Christmas Day
December 25, 2004
What song shall we sing?
The psalmist says,
Sing to the LORD a new song!
A new song?
What’s wrong with the old song?
What’s wrong with what we usually sing?
Why do we need a new melody, new words, new instruments?
Was there something missing in our old song,
Something not quite right about what we used to say?
Because the psalmist says,
Sing to the LORD a new song!
The old poet, Calverley, reminds us of what our old songs are like,
All day I sang; of love, of fame,
Of fights our fathers fought of yore,
Until the thing almost became
A bore.
In this poem called, “Changed,”
He, too, means for us to get rid of the old songs,
To be done singing of earthly loves,
Love that is more about desire and lust than about true love.
The poet urges us to be done singing about fame.
Fame, fame, fatal fame,
It can play hideous tricks on the brain, (as another singer said),
And Calverley says to put away our fight songs, our songs of bravado,
Our songs of the glories of war,
To sing of fighting and defeating
Goes against all of those songs of love.
No, the poet has become bored with such songs,
Focused only on ourselves, our wants, our small-minded ideas of the world,
So Calverley sets aside those songs, saying,
I cannot sing the old songs now!
It is not that I deem them low;
’Tis that I can't remember how
They go.
The old poet seems to be just complaining of old age, forgetfulness,
But could it be that he’s made himself to forget,
Made himself set aside all of those old desires,
Made himself stop singing those songs he liked,
Knowing that those old songs led him away from God?
So then the old poet, Calverley, more than 2000 years later,
Joins the psalmist who says,
Sing to the LORD a new song!
Look up from your songs about lust, desire, fame, and war,
Look up and see that the Lord has replaced those old songs,
Look up today, Christmas Day, and see the Savior born.
This is your new song,
This is why we don’t sing the old songs,
This is why we come today,
This is why our melodies and words and voices and instruments have changed.
This is why we ring the bells, play the chimes, and blow the organ pipes.
Jesus is born this day,
Come to save us from our sins, our lust for love, fame, and war,
Jesus is born to release us from death’s dungeon door,
And so today the psalmist says,
Sing to the LORD a new song!
The music is revealing
The wondrous event that has happened,
The old hymn writer, Faber, gives us lyrics for our new song,
Words for the new song bursting on Christmas Day,
Hark! Hark, my soul! angelic songs are swelling
O'er earth's green fields and ocean's wave-beat shore:
How sweet the truth those blessed strains are telling
Of that new life when sin shall be no more!
Angels of Jesus, angels of light,
Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night!
Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night!
A new song to accompany the birth of Jesus,
Music of the angels heard by the shepherds in the fields;
A new song to announce the Good News
That we shall not die forever, we shall not die in our sins,
We shall have a new life without sin, without judgment, a new life forever;
Music of the angels heard by God’s faithful ones on the Last Day,
Music to welcome the pilgrims of the night,
Welcome us to eternal life on the new earth.
Faber’s hymn says,
Angelic songs are swelling
O'er earth's green fields and ocean's wave-beat shore,
The psalmist says,
Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless His name;
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
Let the sea and everything in it roar like thunder.
Let the fields and everything in them rejoice.
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
This new song, this music of the angel choirs,
This new song, these lyrics of the old hymn writer,
This new song, the melodies we raise today,
This new song goes all across the Earth,
Celebrating the Lord on Christmas Day!
Even the sky and the sea and the fields and the trees
Make noises that are music to praise the Lord.
So now we know, what song shall we sing?
The psalmist says,
Sing to the LORD a new song!
The old poet says,
Forget the old songs!
The old hymn writer says,
Angelic songs are swelling!
But what is this new song about?
What new words, what new message could this song have?
Because I have this feeling
That when the psalmist said to sing something new,
He was thinking there was something new to say.
The old poet, Calverley, reminded us that our old songs
Were boring tales of love, fame, and war,
Songs that repeatedly showed just how sinful we were,
Songs that showed that we had no direction,
Songs that don’t bear repeating,
Because in the end,
In the brutal, bitter end,
Those songs would condemn us to hell,
Condemn us before God’s judgment,
Those songs would offer us no hope,
Because they tell us nothing about how to escape
The wrath of God on the Last Day.
Surely, the psalmist had something else in mind
When he began to sing a new tune;
Surely, the psalmist had heard a new message,
A message which completely replaced the doom of the old songs;
When the psalmist sings,
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
Bring an offering, and come into his courts!
There the psalmist is urging everyone to come forward,
To give honor to God,
To give God the highest honors,
Because there’s a new message, a new song, a new hope.
The psalmist says,
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
Tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
His marvelous works among all the peoples!
It’s the message of salvation that sparks this new song;
It’s God’s marvelous works, the way He comes to save His people,
It’s the way He reaches out to all nations,
Wanting to pluck everyone from the snarling mouth of the lion;
A new song will declare His glory,
And God’s glory is this: He saves His people from sin, death, and the devil.
The psalmist says,
Tell of his salvation from day to day,
And the old hymn writer, Faber, does just that,
Onward we go, for still we hear them singing,
'Come, weary souls, for Jesus bids you come;'
And through the dark, its echoes sweetly ringing,
The music of the Gospel leads us home.
Angels of Jesus, angels of light,
Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night!
Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night!
Faber’s hymn in just one line
Reminds us of what a tremendous new song we sing,
Come, weary souls, for Jesus bids you come.
