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TAKE ANOTHER LOOK INTO THE CHRISTMAS CRIB
Bible Reading: Luke 2: 22-40
SUMMARY:
If at Christmas we look into the crib and see only the historical Jesus a baby born in a far off place 2000 years ago then we have missed the point of Christmas. Jesus is born in our age as well.
We are not celebrating a birth 2000 years ago we are celebrating a loving God that is with us now and will lead us into the new millennium.
1. BACKGROUND:
When Simeon took Jesus in his arms he saw in the baby " the deliverance which thou hast made ready in full view of all the nations; a light that will be a revelation to the gentiles"
He declares Jesus to be the means of salvation for all people, Jews and gentile.
Simeon said to Mary: "This child is destined to be a sign which men reject; and you too shall be pierced to the heart. Many in Israel will stand and fall because of him, and thus the secret thoughts of many will be laid bare."
Anna the prophet gave thanks to God and talked about the child to all those who hoped for liberation of Jerusalem.
These two people of God saw in the baby Jesus
- the LIGHT of the world
- the SALVATION of all people
- the LIBERATOR of all people.
- The Messiah
When we looked into the crib yesterday did we see a baby born 2000 years ago Or did we have the eyes of Simeon and Anna?
2. STEPS OF FAITH:
To join Simeon and Anna in their vision of Jesus will require some amazing steps of faith.
Dare we take seriously the claim that Jesus is?
- the LIGHT of the world the LIGHT of the world
- the SALVATION of all people
- the LIBERATOR of all people.
- The Messiah
- This baby at Bethlehem, this scandal of a God/man.
- Is the story of the baby God possible?
- No it can't be. . But at least he was a good man and he did gives us some useful rules to live by… that's a reasonable position.
- HOWEVER, the Christian position calls us to except with Mary that this child is the Son of God.
- God, the creator of the universe now made man.
3. DARE WE BELIEVE THIS?
Personally, I find Christmas…the greatest test of my faith.
When we gaze at a nativity scene, I would like us just to pause and say; "Who was that baby there?
Because if we can say JESUS SON OF GOD there is no statement in the creed, that should EVER bother us again.
When we look at the crib, can we take up the belief that?
"The word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth and we beheld his glory as God the father"
This is the faith statement we are called on to consider at Christmas and as we take the full significance of Christmas into the New Millennium
For me the acceptance of the resurrection pails in to insignificance compared to the incredible happening, which we celebrate at Christmas.
When it came to see what the Easter events meant began then to work back to consider what had happened at the birth of Jesus. The resurrection caused the early church to appreciate the mighty act that happened at Christmas.
But we need to appreciate that without the mighty act of Christmas and the incarnation, the Easter events of the cross and the resurrection can not have their full meaning.
You see… at Easter we have just another good man crucified, if Jesus was not the Son of God.
At Christmas, we see God acting to redeem his people…He comes and breaks in to our world in a way that he had never done before.
- Gordon Dicker in "Faith with Understanding" said
- C.S.Lewis said in his book "The Miracles"
"The central miracle asserted by Christians is the incarnation. They said that man became God. Every other miracle prepares from this or revolts from this."
- The best I can offer in explanation of the miracle of Christmas is that we can, if we dare affirm with Christians, that:
- Trevor Hudson in "Signposts to Spirituality" states this another way as he discovers that his picture of God was dysfunctional.
- We must leave the baby in the crib behind and go into the 2000th year of the Lord knowing that the light of the world is not in the crib but within us.
- Jesus is being born again within us. He is being born in our age the new millennium.
- We go forwards with hope.
"Jesus was truly and magnificently human and that in him God was uniquely present and that these two orders of being were present in him in such a way that his humanity was in no way truncated nor his divinity in any way compromised."
(Gordon Dicker: Faith with Understanding)
We witness an incredible event as we gaze at the baby of Bethlehem.
4. WE MUST LEAVE THE BABY IN THE CRIB BEHIND
But we must leave the baby in the crib behind and go into the 2000th year of the Lord knowing that the light of the world is not in the crib but within us.
Here is the supreme paradox of faith and one with startling implications.
If God has become a man, then he is no longer a distant, demanding God only slightly interested in our affairs.
"Gradually it dawned upon me that I had come to view God as some kind of somewhat passive spectator in the balcony of my life, whose applause would only come in response to satisfactory performance"
But as we must leave the baby in the crib behind and into the 2000th year of the Lord know that the light of the world is not in the crib but within us. We can assert that:
He has become one with us, worked with hands, tripped on dusty roads and shared our fortune. Nothing that is good or true is foreign to him. Henceforth nothing human in foreign to God. The incarnation at Christmas put an end to any dichotomy between God and man.
God has not forsaken the creation of the human condition but is committed to it and has destined that it be without blemish and full of love.
The vision of Simeon and Anna was in our language saying that the entire universe is to be brought into unity with Christ.
Christians can not retreat to supernaturalism, which spurns the earth and ignores human responsibility for the sake of a place in a heaven to come.
God in our world means we follow his old commands
"Act justly, love kindness and walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)
"Let justice roll on like a river
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24)
The birth of Jesus means that God is not only in our world and calls us to seek his justice in our world --- but it goes further.
Christ traced the symptoms of the human condition to a deeper cause and wrestled with it to death and beyond --- beyond the tomb to eating fish by a lake
Give examples. Of Jesus with us. [Let the spirit lead]
CONCLUSION
When Simeon took Jesus in his arms he saw in the baby " the deliverance which thou hast made ready in full view of all the nations; a light that will be a revelation to the gentiles"
He declares Jesus to be the means of salvation for all people, Jews and gentile.
But I plead with you to think upon this miracle of Christmas and the way in which it is a time of hope.
It tells of a God of Love who became one with us. He came as a servant king. God was vulnerable in Jesus, yet ultimately victorious. God came, and is with us now, in ways that can help us most.
There is mystery here. We don't have all the answers. However our experience bears witness to the truth.
The wonder and incredible claim of Christmas can only be a cornerstone of a faith if it allows mystery.
We must leave the baby in the crib behind and go into the 2000th year of the Lord knowing that the light of the world is not in the crib but within us.
JW
25/12/99
