‘Familiarity breeds contempt’. There are celebrations like Christmas that initially fill us with awe. But as time goes on we become indifferent and sometimes even cynical about them.
Whenever familiarity produces contempt we are potentially in danger. We begin to accept things unthinkingly and our responses become automatic, disconnected. For example, amidst the familiar trappings of the lights and music of Christmas we can easily be blind and deaf to the explosive significance of the humility of God. We are so familiar with the birth of Jesus that we forget that it fulfilled God’s ancient promise that a young woman would bear a son whose name would be ‘Immanuel’ – God with us (Isaiah 7:14).
How would we respond if we celebrated Christmas only once every ten years?
It’s important we think about this, for Christmas celebrates the birth of a man who stands unique in history. We see it in the records of the integrity of his character, his compassion for the needy, the profundity yet simplicity of his teaching, and in the extraordinary powers he wielded.
Hegel, the German philosopher, commented, “One of the lessons of history is that we don’t learn from history”. Secular progressivism’s outright denial of the reality of the uniqueness of Christianity’s founder is one of the tragedies of our age. Jesus Christ is not just great: he is goodness incarnate. His voice is the voice we desperately need to hear and heed.
Yet such is our nature that we need to re-learn the truth about Jesus, generation to generation. It is easy to forget the lessons of the past. So we’re tempted to ask, ‘Is God really in control?’ ‘Does he really care?’ ‘Has he left us alone to fend for ourselves?’ ‘Is there any hope for the future?’
SIGNS
Back in the day of Isaiah the prophet, it would seem that these kinds of questions were in the mind of King Ahaz when he was confronted by the Assyrian threat on his northern border. It was in this situation that the prophet Isaiah spoke: ‘Keep calm Ahaz. God will give you a sign – any sign, all you have to do is ask’ (Isaiah 7: 10).
But Ahaz was not interested in any sign. Even though God had given him this special offer to demonstrate that history was in God’s control, Ahaz refused. 2 Kings 15 reveals that Ahaz chose to do it his way: he paid tribute to the Assyrian king in the hope the danger would go away. Ahaz turned his back on the familiar – the lessons of Israel’s past. Prayer and listening to God’s Word was not part of his response.
We can be like Ahaz. We ignore the enormous influence for good that Christianity has had on the western world and we look for human solutions and not God’s solutions. A study of God’s Word and prayer are not the way we respond to life’s challenges. We have allowed a liberal, secular progressivism to drive our thinking, even in our churches.
SECULAR PROGRESSIVISM
Yet what does this have to offer? In its apparent humanitarianism, secular progressivism appears to resemble Christianity in that it encourages tolerance, love, understanding and the relief of poverty and injustice. But at its center, it is myopic and cruel, because it teaches that this life is the only life. It ignores the lessons of history that reveal that God not only exists but that he has acted in great humility to serve our greatest need.
Secular progressivism fosters the current preoccupation with security which can infect us. The first Christians did not expect security! For them the incarnation and the events of the life, death, and resurrection were real. Their security, their life, were rooted in God and his Word. The daily insecurities of the decaying Roman Empire with its organized persecutions did not affect their basic confidence. They looked for the day when Christ would return. Indeed, they heeded Jesus’ words: “Stay awake at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).
Familiarity with the Christmas story can breed an indifference to the miracle of the incarnation. Are you praying that the Spirit of God will keep your faith fresh, confident in God’s promises? Are you praying that God’s Spirit will awaken hearts that have grown cold towards him because familiarity has bred contempt? Recent research shows that one-third of those who have not been in church for six months would accept an invitation to go to church. Christmas is a great time to invite them.
‘Christians should not fear speaking about their faith at work and in public places,’ Theresa May said last week (Telegraph, UK, 11/30/16). In his article Steven Swinford reported that the (British) Prime Minister ‘said people should be able to celebrate Christmas… Christianity should be “celebrated, not denigrated”’. The article went on to record Mrs. May saying that Christians should “jealously guard” their right to speak out about their faith as she endorsed a report by the Evangelical Alliance and the Lawyers Christian Fellowship.
According to the article, the Prime Minister commented, “Of course we are now into the season of Advent, and we have a very strong tradition in this country of religious tolerance and freedom of speech and our Christian heritage is something we can all be proud of.”
“I’m sure that we would all want to ensure that people at work do feel able to speak about their faith, and also be able to speak quite freely about Christmas,” Mrs May observed.