The doors of heaven are open wide,
Jesus has busted down those doors that kept us outside;
The arms of God the Father are open wide,
Jesus has brought us back into the family of God;
You may struggle and strain under the pressures of sin in this life,
But in your weariness, in your brokenness,
Jesus brings the new message:
Come! Come and be welcomed! Come and be loved!
Come and find freedom!
Come and find your way home.
And then you see, this new song, this new message,
This is what you need to hear on Christmas morning.
As Faber says,
The music of the Gospel leads us home.
You are the pilgrims of the night,
You are the wandering ones, traveling through life’s cruel misfortunes,
You are the ones who continue walking through this minefield of sin,
You are the pilgrims, waiting and watching for the new shores,
The new mountain,
The new streets,
Your new home with your God.
Today sing the new songs of Christmas,
Declaring the birth of our Lord,
Sing the music of the Gospel this day,
Sing the new songs, sing the new message,
Sing of the birth of our Savior who conquered our old songs of sin,
Sing today and hear how the Gospel leads you to eternal life.
Because in that music of the Gospel,
You can hear the angel choirs singing,
Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night,
As we prepare to arrive at home, home with our God,
As we prepare to rest in the new world with our Lord,
As we prepare to sing this new song for eternity.
Rest comes at length: though life be long and dreary,
The day must dawn, and darksome night be past;
Faith's journey ends in welcome to the weary,
And heaven, the heart's true home, will come at last.
Angels of Jesus, angels of light,
Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night!
Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night!
For text and music of Faber's hymn, go to the National Library of Australia.
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Romans 1:1-7 - “Christmas Letter Writing Workshop”
4th Sunday in Advent (Year A - LCMS Readings)
Saturday, December 18, and Sunday, December 19, 2004
Christmas Letter Writing Workshop
Lesson #1: How to Begin
Instructor: Paul
Textbook: Paul’s Letter to the Romans (1:1-7)
Imagine opening up a schedule of community education classes, and there you see that a Christmas Letter Writing Workshop is being offered. Where it lists the name of the instructor, all it says is Paul. The only textbook the class requires is Paul’s letter to the Romans. This Christmas Letter Writing Workshop must be taught by Paul, St. Paul, the Apostle Paul, the early Christian missionary.
You dig out your Bible to look at the class textbook, Paul’s letter to the Romans. From what you remember, the book of Romans in the Bible is a rather long letter. If you had to be honest, Paul’s letter to the Romans is quite dry, a little boring, requiring a little too much, you know, thinking for a holiday letter. You just can’t quite imagine the letter to the Romans printed on paper with Christmas trees, with snow, with red and green on it. You certainly wouldn’t write a letter like that for your Christmas letter; what would your family think? They’d think you’re preachy, long-winded, and not very fun. Certainly they’d rather have a letter about your summer vacations, the kids, or the house. They’d probably even rather hear about cleaning your garage instead of something like Paul’s letter.
You look at the community ed class schedule again. Even though you don’t think you’re really going to write a Christmas letter based on how Paul writes, and even though you already wrote, signed, and mailed this year’s letter, you decide that you’re too curious to pass it up. You decide to go to class and find out how Paul would tell you to write a Christmas letter.
You get to the Christmas Letter Writing Workshop, and on each desk, there’s some Christmas-themed paper and a pen. There’s a message on the whiteboard in the front of the room: “Your instructor, Paul, is unable to be here today. He wasn’t feeling up to it.” Under this message, it gives the day’s assignment: “Lesson #1: How to Begin. Read Romans 1:1-7. Using Paul’s beginning as a model, start your own Christmas letter.”
Well, your first thought is to leave. Yet, you’re still just so curious about how it is that Paul’s letter could have anything to do with your own Christmas letter, so you take a seat at a desk. You pull out your Bible, your textbook, and find the letter to the Romans in the New Testament. You read the first seven verses, the verses that supposedly will tell you how to begin a Christmas letter. You read:
Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
[The Gospel] which [God] promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, about His Son, who was descended from the seed of David according to the flesh and was designated as the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness as a result of His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience that comes from faith among all the nations for the sake of His name, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s a lot for the beginning of a letter, but you decide there’s got to be some ideas to take from it. You take a piece of the Christmas-themed paper, and write some notes. You see that Paul’s letter teaches us about how to talk; how to talk about 1) ourselves, 2) Jesus, and 3) other people. Even if you don’t leave this Christmas Letter Writing Workshop with a new Christmas letter, maybe your notes will end up helping you see how your faith in Jesus changes how you see yourself, how you see others, and how you see Jesus working in your life.
#1 – How does Paul talk about himself? He doesn’t talk about being a tentmaker, a world traveler, or a Roman citizen. Instead, Paul talks about how he has been called by God, set apart for the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ. Paul focuses on how God chose him to tell others about Jesus. In fact, Paul is willing to call himself a slave of Jesus Christ. By saying that he’s a slave, he’s saying that he is completely owned by Jesus, that he has no standing apart from Christ.
Are you willing to identify yourself like that? What would it mean to start a letter talking about how God has chosen you to share your faith with other people? What would people think if instead talking about your job, your school, your hobbies, the things people usually know about you, what would people think if instead you told them how God has really been using you to tell others about His love? What if you said that you were a slave of Jesus?
People would think you’re a freak. Plain and simple. To talk about yourself as being a slave of Jesus sounds like you’re a zealot, you’re overly committed, you’re so involved in your faith that you can’t relate to the rest of the world.
That’s what people might think, but wouldn’t that be something to always define yourself as a slave, a servant, a messenger of Jesus? It might shock them to hear it; it might make them pause and wonder if you’re really in touch with the world around you; it would be a very strange way to start a Christmas letter.
