"God is Getting Closer"
How Jesus' birth changes everything
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Text: Matthew 1:18-25
Something dramatic happened this past week at the coffee shop I go to in the mornings. Normally during the Advent period, at the end of the counter, there is this amazing Santa figure. He moves and dances - very much like an arthritic on narcotics! He moves up and down in a jerky motion and goes, “Ho, ho, ho!” This day, Santa wasn't there. In his place was a static Santa, just an ornament with glasses and white hair. No movement! No drama! The old Santa was gone and a new, stiffer one had arrived.
We lined up to pay for our coffee, as is the custom of those who are there early in the morning. The man in front, who is a regular, turned to the manager and said, “Hey, where's Grandpa?”
She said, “Grandpa is with us no more, I am afraid; he has moved on.”
The man said, “Well, this other one is nowhere near as good as the one who used to be there and I think you should do something about it.” Then he stopped, and said, “But then again, I wouldn't really care. Nothing really changes at Christmas anyway. Christmas doesn't really matter, does it? The coffee that you have here the day after Christmas is just the same as the coffee I am having today. It really doesn't matter. Christmas changes nothing.” He paid for his coffee, and Mr. Scrooge walked away.
I purchased mine, sat down at the desk that was always next to the moving Santa, and I thought to myself, “Is that man right?” Honestly, is his cynicism correct? Does anything really change because of Christmas? Strip away the emotionalism, strip away the family moments and the different music. Does anything really change because of Christmas?
If you are one of the three soldiers who died yesterday in Afghanistan or a member of their family, does Christmas change anything? For the two women who were beaten up because of their sexual orientation, does Christmas change anything? For the victims of the shooting in Mumbai, does Christmas change anything? For those in Oshawa who are being laid off in January, does Christmas change anything? To the 85,000 people who have declared bankruptcy in Canada in the past year, does Christmas change anything?
To you, in your life, does it really change anything? Would it matter if Christmas had never happened? Would you just go along and have the same life, the same existence and the same beliefs if Jesus had never been born? This was certainly a question that was being asked in the very early Church to whom Matthew was actually writing. In today's passage, he was addressing questions from the early Christians, who, even though they were sincere believers in the Risen Christ, even though they were convicted, still wondered about the Christmas story.
Most of them were Jews who had become Christians, but they were wondering whether the narrative of Christ's birth meant anything. Fred Craddock suggests there were three questions on their minds that Matthew wanted to answer with this passage. The first question was, “How could Jesus be a son of David if Joseph was not his real father?” In other words, if Joseph was not the real father of Jesus, how could Jesus be from the line of David, from which Joseph had come? The second question was, “How was God involved in the birth of Jesus? What role did God have in this story? How could the Almighty be involved in the birth of a child in Bethlehem?” Finally, “How could the covenant that God had with Israel find its fulfillment in this Child, and what is the connection between the promise of God to Israel and the arrival of this Child, Jesus of Nazareth?” Matthew deals brilliantly with all of these questions.
He deals with the first one by suggesting that Jesus is a son of David simply because Joseph was betrothed to Mary. When you look at the original text, the word “betrothed” is a difficult one to translate. It doesn't mean, as most translations suggest, simply “engaged.” That is misleading. We think of engagement as a general agreement in principle that you will be married at some date. There is a commitment but it is, nevertheless, a fairly loose commitment until the marriage takes place.
In Jewish terms in the time of Joseph and Mary, to be betrothed meant you had actually entered into a contractual, legal agreement with the other person. If you had an affair while you were betrothed, it wouldn't be fornication, it would be adultery. And so, Matthew uses that word, “betrothed,” to show the audience that there is, in fact, a legal connection between David, Joseph and Jesus. Joseph is from the line of David and Jesus is born from the family of Joseph, legally speaking. There is a connection in earthly terms.
What about the role of God? Well, Matthew suggests that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Now, if you were a Jew, you would understand that the Holy Spirit was present at the creation of the world. The word used in the Book of Genesis is “ruach,” the wind, the spirit, the Creator of the Earth. They would have understood that God is the source of life, all of life. No one would have known that better, for example, than Abraham and Sarah. We are told in Genesis 18 that Sarah, in her old age, gives birth to a child. But, because she is an old woman, when she is told she is going to have the child she laughs at God. She is then reminded that what is impossible in humans is still possible with God.