IT’S IMPORTANT WE THINK ABOUT THIS
Too often we are silenced by secular progressivism and its political correctness and are reluctant to speak to others about the good news of great joy of Christmas.
It’s helpful to consider one of the readings set for this Advent season.
Isaiah 35:1-2 reads:
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocusit shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
A central theme of Isaiah 1-39 is God’s judgment of his people. Occasionally a bright light shines in the dark scene of impending judgment on Judah (through the Babylonian conquest). Isaiah 35 is one such light, bringing God’s promise of a new day.
Isaiah’s poetry is powerful as he likens the experience of joy and singing at the coming of the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God, to our response when flowers burst into bloom in parched lands after a refreshing rain.
It is a vision that inspires courage and fearlessness: Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God..’ (35:3-4a).
But Isaiah 35 also continues to sound a warning note. Because God is holy he must judge what is unholy. In 35:4b we read, ‘…He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense…’ We would be happier to overlook this aspect of God’s character. We’d prefer to hear and pass on only a message of blessing – of justice without judgment, of salvation without a cross.
MERCY
The wonderful news is that the nature of the God of the Bible is always to have mercy. Isaiah continues: ‘…He will come and save you’ (35:4c). We have no power to save ourselves: spiritually we are blind, deaf, lame and mute (Isaiah 35:5-6). The great news is that God himself will build us a highway into his presence (not just into heaven)! God will bring us to our true and lasting home where there will be joy and gladness… sorrow and sighing shall flee far away (35:8, 10).
Isaiah uses the language of redeemed and ransomed of the Lord (35:9-10) to speak of everyone who is brought into God’s presence. These words look back to the rescue from Egypt; they also look forward to the saving work of Jesus Christ.
There is also something here that we miss. The highway to God is called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it… (35:8). Having been rescued we are now called upon to work at the quality of life that reflects the holiness of God. Paul the Apostle puts it this way: we all… beholding the glory of the Lord, will be transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Isaiah 35 is a great reading for Advent. We see in it another facet of Isaiah’s vision of the glory of the Lord as he points us to the glorious day of the final coming of the Lord. We can drink it in and take new courage as it speaks to us of the everlasting joy and gladness we will then know.
Surely this is news we will want family and friends to know – so they too will see glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
And, there is a present benefit: Theresa May observed that the report she was commending ‘warns that society is forgetting “that its many freedoms derive from centuries of applying the Bible to public life”.’
Writing in The Spectator (UK) last weekend (11/26/16), Ysenda Maxtone Graham drew attention to the season of Advent. She spoke of Advent as ‘a season of death, judgment, heaven and hell’.
Last Sunday, November 27, was Advent Sunday, the first Sunday in the yearly church calendar. The word advent, from the Latin advenire, means ‘to arrive at’ or ‘to reach’ (a destination). Advent speaks of the arrival of God’s king – not his first coming, as is usually thought but rather, his second.
ADVENT 2016
The focus of Advent is on the return of God’s King and a day of reckoning. The season of Christmas follows, reminding us that we are currently in the era of God’s mercy. As Jesus himself put it, with his first coming, he came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).
It is interesting that in our secular, material society, there is a lively interest in the season of Advent. In her article, Ysenda Maxtone Graham writes: ‘I relish the frisson of gloom, foreboding and fear of judgment you get at Advent, alongside the hope. “The Holly and the Ivy” is all very well, but it’s the minor chord at the end of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” that I crave.’
‘So do thousands of others,…’ she observes. ‘The Advent service at Salisbury Cathedral, for example, is so oversubscribed these days that it’s repeated on three consecutive evenings, starting on the Friday before Advent Sunday…’
‘More goose-pimples erupt in the naves and transepts of our cathedrals during the Advent service, than at any other in the liturgical year’, she comments. ‘It’s the mixture of bitterness and sweetness that does it,…’
It was Isaiah the prophet, writing in the 8th century BC, who was amongst the first of the prophets to speak, not only of the first coming of God’s Messiah (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7), but also the second coming, the return of God’s king (Isaiah 11:1-9).
Isaiah was disappointed with the corruption of the leaders of his day: they took bribes, ignored the poor and were unconcerned about justice. King Ahaz for example, had not only turned his back on God but had even used the Temple gold to pay tribute to Assyria in an attempt to halt its march on Jerusalem.
