"Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing . . ."
-------------------------------------------------
So what does Christmas mean to us? I mean, what's the point of it all? "That's easy: Jesus' Birth. Everyone knows, 'Jesus is the Reason for the season!' " Ok. But what does Jesus' birth mean for us? Why is it such a big deal that we have basically a whole month of shopping and decorating and playing special carols leading up to one day on the calendar? Why is this birth so worthy of hanging wreaths and red bows, decorating trees and making cookies, licking candy canes and giving gifts and having an international holiday?
It's not enough to just say, "Yay! Jesus was born!" Think about it, the Jews knew Jesus was born, and Herod tried to kill him; thirty years later the religious elite did the same thing. Problem is, the Jews missed it. They were looking for a political hero, a warrior messiah who would overthrow the Roman government and give the Jews political freedom from their slavish oppressors. But they were dreaming too small.
See, Jesus' kingdom is not of this world-- it's bigger (and better) than that. Jesus' kingdom can't be boxed up with easily manageable terms like political freedom and capitalsim and democracy. Jesus didn't come to overthrow tyrannical governments or to set up national democracies or to promise His followers political freedom-- otherwise His disciples would have taken up the sword against the godless and oppressive Roman Empire. No, Jesus came offering a freedom far greater and more glorious than any star-spangled banner or democratic republic or aircraft carrier could ever afford. Freedom from Adam's curse.
As angel choirs sang in the Second Adam's humble birth in Bethlehem, a bell tolled throughout the earth, the death-knell of sin and death itself. The curse would be reversed. Jesus' birth, 33-year life, and death and resurrection on our fallen sod was only the beginning. But it was the beginning. Not just a shadow of things to come, the coming of the Messiah was the actual Kingdom come . . . and still coming. It's a progressive regeneration and the Church is still being built and the Kingdom is still spreading like yeast through bread dough, like the invasive mustard tree-- a tiny, insignificant, despised seed irresistibly taking over a whole neighborhood, region, world. This is what the birth of Christ signaled. The death of death, good news for the poor, comfort for the mourning, the healing of broken hearts, the quenching of thirst, the sating of hunger, sight for the blind, dances for the crippled and lame, freedom for the captives and oppressed, love for enemies-- the forgiveness of sins and justification through grace-- LIFE for the dead, "that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified!" (Is. 61:3)This is why we celebrate Christmas. So if we really believe what we spend so much time saying we believe, let us celebrate "the year of the LORD's favor" with all our hearts!
"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of GREAT JOY that will be for all the people . . ."
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!"
---------------------------------------
Check out Isaiah 61:1-3 (cf. Luke 4:16-19). Jesus is reversing the curse. He tears out the roots of Adam's curse as He takes on the curse on the cross, and puts an end to death a few days later when we walks out of His grave-- death's sting-remover.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
To Own a Kingdom
"Blessed are you poor for yours is the kingdom of God . . . But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full." -- Jesus
How can the possession, ownership, rights to the kingdom of God be compared to or contrasted with receiving comfort in full? We know that rich people can enter into the kingdom, so what does it mean for the kingdom of God to be "yours?"
I think sometimes we think of the kingdom in too concrete or "boxed-in" terms. Jesus compared the kingdom to many very different things, events, actions, people and said that it is here, coming, in us and among us. How do you box that up? All this cannot be packaged into something so cut and dry as eternal salvation or "heaven." Yes, the kingdom is, in part, heaven, and it is salvation, but it is also so much more. Ushered in by grace and love and received by given faith, the Kingdom is a lifestyle of love, of faith, of good deeds, of striving to be perfectly holy like our Lord and Father--a radical new value system.