Hearing that Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit, the audience who read this would have said, “Yes, I understand. This is possible with God.” Also, the passive voice is used in the text, very cleverly in the Greek, which always suggests the presence or work of God. Finally, Joseph is called a “righteous man.” In other words, Mary and Joseph are in a holy and righteous state. It doesn't just mean that Joseph was a good guy, a fellow with whom you would go and have a drink. It means he was a righteous man, a holy man, who fulfilled the law and knew the obligations of Torah. Here was a man who was true to God. So it was very much a divine activity.
It was also, and Matthew shows this clearly, a fulfillment of the covenant. He quotes none other than the great Isaiah, Chapter 7:14, that a virgin will give birth to a child and his name will be Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” The hopes, dreams and beliefs of all generations have been fulfilled in the coming of the Christ Child. What was hoped for has now arrived; what was dreamt of has now appeared; what was expected has now been fulfilled.
It is a magnificent passage! But, have you noticed that it is only seven verses? This is not a deep, scientific explanation of how Jesus was born. There is no attempt by Matthew to convey the facts of the case. Rather, he is writing theologically. He is writing spiritually, and that has a validity all of its own. He was writing to people who would understand what he was saying - people who were wondering whether Christmas, the birth of Jesus, really had any importance. He was saying profoundly that it does.
You may ask, “So what?” Does this make a difference to you and me? Does it make a difference to our world, in our era and our context? Are we just going to say, as is the common phrase, “Whatever,” or are we going to understand that the birth of Jesus is something profound? I suggest to you, my friends, that it is profound. It profoundly alters the whole way in which we see God. Religion is humanity's attempt to please and adore God. Religion is traditions, rituals, laws, ethics, behaviour and a way of demonstrating our faithfulness to God. We try to be as religious as we can in our daily lives. But the Christmas story is not about our faithfulness; it is not about our earning God's pleasure; it is not about our atoning for our sins. It is about God's faithfulness. It is about God coming into our world and showing that when he makes a promise to us, he keeps it, and he keeps it in the most human of ways.
On December 10, 1948, 60 years ago, the United Nations came up with its Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Twenty years ago, I was asked to go to a school in Nova Scotia to talk about why I felt the UN declaration was important, particularly after my experiences in Africa. I went into a classroom with young children and gave an explanation of why I felt that this important moment on December 10th, 1948, had changed the world in many ways. After I thought I had given a fairly decent presentation, a boy came to me and said, “Now really, why do you believe that this is important?”
I thought I had told him, but he hadn't heard. I said, “I suppose, when you boil it down, I say so because I am a Christian, because I believe people should be treated honestly and fairly and live in liberty. I believe that.”
He said, “So, you are a Christian then?”
I said, “Yes, I am.”
He said, “Now, this Jesus, you believe in him, don't you?”
I had no idea where this was going to go. I said, “Yes, I do.”
He said, “He's a bit like Superman, isn't he?”
I said, “A bit like Superman?”
He said, “Yes. You guys, you wear capes as well, don't you?”
I thought, “Oh no, he's got me confused with God now - this isn't good!” I said, “Yes, we wear robes, but let's not get off on that.”
He said, “Well, Superman came to earth, and Superman was a great guy, and Superman came and set people free, and Superman did great things. You are so like someone who believes in Superman!”
I didn't have an answer for him at that moment. I know that Superman had parents who were Els, and that name was actually used for God in the Old Testament: El Shaddai and Elohim. Maybe that was the connection he was thinking of? Superman came to earth and lived with the Kents. Then, I thought about it, and there is something profoundly different. The birth of Jesus was not like a superhero arriving on the scene with magical powers. The birth of Jesus was an earthly story, a common story, an ordinary story. It was a story about Mary and Joseph in a Jewish place, a town called Bethlehem. When you strip away all the great and majestic aspects of Christmas, the real meaning - the heart of the meaning - is that Emmanuel comes and dwells among us in an ordinary human form. Why is that important? It is important because for 2,000 years people have been able to identify with Jesus of Nazareth, not as a super-human being, but as a human being who is “God-with-us” - Emmanuel.
People who live on the outskirts of life, who have lived lives of profligacy and excess, who have found that they can find only one source of hope, only one road back, have been able to turn to Christ. Whether it is Paul, St. Augustine or Thomas Merton, there are people who are profoundly influenced by the presence of Christ who has changed them.
