Third Sunday of
Advent: Joy
Sunday,
December 17, 2017
The
December issue of National Geographic
arrived a few weeks ago. The cover is
the very famous work entitled “Head of Chris” painted by Rembrandt in the
1640’s. Ah, we see what Geographic is doing. It’s December, Christmas is coming, this is a
magazine committed to popularizing culture, nature, and scientific discovery,
and so, why not apply scientific sensibility to a world-wide cultural
phenomenon, the religion behind Christmas. Why not take a scrutinizing look at
the people who follow and worship Jesus, the man the baby in the manger grew up
to become?
The
caption on the cover confirms the intent. It says “The Real Jesus: What
Archaeology Reveals about His Life.” Do
you catch all the implications within this simple sentence? We just sang, “Joy to the world, the Lord has
come.” We think that the baby Jesus
grows up to become the “Lord Jesus.” We
proclaim it, we sing it, we pray it, and we insist it is the truth of all
truths. But is this a legend, a story
first century Jews made up as a part of a series of ecstatic prayer
experiences? Is the Lord Jesus not
actually the real Jesus? See the
questions raised by that caption under Rembrandt’s painting on the cover of National Geographic?
With
the question before us, where do we go? Where do we turn to find out the truth
about “the real Jesus?” Do we turn to the internet? You can sit and down type it into Google. In case you wondered, Google took less than
half a second to produce 33 million hits in response to this question. Good luck sorting through all those sites,
all of them based on someone’s agenda.
Where else could we go for help with this? You might call Heather or me or Beth, Phil,
or Angel for that matter. Or Hong or
Dina or Greg Meyers. We all have
seminary degrees. Or, if you’re feeling
intrepid, you may skip the professionally trained clergy and go straight to the
Bible yourself. Anyone who is literate
can read the divinely inspired accounts and form their own understanding of
“the real Jesus.”
National Geographic
goes in a different direction. Again,
the words on the cover: “The Real Jesus: What Archaeology Reveals about His
Life.” Archaeology is the study of human history and
prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and
other physical remains.”[i]
It is a science, one that works hand-in-hand with its sister discipline, history,
which is also practiced as an emotionally detached academic discipline. National
Geographic thinks that the science of archaeology will give us more fact-based
truth about the historical figure of Jesus than anything we might find in
biased accounts like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, written from a faith perspective. When a historian or archaeologist declares that
faith and miracles and the supernatural are all fantasy and the only things
that are real are the facts science can establish, it has the potential to suck
the joy right out of Christianity for me.
I
love National Geographic, a magazine that
comes from a worldview that stands on scientific discovery and proof as the
only standard for what is real. The
author of “The Real Jesus” article, Kristin Romey, appreciates what science can
say, and also appreciates the limits on scientific inquiry. There is no way the science of historical
research can prove or disprove that an angel spoke to Mary and that Mary was a
virgin when she became pregnant with Jesus.
National Geographic tends to default
to the view that the virgin birth would have been legend, not something that
actually happened. Science has no
category for something that occurs outside of scientifically established
natural laws.
When
archaeology and history are practiced as sciences, what they can do is give as
accurate a picture as possible about what human life and human society was like
in the past – in this case the late first century BC and the first half of the
first century A.D. The article in National Geographic does a thorough job
of showing how scientists have over and over verified that much of what we find
in the four gospels is historically solid.
The cities reported by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were where those
gospel-writers said they were. Kristen
Romey shows that based on what history can prove, Matthew and his three
Gospel-writing peers got the facts right.
First century Israel was mostly likely the way they described it when
Jesus was born, when he lived, and was crucified.
If
you’re tempted to say, “Oh, I didn’t need science to tell me that,” allow me to
push back just a bit. As followers of
Jesus, we should all be enthusiastic supporters of S.T.E.A.M – science,
technology, engineering, arts, and math.
No, we don’t need science for salvation.
However, Jesus commands us to love the Lord with all our mind. Our church has many members who stretch their
minds to the limit in their work, scientific research. As a worshiping community, we need to foster
an environment in which our students are encouraged to excel in science whether
it is elementary school or a PhD program or anywhere in between. We need to bless our members who are
scientists and also are Jesus’ disciples.
Their work can be an offering to God and they should glorify Him by
committing to excellence in their work.
Science
matters because there are things that can be proved. For instance, if an ossuary, a bone box, was
discovered, and it was proven to contain the bones of Jesus of Nazareth, our
faith would be shattered. We stand on
the belief – a belief we insist is incontrovertible fact – that Jesus rose from
the grave. So, if we found what we know
to be his grave, it better empty. Or,
our faith crumples.
However,
there are realities for which science cannot account. Researchers can say what life was like in
first century Nazareth, but they can’t prove or disprove that Jesus performed
miracles there. They can’t determine
whether or not an angels appeared to shepherds in Bethlehem or spoke in Joseph’s
dreams. The author of the National Geographic piece was very fair
on this point. She traveled all over
Israel – Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Capernaum.
She met Christ followers from every country you can imagine. From all over the globe, people traveled to
worship Jesus on the ground where he actually walked.