However, just as Paul, a slave of Jesus, talks a lot in his letter on how his faith does relate to everyday life, so too people might be shocked when you call yourself a slave of Jesus, but if they keep reading your letter, if they keep talking to you, won’t they find that you are a regular person with a regular life with regular problems who enjoys regular things but who also happens to be very dedicated to Jesus?
Paul doesn’t call himself a slave of Jesus and then kind of act like he has nothing in common with the people reading his letter. Paul admits that he is the same as the Christians in Rome. He shares the same struggles with sin, the same need for forgiveness, the same temptations, the same confusions, the same difficulties of remaining committed to his faith.
As you stare at your notes written on that Christmas-themed paper, you write in big letters: I AM A SLAVE OF JESUS. You decide that whether in Christmas letters or your conversations, you’re going to be bold this Christmas in telling people that you follow Jesus. But you’re also going to be ready to admit your failures, your struggles, the times when you have trouble believing that God really forgives you. In other words, you’re going to tell people that you are a dedicated follower of Jesus who understands regular life.
So then it is onto the next step in your notes for the Christmas Letter Writing Workshop. #2 – How does Paul talk about Jesus? Paul says that he is a slave of Jesus, called to share the Gospel, and then he explains what the Gospel is, the Good News, the message of Jesus.
The Gospel is ancient, eternal; God promised through the prophets of the Old Testament to send a Savior. This message of Jesus isn’t something that was made up a few centuries ago; it goes back to the beginning.
The Gospel is about God’s Son, Jesus. First and foremost, it is about Jesus, what Jesus did. The message isn’t Gospel if it only talks about what we do, about following commandments, about doing the right things. The Gospel is about Jesus.
It is Good News to know that Jesus is both man and God. Paul explains that Jesus was a descendent, from the family of David, was born in the flesh, and so Jesus is true man. Yet, Jesus is also the Son of God, the One who has the power of God, the One who has the Spirit of holiness, the One who had the power to rise from the dead.
Then suddenly Paul starts talking about stuff that sounds like he’s talking about us. “We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience that comes from faith.” You pause a little bit in taking notes, because it seemed like Paul was focused on explaining who Jesus is in this section. This phrase doesn’t seem to fit, though, until you remember what your English teacher, your grammar teacher would want you to realize: God is the actor in the phrase. Yes, it says, “We have received,” we were given grace, we were given apostleship, but that must mean that someone gave us those things. God is the actor. We’re still talking about Jesus and what He does. Jesus gives us the gift of forgiveness; Jesus makes us apostles, sent out to share His Word; Jesus gives us faith that leads to obeying Him. God is the actor.
This is something you want everyone to hear when you talk about Jesus. Even when you talk about your faith, about how you try to follow God’s will, you want people to know that Jesus is the actor, Jesus is the One working in your life, Jesus gives you the faith in your heart.
As you pull apart these phrases, as you try to understand how Paul talks about Jesus and the Gospel, you realize that Paul’s letter is making you think about changing the way you talk about Jesus. You’re going to try to be very straightforward in your Christmas letters or your conversations that the Gospel is about Jesus, the God-man, the Savior, the One who came to save us.
That takes you to the last phrases in that section where Paul makes the transition to start talking about the people reading his letter. Jesus came to bring His faith, His grace and forgiveness to all nations, all people, “including you,” Paul says, meaning the Roman Christians, “including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”
So that takes you to the last section of your notes for the Christmas Letter Writing Workshop. #3 – How does Paul talk about other people? Other people are included. Paul sounds like such a Jesus freak when he calls himself a slave of Jesus, and it may seem like Paul’s closed off to other people, but here you realize that it simply isn’t true. Paul’s got other people in mind from the beginning. God has worked faith in Paul’s heart, giving Paul a heart for other people, wanting all nations to come and find the forgiveness and hope in Jesus Christ.
Other people are included, and they also receive wondrous gifts from the Lord. Paul says that they “are loved by God and called to be saints.” Different than any Christmas letter you might write, Paul is writing to people he’s never met, people he’s only heard about, and yet, he doesn’t hold anything back. The Christians in Rome are loved by God. The Christians in Rome are saints, holy ones.
How can he talk about these people as saints, as holy ones, when he doesn’t even know them or what they actions are really like? It goes back to what Paul knows about Jesus. Jesus makes us holy. Our actions might not always be right, but when God sees us, when God sees faith in our hearts, He sees the holiness of Jesus instead of our sins. How can Paul call these people saints? Because God calls them saints; because Paul knows that through faith these people have the holiness of Jesus.
This really gets you thinking about what it would mean to talk about other people this way in your future Christmas letters or when you talk to people during this Christmas season. Instead of always reserving the right to reject people, instead of always remembering their faults, instead of making people prove themselves with their actions, instead of second-guessing whether people truly are faithful, Paul’s letter in this Christmas Letter Writing Workshop has got you thinking about talking about other people as chosen by God, loved by God, made holy by God.
You’re back to thinking that someone’s going to call you a Jesus freak, but really, what would happen if you openly told people that God loved them, that they didn’t have to do anything to earn God’s love or your love, that they had a place in God’s family because of Jesus?
Someone’s going to ask what the catch is. Someone else is going question whether all of these people you talk to are really meant to be in God’s house. Still someone else may doubt that God could really love them that way. When you say that God wants to include all people in His kingdom, some people may disagree with you, doubt you, challenge you, murmur under their breath, saying that you’re being far too welcoming.