We recently marked the 40th anniversary of Thomas Merton's death. He was a man who drank heavily, who lived in excess, who lived a life of debauchery but who had an encounter with the living Christ. After this encounter, he decided to become a priest. He became a monk, not only a monk, but a Trappist monk who visited the Dalai Lama and travelled in the East. A monk who lived his whole life committed to one, single desire - that men and women might come to know the living God. Thomas Merton did this because of his profound belief in Jesus Christ. He was open-minded and caring of other religious views and beliefs, but he saw in Jesus of Nazareth the incarnate Son. If you want to read any great books this Christmas, read The Prayers of Thomas Merton, and you will be touched, because here was a man who understood that he had lived a life that seemingly was outside of God's grace. But because of Emmanuel, he was imbued with God's grace. It changed him.
Our whole view of God changes when we see God in Christ and the birth of the Son of God. It also profoundly changes our relationships. It changes our relationship with this very God. If God came in person, if this very God came in a humble way to us, how much more, then, are we valuable in his sight? How much more does he love us?
I have been reading recently about a very great missionary, E. Stanley Jones. He was a man who decided to travel, particularly to India. He became involved in Indian life and independence. He got to know Nehru and Gandhi. He sat with kings but he lived with purpose, all the time wanting to demonstrate the love of God in Jesus Christ. He wanted to take Christianity away from its enslavement to a particular culture and show the universality of the love of God in Jesus of Nazareth. He wrote these words: “If reconciliation is God's chief business, it is ours: Between man and God, between man and himself, and between man and man.” Old language, but truth, nonetheless!
The Christmas story is the story of God reconciling us to him and reconciling us to one another. E. Stanley Jones told a story of when he was on the Caspian Sea in a place called Pouletti on the coast of Iran. He wanted to get on a boat but there was not much room. There was one great big cabin that had one person in it and another cabin that was absolutely full of people who could hardly fit on the ship. So Jones said to the porter, “Would it be possible for me to go into the cabin with one person?”
The porter said, “No, sorry, you can't go in there. That is held by the French Ambassador. He doesn't want anyone with him.”
Jones said, “Okay, if that's the case, I am representing the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, and will just have to go in with everyone else.” He crammed himself in the other cabin.
They set sail across the Caspian Sea and hit some rough waters. They heard a sound, as if someone was banging on a door in the bathroom. Jones went to the bathroom and found a man with a French accent banging on a door. The man was asking for help in broken English, “Please, extricate me! Please, extricate me!” Because of the tilting of the ship, a lock had come down and locked the man in the toilet. Jones took the lock, flipped it open, and out came who? The French Ambassador!
Jones said, “I am pleased to set you free!” The Ambassador was ecstatic and said, “Would you come and spend the rest of the sail in my cabin?”
Jones replied, “Only if you allow a lot of the others who are crammed in the other cabin with me to join us.”
Jones said that he felt at that moment just like God: Setting people free no matter what their status in life may be, bringing them together, liberating them and giving them hope. He said, “Surely that is a symbol of all that the Christian Church believes in, all that we hope, all that is true.” This is what Christ's coming does to the world.
One of the great joys that I have a week or two before Christmas each year is to visit many of the social agencies that our church helps. I don't make it to all of them, but I go to most. I went to one such place that some of you know well called New Circles. It was very much funded by people from our church - it's supported by one of our women's groups, which is a major donor, and by our grants committee. I met with the director, Sarah, who took me on a tour of this incredible place in Flemingdon Park that provides clothing for new immigrants to Canada. It is an amazing place and very touching. I saw what they were doing and what the needs were. There were people filling the entrance-way - it looked like a gathering of the United Nations. As I left the building, a gentleman came up to me, said “Hello,” and asked whether I worked there. He was just beginning as a volunteer - volunteers are the cornerstone of New Circles. I said, “No, I don't, work here,” and introduced myself. I told him who I was and which church I was with, and he had already heard what we had done for New Circles. He looked me in the eye and with a tear in his eye, in broken English, he said, “Thank you, and may God Bless you!”
I got in the car and it hit me. That man in the coffee shop was wrong. Emmanuel's presence is felt in so many places, touching so many lives, changing so many people. Don't try to tell me that Christmas doesn't make a difference. It makes all the difference! The coming of the Christ Child changes the world, tells the world how much God loves us and tells us just how much we should love the world. Emmanuel, God-with-us, changes everything! Amen.