watch it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v75GTIBJIcA
Fourth
Sunday of Advent, December 20, 2020
To God be the glory! Shepherds
in the countryside not far from Bethlehem looked to the sky where they saw
something not witnessed by the most advanced telescopes we have: hundreds,
thousands of angels. “The Heavenly host
[praised] God saying, “Glory to God in the highest” (Luke 2:14).
Mary certainly couldn’t
hold in her praise. A virgin in a
purity-based culture, she was pregnant.
No scandal could be worse for a young woman, yet, it came to her because
the Holy Spirit came to her. They didn’t
even know God would act in this way. Once
she understood, she went to visit her much older cousin, Elizabeth. Already having experienced menopause, and
also childless, Elizabeth was pregnant.
Who better to understand the miracle that had come to Mary?
When she arrived Elizabeth
said to her, “Blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:42). And Mary sang, “My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked with favor on the
lowliness of His servant. Surely, from
now on all generations will call me blessed; for the mighty one has done great
things for me, and holy is his name” (1:46b-49).
That reading was from
Luke’s gospel. Luke 1 & 2 are
frequently read during Advent and at Christmas.
Romans 16 is not a familiar Advent text, but Paul’s words of doxology
say it perfectly! “To the only wise God
… be glory forever” (16:27).
Mary’s life is about to become very difficult. She will make a harrowing journey from
Nazareth to Bethlehem, while pregnant.
Social scorn will come, as her pregnancy came before her marriage was
consummated. She will deliver her child
in a barnyard-cave, surrounded by smelly animals. As that child grows, she will misunderstand
him, and sense her own insufficiency to be parent to the Son of God. Finally, she will watch as he dies on a Roman
cross.
Of course, she doesn’t know all of that at this point in
the story as she sits with Elizabeth and praises God. All she knows is God called and she responded
in faith. She’s part of what God is
doing. God has acted, and she feels blessed, so she raises her voice to praise
God. She feels favored. She says God has done great things for her.
Do we get it?
Even people who don’t go to church and aren’t involved in faith can pick
up from popular media the religious connection of the season. Christmas is when
we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We know
that, but why is his birth something to celebrate? Why do words of wonder, gratitude, and joy
erupt from Mary? Why should they erupt
from us? What makes this good news, the
best news? Why is God worthy of glory?
God is not a glory hound
who desperately needs to hear us extol his greatness. The person who constantly puffs himself up is
tiresome. The all-star basketball player
indignantly confronts the critical the reporter. “Don’t you question my basket skills.” I remember hearing one draft pick, a
19-year-old entering the NBA, tell an interviewer, “I am very humble.” Then he went on to describe all the ways he
is great. Or think of the actor
confronting a director on a movie set.
He puts down his fellow cast members and demands special treatment. Consider the politician who inflates his own
record. “I’ve done more for the military
than any other leader in our country’s history.
I’ve done more for our economy than anyone else ever has.” We recoil at such bombast. No one likes braggart.
In the Bible we see that
God expects to be praised. Read Leviticus
and Deuteronomy. Read the prophets and
Job 38-41. Is God as haughty,
ego-inflated, and desperately needy for praise as so many of our celebrities
are? The answer would be ‘yes’ if God
were a woman or a man. God is not. God something else entirely. Praising God is the only appropriate response
to God’s action.
God’s glory flows out of
God’s love.[i] Where the self-promoting politician is
unbearably arrogant, God, sovereign of the universe and creator of everything,
is infinitely humble. God, who actually
has reason to say, ‘hey, the best you can do is worship me,’ instead lowers
himself to the form of a human being, a baby born into a peasant family at a
difficult time in history among a people under the heel of the powerful,
imposing Romans. God steps out of
limitless heavenly grandeur to walk the tough, dusty roads of 1st
century Palestine as a poor Jewish man.
Why praise God? Look at what God did. The bigger question is why did God lower
God’s self in this way. He dressed in
human skin, subjecting God’s own self to the struggles and pains faced by the
poor all over the world. Why did God do
that?
Love! That’s the answer. God loves us.
