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* I love Christmas; I love almost everything about Christmas (except our tendencies toward over-indulgence). I love the sights (i.e. lights, décor), the smells (i.e. cookies, candles, etc.), the sounds (especially the carols: songs reserved for a special season). * I love what Christmas does to us as humans. I love the way it causes us to treat each other (unless you are in the retail business); how it causes us to wish each other the best (“Merry Christmas”…or “Happy Holidays” for the politically correct!). I love the spirit of generosity it evokes (i.e. Salvation Army bell ringers; charitable contributions: 439.5 Billion in retail sales). I love the spirit of forgiveness it evokes (allowing us to return those special somethings without explanation). * I love the way that Christmas seems to make us more “human”; a better reflection of who we were created to be. It reminds me of the inherent goodness which lies in all of God’s creation. * Although, I do have (2), “I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORES”… at Christmas: 1. A way to overcome the paranoia I feel as I try to avoid eye-contact with the bell-ringers; wanting desperately to somehow let them know that my failure to contribute is not representative of my lack of charity; that I just gave at the last store. Notice you always get a heartier “Merry Christmas” when you make a donation? (I recommend a sticker that says, “I gave today”, like voters get) 2. My quest to hear the traditional Christmas music sung in a recognizable fashion. - I don’t particularly care to hear someone like LL Eminem or Fifty Cent sing “Silent Night”. I’m somewhat of a purist when it comes to Christmas music and the National Anthem (I want to be able to recognize both when being performed). * Think about today’s story from Luke. I would like to listen as if you are hearing it for the first time. In this brief story, you are asked to enter the “mystery”… the “unexplainable”. * I ask you to enter the story (as it’s presented) with imagination and faith. Try to do it without imposing your own cynical conclusions or predetermined defensiveness. Text: Luke 1:26-38; Matt.1:18-24 (pages 991 & 933) * You are asked to believe in… …angels who converse with humans (with no mention of alcohol involved), …virgins who conceive children by God (not just any child, but the Son of God who will be king and reign over the whole earth, forever), … the guy that she’s engaged to (Joseph) actually believing her story and agreeing to stay with her, …finally, after hearing all of this, instead of having a total breakdown (and out of sheer delight), Mary bursts into song! * Admittedly, from a purely intellectual approach, this story is embarrassing; it makes us appear “naïve” or “gullible” for believing such things and foolish for inviting others to believe as well. Although, many of us here today are ready to embrace the story as reality, it still involves “mystery”. * The problem?: so much of what is taught as faith in the current context of the church, is more associated with “predictability” than “trust”; figuring out God and then praying or relating to Him in such a way as to ensure He will accommodate us. * But, “trust” is the RAW ELEMENT of faith; it allows us to live in the fog of our current reality, with little confirmation and often even less reason to believe…and yet, still trust God! That’s the mystery of trust. Many of us grew up in a society (or, era) which was uncomfortable with mystery. If it couldn’t be observed, measured, experimented on; if we couldn’t collect empirical data, IT WASN’T REAL. We mocked it and rejected it as myth or fantasy. * Currently, our culture is more receptive to mystery, because after measuring everything, tearing it apart and experimenting on it, it still has not satisfied the questions we are asking. It made us more willing to accept that there just might be a reality beyond the (5) senses. * By definition, mystery is “something previously hidden, not obvious to the understanding; something real, yet something not fully understood”. “Mystery” is not a puzzle, that if given enough time, we will solve. MYSTERY… …Is that which can be explained, but never fully understood, …Is what’s left when you run out of explanations, …Is that which cane never be defined, only experienced (like “love”), …Has an enduring quality to it which keeps us curious, but never satisfies our curiosity, - Involves the heart, not just the head (because the heart is where anything is possible), …Is story (Our need for proof beyond uncertainty eliminates the personal dimension; without the personal dimension, there is no relationship- no story! (I get the feeling that in our culture, we could get this mystery wrapped up fairly quickly…we’d get a DNA sample from Joseph to determine paternity), …Always expands our definition of “possible”. * In your life with God, there must be room for mystery. We all have questions that remain unanswered. There are some questions that were never meant to be answered (Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever…”) There are some questions that we have no business asking (Job 38 “Where were you?”). And, there are some questions that even IF answered, we’d never understand (Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all of you