“And David
danced before the Lord with all his might.”
2 Samuel 6:14a
I
don’t know what possessed us. It
happened three or four Christmases ago.
We were at Ben’s home. One morning
Kyah was wearing fake antlers on her backside.
I had some on my head. Music was
playing. I don’t remember if the song
was “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” or some other tune. All of a sudden, Kyah and I started hopping
around, jumping up and down, just generally acting goofy to the music. Pictures were taken. You can see one as the cover for this
blog. It was the kind of thing that if
Kyah and I did it out in public, we would be told to stop. But that Christmas season my granddaughter
and I were just having fun… celebrating in a very silly way. It became known as “the reindeer dance” and
Kyah still talks about it.
In
fact she mentioned it the other day on skype.
That got me to thinking, what is it about Christmas that got us dancing
and acting silly? In my serious pastoral mind I wondered, “Is
there any precedent for this in the Scripture?
Well in fact there is. There is
the passage that is the text for today’s blog.
In 2 Samuel 6:14 we are told that “David
danced before the Lord with all his might.” David didn’t do this dance in private. He did it right out in public. In fact his wife Micah was so embarrassed by
his dancing that the Bible says that Micah “despised
him in her heart.”
Why
was David dancing? What was he
celebrating that filled him with such joy that he was willing to make a fool of
himself? Quite simply it was the fact
that the Ark of the Covenant was coming to Jerusalem. The ark was God’s throne on earth! This is where the High Priest would once a
year offer the sacrifice of atonement. This
was the mercy seat of God. The coming of
the ark to David’s capital city was the coming of God to David’s capital city.
As the Ark would dwell there so the people could be assured that God was
dwelling in their midst. This was so
important that when Micah confronted him with how silly he looked, David
answered her, “It was before Lord, who
chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince
over Israel, the people of the Lord – and I will make merry before the Lord.”
My
friends, as we celebrate Christmas, we have even more reason to make merry
before the Lord! Something greater than
the Ark has come to us! A child was born
in Bethlehem. This child was not just
any child. He is Jesus the son of Mary,
the Son of God. He is the savior, Christ
the Lord. He is the Word of God made
flesh and dwelling among us. He is
Immanuel, God with us! Yes God has come
into our world to save us from our sin, from death, from all sadness. He will never leave us. He has come to turn
our mourning into dancing!
So
this week grab yourself a pair of fake antlers and make merry before the
Lord! Jesus has been born for you. God Himself has come! It’s time for the reindeer dance! Merry Christmas! Amen!
“You have heard
that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say
to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… For if you love those who love you, what
reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”
Matthew 5:44
We
love the Christmas markets this time of year.
They are such a big part of the Christmas season here in Germany. So last night Linda, Steven and I went down
to the one here in Frankfurt. We walked
around, ate come “kartofelpoffers” (potato pancakes), had some dinner,
walked through the various shops, and drank some “Gluhwein” (warmed, mulled wine).
We had a great time. When we got
home, I learned about the attack on one of the Christmas markets in
Berlin. Immediately my mood
changed. My first thoughts were that I
was glad that our kids back home know that Berlin is a long way from here. I thought about the people hurt, those
killed, and their families. I thought, “That could have easily happened tonight
in Frankfurt.” There were a whole range of emotions –
sadness, fear, and anger.
Much
of that was still in my heart this morning. I was making a post to Facebook
asking people to “please keep the victims
and families affected, as well as the people of Berlin and Germany in your
prayers.” Before posting I hesitated. I thought about asking people to also pray
for those who did this. But I didn’t. How could I ask people to pray for them? They are evil. They, whoever they end up being, are the
enemy. If I post that, it will just make
someone mad. So I left that out, made the post and took
Molly for a walk.
This has bothered me all day. As I walked Molly these words of Jesus were
ringing in my ears. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and
hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you… For
if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax
collectors do the same?” Why would
God ask us to do such a thing? Because that
is what He did for us! Think of what
Paul tells us in Romans 5 – “while we
were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son…” This is what Christmas is all about. God sent His Son into the world to be born,
to live, to die and to rise again in order to save His enemies. Every person that will be in heaven will
have thought, spoken and lived as one of God’s enemies – every single one. That includes you and me. This is the heart
of the good news of great joy that the angels brought to those shepherds – that
God sent His child to be born in order to save His enemies. When Jesus tells us
to love our enemies, He is only asking us to do what He has already done for
us.
