Get Set . . .

Text: Isaiah 11:1-9, Romans 15:1-13
December 5, 2004, Dave Philips

 

 

There’s a great deal of nonsense spoken about Christmas at this time of year. We Christians are used to it. It has been going on for a long time. Whenever we hear the phrase, "Christmas is . . ." whether in an advertisement or in a popular song, we get out the proverbial large grain of salt and prepare to take it.

In the popular song, "Silver Bells," we hear that

Christmas makes you feel emotional,

It may bring parties or thoughts devotional,

Whatever happens or what may be

Here is what Christmastime means to me.

The accent in this song is on "me." Here is what Christmastime means to ME. It doesn’t matter what it meant in the first place, what it means to ME is sacred, and I don’t want anyone messing around with it.

But Christmas in its original meaning surely has got to be important! Even if by chance you reject God and his Messiah, shouldn’t you consider yourself an uneducated person if you just swallow uncritically what the media and the advertisers and the popular songsters say about Christmas?

Last week my sermon title was "Get Ready . . ." as we thought together about John the Baptist who came to prepare the way of the Lord. This week my title is "Get Set . . ."

as we think together about the Christ who comes not just to stir people for a holiday, but to change a world order. Christmas is a big deal! It means nothing less than a world revolution. Have you gotten yourself set for it?

The eleventh chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah and the fifteenth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans echo each other. Isaiah anticipates the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, Paul in Romans looks back on that earthshaking event and reflects on what it means to the Christian community.

Isaiah prophesies the coming of a person who will turn the world upside down and found a whole new kingdom. Isaiah spoke from the context of the near total destruction of the Jewish people. This is after the Babylonians – the Iraqis! – had destroyed Jerusalem and taken the Jewish people away in captivity to Babylon – just a few miles up the road from modern Baghdad. The tree of Jesse, that is, the monarchy that had produced David and Solomon and all the glory of Israel, had been chopped down to the ground. Only a stump was left. But from that stump, says Isaiah, will grow a shoot that will restore God’s people in incredible ways.

This Messiah of God, says Isaiah, will strike the earth with . . . what? With bombs and rockets? With fire from heaven and floods from the ocean? No! He will strike the earth with the rod . . . of his mouth; with the breath . . . of his lips he will slay the wicked."

This Messiah will conquer the world gently, with his words and deeds. He will blow down the opposition not with tornadoes and hurricanes, but with the gentle breath of his lips.

"The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them."

Have you ever seen those bumper stickers that urge us to "visualize world peace"? Here’s that visualization in Isaiah. What a picture of world peace! What a promise from God, and what an amazing strategy for its fulfillment: the revolution that will heal the world will be with words and ideas, with deeds of gentleness and humility.

Paul writing to the Church in Rome talks about how all this works in the Christian community. And what a picture of church life he paints! Oh, sure, Paul paints the Church with all its warts! Just read Galatians and the Corinthian letters! But listen to his description of the Peaceable Kingdom of the Church when the Spirit of the Christ of Christmas is moving among us: Paul paraphrases the words we read from Isaiah, seeing the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy in Jesus, and saying that the Root of Jesse will spring up, the one who will arise to rule over the nations; and the Gentiles will hope in him."¹

Where is all this going to happen? Right here! Right here in church! And what does it look like when it appears in church? Paul describes it: we who are strong, Paul tells us, bear with the failings of the weak and don’t try to please ourselves. The lions among us learn to live with the lambs. We make an effort to please our neighbor for our neighbor’s good and unbuilding. As we make this effort, God who gives us endurance and encouragement, also gives us a spirit of unity among ourselves as we follow Christ Jesus.

This, friends, is what Christmas is about. I love American Christmas! I love the bright lights. I love decorating a Christmas tree. I love giving gifts to my family and friends. I love Christmas caroling. I love Christmas cookies. I love Santa Claus.