Yet, when you go back to look at what Paul wrote, the words that God gave Paul to write, you’re convinced that this is the way to talk about other people. God has sent His Gospel to save people among all nations. When God says He will save us from our sins, all people are included; God wants to include all people in His salvation. He is calling and inviting all people to come to faith.
You look up from your desk in the community ed classroom and realize that you’re well past the class time. You’ve got some great notes written all over that Christmas-themed paper, but you’re still not so sure that you’ll actually write your next Christmas letter like this. You do, however, leave that day realizing that you want to change the way you talk, change the way you talk about yourself, Jesus, and other people. You are a slave of Jesus, Jesus who came to give you the gift of life after death, Jesus who came to give that gift to other people too.
Paul’s letter to the Romans might not look like a Christmas letter, but you realize that his letter just got you focused back on the reason Jesus was born: to save all people from their sins.
You decide that you’ll come back again to the community ed class, whether or not Paul ever shows up, because his textbook is really helping you understand what it means to believe in the babe born in a stable on Christmas Day.
Saturday, December 18, and Sunday, December 19, 2004
Christmas Letter Writing Workshop
Lesson #1: How to Begin
Instructor: Paul
Textbook: Paul’s Letter to the Romans (1:1-7)
Imagine opening up a schedule of community education classes, and there you see that a Christmas Letter Writing Workshop is being offered. Where it lists the name of the instructor, all it says is Paul. The only textbook the class requires is Paul’s letter to the Romans. This Christmas Letter Writing Workshop must be taught by Paul, St. Paul, the Apostle Paul, the early Christian missionary.
You dig out your Bible to look at the class textbook, Paul’s letter to the Romans. From what you remember, the book of Romans in the Bible is a rather long letter. If you had to be honest, Paul’s letter to the Romans is quite dry, a little boring, requiring a little too much, you know, thinking for a holiday letter. You just can’t quite imagine the letter to the Romans printed on paper with Christmas trees, with snow, with red and green on it. You certainly wouldn’t write a letter like that for your Christmas letter; what would your family think? They’d think you’re preachy, long-winded, and not very fun. Certainly they’d rather have a letter about your summer vacations, the kids, or the house. They’d probably even rather hear about cleaning your garage instead of something like Paul’s letter.
You look at the community ed class schedule again. Even though you don’t think you’re really going to write a Christmas letter based on how Paul writes, and even though you already wrote, signed, and mailed this year’s letter, you decide that you’re too curious to pass it up. You decide to go to class and find out how Paul would tell you to write a Christmas letter.
You get to the Christmas Letter Writing Workshop, and on each desk, there’s some Christmas-themed paper and a pen. There’s a message on the whiteboard in the front of the room: “Your instructor, Paul, is unable to be here today. He wasn’t feeling up to it.” Under this message, it gives the day’s assignment: “Lesson #1: How to Begin. Read Romans 1:1-7. Using Paul’s beginning as a model, start your own Christmas letter.”
Well, your first thought is to leave. Yet, you’re still just so curious about how it is that Paul’s letter could have anything to do with your own Christmas letter, so you take a seat at a desk. You pull out your Bible, your textbook, and find the letter to the Romans in the New Testament. You read the first seven verses, the verses that supposedly will tell you how to begin a Christmas letter. You read:
Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
[The Gospel] which [God] promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, about His Son, who was descended from the seed of David according to the flesh and was designated as the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness as a result of His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience that comes from faith among all the nations for the sake of His name, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s a lot for the beginning of a letter, but you decide there’s got to be some ideas to take from it. You take a piece of the Christmas-themed paper, and write some notes. You see that Paul’s letter teaches us about how to talk; how to talk about 1) ourselves, 2) Jesus, and 3) other people. Even if you don’t leave this Christmas Letter Writing Workshop with a new Christmas letter, maybe your notes will end up helping you see how your faith in Jesus changes how you see yourself, how you see others, and how you see Jesus working in your life.
#1 – How does Paul talk about himself? He doesn’t talk about being a tentmaker, a world traveler, or a Roman citizen. Instead, Paul talks about how he has been called by God, set apart for the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ. Paul focuses on how God chose him to tell others about Jesus. In fact, Paul is willing to call himself a slave of Jesus Christ. By saying that he’s a slave, he’s saying that he is completely owned by Jesus, that he has no standing apart from Christ.
Are you willing to identify yourself like that? What would it mean to start a letter talking about how God has chosen you to share your faith with other people? What would people think if instead talking about your job, your school, your hobbies, the things people usually know about you, what would people think if instead you told them how God has really been using you to tell others about His love? What if you said that you were a slave of Jesus?
People would think you’re a freak. Plain and simple. To talk about yourself as being a slave of Jesus sounds like you’re a zealot, you’re overly committed, you’re so involved in your faith that you can’t relate to the rest of the world.
That’s what people might think, but wouldn’t that be something to always define yourself as a slave, a servant, a messenger of Jesus? It might shock them to hear it; it might make them pause and wonder if you’re really in touch with the world around you; it would be a very strange way to start a Christmas letter.
However, just as Paul, a slave of Jesus, talks a lot in his letter on how his faith does relate to everyday life, so too people might be shocked when you call yourself a slave of Jesus, but if they keep reading your letter, if they keep talking to you, won’t they find that you are a regular person with a regular life with regular problems who enjoys regular things but who also happens to be very dedicated to Jesus?
Paul doesn’t call himself a slave of Jesus and then kind of act like he has nothing in common with the people reading his letter. Paul admits that he is the same as the Christians in Rome. He shares the same struggles with sin, the same need for forgiveness, the same temptations, the same confusions, the same difficulties of remaining committed to his faith.
