Hope in Skin
RUMC
9/28/14
Story chapter 22a
Did you hear that? Where is
the humble Jesus, meek and mild?
This isn’t the Christmas story is it? Where is the sweet little
baby cuddled in his mother’s arms? Where are the humble beginnings of the
manger and the stable? Where are the shepherds and the wise men? Where is
everyone’s favorite villain, the innkeeper?
That scripture passage can’t be in the Christmas story that we
know, can it?
Of course it is. It is right there in Luke Chapter 1, New
Testament page 57 of your pew bibles. It is right between the story of the
frightened, confused, pregnant 14-year-old Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth,
and the decree from Cesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.
Unfortunately, the Magnificat… (That’s what this poem is called
because the first word in the Latin translation of this passage.) Unfortunately,
the Magnificat is not part of the Christmas story included in our Christmas
pageants, or on Christmas cards. I say unfortunately, because of all the
texts of the Christmas story, the Magnificat alone reveals the truly, radically
revolutionary nature of Christmas. We don’t normally think of Christmas as
radical or revolutionary, usually we use words like exhausting and busy. But
Christmas is the most radical and revolutionary event in all of history. You
might argue that the cross is more important, but without Christmas, the cross
is just the execution of another political agitant.
Remember, in the Old Testament portion of the story last year we
talked about God’s upper story, God’s deepest intention for humanity. God’s plan
was for us to live in love with God and love toward one another. In the Garden
of Eden, God envisioned a community of caring, generous, forgiving, grace
filled, hope filled, people living in the beauty of the garden and walking with
God in the coolness of the morning. God’s plan revolved around love and
worship.
Is that the way the lower story worked? Is that what actually
happened in the Old Testament story? Although there were glimpses of that plan
in the lower story, most of the lower story- what we call history, was NOT what
God wanted. Sin invaded the world, and with sin came death and deceit, murder
and manipulation, slavery and selfishness. You know how people treat one another
in our lower story, and it is not what God wants for us.
Throughout the Old Testament, we followed the two stories: God’s
upper story, and our lower story. I don’t know how it seemed to you, but by
time we were done, it seemed to me like the two stories were further apart than
ever.
Today, however, everything changes.
The angel coming… that is old news. We have seen angels before.
The young girl… that’s old news. We have seen God chose unlikely
candidates before.
The baby… that is something different… never before has God become
a human being.
God spoke to people, commanded people, God directed people, God led
people, God appeared in dreams, God was manifest in miracles and prophets:
·
But never ever before has the most divine God become a human being.
Never before has God put on skin and moved in to a young woman’s uterus.
·
Never before has God been born as one of us, to live among us.
·
Never before has God taken hold of his upper story and our lower
story and tied them in a knot as he did in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
·
Never before has God’s upper story come crashing into our lower
story in order to radically and permanently transform the relationship between
creator and creation.
That is what Mary is singing about in the Magnificat. Usually when
we hear these words put to music, they are with a harp or a flute and they are
soft, and melodic, and beautiful like a lullaby. Just once I would like to hear
the magnificat sung to banging drums and crashing symbols. Really, the
Magnificat is more a march than a lullaby.
Listen to the
chorus,
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
You can almost hear the cymbals crashing and the drums beating
with every word
MIGHTY DEEDS
THE PROUD SCATTERED
THE RULERS BROUGHT DOWN
THE HUMBLE LIFTED UP
THE HUNGRY FILLED
THE RICH SENT AWAY EMPTY
I tell you this is not your sweet little baby lying in a manger
surrounded by a mysterious glow with silent night playing in the
background.
·
This is the God of all creation, the God who
o spoke the stars into
existence with a word, and
o started the ocean waves
rolling with a touch of his finger.
·
This is the God who kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden,
o brought fire on Sodom
and Gomorrah, and
o poured out the waters of
the flood.
·
This is the God who raised up Joseph to be a ruler in Egypt, and
o Moses to lead his people
out from among the dead in Egypt.
·
This is the God who parted the sea and
o spoke the commandments.
·
This is the God who battled the Amorites and the Philistines in
fierce battle.
·
This is the God who raised up kings and brought them down again.
·
This is the God who spoke judgment and justice through the
prophets.
·
This is the God who held the mouth of the lion shut for Daniel,
and
o opened the mouth of the Persian
king to free the captives.
·
This is the God of the heavens and the earth bringing heaven down
to earth in the shape of a baby whose cry in the manger and on the cross would
change the world forever.
Is it changed? Is our world really that much different from the
world of the Old Testament? We still have sin. We still have death and deceit,
murder and manipulation, slavery and selfishness. You know how our world is. In
some ways, nothing has changed, but in the most important way, everything is
different because of the Christmas revolution.
·
We talk about the American Revolution, and how it changed history
forever.
·
We talk about the industrial revolution, and how it changed our
lives forever.
·
We talk about the technology revolution, and how it has changed
our thinking and expanded out knowledge.
But today we talk about the Christmas revolution, and how our lower
story lives will never the same because the upper story has come crashing into
our lives in Jesus Christ and now we have HOPE.
The world may look the same but now we have hope.
The world may act the same, but now we have hope.
People may sin the same, but now we have hope.
No matter what the newspapers may say, hope makes the world a
different place and makes us different people.
A public elementary school was cautious about bringing religion
into their winter program. They had a nice little program scheduled, and the
content centered around family, friends, and fun times during the holidays --
all of which are good things, but none of which are the reason we have
Christmas. The program was called "Christmas Love." For the grand
finale, a line of kids was supposed to march across the stage with pieces of
poster board spelling out the words "Christmas Love." Their backs
were turned to the audience, and at the exact right moment, they were supposed
to turn around to spell the words with the letters on their poster board. Moms
were backstage to make sure they marched out in the right order, but once they
got on stage, they were on their own. Sure enough, one little girl holding the
"M" in "Christmas" got her sign turned upside down. So when
the big moment came, and the kids turned around, and what the audience saw was
not "CHRISTMAS LOVE" but "CHRIST WAS LOVE." Without meaning
to, the elementary students had communicated the hope of Christmas[1]
What was hope in the Old Testament?
·
Hope in their ability to follow the law?
·
Hope that they were good enough for God?
·
Hope that God would give them a little longer to get their act
together?
Let me tell you, hope that lies in the hope that I’ll get my act
together is not hope. No, the Christmas revolution brought humanity a different
kind of hope.
The hope of Christmas is that CHRIST WAS LOVE.
Now in Jesus Christ God’s love lives among us in the skin.
In your skin and my skin.
In your heart and my heart.
Max Lucado puts it this way. Jesus,
the maker of the universe, the one who invented time, the one who gave you the
breath you just took, the one who owns everything, started off humble. How
humble? Humble enough to understand what you’ve been through this week. Humble
enough to understand what kept you awake. Humble enough to say, “I know what
that’s like.” Humble enough that when an immigrant from Ethiopia prays or a
squatter in Brazil offers a plea for help, that the Almighty God does not shake
his head and say, “I wish they’d get their act together.” But he remembers the
pain of a hungry belly and the chill of a cold night. He knows what it’s like
to hear his parents tell the story of the day they got turned away on the night
of his birth. [2]
He remembers…and loves.
He remembers…our ………. <<<<<>>>>>>
and love brings a revolution.
He remembers…our ……….<<<<<>>>>>>
and love brings a revolution.
He
is our Hope… hope in skin. AMEN
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