At
the end of her article Kristin Romey writes, “To sincere believers, the
scholars’ quest for the historical, non-supernatural Jesus is of little
consequence. That quest will be endless,
full of shifting theories, unanswerable questions [and] irreconcilable
facts. But for true believers, their
faith in the life, death, and Resurrection of the son of God will be evidence
enough” (p.68). I appreciate her recognition
of the both/and quality of the Jesus story.
There’s the Jesus who existed in history, and the Jesus who transcends
and fulfills history. They are one and
the same and this Jesus is the subject of our worship.
Christmas
time sees us entering into a special season of worship. The scientific study of Jesus gives us a
framework to talk about the story in a post-enlightenment age. But we need miracles because we need more
than just what modern man’s technology can provide. We don’t just need cures; we need hope. We don’t just need life to be made easier; we
need life to matter. We don’t just need
a few days off to rest and visit family; we need worship that reminds us we are
transformed, a people made new in Christ.
The way Christmas has come to a place of importance for my own family
helps me see why it is so important.
Our kids sit around
the computer with my wife Candy, and together, they play a simulation that
includes a graphic with green and red wrapped presents, an old-time village
decorated in Christmas lights, Christmas-related games, and a repeating track
of delightful Christmas music in the background. Beginning on December 1 and going all the way
to the 25th, there is something new every day as they click on the
globe icon. Around the time supper is
ending and the time for homework is nearing, I say, “Kids, it’s time for the
globe,” and they assemble on the sofa and get the computer ready. Every year.
In darkness of the early morning, at
this time, as we are rousing, getting breakfast, school lunches made, getting
ready to catch the bus that comes at 7:05, I tell one of the kids, “plug the
Christmas tree lights in.”
In this season, when we are driving
home from a basketball practice or a gymnastics class or Wednesday night youth
group, from the back seat I hear, “Dad, can we drive through the neighborhood
and look at the lights?” I say,
“Yes.” We do this several times, pause
to see how our neighbors have decorated to celebrate the season. Every year.
The pilgrimage to the theater to see
the Nutcracker. Decorating homemade cookies, little trees,
stars, and Santa Claus’s. I need this.
Four or Five years ago, I had a
nasty head cold that ran all through December.
I grumbled and growled. I wanted
nothing to do with Christmas songs or lights on houses or drives through our
neighborhood. Sometime around December
27th or 28th, my wife said, “You were a real grouch this
Christmas.” She was right. That has stuck with me. I don’t want to be that. I need the joy of the
season both from our faith and from our cultural ways of celebrating and living
that faith. I need that joy.
I think most people do. We spend Advent anticipating his birth as we
relive the story, anticipating new things he will do in our lives in the coming
year, and waiting with anxious patience for his return at the fulfillment of
history, when history ends and God’s kingdom is fully ushered in. John captures this spirit of longing,
waiting, and uncertain in chapter 16 of his gospel.
There, Jesus is preparing the
disciples for his coming crucifixion and then resurrection and then
ascension. They don’t understand much of
what he says, but they have the words, and after he is raised from death, and
after they see him ascend in clouds and the Holy Spirit fills each one of them,
they remember and understand in a new light.
“You will have pain,” he tells
them. “But your pain will turn into
joy.” Jesus’ words recall the prophet
Isaiah who says, “The Lord gives beauty for ashes, gladness in place of grief”
(61:3, my paraphrase). This is what God
does. Our sin produces pain and death,
and draws us away from God. God, through
the death and resurrection of Christ, defeats death, removes our sin, and gives
us blessing. Our pain turns to joy.
Jesus continues in John 16:22, “You
have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no
one will take your joy from you.” Grab a hold of this promise he made to
12. Claim it for yourself. These words are in the Bible, handed down to
the church, to us, for us. God, in the risen
Christ, in the present Holy Spirit, takes your pain, give you joy, and protects
it, so that you have joy unending, joy that cannot be ripped from you.
And finally Jesus says, “Ask and you
will receive; I have said these things my joy may be in you and your joy may be
complete” (16:24; 15:11).
Based on the assessment of all the
available evidence, researchers have determined that Luke, John, and the other
gospel writers give an accurate picture of first century Israel. In terms of verified reporting, John can be
trusted. We know our own stories, how
much we need the joy that is promised in the Bible, in the story of Jesus. That Jesus himself said we can ask and God
will give divine, unending, life-changing joy.
Why don’t we ask him to do that?
I don’t know the specific challenges
that block your path in life right now, but I suggest, we end our time with
prayer. Ask God to be with you as we sit
together in the Advent season and you face whatever it is you face in your
life. Ask God to sit with you. And, ask God to fill your heart with Jesus’
love, so that you can know without a doubt that His joy is in you, and your joy
is complete. This is something beyond
explanation, something only God can give.
And he wants to. So ask God in
right now.
AMEN
[i] https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS749US749&ei=huozWoH5O-GR_QaCjbqgCQ&q=archaeology+definition&oq=archaeology+d&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0j0i20i264k1j0l8.2888.3881.0.5059.4.4.0.0.0.0.83.311.4.4.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.4.307...0i10k1j0i67k1j0i131i20i264k1j0i131k1.0.4uBrsPNZd9Q
Amen , thanks , nice sermon
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