As you stare at your notes written on that Christmas-themed paper, you write in big letters: I AM A SLAVE OF JESUS. You decide that whether in Christmas letters or your conversations, you’re going to be bold this Christmas in telling people that you follow Jesus. But you’re also going to be ready to admit your failures, your struggles, the times when you have trouble believing that God really forgives you. In other words, you’re going to tell people that you are a dedicated follower of Jesus who understands regular life.
So then it is onto the next step in your notes for the Christmas Letter Writing Workshop. #2 – How does Paul talk about Jesus? Paul says that he is a slave of Jesus, called to share the Gospel, and then he explains what the Gospel is, the Good News, the message of Jesus.
The Gospel is ancient, eternal; God promised through the prophets of the Old Testament to send a Savior. This message of Jesus isn’t something that was made up a few centuries ago; it goes back to the beginning.
The Gospel is about God’s Son, Jesus. First and foremost, it is about Jesus, what Jesus did. The message isn’t Gospel if it only talks about what we do, about following commandments, about doing the right things. The Gospel is about Jesus.
It is Good News to know that Jesus is both man and God. Paul explains that Jesus was a descendent, from the family of David, was born in the flesh, and so Jesus is true man. Yet, Jesus is also the Son of God, the One who has the power of God, the One who has the Spirit of holiness, the One who had the power to rise from the dead.
Then suddenly Paul starts talking about stuff that sounds like he’s talking about us. “We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience that comes from faith.” You pause a little bit in taking notes, because it seemed like Paul was focused on explaining who Jesus is in this section. This phrase doesn’t seem to fit, though, until you remember what your English teacher, your grammar teacher would want you to realize: God is the actor in the phrase. Yes, it says, “We have received,” we were given grace, we were given apostleship, but that must mean that someone gave us those things. God is the actor. We’re still talking about Jesus and what He does. Jesus gives us the gift of forgiveness; Jesus makes us apostles, sent out to share His Word; Jesus gives us faith that leads to obeying Him. God is the actor.
This is something you want everyone to hear when you talk about Jesus. Even when you talk about your faith, about how you try to follow God’s will, you want people to know that Jesus is the actor, Jesus is the One working in your life, Jesus gives you the faith in your heart.
As you pull apart these phrases, as you try to understand how Paul talks about Jesus and the Gospel, you realize that Paul’s letter is making you think about changing the way you talk about Jesus. You’re going to try to be very straightforward in your Christmas letters or your conversations that the Gospel is about Jesus, the God-man, the Savior, the One who came to save us.
That takes you to the last phrases in that section where Paul makes the transition to start talking about the people reading his letter. Jesus came to bring His faith, His grace and forgiveness to all nations, all people, “including you,” Paul says, meaning the Roman Christians, “including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”
So that takes you to the last section of your notes for the Christmas Letter Writing Workshop. #3 – How does Paul talk about other people? Other people are included. Paul sounds like such a Jesus freak when he calls himself a slave of Jesus, and it may seem like Paul’s closed off to other people, but here you realize that it simply isn’t true. Paul’s got other people in mind from the beginning. God has worked faith in Paul’s heart, giving Paul a heart for other people, wanting all nations to come and find the forgiveness and hope in Jesus Christ.
Other people are included, and they also receive wondrous gifts from the Lord. Paul says that they “are loved by God and called to be saints.” Different than any Christmas letter you might write, Paul is writing to people he’s never met, people he’s only heard about, and yet, he doesn’t hold anything back. The Christians in Rome are loved by God. The Christians in Rome are saints, holy ones.
How can he talk about these people as saints, as holy ones, when he doesn’t even know them or what they actions are really like? It goes back to what Paul knows about Jesus. Jesus makes us holy. Our actions might not always be right, but when God sees us, when God sees faith in our hearts, He sees the holiness of Jesus instead of our sins. How can Paul call these people saints? Because God calls them saints; because Paul knows that through faith these people have the holiness of Jesus.
This really gets you thinking about what it would mean to talk about other people this way in your future Christmas letters or when you talk to people during this Christmas season. Instead of always reserving the right to reject people, instead of always remembering their faults, instead of making people prove themselves with their actions, instead of second-guessing whether people truly are faithful, Paul’s letter in this Christmas Letter Writing Workshop has got you thinking about talking about other people as chosen by God, loved by God, made holy by God.
You’re back to thinking that someone’s going to call you a Jesus freak, but really, what would happen if you openly told people that God loved them, that they didn’t have to do anything to earn God’s love or your love, that they had a place in God’s family because of Jesus?
Someone’s going to ask what the catch is. Someone else is going question whether all of these people you talk to are really meant to be in God’s house. Still someone else may doubt that God could really love them that way. When you say that God wants to include all people in His kingdom, some people may disagree with you, doubt you, challenge you, murmur under their breath, saying that you’re being far too welcoming.
Yet, when you go back to look at what Paul wrote, the words that God gave Paul to write, you’re convinced that this is the way to talk about other people. God has sent His Gospel to save people among all nations. When God says He will save us from our sins, all people are included; God wants to include all people in His salvation. He is calling and inviting all people to come to faith.
You look up from your desk in the community ed classroom and realize that you’re well past the class time. You’ve got some great notes written all over that Christmas-themed paper, but you’re still not so sure that you’ll actually write your next Christmas letter like this. You do, however, leave that day realizing that you want to change the way you talk, change the way you talk about yourself, Jesus, and other people. You are a slave of Jesus, Jesus who came to give you the gift of life after death, Jesus who came to give that gift to other people too.
