cliff notes on a spiritual Christmas experience. Remember the wise men; nothing brief about a 2-year journey. A long slow encounter that culminated in worship before the King of Kings, They left the stable changed. This Christnas I need to take time to worship. We learn better by doing, and He alone is worthy. Revelation states Christ is the wonder of heaven. Lord help me stop and be in the moment with you. Let me worship afresh!
Indeed, Christ came and will come again. This Christmas amid all this chaos and struggle let us comfort each other, accept the invitation to celebrate and believe. The true meaning of Christmas.
I know today was longer than usual but how could I have a slow encounter myself by rushing the words the Spirit gave me. I want to wish all of you a blessed Christmas and my prayer is that the wonder of this holiday will overcome you and that the peace that defies logic will fill your hearts. God bless you.
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