Don’t get me wrong. This doesn’t mean that such people should not
be arrested and punished. This doesn’t
mean that we shouldn’t fight terrorism. Of
course we should. There are and should
be temporal punishments and consequences or the evil things we do. Innocent
people must be protected. This doesn’t mean we should make excuses for the
horrible things people do. Whatever the reason,
there is no excuse. When God forgives
our crimes that forgives the eternal consequences but it doesn’t keep us from
going to jail. This doesn’t mean we
shouldn’t be angry over what has happened in Berlin. We have every right to be angry and/or sad. This is a horrible crime.
Then how and why can we love our
enemies? Because God, who is justly angered
by our sin, who builds into life consequences for our wrongs, at the same time
loves us. The Bible says, “God wants all men to be saved and come to
the knowledge of the truth.” God’s
word is clear that “God so loved the
world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life.”
If those passages are about how God loves us, gave His Son for us and
wants us to be saved, then they are also about how God loves our enemies, gave
His Son for our enemies and wants our enemies to be saved.
So please forgive me and let me amend my post
from this morning. “Please keep the victims and families affected, the people of Berlin
and Germany, and the people who did these terrible things in your
prayers. Ask God to change their hearts, to forgive them, to bring them to
faith.”
There is
quite a contrast in the story of Simeon in Luke 2. On the one hand there is the joy of Simeon.
At last the dream of his life is fulfilled.
“It had been revealed to him by
the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Now it has happened. As Mary and Joseph carry the baby into the
temple, Simeon breaks into song. He praises God for the fulfillment of His
promises. “Sovereign Lord, as you have
promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which
you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the
Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” Then suddenly everything changes. This same Simeon turns dour and serious. He speaks a very hard message to Mary and
Joseph about their child. “This child is destined to cause the
falling and rising of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many
hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” How is it that a moment of great joy and
gladness can at the same time be pierced through with sadness and grief?
Yet so
very often that’s the way it is for many people during the Christmas
season. On the outside you wear a
grin. Your life is clothed in the
festive decorations and wrappings of the season. You speak the expected “Merry Christmas” as
if on cue. Often all of that is real.
You aren’t faking. Yet just as real is what is going on inside. Inside there is loss, and emptiness,
discouragement and depression. How can
this be? There are any number of
reasons. It can be the death of a loved one.
I know a woman whose sister died around Christmas. For many years she could not step inside a
church on Christmas Eve.. At a time when
all sorts of loved ones are gathering together – the emptiness left by the
death of a spouse or a parent is even more pronounced. Any loss in life become more pronounced in our
lives when we are told that at this time of year that we expected to be full of
life not empty of it. In fact, when you
are having troubles in your marriage, when you are worried about your kids,
when you struggle to pay all your bills, when you are waiting word from the
doctor – simply singing songs, putting on a smile and saying “Merry Christmas”
doesn’t make the problems disappear. In
fact it often only makes you feel your struggles more deeply. We come at this season with all sorts of
unreasonable expectations. We want
Christmas to be a time of “peace” when we can leave our troubles behind us, at
least for a while. The problem is that
can’t happen. We live between the
Christmases, between our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem and His coming again in
glory. Between the Christmases we will
have troubles. After all, though we are
saints we are also still sinners… though we are forgiven, we are not yet
perfect… though we are saved we are not yet in heaven.
Thank
God that He didn’t send his Son into the world so we could put on a mask and
pretend life’s struggles aren’t real.
God sent his Son into the world to confront life’s sorrows head on. That’s why Simeon praises God and yet also speaks
hard words to Mary and Joseph. This is
the real Christmas. That little baby
Jesus, held in the arms of Mary is given to the world because God has seen all
our trials and sorrows. He has seen the
loss sin and death bring to our lives. He has seen it all and in love He gave
His one and only Son. Yes Christmas is a
time of loss for God too. God joined us
in our loss! Jesus gave up all for you
and me. He came to take up our infirmities and carry our sorrows… to be pierced through
for our transgressions on the cross. He came to be cursed by our sin. He came so that by His Easter resurrection He
might have victory over all the things that defeat us. He rose so that He might pour into our lives
fullness of life – forgiveness of sins, healing of all our deepest wounds, a
God who will listen to the deepest cries of our heart. He was born to give us real peace – not one
that denies our problems, but one that is able to face those problems head on
in the confidence that whatever they are – Christ has already carried the
burden. He has already won the
victory!
For me Christmas has never been the same since
1975. That morning my dad woke me up
early to tell me that my sister Roberta had died. She had died while we were in church the
night before. My sister had spent most
of her life severely brain damaged and deaf from an illness as a little child. Yet in her life God used her to teach my
family much about his love and the joy of living. Now God used her again in death. It was my first experience of death. I remember the strange feeling of loss and
gain, of great sorrow and great joy, of deep peace in the midst of heart
wrenching grief – all at the same time.