Paul’s letter to the Romans might not look like a Christmas letter, but you realize that his letter just got you focused back on the reason Jesus was born: to save all people from their sins.
You decide that you’ll come back again to the community ed class, whether or not Paul ever shows up, because his textbook is really helping you understand what it means to believe in the babe born in a stable on Christmas Day.
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Isaiah 44 and 60 (selected verses) - "Don't Worship the Tree"
Isaiah 44:14-15,18-22, 60:1-2,16b,19
Advent Midweek
Wednesday, December 8, 2004
(Bring in 2 pieces of wood)
The carpenter cuts down a tree. With half of the wood (put piece of wood down), he builds a fire to cook his food, bake his bread, keep himself warm. With the other half of the wood, the wood from the same tree, the carpenter makes an idol, a god. He worships the idol, kneels before it, treats that piece of wood like it was alive, like it was royal and deserved his respect and attention, like that idol had power.
The carpenter is pleased with himself. He has a fire for warmth and cooking food. He has a god to worship.
We interrupt this feel-good story for a message from the prophet Isaiah:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
Doesn’t the carpenter get it? He doesn’t seem to see how foolish he is. Here he chops down one tree. He burns some of the wood, burns it up for warmth and cooking. From that same tree, he makes a god. If that tree, if that wood had such divine qualities, if that tree had a god inside of it, how could the carpenter burn up part of the tree?
Doesn’t the carpenter get it? He’s been fooled by his own thoughts, his own heart, been fooled into thinking that he could make his own god. He’s gonna take a chunk of wood and worship it, fooling himself into forgetting that that chunk of wood wasn’t any different than the firewood. The carpenter at some level knows that that piece of wood doesn’t have any power, was just a piece of wood that he cut and carved; at some level, the carpenter knows that it is a lie to think that his chunk of wood has any power. (Hold up second piece of wood)) But he’s not letting himself say, “Isn’t this a lie in my right hand?”
The carpenter needs to hear Isaiah say:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
The carpenter needs to remember that his God isn’t a chunk of wood; the true God made all of the trees. The carpenter needs to remember that he didn’t make God; God made him and all people. And then when the carpenter realizes that he has been worshipping an idol, going against the true God, when the carpenter realizes that he has sinned, has gone against the ways of God, has made a chunk of wood more important than the true God, then the carpenter also needs to hear that God forgives his sins.
God blots out our transgressions, our sins, like a cloud or like mist. A cloud can be easily pushed away by the wind. Mist can disappear and be gone just as quickly as it showed up. Like how the day can go from cloudy to sunny with a strong gust of wind, so the carpenter goes from dark sinner to forgiven child of God.
The carpenter had been worshipping a tree, but just as the trees don’t have any power over the clouds, mist, or rain, so trees also don’t have any power to remove sins. Only the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, has the power to forgive our sins. And by His grace and love, the true God promises to do just that—blot out our sins, send them away like a cloud.
Remembering all of this, the carpenter throws both chunks of wood into the fire. (throw second piece of wood on top of first) He will not worship the tree. He will worship the true God who forgives his sins.
(Bring in a Christmas tree)
The Christmas tree man cuts down a tree. He brings it into his home thinking how it would be a perfect decoration for Christmas. He looks at the tree and realizes how beautiful that tree is. He sings a song, “O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, How lovely are your branches!”
As the Christmas tree man admires the tree, he decides that everyone should make a special place for a Christmas tree in their homes and in their hearts. “O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree, You are the tree most loved! How often you give us delight/In brightly shining Christmas light!”
When the Christmas tree man does a little reading about the Christmas tree, about what people have said in the past about the evergreen tree, he realizes how important it is to have the tree in his house. An evergreen tree is a reminder that life will continue. Honoring, praising, maybe even worshipping an evergreen tree gives hope that spring will come, new life will sprout, there will be a harvest next summer. “O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,/Your beauty green will teach me/That hope and love will ever be/The way to joy and peace for me.”
We interrupt this feel-good story for a message from the prophet Isaiah:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
Doesn’t the Christmas tree man get it? He doesn’t seem to see how foolish he is. Here he chops down a tree. That tree that began as a decoration, as a reminder of Christmas, now he starts to give it honor like it was a god. How could the Christmas tree man sing to the tree saying that the tree is most loved, gives us delight, that the tree teaches us, that the tree brings hope and love and joy and peace?
Doesn’t the Christmas tree man get it? He’s been fooled by his own thoughts, his own heart, been fooled into making a decoration the center of his Christmas celebration. He’s gonna take a tree and worship it, fooling himself into thinking that his tree is teaching him about hope and love. But he’s not letting himself say, “Isn’t this a lie in my living room?”
The Christmas tree man needs to hear Isaiah say:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
The Christmas tree man needs to remember that the center of Christmas isn’t the Christmas tree. The center of Christmas is Christ, Jesus, God’s own Son, who is truly divine and who came to Earth born as a baby. The center of Christmas is what Christ teaches us about hope and love, teaching us that He will pay for our sins with His death on the cross, that He will save us from the death that lasts forever, that He will give us true joy and true peace.
Remembering all of this, the Christmas tree man stops singing “O Christmas Tree.” He still decorates the tree, but only to remember Christ. And he decides that if the Christmas tree ever becomes more important than Christ, he’s gonna knock down that tree (throw tree down with chunks of wood) and get himself right back to church—just like Nick Horswill’s drawing on tonight’s bulletin shows. Leave that Christmas tree, those presents, all of that behind if they’re getting in the way of remembering that Christmas is about Jesus Christ coming to save us from our sins. Leave that Christmas tree behind if it has become an idol and get yourself back to church where you’ll hear the Word of God, where you’ll be reminded that Christ is the center of Christmas.