The kingdom of Heaven, of God, is here, now. It is today, this generation; the redeemed lifestyle of the redeemed, we live now with hope, and we LIVE! We live by faith with confident hope toward a future and perfect life that knows no death. The kingdom of God is a preview taste today of a beautiful life to be lived in full tomorrow. We all intuitively know that there is something better--heaven, a kingdom--in another life to come, but Jesus tells us, "Yeah, that's coming and it's gonna be great, but, I'm telling you, the Kingdom's already here! Don't wait to start living that life--I'm here with you now!" The true children of the kingdom--the sons and daughters of God, the royal priesthood--are to be the incarnation of that kingdom and its Savior LORD. One writer says, "Believers are a dime-a-dozen nowadays. What the world needs is people who believe so much in another world that they cannot help but begin enacting it now."
An integral part of that present kingdom living is poverty. The freedom to be poor even if you have the means to great wealth. God calls some Christians to high incomes. Is that wrong? No. But He calls all kingdom children to use their income (whether high or low) to give freely to those in need. It is the means to spread the kingdom further and deeper. When we cling to our worldly wealth or use it for our own self-absorbed enjoyment and pleasure we are "receiving [our] comfort in full." (remember what Jesus said?) Woe to us! Complete ownership or possession of this fluid, conceptual, yet real Kingdom is only fully realized by embracing what would be considered poverty by the world. The freedom to be poor allows us to grasp (or own) fully the power, the pleasure, the joy and the beauty of, the betterness of this Kingdom. Only when we have relinquished our grip on this world's mammon and passing pleasures, on our own pride and self-righteousness and embraced the richness of Christ's holiness and pro-active love, the freedom of poverty can we really own the kingdom. When we are the poor (in so many physical and spiritual ways) then the kingdom of God will be ours!
How can the possession, ownership, rights to the kingdom of God be compared to or contrasted with receiving comfort in full? We know that rich people can enter into the kingdom, so what does it mean for the kingdom of God to be "yours?"
I think sometimes we think of the kingdom in too concrete or "boxed-in" terms. Jesus compared the kingdom to many very different things, events, actions, people and said that it is here, coming, in us and among us. How do you box that up? All this cannot be packaged into something so cut and dry as eternal salvation or "heaven." Yes, the kingdom is, in part, heaven, and it is salvation, but it is also so much more. Ushered in by grace and love and received by given faith, the Kingdom is a lifestyle of love, of faith, of good deeds, of striving to be perfectly holy like our Lord and Father--a radical new value system.
The kingdom of Heaven, of God, is here, now. It is today, this generation; the redeemed lifestyle of the redeemed, we live now with hope, and we LIVE! We live by faith with confident hope toward a future and perfect life that knows no death. The kingdom of God is a preview taste today of a beautiful life to be lived in full tomorrow. We all intuitively know that there is something better--heaven, a kingdom--in another life to come, but Jesus tells us, "Yeah, that's coming and it's gonna be great, but, I'm telling you, the Kingdom's already here! Don't wait to start living that life--I'm here with you now!" The true children of the kingdom--the sons and daughters of God, the royal priesthood--are to be the incarnation of that kingdom and its Savior LORD. One writer says, "Believers are a dime-a-dozen nowadays. What the world needs is people who believe so much in another world that they cannot help but begin enacting it now."
An integral part of that present kingdom living is poverty. The freedom to be poor even if you have the means to great wealth. God calls some Christians to high incomes. Is that wrong? No. But He calls all kingdom children to use their income (whether high or low) to give freely to those in need. It is the means to spread the kingdom further and deeper. When we cling to our worldly wealth or use it for our own self-absorbed enjoyment and pleasure we are "receiving [our] comfort in full." (remember what Jesus said?) Woe to us! Complete ownership or possession of this fluid, conceptual, yet real Kingdom is only fully realized by embracing what would be considered poverty by the world. The freedom to be poor allows us to grasp (or own) fully the power, the pleasure, the joy and the beauty of, the betterness of this Kingdom. Only when we have relinquished our grip on this world's mammon and passing pleasures, on our own pride and self-righteousness and embraced the richness of Christ's holiness and pro-active love, the freedom of poverty can we really own the kingdom. When we are the poor (in so many physical and spiritual ways) then the kingdom of God will be ours!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)