I had lost my sister and that hurt.
Yet I knew she was in heaven. I remember thinking about it that year-
This is what Christmas is all about.
This is why Jesus was born in that manger in Bethlehem.
This is why He went to the cross and the empty tomb. Christmas is no escape. The peace Christmas offers is not false. In
that child born in Bethlehem God offers peace between the Christmases… peace in
the midst of loss and sorrow, grief and struggle. He gave His Son so that then
Simeon’s song would become your song and mine – “Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in
peace. For my eyes have seen your
salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for
revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” Amen.
Last
week in the blog I shared with you a story from my previous congregation in
Flower Mound, Texas. It was a about a
ministry there called “Celebrate Recovery.”
This is a Christian recovery ministry patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous. However Celebrate recovery is not limited to
recovering alcoholics. Celebrate
recovery invites anyone who has a “hurt, habit or hang up.” Since we all have at least one of those, Celebrate
Recovery is a recovery ministry for everyone.
Last week I described how on one Sunday people from Celebrate Recovery
gave a “cardboard” testimony during worship.
Different people stood in front of the church and, without speaking a
word, gave a powerful testimony to how God had changed their lives through this
ministry. They simply held on a piece of
cardboard. On one side each person had
written a one or two word summary of their personal hurt, habit or hang up.
They wrote words like “addict” or “alcoholic” or “pornography” or “anger
issues.” They held the board for a
moment so everyone could read it. Then
they flipped it over to show how God had changed their lives. On the other side were words like “forgiven,” “transformed by God’s grace,” “set free from
addiction.” That was a powerful day in
the life and ministry of Lamb of God.
Their
cardboard testimonies provide a powerful illustration of how God calls us to
live our lives “between the Christmases,” between our Lord’s birth and His
second coming. Those pieces of
cardboard are a metaphor for it means to live in repentance. What happened for those people at Celebrate
Recovery… what God is looking for in you and me is more than just
cardboard. He is seeking what John
describes in Matthew 3, that we “bear
fruit in keeping with repentance.”
He is seeking to transform our lives… turn us around and send us in a
new direction.
I
know it’s easy to say I am sorry, to wear repentance as a mask, to put on a religious
show for everyone… as a way to hide your ongoing life of sin. For the Pharisees and Sadducees – that was all that they were
doing by coming to John the Baptist.
They weren’t sorry for their sin.
They didn’t want to change. They
didn’t think that their lives needed any change. Their appearance at the Jordan River was simply
a piece of cardboard to hide behind. You
and I can do that too. We can put on a
show to fool others. We may even fool ourselves. But we can’t fool God.
What
God is seeking to do in our lives… what happened in the lives of those people
who attend Celebrate Recovery is much more than simply flipping over a piece of
cardboard. I think of a friend who was playing
music for the opening worship at Celebrate Recovery. He would play his guitar. Then when the ministry broke up into small
groups, he would go home. He told himself that he didn’t need any help. But God kept working on his heart… showing
him his struggle with alcohol. Finally admitting
that struggle, asking forgiveness, and seeking help to change – his life began “bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.” Don’t’ get me wrong, his forgiveness didn’t
depend on him changing. God had forgiven
him in Christ before he ever repented. Having
forgiven Him God completed the work of repentance. He changed him. That change wasn’t a show. It wasn’t easy. He had to die – die to alcohol… die to pride…
die to self so that God could raise Him up with Christ. Here is how Paul described repentance in his
own life, “I have been crucified with
Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I
live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” That’s way more than a piece of cardboard.
Repentance
goes even further. Repentance is not
simply turning that piece of cardboard over one time and you are done. This being crucified and raised to new life
is not a one-time event. Those folks in
celebrate recovery still struggle.
Sometimes they fall. But they
have accountability partners to help them when they are tempted and to lift
them up when they fall. As we live
between the Christmases, we continue to struggle with sin every day. Every day our God calls us back to Himself,
invites us to confess and die again to sin.
Every day He raises us up… He forgives our sins… He flips the cardboard
again and again… until the day when He comes again… On that day there will be
only one side of the cardboard to show… the side that say “God has made all
things new… including you and me.”
“For the grace
of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce
Ungodliness and
worldly passions, and to live self-controlled,
Upright and
godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of
the glory
Of our great God
and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Titus 1:11-13
When
you have kids and grandkids, you really look forward to Christmas. You just know how excited the kids are going
to be. In fact you look forward to their
2nd, 3rd, 4th Christmases even more than you
look forward to their first Christmas.