(Bring out some Christmas lights)
The children of Redeemer come to decorate the trees tonight. They’ll get to put ornaments on the trees. We’ll have someone turn the lights on. It’s a nice tradition. The kids enjoy it; the adults enjoy watching it. It’s cute, and the trees are so pretty.
But I’m not afraid to interrupt this feel-good event with a message from the prophet Isaiah:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
The children of Redeemer come to decorate the trees tonight, but it isn’t like the carpenter and the Christmas tree man who began to worship the tree. We’re not here to say that these trees have any power; these trees aren’t gods. We’re not here to say that these trees have the power to teach us; these trees themselves don’t give us hope and love, joy and peace. The center of Christmas is Christ, and the center of decorating the Christmas trees is also Christ.
When the lights get turned on, remember Isaiah’s words in chapter 60, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” The Christmas lights symbolize that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. The Christmas lights themselves aren’t important; in fact, as many of you have experienced, Christmas lights can be some of the most frustrating, imperfect, unworkable things ever. The Christmas lights themselves aren’t important. But when we see those lights, may we remember that the center of Christmas is Christ. Jesus will return; He will be our everlasting light. When we have eternal life, we will no longer need a sun or moon, because Jesus will be the light of the world. As those Christmas light shine this season, remember that Jesus is the light of the world.
(still holding the Christmas lights) Why do we need a light for this world? Because a thick darkness covers the Earth, the darkness of sin. Just as God said that He will blot our sins like a wind pushing away the clouds, so God also says that He will forgive our sins like a bright light removing the darkness.
Our Christmas celebrations can turn dark so quickly, just like removing two bulbs from a strand of Christmas lights (remove bulbs). Sometimes we get caught up in the busyness of the season. Sometimes we fight with our families. Sometimes we’re rude with people in the checkout line at the stores in the Christmas rush. Sometimes we forget the true center of Christmas; we get focused on all of those unimportant things like our wish lists, the open bar at the company party, or the Packers/Vikings game on Christmas Eve. And then our Christmas has turned dark with our sin.
That’s when we need to hear Isaiah say:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
The Christmas lights will go out. The Christmas tree will eventually get dragged out to the street corner to be made into mulch, or the Christmas tree will get taken apart and boxed up in the basement. The Christmas tree has no power to remove the darkness, to remove the clouds, to remove the sins in our lives. Only the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, has the power to forgive our sins. And by His grace and love, the true God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, born to us as a baby, lived on the Earth as a man, suffered for us, died for us, rose again for us. Only Christ will be our everlasting light.
So throw your chunks of wood into the fire, knock down your Christmas tree if it’s getting in the way, leave all of those things behind, and come to hear the Word of God. Your sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ, the Savior born on Christmas Day.
Advent Midweek
Wednesday, December 8, 2004
(Bring in 2 pieces of wood)
The carpenter cuts down a tree. With half of the wood (put piece of wood down), he builds a fire to cook his food, bake his bread, keep himself warm. With the other half of the wood, the wood from the same tree, the carpenter makes an idol, a god. He worships the idol, kneels before it, treats that piece of wood like it was alive, like it was royal and deserved his respect and attention, like that idol had power.
The carpenter is pleased with himself. He has a fire for warmth and cooking food. He has a god to worship.
We interrupt this feel-good story for a message from the prophet Isaiah:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
Doesn’t the carpenter get it? He doesn’t seem to see how foolish he is. Here he chops down one tree. He burns some of the wood, burns it up for warmth and cooking. From that same tree, he makes a god. If that tree, if that wood had such divine qualities, if that tree had a god inside of it, how could the carpenter burn up part of the tree?
Doesn’t the carpenter get it? He’s been fooled by his own thoughts, his own heart, been fooled into thinking that he could make his own god. He’s gonna take a chunk of wood and worship it, fooling himself into forgetting that that chunk of wood wasn’t any different than the firewood. The carpenter at some level knows that that piece of wood doesn’t have any power, was just a piece of wood that he cut and carved; at some level, the carpenter knows that it is a lie to think that his chunk of wood has any power. (Hold up second piece of wood)) But he’s not letting himself say, “Isn’t this a lie in my right hand?”
The carpenter needs to hear Isaiah say:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
The carpenter needs to remember that his God isn’t a chunk of wood; the true God made all of the trees. The carpenter needs to remember that he didn’t make God; God made him and all people. And then when the carpenter realizes that he has been worshipping an idol, going against the true God, when the carpenter realizes that he has sinned, has gone against the ways of God, has made a chunk of wood more important than the true God, then the carpenter also needs to hear that God forgives his sins.
God blots out our transgressions, our sins, like a cloud or like mist. A cloud can be easily pushed away by the wind. Mist can disappear and be gone just as quickly as it showed up. Like how the day can go from cloudy to sunny with a strong gust of wind, so the carpenter goes from dark sinner to forgiven child of God.
The carpenter had been worshipping a tree, but just as the trees don’t have any power over the clouds, mist, or rain, so trees also don’t have any power to remove sins. Only the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, has the power to forgive our sins. And by His grace and love, the true God promises to do just that—blot out our sins, send them away like a cloud.