Yet in the midst of his prophecies concerning God’s judgment on Judah, Isaiah has a message of hope: A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, he says (11:1). Jesse was the father of David, the greatest of the Old Testament kings. Just as David had come from obscurity, so too another king would emerge. He would be even greater than David: The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord (11:2-3).
This king’s rule would be characterized by wisdom, understanding and knowledge. And central to his rule would be his willingness to learn from God. Corruption would not plague his government. And there would be no broken promises. It sounds too good to be true.
Isaiah continues: The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them (11:6). This king’s rule would also be marked by unprecedented peace.
But Isaiah doesn’t stop, for in 11:10-16 he goes on to portray people coming from every corner of the world to rally around this ruler. Centuries before Jesus came, Isaiah was opening a window on features of Jesus’ life. Wise men came from the Far East to pay him homage at his birth. And ever since, people from all over the world have been coming to him.
THE FUTURE
The numbers of people attending Advent services in London reveal the deceit of a progressive, secular liberalism which insists that life now is all there is. Such progressivism is cruel. It denies the reality of a day when perfect justice will be done. It also rejects what our hearts tell us – eternity exists (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
As I write, I am praying that we will all have a renewed commitment to shape our priorities, decisions, and relationships in the light of Jesus’ return. His return will happen when we least expect it.
Today is also St Andrew’s Day in the church calendar. It is a day when we recall the Apostle Andrew’s outreach – bringing his brother Peter, as well as others, to meet Jesus.
So, will you join me in a commitment to invite five people to meet Jesus this Christmas? If others around us do not hear how can they have a sure hope of an eternal future?
The joys, the bustle, the fun, and yes, sometimes the bitter-sweetness of Thanksgiving are once more upon us. Yet when we pause to reflect, it is truly a wonderful season. I find that as a general rule thankful people tend to be happy people. If we understand that we are designed for relationship and therefore community, it means we will be dependent on others for their part in the good things we enjoy. It makes sense that we express our gratitude to those around us.
The same is true of our relationship with God. In our makeup we humans are a good example of something that is greater than the sum of its parts. The complexity of our existence points to something that in our natural state we don’t like to acknowledge: we are the handiwork of a personal God. David the psalm-writer understood this. Consider his words in Psalm 103. He begins as he concludes: Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Significantly, he is not talking to God. Rather, he is talking to himself – to his soul. It’s not the first sign of madness. He’s telling himself things he knows he needs to remember. He knows he could easily forget the good things God has done for him. So, as he reflects, he speaks of God’s goodness and mercy, lest in times of depression – to which he was prone – he forgot the source of his prosperity and success.
THANKSGIVING
It’s something we need to think about – especially at Thanksgiving. God is so good to us in so many different ways: he provides what he knows we need; he chastens us when we deserve it. Above all, his nature is always to have mercy: he alone has initiated and done everything that is needed to restore our relationship with him.
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury at the time of Henry VIII, put it this way: “That all men may the better understand this sacrifice of Christ, which He made for the great benefit of all men, it is necessary to know the distinction and diversity of sacrifices… One kind of sacrifice there is which is called a propitiatory or merciful, that is to say, such a sacrifice as pacifieth God’s wrath and indignation, and obtaineth mercy and forgiveness for all our sins, and is the ransom of our redemption from everlasting damnation. And although in the old testament there were certain sacrifices called by that name, yet in very deed there is but one sacrifice whereby our sins be pardoned and God’s mercy and favour obtained, which is the death of the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ; nor ever was any other sacrifice propitiatory at any other time, nor ever shall be. This is the honour and glory of this our High Priest, wherein He admitteth neither partner nor successor. For by His own oblation He satisfied His Father for all men’s sins and reconciled mankind unto his grace and favour… another kind of sacrifice there is which doth not reconcile us to God, but is made of them that be reconciled by Christ, to testify our duties unto God, and to show ourselves thankful unto Him. And therefore they be called sacrifices of laud, praise, and thanksgiving. The first kind of sacrifice Christ offered to God for us; the second kind we ourselves offer to God by Christ” (Cranmer Works Vol. 1, quoted in PE Hughes, The Theology of the English Reformers, p.222).
SOLI DEO GLORIA
Because we live on the other side of the cross, we have much more reason than King David to bless the name of God. The cross of Jesus Christ reveals the depths of God’s love that is beyond measure. For on the cross we begin to see the grief that tore the heart of God because of our sin. Through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus our broken relationship is dealt with and we are raised to a new life forever.
