THIS says so much! Please read this excerpt from Matt Rickmans sermon which he preached at our church yesterday! I promise you it is worth the read! (For the whole message, I will try to copy and share it. But this is just the last few minutes of it.) : There is no comfort in this world apart from this most surprising Advent of God’s grace. In a recent column , Jonathan Stormont relied this story: “I was talking to an Anglican priest friend last week about this, and his answer was so good I think it might be helpful here.He said something like, the main problem really isn’t what we think it is. The real problem is that we’ve lost our imagination.There is a fundamental difference between a Catholic Christian’s imagination and a Protestant Christian’s imagination. In Catholicism, the whole world in enchanted, God is closer than we are to ourselves, and the entire Creation is dripping with the Glory of God.So back to us Protestants, both the Charismatics and the Cessationists are basically talking with the same limited imagination. We believe that either God punches a hole in the roof of the world and tinkers in from time to time in order to heal our Aunt’s cancer or give me a better parking space…or we believe that He doesn’t do that.But both are operating from a posture that fundamentally believes God is somewhere else….”[9] So here’s the surprise of Christmas for Charismatic, Calvinist, and Cessationist, Christ is here, now, right here, right now. He is moving. He is acting. He is inviting us into fellowship with Him in both the Father’s blessing and His own suffering. To those of us with ears to hear and eyes to see, he is here in puddle and the wifi enabled coffee shop. Our problem is not that God is not here; it’s that we are stunted in our imaginative abilities to see Him for who He is and for what He actually doing. In the coming days you will hear many people talking about the war on Christmas. And yes there is a war on Christmas. But it does not involve whether the local government has a nativity scene. It does not involve saying “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.” These are the made up battles that our enemy would want us to focus on. Yet the real battle over Christmas is this. Do you have the kind of Godly imagination to see the world as He does; or are you content to survive on warmed-over traditions that make you feel all warm and fuzzy for an hour or two but surrender to the cold winds of our current age? If Christmas is about tradition, about correct phrases, and town hall sculptures; then you have lost the divine imagination and ability to be overcome by the surprise of Advent. I love what a Methodist pastor wrote this week: ” The Christmas season should not be about obligations. It shouldn’t be a fast-paced frenzy at all, but rather a time of waiting and reflection. The people who got to hear about the baby Jesus first were not the busy, responsible people rushing around checking off all the items on their list and fulfilling all their expectations. They were shepherds who spent all day and night out in a field just sitting and watching. What if we spend Advent lounging around like laid-back country shepherds instead of anxious, competitive Christmas shoppers? It might feel lazy. Others may judge us. But maybe we’ll experience something like a sky filled with angels singing glory to God in the highest. Maybe the people who get to the stores last and pay full-price for everything because they weren’t more “responsible” will be the ones who get to the manger first.”[10] When you pass the beggar to go into the store, will you spend your money on a present that your loved one does not need; or will you buy the hungry man a warm meal. When you pass the woman suffering through a problematic pregnancy, will you say, “Merry Christmas” and move on with your list of ultimately meaningless tasks; or will you stop and place your arms around her. Will you cry with her? Will you mourn with her? Will you lean into her pain, and help her lean into her pain? At some point this month you will be looking over your Christmas list and fretting about getting the right presents for the right person; when into your room will come a family member with a problem. Will you stop with the show of love through a cheap trinket they will have forgotten by New Years or will you take the time to deal with their pain? Will you show love for your family next year or will you focus simply on showing your affection by buying them off next year? Here is the question: will you take real actions or just make a good show of it this year? Will you come alongside the leper and bring the healing of the Gospel to your community or will you fret about whether there is a Santa or Baby Jesus at City Hall? Can you have the divine imagination to see and grasp the divine surprises in store for you this season? I once had someone say that I preached in a way that called him to action and to deeper and more involved life than his past pastor. I didn’t apologize; because yes, the Gospel I preach may really be more complex and deep and involved than you will hear at Joel Osteen’s church. But hear me now; unlike Joel, my Gospel is not based on you or me. My Gospel is based on the surprise of Advent. That God is here now, He is living and active. He is here to change your life completely. He is here to transform you into a new creation; not a different person; but a version of you that truly and deeply reflects the love of God back into your community. This change surprises. This change is scary. But this change is needed. This is the change that we must embrace. There is no where left for us to go; for in the surprise of baby’s birth in Bethlehem we have found the bread of life. And this is the bread that fills us. Sustains us. This is the bread that is everlasting. We just need to get back to the place where we can see this, taste this, and live out this life. This Advent I leave a charge for you: can you lean into the surprising Kingdom of God? Can you lean into the surprising nature of God’s peace and God’s love? We have four weeks to prepare for the surprising visitation of God to earth, will you be vigilant or will you like the Pharisees and Sadducees be surprised and miss it entirely?
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 14:17:18 +0000
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