But all of this American celebration, if it is to be genuinely connected to the original Christmas, must come and bow down to the gentle Messiah who tames the wolf so that it lives in the same barn with the lamb, who teaches the leopard the ways of peace so that it can share the same stall with the goat, who creates a fellowship in which the calf and the lion and the cow and the bear can all pal around together, and a little kid can lead them all around on a leash.

Helmut Thielicke, the great German pastor and theologian, kept a picture hanging opposite his desk in his office. In the picture is a large group of mostly young men dressed in long white robes, carrying candles toward an altar. At the altar are four men with expressions of terror on their faces as they gaze at this approaching throng dressed in white. One of these men is holding his hand before his eyes as if he is blinded. Another is trying to hide. A third is making a gesture of surrender.

Obviously, this is a picture of a Christmas pageant with adult actors. The men in the white robes are angels. The four men at the altar are shepherds. Friends of Helmut Thielicke visiting his office frequently would point to the picture and say, "What in the world is this? And why do you have it hanging on your wall?"

Thielicke would let them guess what the picture was. And they would try various alternatives: it’s a church group. Or, it’s a class of seminarians. Or, it’s a group of deacons in training.

And then Thielicke would tell them the truth. The pageant was a group of prisoners. Among the actors was a young man who had killed his friend in a fight over a wrist watch. And that young man had the same part in the pageant year after year. He would kneel before the crib and say to the Christ child:

I lay in death, in darkest night;

You were the Sun that brought to me

My life, my light, my soul’s delight.²

Friends, ponder that scene. Ponder in your mind a group of thugs and thieves dressed up as angels. Ponder in your mind a murderer kneeling before the Christ child and telling him that he is the bright light that destroys death and chases away the darkness for him.

What is it that brings about this unlikely friendship between the helpless Christ child and a bunch of jailbirds? What is it that creates in churches a fellowship between people who ordinarily would get along about as well as the cow and the bear, the leopard and the goat?

It is not bombs or rockets, it is not earthquakes or hurricanes, it is not money, sex, or power. It is the breath of a baby born in Bethlehem. It is the words that come from the lips of the man, Jesus Christ.

And what will create that Peaceable Kingdom, that congregation that Paul describes, here in this church? First of all, let me tell you, that Peaceable Kingdom already exists right here. Right here, right now, in First Presbyterian Church of Grants, NM. there exists a fellowship in which strong Christians bear with the shortcomings of the weak and try to please their weak brothers and sisters, and not themselves. Our fellowship at First Pres Grants is not perfect by any means, we make mistakes, we do bad things to each other and to ourselves. But Christ is in our fellowship, and our fellowship is real! It is alive! And it works!

When it’s working at its best, the God of hope, to use Paul’s words, fills us with all joy and peace as we trust in him.³

All of the promises of Isaiah about the Peaceable Kingdom are working right now, right here in First Presbyterian Church. They aren’t working because we’re so virtuous and so smart. Not at all. They’re working because God the Holy Spirit makes them work.

You know, sometimes we hold each other hostage in the Church because of some ideal of the Church that we hold dear, some way we think the Church ought to be, some set of rules that we feel must be followed by the Church or else we won’t play. But isn’t that like saying, "Christmas is . . ." and then filling in the blanks by what is pleasing to ME?

No, Christmas and the Church are not what I say they are. Christmas and the Church are what God says they are, what God shows them to be. Christmas and the Church are God humbling himself and becoming small, God enduring human insults, God who is strong bearing with the failings of the weak and not pleasing himself. Christmas and the Church are you and I taking seriously the word of Jesus, following the example of Jesus and bearing with each others’ weaknesses.

That’s what is at work in our fellowship right now. And the point of Christmas — and the Church — is to be an active part of that redeeming and healing fellowship. In a few moments, our Lord Jesus will invite all of us to his table: wolves and lambs, leopards and goats, calves and lions. How in the world can this menagerie live together without eating each other up?

We can live together because here at the table of the Lord is the reality of Christmas, the Peaceable Kingdom, where this whole menagerie learns how to love each other and lay down our lives for each other, because Jesus first loved us and laid down his life for us.