Paul elaborated on this earlier in the letter, Romans 5. Verse 5, “God’s love has been poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Also verse 8, “God proved his love for us in
that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” The logic in Romans and throughout the New
Testament stands out with great clarity.
Every human sins. Sin cuts us off
from God. We cannot overcome our sin, so
God became one of us – Jesus.
Jesus died even though he
did not deserve death. Jesus suffered
that cruel penalty taking on himself the death sin brings, even though he never
sinned. When we say “God is love” our
evidence is Jesus, bloody and bruised, hanging on the cross where we should
be. God’s expression of love comes in
the form of self-sacrifice. So, when we
glorify God, and there are plenty of reasons to do so, the chief attribute is
God’s love. God’s love is a humble,
sacrificial love. God doesn’t say, “I’ve
done more for you than anyone else ever has.”
God says, “I love you enough to die in your place. I will take you as you are, all the warts and
blemishes, and I will make you new.” Then, God does it.
Grab hold of this! So many
people around us are down on themselves.
Maybe you are one. Maybe you feel like life is full of disappointments
and failure. The depression intensifies
as it seems that everyone around you has a lot of holiday cheer while you
wallow in sorrow. And you feel like it’s
your fault. Listen! God loves you more than you can know. You are precious, of incredible worth, and
God cherishes you. Believe it. Receive God’s love. It’s a gift you don’t have to earn.
Worshiping on Sundays at
church is a regular practice for Christians.
Many more people attend worship Advent and Lent. A lot of attendees miss as many Sundays as
they come throughout the year, but leading up to Christmas, more and more
people feel drawn to church. As we
ponder the story, Jesus born and lain in a manger, angels singing as hillside
shepherds watch and wonder, does it feel different? Do you feel drawn to seek God? Does anything in you stir?
Worship during the season
of Advent serves as a rhythm of remembering.[ii] We know the story. We’ve seen this movie before. We listen to again in order to enter the
story. We want to feel the chill of the
night air, take in the pungent smells of the manger, and hear the newborn’s
cries.
After his barnyard birth
the story moves to his ministry. Jesus
restored the sight of blind beggars and turned water to wine to prolong the
celebration of a country peasant’s wedding.
Yet he refused to perform when King Herod demanded miracles. He bestowed wisdom upon the Pharisee Nicodemus
who visited him secretly at night, but would not answer the inquiring Greeks who
visited Jerusalem at Passover in search of a new philosophy to scrutinize. He traveled with poor fishermen, tax
collectors of questionable moral character, and a known violent revolutionary,
Simon the Zealot. He entrusted the group
finances to a known thief, Judas Iscariot, giving him the opportunity to become
honest, knowing he probably wouldn’t take that opportunity. Yet Jesus refused to answer when the Roman
Governor Pilate demanded Jesus give an accounting of himself.
To God be the glory, but a
humble glory indeed! In the doxology of
Romans 16 Paul declares God will strengthen us through the Gospel – the story
of Jesus – and through the proclamation of Jesus. I mentioned how difficult life can be,
especially at Christmastime. Paul’s
offer is that the story of Jesus and our participation in telling that story fills
us with divine strength.
That’s what filled Mary
when she sang her song. That’s what
filled the sky when angels praised God the night of Jesus’ birth. That spiritual power filled our members as
they baked hundreds of treats given away at yesterday’s food pantry. This divine strength drove Paul to embrace
being arrested if that’s what it took for him to tell Roman leaders and even
the emperor himself the story of Jesus.
He knew of what he spoke when he declared that the gospel of Jesus our
Savior strengthens us (16:25).
So, we enter the story. We tell it with our own voices. Mary with Elizabeth; angels and shepherds;
Paul in his letters; and us – God’s church gathered on the fourth Sunday
Advent. Our voices join the eternal
chorus giving God glory. We see what God
has done and we praise Him! We can’t
hold it in.
AMEN
[i]
Frederick, John. Working Preacher
website. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-of-advent-2/commentary-on-romans-1625-27-5.
[ii]
Achtemeier, Paul (1985). Interpretation:
A Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Romans, John Knox Press (Atlanta),
p.239.
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