Their first Christmas is fun but they are too young to really understand
what is happening. After that first Christmas
their excitement grows with each new celebration. They know what’s coming and they can’t
wait. As a parent and now as a
grandparent, I love watching and being a part of their excitement.
That’s
a great metaphor for our lives as believers.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we live our lives “between the
Christmases.” Each year, in our
worship, we make the journey to Bethlehem, to Galilee, to Jerusalem, to the
cross and the empty tomb. We know about
the first Christmas, about the night Jesus was born and all that His first
coming means for us. We know that Jesus
was born to die for our sins. He was
born to rise again and conquer death. We
rejoice in the truth Paul writes to Titus that at that first Christmas “the grace of God has appeared, bringing
salvation for all people…” Because of
that first Christmas we look forward to another Christmas coming. He is coming back. On that day Jesus will take us to be with Him
forever. He will give us new bodies to
be like His glorious body. He will give
us a life where there will be no more death, no more sin, no more “mourning, nor crying , nor pain…” Because of our Lord’s first appearing, we
live our lives looking forward to the second Christmas,. In the words of Paul, we live “waiting for our blessed hope,the
appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” We live between the Christmases.
That
truth gives us hope as we live our lives in the here and now. That truth enables us to live with hope in
the face of all of life’s choices – our past choices, our present choices and
the choices that life seems to make for us.
We
have all made choices we regret… choices to do wrongs that can’t be undone… to
say words that can’t be unsaid. I
remember a man who came to me because he had cheated on his wife. He was convinced he had destroyed his
relationship with his wife, his kids and His God. What would any of them want with him again? I knew a man who after many years of freedom,
for some unknown reason started taking cocaine again. That choice almost cost him his life and his
wife. Or what about the woman who made
the choice to lie to her husband rather than tell the truth. That lie led to another lie. Pretty soon she was caught in a web of
lies. We have all made such bad
choices. We all make them every day…
choices we can’t undo. But God can. God has.
That’s the hope of the two Christmases.
Jesus came as a tiny baby to pay the price for all our bad choices. He comes again in glory to undo the mess we
have made… to make all things new! There
is our hope – that with God there is forgiveness no matter what we have done or
said.
What’s
more living between the Christmases gives us reason to make good choices. Isn’t that what Paul wrote to Titus? For
the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us
to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright
and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing
of the glory Of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” When we choose sin, we are choosing to live
as if there is no hope… as if there is nothing beyond this life to live
for. Therefore we might as well do as we
please because it doesn’t matter anyway.
Well there is hope. There is life beyond this life to live for. Our choices do matter. Jesus won that life for
us by His first appearing. He comes
again to give us that life in all its fullness.
There was a ministry at Lamb of God called Celebrate Recovery. This ministry helps people who have made bad
choices to learn that they don’t have to keep on making those bad choices. How?
By sharing with people the hope that they have in Jesus. One day this group did a cardboard testimony
in Church. They each came out and showed
the congregation two sides of a piece of cardboard. On one side they confessed to whatever the
sin was they struggled with – anger, alcoholism, infidelity, and so on. On the
other they told how Christ had conquered those choices in their lives. That Sunday a young man sitting in Church
wanted what they had. So he started
coming to celebrate Recovery. Because of
the hope we have in Christ – he now makes a choice every day to say no to
pornography.
Yes
living between the Christmases gives us hope as we face our past and present
choices. What about those things that
happen in our lives over which we have no choice? No one chooses to have MS or cancer, or a
stroke. You don’t choose to have a birth
defect or to have special needs. My
sister didn’t choose to have tubercular meningitis. Living between the Christmases gives us hope
even in the face of such challenges. I
think of Marcia Williams from one of my former congregations. When I knew her she was almost completely
paralyzed. She could only move her head
and one arm. Yet every time I came to
see her, she lifted me up. Often she
would be on the phone encouraging others who were hurting. She lived every day with hope in spite of the
challenge she faced. Why? Because she lived between the
Christmases. She knew that Jesus came
that first Christmas to be her savior.
She knew He is coming again to give her a new body free from illness and
pain, free to move.
That
is where we live too – between the Christmases.
Every day we live thankful for what Jesus did for us by His life, death
and resurrection… facing each day in the certain hope that any trouble in this
life is only temporary. After all we are
looking forward to a second Christmas,“waiting for our blessed hope, the
appearing of the glory o-f our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