Remembering all of this, the carpenter throws both chunks of wood into the fire. (throw second piece of wood on top of first) He will not worship the tree. He will worship the true God who forgives his sins.
(Bring in a Christmas tree)
The Christmas tree man cuts down a tree. He brings it into his home thinking how it would be a perfect decoration for Christmas. He looks at the tree and realizes how beautiful that tree is. He sings a song, “O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, How lovely are your branches!”
As the Christmas tree man admires the tree, he decides that everyone should make a special place for a Christmas tree in their homes and in their hearts. “O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree, You are the tree most loved! How often you give us delight/In brightly shining Christmas light!”
When the Christmas tree man does a little reading about the Christmas tree, about what people have said in the past about the evergreen tree, he realizes how important it is to have the tree in his house. An evergreen tree is a reminder that life will continue. Honoring, praising, maybe even worshipping an evergreen tree gives hope that spring will come, new life will sprout, there will be a harvest next summer. “O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree,/Your beauty green will teach me/That hope and love will ever be/The way to joy and peace for me.”
We interrupt this feel-good story for a message from the prophet Isaiah:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
Doesn’t the Christmas tree man get it? He doesn’t seem to see how foolish he is. Here he chops down a tree. That tree that began as a decoration, as a reminder of Christmas, now he starts to give it honor like it was a god. How could the Christmas tree man sing to the tree saying that the tree is most loved, gives us delight, that the tree teaches us, that the tree brings hope and love and joy and peace?
Doesn’t the Christmas tree man get it? He’s been fooled by his own thoughts, his own heart, been fooled into making a decoration the center of his Christmas celebration. He’s gonna take a tree and worship it, fooling himself into thinking that his tree is teaching him about hope and love. But he’s not letting himself say, “Isn’t this a lie in my living room?”
The Christmas tree man needs to hear Isaiah say:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
The Christmas tree man needs to remember that the center of Christmas isn’t the Christmas tree. The center of Christmas is Christ, Jesus, God’s own Son, who is truly divine and who came to Earth born as a baby. The center of Christmas is what Christ teaches us about hope and love, teaching us that He will pay for our sins with His death on the cross, that He will save us from the death that lasts forever, that He will give us true joy and true peace.
Remembering all of this, the Christmas tree man stops singing “O Christmas Tree.” He still decorates the tree, but only to remember Christ. And he decides that if the Christmas tree ever becomes more important than Christ, he’s gonna knock down that tree (throw tree down with chunks of wood) and get himself right back to church—just like Nick Horswill’s drawing on tonight’s bulletin shows. Leave that Christmas tree, those presents, all of that behind if they’re getting in the way of remembering that Christmas is about Jesus Christ coming to save us from our sins. Leave that Christmas tree behind if it has become an idol and get yourself back to church where you’ll hear the Word of God, where you’ll be reminded that Christ is the center of Christmas.
(Bring out some Christmas lights)
The children of Redeemer come to decorate the trees tonight. They’ll get to put ornaments on the trees. We’ll have someone turn the lights on. It’s a nice tradition. The kids enjoy it; the adults enjoy watching it. It’s cute, and the trees are so pretty.
But I’m not afraid to interrupt this feel-good event with a message from the prophet Isaiah:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
The children of Redeemer come to decorate the trees tonight, but it isn’t like the carpenter and the Christmas tree man who began to worship the tree. We’re not here to say that these trees have any power; these trees aren’t gods. We’re not here to say that these trees have the power to teach us; these trees themselves don’t give us hope and love, joy and peace. The center of Christmas is Christ, and the center of decorating the Christmas trees is also Christ.
When the lights get turned on, remember Isaiah’s words in chapter 60, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” The Christmas lights symbolize that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. The Christmas lights themselves aren’t important; in fact, as many of you have experienced, Christmas lights can be some of the most frustrating, imperfect, unworkable things ever. The Christmas lights themselves aren’t important. But when we see those lights, may we remember that the center of Christmas is Christ. Jesus will return; He will be our everlasting light. When we have eternal life, we will no longer need a sun or moon, because Jesus will be the light of the world. As those Christmas light shine this season, remember that Jesus is the light of the world.
(still holding the Christmas lights) Why do we need a light for this world? Because a thick darkness covers the Earth, the darkness of sin. Just as God said that He will blot our sins like a wind pushing away the clouds, so God also says that He will forgive our sins like a bright light removing the darkness.
Our Christmas celebrations can turn dark so quickly, just like removing two bulbs from a strand of Christmas lights (remove bulbs). Sometimes we get caught up in the busyness of the season. Sometimes we fight with our families. Sometimes we’re rude with people in the checkout line at the stores in the Christmas rush. Sometimes we forget the true center of Christmas; we get focused on all of those unimportant things like our wish lists, the open bar at the company party, or the Packers/Vikings game on Christmas Eve. And then our Christmas has turned dark with our sin.
That’s when we need to hear Isaiah say:
Narrator: Don’t Worship the Tree!
The Christmas lights will go out. The Christmas tree will eventually get dragged out to the street corner to be made into mulch, or the Christmas tree will get taken apart and boxed up in the basement. The Christmas tree has no power to remove the darkness, to remove the clouds, to remove the sins in our lives. Only the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, has the power to forgive our sins. And by His grace and love, the true God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, born to us as a baby, lived on the Earth as a man, suffered for us, died for us, rose again for us. Only Christ will be our everlasting light.
So throw your chunks of wood into the fire, knock down your Christmas tree if it’s getting in the way, leave all of those things behind, and come to hear the Word of God. Your sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ, the Savior born on Christmas Day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)