heart….”). * Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would be “wonderful” (Isaiah 9:6). The word “wonderful” literally means, “beyond comprehension”. * Maybe what’s missing from our theology is “IMAGINATION”. You’ll notice that Jesus’ primary method of reaching people was appealing to their imaginations (“The Kingdom of heaven is like…”) Colorful, simple stories about what life according to God looks like and what our lives would look like as we enter the story. IF REVELATION IS GOD’S WAY OF OFFERING TRUTH, THEN IMAGINATION IS OUR WAY OF RECEIVING IT. * Imagination is “the power of the mind to form a mental image”; it’s the picture making part of our mind. It’s the way that we illustrate our thoughts. Its our way of recreating the story; our way of entering the story. Even the story that we are considering today is the product of God’s colorful imagination. Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen”. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him- but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God”. * Imagination allows you to consider the entire realm of possibility without being limited by logic! I’m convinced that this is why God came to Joseph in a “dream” (“Trust me, Joseph, you are not going to want to be awake for this!”). * But, we must always be careful to balance God’s “otherness” (transcendence) with his “nearness” (immanence). Deep down, we all want there to be a God who is “other” than us and not totally explainable. We want him to know more, to be more powerful; to be accessible and present. We want a God who is not limited by our lack of faith; a God whose plan is never subjected to, or forfeited by, our stupid choices. A God who is bigger than our circumstances; who stands ABOVE them, but WITH us. RETURN TO MARY… I get the feeling that Mary didn’t hear much else after, “Surprise, you’re going to be pregnant!” * Mary has no idea growing up as a little girl she would be the fulfillment of the prophetic offered thousands of years prior (Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between your offspring and hers”). I imagine that she would often dream about her wedding and her future husband (she would grow up, win a spot on the “Bachelorette” and pick the rugged, handsome blue-collar worker from Nazareth). She would envision the ceremony and the celebration; now only to be told that she would become pregnant and alter all of her plans. “How will this be?” (Luke 1:34) * She even shamelessly admits she’s a virgin! Mary does something unusual…she agrees to God’s plan! She doesn’t say, “No”; she doesn’t even question the decision, she’s just curious about the means. “Help me understand” “DO YOU THINK THE EXPLANATION REALLY MATTERED?” (“OK, whatever!”) Reflections… Whatever seems impossible in your life is possible with God. Mary was looking at possibility through the realm of the explainable; the natural (i.e. her condition, her situation, her limitations). Issues in our lives always remain impossible as long as they are relegated to the explainable; the logica For things to become possible, you must believe…not just understand! (with faith, you believe first, then your faith leads to greater understanding). The miracle and mystery of Christmas only becomes reality to you as you believ Mystery is looking honestly at the limits of your current reality- dazed and confused- yet willing to believe anyway! Choosing to believe that God can accomplish his purposes on earth despite the limits that we often place on him. If we are honest, it’s not that we don’t want to believe, it’s just that we don’t want to be disappointed again. Imagination is closing your eyes and opening your heart! Closing your eyes to the physical limitations and opening your heart to the realm of possibilities with God’s intervention. The Christmas story (the Incarnation) allows us to understand that God is much closer and much more involved than we can imagine. * It’s only when we can imagine our life (our world) being different than it is, that we can realize (experience) the power of God to restore and recover our brokenness. We could possibly summarize the story of God with (4) words… CREATION…FALL…INCARNATION… RECREATION CREATION- God created the world and it brought great pleasure to him (he had imagined a world where people readily acknowledged him and returned his love); FALL- man, given the freedom to choose, did so and chose an alternative approach to life- life independent of God. That choice meant adopting another version of reality; meaning that, apart from God, we accept a deceptive version of what’s real. At this point, God could have just hit the “delete” button and started all over, but he chose to take the initiative to “enter his own story” (not only author, but participant) and restore all that had been forfeited by man’s choice of independence (INCARNATION). And, in Jesus, God made himself approachable; he had to in order to make a relationship with him possible. Therefore, he chose the most approachable path…a “baby”. Approachable, yet still mysterious; this was not just a cuddly, cooing infant…this was God in a diaper. RECREATION- at the end of human history, God will complete the rescue operation and restore all things to its created-order (everything will be fully functional!). Mystery is…God with us!
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