December 4, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.” (Isaiah 4.6)

“Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1.12)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD during the First Week of Advent 2024:

The power of submission transforms those who dare to believe that God loves us greatly into their true selves. This is the result of putting submission to the test and to work. We are not born submissive as adults. We are born submissive and dependent as babies. Jesus demonstrated this truth “from the beginning.” John’s gospel does not include a birth narrative of Jesus, neither does Mark, like we can read in Matthew and Luke’s gospel accounts. What we can read is the invitation to our own “rebirth” narrative which happens when we place our faith in Jesus as the Christ. He is the Word by which we were first spoken into being. The author of Creation spoke the Word and the Word became light in the darkness, hope in despair, truth in confusion and life in death. And I would take a moment to reflect on that last statement “life in death.” As we reflect upon the first Creation story, we are invited to see and experience that since of nothingness not as in the absence of something where nothing existed. No, we are invited to experience and see the chaos where nothing seemed to matter. The co-existence of elements was without interaction and therefore meaningless. Even if the elements collided there was no acknowledgement of “for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction” it would not be the same without the presence of “that Word.” The equal and opposite reaction would simply be a change of direction without intention and purpose except to collide with something else and so on and so forth. Everything “just was” until the Word was given. In the hands of the spiritual Craftsman, those elements began to take shape and have meaning and have purpose. It started small and began to grow with momentum into something wonderful and to all but the Craftsman- unimaginable. There was a design and the that design was for life. And that life became the light of every person. As John declares, “That light shines in the darkness and still the darkness has not found a way to overcome it.” (John 1.4)

The birth narratives then of John, Matthew and Luke are the evidences of how the darkness attempted to overcome the light of God’s mercy and grace. We can read the same in Isaiah 4.4-6 as God describes to Isaiah the consequences of God’s purpose of redemption. In the heat of the moment, God will protect. In the midst of the storm, God will give shelter. God was speaking to the dire situation Israel had found itself in. There were two solutions presented. The first solution showed how interacting with others without the “light of God” only promoted the continuation of the darkness. People collided with others in their walk of life and in return they collided with others and so on and so forth. Sure, they attempted to mitigate and mediate the interactions but only so far as they could purpose for themselves. They had no real control over others. Instead, they sought to maximize the return by minimizing the effort. The problem was, and is today as well, that it takes a great amount of effort to “be in control.” What is the option? Well, the second solution presented to Isaiah (and so then to Israel and by extension to us) was to submit to God’s purpose and design. Doing so does not expend effort in “being in control” but rather in “being under control.” I think this may be the mistaken perspective when we think of that newborn baby. Their cries may actually not be manipulations so as to get what they want (such as food, drink, nurture and a dry diaper) and thus be seen as controlling and annoying. When they were in the womb these needs were taken care of without asking. They were conceived under control. They had no choice in the matter and no means of providing for themselves nor an awareness of anything other than a symbiotic relationship. Considering that, their cries then were appeals to be in that “protection and shelter” as they first knew. They didn’t like being “out of control” and only had to be “in control” because they were not “under control.” What is it that those “seven women” were actually doing but rebelling against being under the control of others who did not have their best interests in mind such as foreign rulers or less competent local authorities. They knew the Law was to guide and protect but the conditions of the world were not allowing them to abide by that perfect scenario which it defined previously before they were out of control. So, they took control to make the best of the situation as possible. Not a perfect solution but a workable one. Unfortunately, it was a decision based on a lifestyle they had become accustomed to because the previous leadership was not “under control” but out of control in its attempt to be “in control.” That was the world which gave birth to the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees. They took control of how to use “the Law” to put others “under their control.” Their intention: to restore order and put chaos to rest. What was that chaos? It was anything which did not serve them. They would not submit but decreed that all others would submit to them. What happened? Well, theologically and politically (let’s say theocratically) they married themselves to other rulers just as their God-forsaking predecessors did. They didn’t improve the matter by acting as if they were in control when they had actually submitted themselves to foreign agencies such as the Parthians, the Medes, the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans. Their situation was worse and grew worse in the midst of that “tolerance” which Rome presented. It wasn’t tolerance as much as it was a “bait and switch.” This only validated the correctness of the second option: to be under God’s control.

Jesus is the evidence and the example of “being under God’s control.” The birth narratives of Jesus as the Christ were the stories of allowing God to be in control. They design and plan were already in place. They were actually already set in motion when “the Word” was spoken. That means from the very beginning it was known that the only true means of putting chaos at rest and bring all things to work together for good was to submit to the authority of the Word. Our “birth narrative” comes now in putting ourselves in submission to that very “Word” which is Jesus the Christ. As John declared, “Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” Our receiving and believing becomes our conceiving into the rightness, righteousness, of God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. To believe that Jesus the Christ came into the world as a baby is an act of faith. We submit our understanding of “how God could do it” the way we see it to “how God did it” as the “way, the truth and the life” as the only workable solution to the problem of chaos. To follow His journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem via that “Family Circus” travel plan is an act of faith. We submit ourselves to the revelation of God’s work and intention for redemption instead of our conception of how God should do it for me. For those, as I reflected on this morning in a different venue, who believe that faith can exist without works and used the Penitent Thief on the cross as the example, I responded with “his faith was work.” He confessed his sins and knew the conclusion of his life would not reflect the fulfillment of his hopes and dreams over which he took control. He professed Jesus as a righteous man and thus the Son of God with no intention of gaining anything for his own life but honoring the life he was about to die beside (and from some perspectives of height of the cross) to die under. He put himself under the control of Jesus because he refused to be in the control of Rome, Jewish legality or the crime of godlessness he knew he was guilty of. He defended his faith and that is the greatest work that could be done as it is an act and a work of sincere and fearless love.

As we progress through this Advent season maybe we should consider the work we are to do because we are under authority, the authority of the Word. It is the only Word that can truly save us as it did the penitent thief. Jesus said to him as He heard the defense of the gospel, “Today, you will join me in Paradise.” Mighty ones of God, we have only two choices: our way or God’s Way. Let’s use this season to be defenders of the faith that Jesus Christ is born. He was not only born but lived and died and was raised from the dead because He put Himself under the authority of God whose Word is life. For God, Christmas is about the giving. For us, it should be about the receiving…the new life, new world, new hope and new opportunities to live under control, not in control or out of control. We have allowed Advent and Christmas to be in and out of control. The Word of the gospel is a fly speck on the Christmas map in the eyes of the world. This is the evidence by which I speak. Shalom.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.