Yet it is so easy to go to church, sing songs, say Amen to the prayers, but to have no real sense of thanksgiving in our hearts to God. Like David, we need to talk to ourselves. We need to let God’s truth shine on our innermost soul and awaken us to a living, vital, personal relationship with him, for God has done everything needed for our salvation – Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be the glory).
None of this means we can now live as we like. Cranmer rightly points us to the new lifestyle God expects us to adopt. Not only are we to glorify God and glory in what he has done for us in Christ with thanksgiving in our hearts, but we are also to honor him in the way we live. In Ephesians 2:10 Paul the Apostle puts it this way: For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Formerly we walked in trespasses and sins in which we were trapped. Now, in a spirit of thanksgiving, we are to walk in the good works that God has eternally created for us to do. When we wake in the morning we have every reason to ask: ‘Lord, what good works have you prepared for me to do today that I might glorify you?’
Reflecting on the American Presidential election last Tuesday my mind turned to Peggy Noonan’s Wall Street Journal article (11/05/16) that I quoted last week. In particular, note again: But he (God) is an actor in history also. He chastises and rescues, he intervenes in ways seen and unseen…
Perhaps for the first time in Western history, we lightly dismiss the idea of God’s involvement in human affairs. But Peggy Noonan’s words are consistent with how the Bible speaks of God.
In his address to the Athenian intelligentsia Paul says: From one ancestor he (God) made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:26-28a).
A CREATED UNIVERSE
The universe did not come into existence by random chance, Paul is saying. It’s a rather frightening thought, for it reverses what we want to think about our existence. If God exists, we would rather he did our will, and turned up only when we wanted him.
Furthermore, it’s too easy to say that God is distant or uncaring. ‘Not so,’ says Paul. ‘God is near you – nearer than you think. Quoting from a 6th century BC Greek poet, he points out: ‘In God we live and move and have our being.’ When events in our lives turn out very differently from what we expect, we need to pause and ask, ‘What should I learn from this?’
A MORAL UNIVERSE
Paul concludes his Athenian address with: ‘In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now God commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all people by raising him from the dead’ (Acts 17:30-31).
Yes, many today have a problem with the idea of God as judge. However as Winston Churchill observed, there has to be a hell to bring the likes of Trotsky, Stalin and Hitler to justice. And we could add to the list. Paul is saying that in appointing a day of reckoning for us all, God is being just. Indeed, without God’s moral constancy we have no hope of a future of perfect peace.
Elsewhere Paul sums up our human condition: We were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.But that is not the end of the story for Paul continues, But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us… (Ephesians 2:3-4)
Furthermore, he goes on: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
SOLA GRATIA
How easy it is to gloss over familiar words such as grace and faith. What Paul is saying here is complex, profound yet very simple. For in tying grace and faith tightly together, he is saying that God has done absolutely everything needed for our salvation. God’s grace, and the faith we come to have are divinely initiated and gifted. Our salvation, our reconciliation with God, is God’s work through and through.
This was something men like Luther, Calvin and Cranmer rediscovered in the 16th century. For centuries these truths had been overlaid by the doctrines of merit and good works, penances and payments (indulgences as they became known). It was taught that through these means people might be able to gain some acceptance with God.
But Paul’s, and the Scriptures’ clear teaching is that even the faith we have, is God’s gift alone. Every generation needs to grasp this vital wonder. In our human pride we like to think we can contribute to or offer something in the cause of our salvation. Ironically, this offers us no assurance of salvation.
With Reformers like Thomas Cranmer, we today need to be vigilant, ensuring that liturgies we promote are clear with respect to The Lord’s Supper, for example. Yet in many American churches, Cranmer’s second prayer book (1552 / 1662) is overlooked or simply ignored. Yet, it is this second prayer book – the one for which he died – that clearly and unambiguously sets out the central gospel truths of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, inChrist alone, revealed in the Scriptures alone.
In his Homily of Salvation (Works, Vol. II, p.130),Cranmer wrote: “Our justification doth come freely by the mere mercy of God, and so great and free mercy at that, whereas all the world was not able themselves to pay any part towards their ransom, it pleased our heavenly Father, of His infinite mercy, without any of our desert or deserving, to prepare for us the most precious jewels of Christ’s body and blood, whereby our ransom might be fully paid, the law fulfilled, and his justice fully satisfied”.
Let’s pray for the Spirit of God to awaken us afresh to heartfelt thankfulness to our God whose nature is always to have mercy.
